BBC ITV Split Coverage

Just thought I'd get people's opinions on the split coverage for this years 6Ns

As a balance in going to try and come up with some good and bad points.

Good:
ITV brought a new format and some new, interesting speakers. Plus their commentators for the England games at least were very good.

The BBC have no adverts

Bad:
As mentioned before I'm sure Inverdale is a pretty poor host, unfortunately to my mind his opposite number for the ITV coverage was just as bad.

A fair few 'old heads' are now looking tired and way past their best especially from the BBC. Guscott, Wood, Nicol, Butler and Moore all say a lot without actually producing much. Butler and Moore especially are now painful to listen to, the former as he seems to believe his in a theatre production somewhere, the latter as he makes you want to slit your wrists.

It's coverage was a lot cleaner and crisper I felt, but the constant advert breaks ruin a lot of the enjoyment for me, especially that last desperate car advert before the game starts. Who actually goes and buys a car from that?!

In the end I guess we're stuck with it, and tbh that's probably for the best. Neither companies are great and at least with the two competing They may improve.

I thought ITV's coverage was too biased towards England. Also, I actually like Brian Moore and his commentating, Butler is the ying to his yang.

It's free to air that's the big plus of them both.

InverDull just does my head in but then so does Jason Mohammed.

bedfordwelsh wrote:It's free to air that's the big plus of them both.

InverDull just does my head in but then so does Jason Mohammed.

Ah yes, Jason 'Great to see you' Mohammed   Ross Harries does an excellent job on Scrum V throughout the PRO 12 season, then it's the internationals and Jason comes along - perfectly suited to the "Cowboy hat brigade" who only seem to bother with the internationals

I've ceased to watch the build-up (on any channel) after years to getting angry over Inverdale, so it really comes down to the commentators. Butler/Moore works best for me.

It would be great if we could get a blend of both

Have all games on BBC so there are no adverts! especially that last one right before kick off for crying out loud
Best commentator is Andrew Cotter
Select co commentators from - Moore (but he needs to stop shouting for England when playing another "home" nation)-Hastings-Ben Kay-D'Arcy-Butler/Shane
Best pundits (one from each nation) Paterson-Wilkinson-BoD-Shane-Del Fava-Castanede

people that need binned - Guscott-Inverdale-Jiffy-Wood-Nicol

Thank God for RTE. Real talk, real time to talk. Ad breaks yes, but Christ within reason!! ITV, if they could negotiate it (and might still try it if their interest keeps up) look like they'd love to break the game in four Quarters to get more and more of the old 'Here's a word from our Sponsor's' time in.

Anyway, do these advert people not realise they're shooting themselves in the foot as they pay big money for the slots? Does anybody seriously linger for annoying ad breaks when the remote is in your hand. Perhaps the people in pubs have no choice but the rest of us? Well, I think most of us either start discussing the game or we switch channels.

With box sets, binge series watching, online streaming of dramas and sitcoms, it's only really live sport which manages to guarantee a sizeable number of viewers in key consumer demographics for tv advertisers.

Ads within games, during time-offs, before kicks, scrum resets.
The royal mail and an post to compete to bring you the rugby posts.
PG Tips and Barrys to make bids to sponsor the kicking tee.
The ref is already sponsored by specsavers.
H&M to be the official provider of pink hats at games.
Marvel's next Avenger movie to provide the game with Hawk-eye.


Then Aviva to provide to the tags (because insurance companies will increase premiums until any tackle in the game is removed).

PenfroPete wrote:

bedfordwelsh wrote:It's free to air that's the big plus of them both.

InverDull just does my head in but then so does Jason Mohammed.

Ah yes, Jason 'Great to see you' Mohammed   Ross Harries does an excellent job on Scrum V throughout the PRO 12 season, then it's the internationals and Jason comes along - perfectly suited to the "Cowboy hat brigade" who only seem to bother with the internationals

Very true

PenfroPete wrote:

bedfordwelsh wrote:It's free to air that's the big plus of them both.

InverDull just does my head in but then so does Jason Mohammed.

Ah yes, Jason 'Great to see you' Mohammed   Ross Harries does an excellent job on Scrum V throughout the PRO 12 season, then it's the internationals and Jason comes along - perfectly suited to the "Cowboy hat brigade" who only seem to bother with the internationals

ChumV is sh!t, end of, and that rugby quiz show last week hosted by Jiffy on the Beeb gravy train, was a car crash. Listening to the results at the end resembled a really bad night of Eurovision, but without a laughing Wogan taking the mick.

Cardiff Dave wrote:

PenfroPete wrote:

bedfordwelsh wrote:It's free to air that's the big plus of them both.

InverDull just does my head in but then so does Jason Mohammed.

Ah yes, Jason 'Great to see you' Mohammed   Ross Harries does an excellent job on Scrum V throughout the PRO 12 season, then it's the internationals and Jason comes along - perfectly suited to the "Cowboy hat brigade" who only seem to bother with the internationals

ChumV is sh!t, end of, and that rugby quiz show last week hosted by Jiffy on the Beeb gravy train, was a car crash. Listening to the results at the end resembled a really bad night of Eurovision, but without a laughing Wogan taking the mick.

It's not even that good

like funnyexiledscot, i dont really watch the build up.

Agree Inverdale is poor.

Guscott and Wood have had their time i feel.
Dont mind jiffy, or Nicol.

On the commentary, not ahuge fan of Butler/Moore.

Think Cotter is good.
Do like Phili Matthews to.

Patterson, BOD, Wilkinson etc are good to listen to as they are fresh.

