All England TV Coverage

[rickys]

With the exception of Sky TV, anyone know if the BBC will be televising this, or any other free-to-view channel for that matter?

[jg]

The BBC All England coverage should be the same this year as for last year

[Grover]

Same BBC coverage, that is showing the last two points of every game.

[Pglews]

Woah!! We get a whole 2 points this time!! I'll set the video.
Seriously though, at least there's something on BBC. Anything is better than nothing, although it was a bit of a blow to see that the Copenhagen Masters was covered about 2 weeks after the event and put on Sky Sports Extra, not even making it to 2 or 3!!

[rickys]

Thanks, but can anyone say for sure what & when? That would be helpful.

[Derek]

Sky Sports:
Feb 14th 17.30-23.00
Feb 15th 13.00-17.00
Feb 16th 13.00-18.00

BBC:
Feb 16th Sunday Grandstand 60 minutes highlights

[seanrachy]

Make sure we all write to the BBC and Sky to say thankyou for showing some of it on TV !

[rickys]

Thanks Derek.

I've now found out from the BAofE about the BBC Sunday Grandstand finals highlights but I was hoping that it would be more than say 60 minutes.

Agreed Sean, lets thank the BBC for showing something but lets all keep putting more pressure on so that we get more coverage. It’s better than what has been happening for about the last 10 years – no coverage!

Perhaps, seeing that on Badders we have ex-players like Martin Dew & current players online, they could apply some pressure. I’m sure that this would have more impact than us (Joe Public) writing. Anyone know what the BaofE are doing about this?

Why can't the BBC put more on their Interactive channels like they did with the Commonwealth games? That would be even better.

[StuartJohnston]

I think the BBC has lost its way in Sport. When exciting events like Curling and Darts can command a respectable 2 hours plus coverage
a day.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the international tiddlywinks
competition got more coverage.

Badminton went through a massive change to re-invent itself to accommodate Television.

Seems we are back to square one!

[Derek]

Yes Badminton did go through fundamental changes to accommodate TV and more fool it! Television is not the be all and end all. Darts and curling (and other sports too) lend themselves much more easily to televising. Although there have been improvements over the years, badminton does not come across well on TV and is far better seen "live". See you at Birmingham!

[danbelcher]

This really should be another thread but I disagree with the last comment. I think Badminton makes great television, so much more exciting than say Tennis. People, children especially, have short channel hopping attention spans and badminton with its fast intense explosive games can attract more initial interest than other sports. Infact I was in favour of the scoring changes, at least the trial but was personally hoping for 5 games to 9 points. If this helps it get on TV and re-educate the public about the sport then I am all for it.

[rickys]

I agree with you all, therefore why don't we all bombard the BBC with these statements. Lets look at the facts:

How many women watch Darts, Cricket & Snooker? Very few!

How interesting are they? Damn boring!!!

How much action is there? Very little - in fact the best action I've seen is when the streakers come out!

Golf - well not much action here but at least it makes a good garden programme, nice bushes & lawns.

[Frodo]

>in fact the best action I've seen is when
>the streakers come out!

Ricky are you going to treat the ladies at the All Emgland next month ?

[rickys]

I most certainly am my slippery friend. I'm going to treat them all to seeing a frog jumping across the court when I throw you down there!

[Frodo]

;-)

promises promises ...

[Martin Dew-Hattens]

I usually watch the All England live on Danish TV. It might actually be a sat channel so try pointing your dish at Denmark.

[rickys]

Martin, I suppose the commentary won't be in English will it?

Could you tell us exactly what channel it will be on and I'll have a go with my dish.

Thanks.

[george]

What has it come to when we have to try and point our sat dishes towards Denmark?

We should not accept this situation. There is something we can all do. We should e-mail Peter Salmon at the BBC who is head of Sports. His e-mail address is: peter.salmon@bbc.co.uk.

I have contacted him 3 times over the last 2 years and also a Vic Wakeling at Sky sports. But we need to show them in greater numbers that we care.


Stephen Baddeley asked us all to do this last year but I wonder how many of us did so.

I have over the last two weeks given slips with this e-mail address to all that I coach and know. I have given out around 150 slips.

I urge all of you to do the same. We must do something positive towards this end otherwise our leagues will continue to diminish and that will have a knock on effect on our national team.

So come on, lets do something positive. Get e-mailing and let the BBC know your feelings!

May be too late for the All England this year but lets aim to get Tv coverage for the Worlds in May!!

[Martin Dew-Hattens]

When I see times and channell advertised I'll post it.

Of course commentry is in Danish. Should not take more than a couple of years to learn.

These days its done by Hoyer who has just got the job from Steen Skovgaard.

