BeIN Sport cont.... AGAIN

My apologies, that is incorrect. I'm thinking of Canadian subscribers....and there ain't 30m of those!!

My point is - BeIN is doing just fine for $$.

Apologies for the oversight.

 

I won't argue it's not a move made to secure a place in the US/NA sports TV landscape. And it is what it is for now - but to think BeIN is going to just up stakes and leave US market is just stupid. I stand by what I said re: Production issues more a cause of what you see rather than talent (speaking as someone who knows Production). If they had an English Production house rather than Imagina US (Spanish company I believe), they'd likely be further ahead on many fronts. You guys keep banging on about the talent though because that's all that you see and know. Fair enough - I'm simply trying to provide another side to consider. But, I too have come to realize that on these idiotic boards, I am screaming into the wind with the rest of you - you keep your minds as narrow as you like. Ignorance - as they say - is bliss. And there are plenty of blissful people in these parts!

 

I love how you are coming on here, making absurd claims, getting called out on it and then saying that you are wrong but so is everyone else. Pretty comical.

Ok so the mispronuncitions of clubs and players names, the lack of knowledge about the leagues that are covered, the atrocious scheduling and handling of all of the content that Bein has available is the fault of the production team? Hows that for passing the buck.

Celeste, you dont have to answer here because clearly you have some form of allegience to bein but ask yourself if Bein's on air talent is up to par with any other English speaking chanel airing footy. Then ask yourself if Bein's commentators justify their salaries when you are flick of button away from expert commentary of the specific league. Richard Whittle only announces Serie A, matthew spiro only commentates ligue 1 matches. They folow their leagues, they know all the ins and outs. They are experts. Can you say the same about your, err Beins commentators?

1 more quick note before Im done with you. You come on here and say that I am "trolling" which you are probably misusing in confusion of me stating my opinion towards somethig I would actually love to succeed (as Ive stated many times before JSL probably asked you to come on here and defend his local access talent show team). Then you say that I ask others to come and give their opinions because I doubt myself. Well you cant have it both ways. I feel like theres strength in numbers. Maybe you and your bein lite friends should go and read this and the bein lite thread part 1 and realize that something with such potential is failing regularly. Or you could blame the production crew, put your fingers in your ears and repeat "i dont hear you" like a petulant 3 year old and stay the laughing stock of the tv sports industry that you amd JSL seem to be the masters of.

 

You sir, are a liar. Liar, liar, liar, liar.

 

They have 16.9mm subscribers. At most, they get $.25/month per subscriber. In other words, their subscriber revenue doesn't even cover their production costs. With the rights fees included, they are undoubtedly losing obscene amounts of money.

 

Why would even get involved in an argument with someone who is an expert on journalism and television? Dont you realize that we here on this board know nothing about television to the point that even out opinions are incorrect? Im sure those incorrect financial numbers were provided by that darn disaster known as Imagina's prodction crew. They ruin everything!

 

I'm like a broken record with BeIN when it comes to scheduling; that is my biggest pet peeve and it is a pet peeve that I think would make sense if the network is trying to build an audience.

When it comes to announcers, I agree with Corolla that it is nice to have folks who know the leagues. Feed announcers might cover multiple leagues but we know they are very familiar with the leagues we hear on these broadcasts (EPL, Ligue 1, Championship, and Serie A). But once folks move beyond their leagues that's when we can tell pure class from good announcing and average announcing. In my opinion there are three top class announcers: Derek Rae, Dave Farrar, and Wayne Booth. Steve Banyard used to do a lot of leagues and was always excellent. I think he did too well and seems to now be a full-time EPL guy. But he's up there. Most do the job: they can tell us what's going on on the field. Most color commentators (to use US TV vernacular) don't tell us anything new or interesting. This is true for US-based guys and guys in Europe. The more one reads people like Jonathan Wilson or listens to smart podcasts, the more obvious it becomes that substantive analysis is not part of most TV broadcasts. I mean, compare what Andy Gray is doing on the Copa America show (mostly saying he doesn't know much about this player or that player or this team or that team--basically collecting a check because he knows EPL) to someone like Gab Marcotti or Tim Vickery. BeIn should have gone for Vickery.

Given all of this, as long as I am not hearing Danny Lee or Kelly Macdonald then one announcer is basically equal to any other announcer when it comes to the leagues that air on BeIN. I'd prefer it if BeIN stuck their local guys with the big teams and leave the rest to feed announcers, but I'd rather have any BeIN announcer in unedited form rather than these ridiculous edits: 90in30 or 90 minute broadcasts with 75 minutes of game action and 15 minutes of commercials.