At the risk of sounding sexist, I really hope they get rid of Loagan and Mclaughlin.
Very bad.

I think Nick Mullins BT/ITV was/is the best commentator by a distance.

I'm at that point in my life where I find the buildup Poopie, the pundits Poopie and the commentators Poopie. Fortunately this means the channel doesn't bother me. I usually wander off at half time so the adverts don't bother me.

So for me, it was fine. I didn't really notice.

BigTrevsbigmac wrote:I think Nick Mullins BT/ITV was/is the best commentator by a distance.

Have to agree. When Mullins started doing Premiership games a few years ago I wasn't sold on him. Either he has improved or I have mellowed but I really enjoy him calling a game.

I thought 5lives Mark Pougatch did ok for Itv. Their pundits a lot better than the beebs tired faces, Castaignede aside. Jiffy was like a wound up toddler as ever v Itlay and Butlers over french prouncing of players names was annoying Guy-el Fickooo..

I really liked ITV, with the exception of adverts and Clive Woodward.

I think it's something BT sport have tapped into well in bringing in more recently retired players to offer fresher insights.

I thought the BBC pundits were tired and almost boring by comparison. I 100% agree with the points Brian Moore raises re: the scrum, but he's raised them every year for the last 10 years. Yes, nothing's changed, but it's not fun to listen to and it can't offer much to a casual fan either.

Not sure if it would fall foul of ageism laws, but I would be in favour of having around 75% of the pundit team as recent players (last 5 or 10 years).

Finally, I think the best anchors are Gary Lineker of Match of the Day and David Gower at Sky Cricket. These are former players themselves so have the understanding and empathy for the game to ask pertinent questions, but developed as anchors. I think rugby needs to start trying to develop specialist rugby anchors, so take whichever of your pundits is the best natural speaker and conversationalist and put them in that role.

SecretFly wrote:Thank God for RTE.  

You can thank him!

He's only gone and forsaken the poor northern brethren in recent seasons and left us with the bloody BBC and now ITV, which in response to the OP is probably marginally better than the beeb.

Super Saturday is ruined though, its not the same if you have to switch channels.

In saying that, watching England win silverware isn't an enjoyable experience on any broadcaster

I miss "World In Union". Hated it at the time, but every time ITV goes to an advert it feels like there's something missing.

HammerofThunor wrote:I'm at that point in my life where I find the buildup Poopie, the pundits Poopie and the commentators Poopie. Fortunately this means the channel doesn't bother me. I usually wander off at half time so the adverts don't bother me.

So for me, it was fine. I didn't really notice.

Ditto I spose and let's be honest, the ex-player pundits on the whole spout the same for every game.

I didn't really care which channel showed matches as I don't follow the pundits and build-up, tho sandwiching adverts between the anthems and kick-off was a bit unfair.
Saying that though I have a very unique reason for disliking Jiffy's commentry, despite being Welsh myself. It's cos I'm deaf and wear hearing aids. Normally I don't hear the commentators over the crowd noise, unless it's Jiffy, I can hear his infernal whine! Can't understand what he's saying cos I lipread but holy crap! It's the noise he makes, it's .....argh! His voice cuts through every other noise and my hearing aids pick him ....argh!

Blueschief wrote:I didn't really care which channel showed matches as I don't follow the pundits and build-up, tho sandwiching adverts between the anthems and kick-off was a bit unfair.
Saying that though I have a very unique reason for disliking Jiffy's commentry, despite being Welsh myself. It's cos I'm deaf and wear hearing aids. Normally I don't hear the commentators over the crowd noise, unless it's Jiffy, I can hear his infernal whine! Can't understand what he's saying cos I lipread but holy crap! It's the noise he makes, it's .....argh! His voice cuts through every other noise and my hearing aids pick him ....argh!

If you have NHS aids then they could be programmed with an additional setting to block out Jiffy's frequency.

I did ask once, got a few chuckles and they said its part of the voice range I gotta have to communicate and besides I wouldn't hear the wife. I'm still trying to work out negatives there

Blueschief wrote:I did ask once, got a few chuckles and they said its part of the voice range I gotta have to communicate and besides I wouldn't hear the wife. I'm still trying to work out negatives there

westisbest wrote:like funnyexiledscot, i dont really watch the build up.

Agree Inverdale is poor.

Guscott and Wood have had their time i feel.
Dont mind jiffy, or Nicol.

On the commentary, not ahuge fan of Butler/Moore.

Think Cotter is good.
Do like Phili Matthews to.

Patterson, BOD, Wilkinson etc are good to listen to as they are fresh.

At the risk of sounding sexist, I really hope they get rid of Loagan and Mclaughlin.
Very bad.

Yeah, but what else could they do? The Boat Race?
Now there's a build up gone all gravy.

I thought the single station coverage was very good this year as usual.

What is this ITV/BBC thing you speak of?

Split terrestrial coverage was the lesser of two evils. Before the 6N I was dreading the barrage of adverts tainting the formerly uninterrupted run of build-up/game/post-game.

The beeb was never perfect in any capacity and I thought ITV brought forward some decent analysts in their first season (thought Maggie Alphonsi was a good addition). But what really got me was how every game on ITV was given a predominantly English tint, even when England weren't playing! It's like no analysis is considered complete without an English contribution. I also hated how for the England games themselves they'd typically have three English guys (two guests + the presenter) and a token opposition rep like BOD or Gareth Thomas. The ensuing bias was difficult to endure; might have to mute future discussion segments to enjoy games to their full potential.