RL on Channel 4

[Josef K]

21 hours ago, Futtocks said:

During Wimbledon fortnight, the ever-present jeopardy of hearing Oily John on commentary duties often influences the choice of match I end up watching.

He’s up there on my list of people i cannot stand the slime ball. He needs a good sprinkling of salt over him. 

[Human Punk]

23 hours ago, Dunbar said:

But I don't think casual sports fans are influenced by this are they?

I watch other sports than Rugby League based on the action, not the presentation.  I don't think I have ever made a decision to watch a sport or not based on the quality of the studio production and presentation. 

Problem is, though, that poor presentation, and more particularly commentary, can make a quality game seem dull. Sky is guilty of that. So although you may not consciously choose to watch or not based on the presentation, you may come away with a view that 'sport x isn't a very good watch, I won't bother with that again' where the problem is actually with the broadcast and not the sport itself. As such, a casual viewer of RL on Sky probably wouldn't be encouraged to watch again, unless they were lucky enough to catch a game of exceptional quality. The corollary of that is that a good presentation team can make an average game exciting to watch, and C4 seem to be much more in that camp.

Although even they couldn't do much with Cas v Saints the other week.

[Futtocks]

2 hours ago, Human Punk said:

Problem is, though, that poor presentation, and more particularly commentary, can make a quality game seem dull. Sky is guilty of that. So although you may not consciously choose to watch or not based on the presentation, you may come away with a view that 'sport x isn't a very good watch, I won't bother with that again' where the problem is actually with the broadcast and not the sport itself. As such, a casual viewer of RL on Sky probably wouldn't be encouraged to watch again, unless they were lucky enough to catch a game of exceptional quality. The corollary of that is that a good presentation team can make an average game exciting to watch, and C4 seem to be much more in that camp.

Although even they couldn't do much with Cas v Saints the other week.

On the other hand, a casual viewer would be unfamiliar with the Sky presenting style, unlike RL fans who have seen it fail to evolve. They would probably find far less to criticise than a frustrated regular viewer.

[Oxford]

21 hours ago, Futtocks said:

On the other hand, a casual viewer would be unfamiliar with the Sky presenting style, unlike RL fans who have seen it fail to evolve. They would probably find far less to criticise than a frustrated regular viewer.

So if I understand you correctly, RL Fans bring so much baggage and prejudice with them they couldn't tell the pee up in brewery from the bender in the Ale House and would be annoyed with both.

Whereas, Joe Soap and his wife might tend towards the appreciative because they're not Mr Angry from Cleckheaton.

[Tubby]

On 15/08/2022 at 17:11, Futtocks said:

During Wimbledon fortnight, the ever-present jeopardy of hearing Oily John on commentary duties often influences the choice of match I end up watching.

Brilliant, oily John and we all know who you mean. 

[Tubby]

2 hours ago, Oxford said:

So if I understand you correctly, RL Fans bring so much baggage and prejudice with them they couldn't tell the pee up in brewery from the bender in the Ale House and would be annoyed with both.

Whereas, Joe Soap and his wife might tend towards the appreciative because they're not Mr Angry from Cleckheaton.

And what’s wrong with him?

[Tommygilf]

Competition drives standards and stops things becoming stale. Its good for all parties.

[Futtocks]

2 hours ago, Oxford said:

So if I understand you correctly, RL Fans bring so much baggage and prejudice with them they couldn't tell the pee up in brewery from the bender in the Ale House and would be annoyed with both.

Whereas, Joe Soap and his wife might tend towards the appreciative because they're not Mr Angry from Cleckheaton.

They won't have experienced multiple outbreaks of Tez'n'Baz every week, so won't quite as jaded as regular viewers.

They'd probably take what they saw and heard at face value. And, deny it as hard as we might, Rugby League is pretty damn good.

Edited August 17, 2022 by Futtocks

[Dunbar]

3 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Competition drives standards and stops things becoming stale. Its good for all parties.

