(29-08-2023, 11:41 PM)dvboy Wrote: Three unusual decisions today
First they missed the first three games at the start of Cam Norrie's match on SS Action while waiting for Jabeur vs Osorio to finish, while on Tennis once Katie Boulter's match was over they barely showed any live action before dipping to Zverev vs Vukic for a while and then showing the last game of a completely onesided match between Medvedev and Balazs - they spent longer talking about this match aftewards than they did showing it. Eventually they went to Alexandrova vs Fernandez which was the match before Andy Murray's and on a show court with a well known player, so would have been logical to join that one earlier. What they should have done is picked up Norrie's match from the start on Tennis, and moved it over to Action at some point between Jabeur vs Osorio finishing and Murray vs Moutet beginning.
Second, they missed the first two games of Jack Draper's match on Action because they randomly dipped into Diaz Acosta vs Isner for two games. No logical explanation for this, Isner is only well known for the longest match at Wimbledon, and while this may be his last tournament he is not particularly entertaining to watch.
Dan Evans' match started while both Jack Draper and Andy Murray were playing but it was a good 45 minutes after Murray's win before they showed anything live on Tennis. For a good chunk of that time they were showing Jack Draper's match and talking over it in the studio, and dipped into Dan Evans for a minute or so, but a lot of the time was spent discussing the same things they had been talking about earlier. They eventually joined Wawrinka vs Nishioka three or four games in. Meanwhile on Action they have followed Draper's match with Daniel vs Monfils, so Evans vs Galan is only on the streaming with no commentary.
I am assuming that, although they interviewed her about it yesterday and they have been mentioning it a few times, that there won't be full coverage of Jodie Burrage's match. I'd be surprised if that starts before the night session, which if yesterday is anything to go by, they'll just take the world feed for the rest of the night and all go home.
Don't get me wrong, the punditry has been great, especially the addition of Jordanne Whiley today, but there has been a bit too much of it at the expense of live tennis action. Eurosport and Prime Video kept it to a slot at the start of the day, and a slot before the night session. For the rest of the day, the time between matches is sufficient.
Indeed the whole Burrage match was behind the red button without any commentary.
You do feel you are getting a bit of a substandard coverage at times on day two from Sky unfortunately. I think everyone is paying more than they would have been for last year's tournament (though there is far more sporting content available with a Sky subscription v. Prime). But then you are getting more ads in 30 minutes than Prime had in all of their coverage, and Sky are seemingly using one (or two) of their own lead commentators, which means we've had British matches without commentary (with the caveat of there being six British matches in one day) and no Sky-specific commentary from either of the main two courts so far.
Prime would also have Marcus Buckland hosting after midnight, and although both used world feed commentaries on the night session, it can come across with Sky putting in less effort than Prime despite Prime hardly blowing the budget on their own coverage last year. I think Eurosport, despite the often lackadaisical elements of their coverage, use more of their own personnel on commentary and I can't remember too many British matches without commentary during recent French or Australian Opens.
I'd agree that from what I've seen the studio and wider punditry elements have been great, but as is often the case in sports broadcasting, the balance between studio and actual action has not yet been found during the day. I'm not sure exactly what they were intending after the Murray match to have so much studio chat rather than action, possibly encouraging Sky Showcase viewers to pay for the access to the full live coverage on a sports package perhaps by giving them a taster of the action.
(PS Although not perfect either, I think the balance was as good as I can remember on the athletics last week).
I haven't needed to check or use it yet, but how is good is the catch-up offering from Sky? Especially with many matches finishing after midnight UK time, you'd hope it would be plentiful with timely uploads.
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