One last point. I get that it's hard to find a perfect balance. I really liked Roger Valdiviaso when Fox used him for English SAP on Libertadores and Sudamericana matches, but I'm guessing that a lot of viewers felt the opposite. He rarely seemed to describe the action but instead spent most of his time discussing all of the stuff that circulated around the match. Viewing games he called was kind of like a football version of a telenovela. I enjoyed that much more because I can see who has the ball and what happened with the ball, but I don't know what happened during the week with the Argentine league or which player in Brazil is demanding a transfer or how the fans in Bolivia have organized a boycott (the kind of stuff that seemed to keep Valdiviaiso busy for 60-75 minutes of the broadcast with about 15-30 actually talking about game action). But most announcers don't have the skills to narrate the game and the context of the game. (Or maybe they don't do the research needed or don't have the time because they have to do dumb shows like Monday Night Soccer.) If they don't have the skills or knowledge then I'd rather just hear them call the game and have the commentator say some obvious stuff about guys getting beat 1 v. 1 or guys not marking their men on a corner. You know, things anyone could say. But this is better than someone who has not done the research trying to pretend like they have done research. In the end, 90% of all broadcasts are people telling us what we can see and ex-players telling us what we can see. It's fine. I go elsewhere for stuff directed at thinking fans. The thing is that fans aren't happy anywhere. The English announcers that people seem to love here are hated by thinking fans in England. And I assume the same is true in Germany and France and Brazil, etc. And I assume NFL, NBA, and NHL fans feel something similar. This is why other media appear: The Blizzard, World Football Phone-In podcast, When Saturday Comes, the short-lived European Football Show Podcast.

By the way, let me make a plug for a great book called Football Cronicas. Check it out if you are into South American football (with a little from Central America and Mexico as well). Great stuff for the thoughtful fan.

 

Anyways, switching gears here.
Does anyone find Christian Vieri hilarious? He seems to want to pick a fight all the time. It was hilarious listening to him debate Angel on the Colombian strikeforce

Please, BeIN...KEEP HIM

 

Vieri has an entertaining candor only he can get away with. He seems to joke around a little bit too much but that is his personality.

Vieri and Hudson are like a chummy-chummy hug and kiss fest on the Locker-room shows. They seem to enjoy themselves a lot on that show.

 

just lol at thinking u have to have played at a high level to understand the sport

most of the time the former stars make some of the worst broadcasters because they simply relied on there talent and are as dull as a table

 

I think we need a remedial reading course on here for some people. Lol at thinking you didnt have to read the next sentence. Having played at a high level brings an element of understanding about that level of competition. See Neville, Carragher, Henry, Souness, Gulit, etc. Having worked for sky means that you have been covering some of the top matches, in the case of keys and grey, during the formative years of the prem.

What did Ian Joy, Cordero, Bonetti, JSL, etc do before they worked for Bein? Played for the US under 13s (thats a joke before anyone comes on here with the actual answer for ian joy), goltv, watched a bunch of serie a, and fox soccer news? A glowing collection of experience there!

th

 

but they arent covering the EPL? so that has ******** all to do with the Copa America and knowledge of players outside of the ones who play in the EPL which is very few

face it most ex players are horrendous broadcasters and people who actually follow football outside of England/Europe are much better suited to covering the matches

there is not a single announcer on BeIn Sport that i feel is lacking in knowledge of the particular match/league they cover

i even prefer the English broadcasters who cover football in Africa and Asia to the ones who cover the English league when it comes to matches outside of England

 

Bill Russell is one of the greatest players of all time in basketball and even he couldn't commentate for crap.

For this sport, they are plenty of examples of these guys. Warren Barton anyone? Good player in his day but is awful as an analyst. Jamie Redknapp?? Robbie Savage. A lot of these guys in this sport already

 

I think that ex players are good with some aspects of analyzing games, but sometimes I think they try to apply things from their career that don't apply.
I remember watching the xtra after a game and when they were talking about the Arturo Vidal accident Ruud said that when he played with Holland that they were training all the time during tournaments and that Vidal should have been with the team. After he said that Vieri said that when he played for Italy they had off days during tournaments and that the Chilean players can have free days especially since thay are the hosts . My point is that what Holland did back in the day might not apply to the South American game in 2015.

 

Anybody else getting tired of Vieri's and Gullit's silly/joking-around nonsense yet? I'm all for not taking football too seriously but *all* they do is goof around 24/7. I wouldn't be surprised if they have tickling fights when they're off camera.

Now that we're in the semis, Vieri's halftime and post-match analysis has to start going a little deeper than letting viewers know how many times he fell asleep in the previous 45 minutes.

 

I've been tired of Gullit for decades.

 

Vieri and Gullit have been horrible in the studio shows along with Andy and Richard. I guess it's because they only know the European game.

 

I don't want to spoil anything for anyone but I will say if you are going to watch tonight's semi later on tonight be prepared for a lot of screaming and yelling by Hudson. (Even more than usual.)

 

Would one know how much BeIN paid for the 2015 Copa America?

 

More than a dollar plus transmission costs and less than two hundred million.

 

beIN will be airing a third round qualifying Europa League match:

8/6, Thursday
02:00PM ET Saint-Étienne (France) vs. Târgu Mureş (Romania)

Not sure why they picked that one among all the options but better than nothing. Saint-Étienne won the 1st leg 3-0.

 

Only thing I can think of is that it involves a French League team. So there is already a built in audience demo.

 

Bein showed a europa legue game last year too and it was a Spurs game. They could have picked up the a better team like West ham if they wanted to.

 

The West Ham game is definitely the most interesting as far as the fact that the PL has a big following and the fact that the tie is up in the air. I don't know the difficulties in broadcasting from Giurgiu though. It will be interesting to see whether the Dortmund channel on Fubo plays the Dortmund game.