Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Surely, while the hosts provide their feed, there would have been some production requests from yourselves. Afterall the British coverage of Football must be by far the greatest in the world. Live game afer live game we get it right. Surely you could give the amateaurs a prod in the right direction regarding the correct camera positions and angles and to show the game not the never ending replays of nonevents.

Has there been a discussion somewhere about the camera angles that the Germans are using.

The half-way line wide shot is far too wide! I can barely pick out who is on the ball...

Have any other broadcasters complained about this?

As far as the world cup coverage is concerned I've learned that an independent production team (chosen by FIFA) is responsible for the live pictures. The german television depends on this coverages as the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ does. But I think they have some additional cameras to improve the broadcasting here in Germany.

I'd like to bring up the same point as James. The main camera view of the England game seemed far too wide. I know that the director cuts to a close up of where the ball is but it really is hard to pick out players and even the ball. Other matches seem to have been fine. I thought they would have this sorted for such a big event, can you have a word with the host broadcaster?

As Manfred said,i thought the coverage is held by FIFA-chosen InFront, the swiss bound company former german midfielder Guenther Netzer is associated with.

Hi

Would love to see a couple of the following half-time trips down memory lane:

1. Theme tunes from Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Coverage gone by, showing how the tunes and graphics (and studios) have changed over time.

2. History of the World Cup mascots from World Cup Willie in 1966 to the current mascot Goleo.

Thanks.

Andy

Why, on earth, was Gary Lineker so flippant and negative about the Mexico v Iran game? I thought it was one of the most enjoyable games of the tournament so far, but he spoiled it with his snide, schoolboy comments

Totally agree with a few comments above - I'm not impressed so far with the Camera work or the replays.
Surely the world knows how to broadcast live football - most countries have it.
The angles are not good enough - i've watched the matches on a few formats - a 32" screen, a 14" screen and a huge great big thing - and so far the FA Cup final was loads better.

I'd like to see a montage of the current favourite move, the 'no-look' pass. It's unbelievable skillful, and there was a great example of it in the Portugal v Angola game last night, I think by Tiago, but there were no replays!

Will the five live commentary be available on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ interactive? Disappointed this wasn't available on Saturday, as I think there would have been a far more objective view of England's performance than was given by the neutral Motson & Lawrenson.

Any plans to bring in a Croft/Claridge style commentary that was available for Euro 2004 ?

How about a "This Was The Day When......" showing the highs and lows of past tournaments? Not necessarily English highs and lows, but a little nostalgic look back?

Please put on line the Flintoff & Harmison interview as well as the lads reaction in the studio it was hilairious!

I've got to agree with the comments about the half way line wide shots. It's good to see an overview of the game now and then, who's making a good run and suchlike, but I found myself screwing my eyes up in a bid to see who had the ball on Saturday.
I'm going to have a storming headache by July if it carries on like this!

Thank goodness everyone else is having problems with the wide-angle camera shot, I thought my eyes were going :-)

I agree with the Lineker remark above too, the studio atmosphere is far too schoolboy-ish and matey. Can we have less childish asides and more real opinions (and differences thereof!).

Re post 10.

The 5 live commentary was available on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ interactive (via telewest anyway).

The view of the 5 live team seemed to be significantly different to the TV commentators - the bits where I compared the two anyway - just stuck with 5 live in the end.

This option is the best feature of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ interactive - thanks Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ.

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ the best as always, great to have Martin O'Neill back. Whilst you cant control all of the pictures can you bear in mind for the future to pull the camera back when a player has scored. Why concentrate on the head & shoulder shots. Show him and his teammates in full, much better. Dont bother with the managers but do show bigger groups of supporters if you have to. Finally, a pity if viewers think Gary to be flippant at times, I didn't see all of the banter but that is part of the overall charm of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ coverage, the guys are all comfortable with each other and it works very well, as does the set and location.

Why are the graphics at the top of the screen (time & score) tiny yet the graphics for substitutions and minutes of injury time enormous. I have a 32" TV and can't make out the scores or time without moving closer to the TV and the other graphics obstruct the view of the game.
Can't there be some kind of conformity? It must be an absolute nightmare for anyone whose sight is impaired.

Also whilst I appreciate and enjoy the fact that we are a diverse nation and that the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ covers the whole of the UK but I don't understand why we have to have commentators & summarisers who aren't English. Scots, Pretend Irish and Ulstermen passing comment is, when I can understand what they are saying, of no interest to me. I, along with the majority of the 40 million other Englishmen and women want passionate cover from English commentators and couldn't give a monkeys about how the opposition are doing!

The most annoying thing about the TV coverage is that at some stadiums the TV cameras have been on the wrong side of the pitch with the sun shining into them. This creates an awful glare on the screen. Much more sensible to have the sun behind the cameras. Anybody with half a brain knows that you don't point cameras towards the sun. Maybe you could point this out to the German TV guys.