That's what Mrs Dunbar said.  I am still not convinced.

[Tommygilf]

7 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

That's what Mrs Dunbar said.  I am still not convinced.

Tbh I think just having other fresh viewpoints and ideas on how to present RL is a good thing, even if the "competition" is only as basic as that.

[Dave T]

46 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Competition drives standards and stops things becoming stale. Its good for all parties.

What's interesting, is that in reality, none of the other providers are doing anything too different, they just have less annoying pundits. I do also think Sky's experts are over-used - we know what they are going to say. I do think there is a case for a far wider panel. 

Even on their football where they have popular pundits like Keane, Neville, Richards, Souness and Redknapp it becomes very repetitive. 

Edited August 17, 2022 by Dave T

[Tommygilf]

1 hour ago, Dunbar said:

That's what Mrs Dunbar said.  I am still not convinced.

Apologies, this went straight over my head on first read! 

[Oxford]

14 hours ago, Futtocks said:

They won't have experienced multiple outbreaks of Tez'n'Baz every week, so won't quite as jaded as regular viewers.

They'd probably take what they saw and heard at face value. And, deny it as hard as we might, Rugby League is pretty damn good.

I think jaded comes with the RL territory and blaming Tez 'n' Baz is a symptom not the disease!

[Futtocks]

 

[Damien]

12 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

 

This should be great for raising awareness of the World Cup too.

[Dave T]

23 minutes ago, Damien said:

This should be great for raising awareness of the World Cup too.

To have playoffs and Grand Final shown across Sky,  BBC and Channel 4 is a real positive,  it'd be good if we could get numbers for the GF highlights shows,  it could possibly be the highest viewed GF yet. 

[Futtocks]

1 hour ago, Dave T said:

To have playoffs and Grand Final shown across Sky,  BBC and Channel 4 is a real positive,  it'd be good if we could get numbers for the GF highlights shows,  it could possibly be the highest viewed GF yet. 

Will the BBC and C4 use the same SKY selection of footage, but with different presenters, or do they have more control over what they show? It'll be interesting to compare the two.

[fighting irish]

On 16/08/2022 at 15:07, Josef K said:

He’s up there on my list of people i cannot stand the slime ball. He needs a good sprinkling of salt over him. 

Who is Oily John?

 

[Futtocks]

1 minute ago, fighting irish said:

Who is Oily John?

 

The self-lubricating mollusc John Inverdale.

[fighting irish]

2 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

The self-lubricating mollusc John Inverdale.

Loathsome creature. 

[Dunbar]

Edit

Edited August 27, 2022 by Dunbar

[Sports Prophet]

Someone please save me from going through 45 pages. 

How is the Channel 4 coverage fairing of late? 

Are the live matches in a consistent time slot?

[Damien]

2 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

Someone please save me from going through 45 pages. 

How is the Channel 4 coverage fairing of late? 

Are the live matches in a consistent time slot?

I really enjoy the C4 coverage and find it great. The presentation is very good and the games have a superior selection of pundits and commentators than Sky.

No and that's the only downside for me. Game are very sporadic and inconsistent when it comes to time slots.

[Sports Prophet]

On 28/08/2022 at 20:50, Damien said:

I really enjoy the C4 coverage and find it great. The presentation is very good and the games have a superior selection of pundits and commentators than Sky.

No and that's the only downside for me. Game are very sporadic and inconsistent when it comes to time slots.

Who or what is stopping C4 from televising weekly?

I feel that inconsistency would drive me crazy.

[Damien]

1 minute ago, Sports Prophet said:

Who or what is stopping C4 from televising weekly?

I feel that inconsistency would drive me crazy.

The contract was only for a set number of games. Presumably on the part of C4 it's a bit of a test of the market but I'd also imagine Sky would put limits on this too. In the context of what has happened traditionally with RL TV rights it was a huge move for Sky to allow any FTA games in the first place.