@ Murray

As I mentioned above, the coverage does not come from the german TV. Maybe that's a part of the problem, because these people from a third party (don't know exactly who they are) are not used to the stadiums?

I have to comment that this World Cup is close to being spoiled for me and most people I know, by the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ continuing to employ Mark Lawrenson as a co-commentator. He is consistently making negative comments about everything and everyone, contributes nothing to the atmosphere and occasionally weighs in with an attempted joke I would have cringed at when I was in primary school.

The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ have always been my favourite channel to watch football on, but this issue has driven me right to the limit. MOTD is switched off during the season if he appears on the panel, not just by me, but a lot of people I have spoken to.

Congratulations on the rest of the footie broadcasting. England games are always that bit more special on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ.

Can you please try and buy out the rest of the games that ITV are supposed to be showing. Cutting from the final whistle into advertisements - and not seeing the post match conclusion from players/fans live as they leave the pitch, change shirts, or whatever is really bugging me. And as for those two idiot Budweiser boys - dig into your pockets and buy 'em out NOW.

PS - and less of the wise cracking Lineker please.

I thang you

Tried out the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ non-biased commentary by pressing the "red button" during the Para vs Eng game and all I got was a school boy and (presumably ) his mum commentating.

Any chance of getting a professional in who doesn't drone on and on about Rooney and co almost being in the final ?

I'm glad to see some complaints about the camera coverage, the wide angle master shot is ridicules, it's so wide you can't see who has the ball or who
tripped who! It's like they haven't shot football before! One game on Saturday there was a lot of white fluff floating about, which the commentater said nothing about, and some of it was so big it looked like the ball! Such a shame as it's really good football..

I can't believe the opening game of the World Cup for England was overshadowed by a huge spider in the middle of the pitch. Whose great idea was it to stick a screen in the roof of the stadium casting a war of the worlds shadow. Combined with the terrible main camera shot, it was a good example of rubbish, foreign production.

does anyone know where to get BARB viewing figures for the England match...?

I can't seem to find them...

"Also whilst I appreciate and enjoy the fact that we are a diverse nation and that the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ covers the whole of the UK but I don't understand why we have to have commentators & summarisers who aren't English. Scots, Pretend Irish and Ulstermen passing comment is, when I can understand what they are saying, of no interest to me. I, along with the majority of the 40 million other Englishmen and women want passionate cover from English commentators and couldn't give a monkeys about how the opposition are doing!"

Hmmm because of course the English are the only World Cup viewers eh?

And you guys wonder why other Brits dont support England...

I would say its more important to have an overview of whats going on. Maybe the problem with seeing the numbers is related to the high light-shadow contrasts FIFA was complaining about. But I would definitely like to see the whole buildup and not only the player with the ball.

It is a shame with technology today that you are unable to select your own cameras for shots, and then maybe we wouldn't have to look at Sepp Blatter every time he sits down!

If I can criticise it would be with the TV analysis... they all seem to agree with each other. During Holland's 1st game Martin Jol on 5live pointed out some excellent points but the pundits on TV just raved about Robben, I don’t think the contrast in views is very good in the studio, sorry but 'Big Sam' was great on ITV the other night.

Does anyone know where to get the BARB figures for the England match?

I can't seem to find them....

(apologies if this ends up posted twice...)

I am often the 1st to criticise the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ for its employment of Ian Wright which is a absolute is shameful. Also a disgrace in terms of the licence fee.

But where there is does things well it must be congratulated. It's fantastic that the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ have Martin O'Neil back his comments at half time of the Holland match were excellent. I think sometimes it would be better to reduce the pundits to just two so we could hear much more from O'Neil.

I think also the criticism the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ is receiving for the quality of the pictures is a little unfair considering it is in the hands of the host broadcasters. I personally don’t think the pictures is that bad!

p.s I do not think it's advisable for the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ to show to many more shots of pundits relaxing in the sunshine.

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ/Sky have done "choose your camera" sports events before, but always when they are doing the filming...

I'm no expert, but I guess it depends on what's going into the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ production suite from whoever provides the pics...

All of you complaining about the commentary and co-presents should think yourself DAMM lucky. I live in Spain, and watching the coverage here is a nightmare. Ads that take up 20% of the screen, 14 mins of ads at half time, only HALF the games on free-to-air stations (no england, they are on Canal+) - and the icing on the cake, the commentators refer to Germany as "The Machine" etc... You get Motty, HDTV, 5-live, I get Albert Ferrer and a guy who speaks for the entire 90mins.

Why does it seem that all the camera positions within the stadiums face into the sun!
It is near impossible to view the pictures as the shadow and players become one and the ball disappears.
The camera work is truely shocking. Please, please sort it out before this squint I now seem to have aquired becomes permanant.

HHi,

II am a Brit but I am in the USA at the moment watching the world cup from there.

I noticed that here in the USA the ESPN coverage never show any teams national anthems before a game except hang on a minute they played The USA one before the game against the Czechs but as the Czechs were about to sing theirs they cut to commercials.

I think the 3-0 drubbing is justice for such disrespect of other nations.

Any chance you could find something else for Ian Wright to do during the next four weeks?

What happened to Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ impartiallity? Wright constantly behaves like a peurile schoolboy. Yes I accept he is a fan but as I am contributing towards his no doubt inflated salary I expect something insightful. I do not expect a panelist to condone cheating (Gerrard's dive) or insult other competing nations (The Dutch) by stating that he is not interested in them.

If you are looking for suggestions to occupy him my back bedroom could do with a lick of paint.

yoyotooototot

Re the comment about the enormous graphics at the bottom of the screen, this seems to be because the 'world feed' graphics (as used by ITV and UK G2) are that size too. Does anyone know why the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ go it alone and use a completely different colour scheme and font for their graphics? The same thing happened four years ago too.

I think Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ is doing its job very efficiently providing pictures and upgraded news that make me feel I am in Germany in some cases. This is the age of technology and it is not unusual to expect some quality pictures but it depends on the facilities provided by the host nations. However, I give more preference to the background news that the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ journalists are writing in this blog because there are lots of website that provide the pictures of the matches and fans can choose their expected pictures but I think it is more important to know about the news publishing after few minutes.

Thank god Martin O'neill never became England manager. I'm sure the comments he makes about various themes is just to court controversy. Please put someone on the programme who can make valid arguments and not take the opposite veiw to everyone else on the programme. The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's coverage would be a thousand times better without his veiws.
GET RID !!!

Why oh why don't we get 'experts' with some managerial experiance!! After the England game we had Linekar, Hansen, Shearer and Wright - not one day of actually managing a team between them!! Great players they may have been - but they don't know one jot about having to make a decision in the heat of the moment that might affect the outcome of a match. They can certainly talk a good game - but can they actually do it?? How they have the gal to criticise a guy who has won championships in 3 different countries, beggars disbelief.

Substitution for the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ, coming off is Ian Wright and he is replaced by James Richardson.
And thus the coverage would jump up too many notches to count :)

Ben, the no look pass in the Portugal v Angola game was by Cristiano Ronaldo, on the edge of the box as a through ball over the top, but the defender cut it out, hope thats the one you were refering to.

Martin O'Neill was an inspired choice, he is the onlt person who actually makes 'analysis' an analysis of the game.

I have one major problem wit the coverage - the score indicator.
Stuck in the top left corner it is so incredibly tiny, Some times I cannot even see the time. I was expecting the bog-standard-good-for-everything, red and black indicator with chunky text.

A couple of questions:

Why is the Five Live commentary/analysis always so much better than MOTD?

Surely the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ can spare at least some of the decent commentators/pundits for the telly... Graham Taylor for example. Please lose Ian Wright as soon as possible, he adds absolutely nothing of value to the coverage.

Despite all being top class strikers, did Lineker, Shearer and Wright all fail to notice Michael Owen endured an utterly abject 55 minutes against Paraguay when criticising his substitution?

Mark Lawrenson is also spoiling my enjoyment of the World Cup, as mentioned previously.

Could I suggest that Liverpool FC start their own TV station and he could go on there and talk about Liverpool players (present and past) to his heart's content, as these are the only players he really is interested in talking about. An example being when Gerrard dives in the penalty box it's a dead cert penalty, when the Ghanese player last night was brought down in the penalty box it was a dive.

I may be slightly behind the times but I have just found out Graham le Saux quit after the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ annnounced Lawrenson would be the co-commentator for all England games. So we now have to listen to that miserable, biased Irishman with a complete lack of personality (and shockingly little knowledge of the game he played as a professional), rather than the eloquent Le Saux, who has been to a World Cup with England and is able to articulate views and often insightful opinions on what is unfolding before us.

Shame on you Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ.

Oh, and why are we paying licence fees for pundits to travel to Germany (no expenses spared no doubt), and then offer no opinion as they are only interested in England?

I usually like to offer something positive to balance a post but these two issues have really angered me.

I have to agree with several of the above..Ian Wright offers nothing 'The Spleen'as we call him is just a spare part not doing alot. But can i vote for Mark 'Lawro' or the doomsayer who sounds like Mavis off of corrie, surely these two have the same agent as yourself or something, i'm sorry but they are just not good enough. Whats Jose, Arsene or Sir Alex up to??? at least someone to compliment Gary and Alan Shearer who it has to be said are a success. Jury still out on O'Neil I think he's having trouble peering through his glasses to be honest.
Oh well at least the footie is perfect.

The United States TV coverage has been horrible.

Neal Saferstein