[Frodo]

aaahhhh but the scores are in English ;-)

[george]

Please note that the e-mail address for Peter Salmon, Head of BBC Sports is not as I previously posted but is:

peter.salmon@bbc.co.uk

I mistakedly put a dot at the end of uk.

Sorry to all who have had difficulty and please do send the e-mail if you want to influence badminton getting its fair share of tv coverage.

thanks,

George

[george]

Please note that the e-mail address for Peter Salmon, Head of BBC Sports is not as I previously posted but is:

peter.salmon@bbc.co.uk

I mistakedly put a dot at the end of uk.

Sorry to all who have had difficulty and please do send the e-mail if you want to influence badminton getting its fair share of tv coverage.

thanks,

George

[rickys]

Hi George.

I completely agree with you, but I think that there is more to the problem than that!

Why for instance does the BBC show darts & snooker so much? As I said earlier, what's so good about those sports? Also, look at the narrow appeal they have!

For everyone's interest, I've put a link for you to have a look at. It's a copy of an article but where it came from & the date of it, I have no idea! It makes interesting reading. I wonder whether anyone can remember the story?

http://www.edibus.com/badminton/newspaper_cutting.jpg

Incidentally, for those of you who don't know, the mention of TSL in the article is to do with the TV company who were filming the All England & were producing the tapes for the BAofE.

[GeorgeFrith]

Ricky,

That news article made interesting reading. When was it published? Very sad that ITV only think the public are interested in 5 sports!

I do disagree with the article in that TV is very important as a tool to sell your sport to the public and to attract sponsors amongst other things.

Where would football (soccer) be without having the Premier League continually pushed into our faces. I'm sure they would have great difficulty in attracting major sponsors without TV exposure.

Of course players are important as are fans but unless you get the players onto the screen, the fans will not be there in any numbers as is currently the case with badders. This is especially the case with young people.

Don't get me wrong I like lots of sports (darts and snooker not included!) but feel it is so unfair the amount of coverage we get. We are also not alone. I could name many other great sports in the same boat such as squash, hockey, table tennis, volleyball etc.

I fully understand that not everyone wants to watch hours of different sports and may prefer to watch soaps. Maybe the way forward is to have a channel dedicated to "minority" sports. I know that there are Sky Sports channels claiming to fulfil this role but don't see badders covered very often if at all!

Anyway, I have e-mailed Peter Salmon at the BBC with the question why is darts and snooker shown more than badminton. If I get an answer I will post it on this forum.

In the meantime I urge everyone reading this to e-mail the BBC: peter.salmon@bbc.co.uk

Lets initiate a nationwide campaign and do something positive towards this end.

[coops241180]

I think the main reason why badminton isn't easy to transfer to tv is because it is very fast and the object in game (shuttle) is to small to see on a tv screen - and moving too fast. The only sport that has a reasonable speed and is on tv is ice hockey and i believe the reason people really watch that is because it is a very physical game.

[pnh]

Martin - what about the Danish SAT-TV broadcasts? Are there anything coming up?

[Balmforthk]

The BBC website lists badminton being on from 13:50 to 14:30 this Sunday, all of 40 minutes ! Whoopee !

[Michael Banks]

Just watched the mixed on TV. Can't understand why anyone would want to play the game to 11 points?? A poor advertisement for badminton and contrary to those in the know, it didn't make it more appealing to the media/TV/viewer. We have seen two boring singles games and a dynamic mixed - well the second game was! So the reason the TV guys won't take badminton seriously? We are trying to sell and focus on a part of the game that is boring. The exciting part is getting ignored!!!! Long live mixed doubles.

[rachyuk]

I've just sat and watched a few hours of the sky sports extra NIA coverage. Mens, Mixed and two singles games.

Enjoyed the mixed coverage of Emms/Robertson. Gail played really well and took control in the second game. Really punishing at the net, but not backed up by her partner who couldn't find the line when it counted ;O(

I was quite surprised to see the NIA looking rather empty and the crowd appreciation/noise levels were very poor!

Good to see Simon Archer in the studio as a pundit! Commentary during the games was very poor though....as usual!

One point the line call was given out by the line judge. The replay showed the shuttle landing on the line! Steven Butler said "Ooh that was close" and Gill said "Well, actually it was out" and then there was a sharp intake of breath and silence!! Why couldn't they be natural and have a good old squabble about it or make a comment about a contentious line call??? Then Gill came in with a stand alone comment about the umpire not being allowed to overrule line judges......then silence again!!! That was as animated as it got!!!

Serving: The serving is appauling! How illegal? and how many serves into the net or short? These people train every day....it's bread and butter stuff!!!!!

[coops241180]

yes, i was there, some of the backhand short serving did look a bit suspect, and there was an interesting point in the mens singles match between Hafiz Hashim and Hock Kin Yong where the line judge called it out and both players disagreed so they sorted it out between themselves by throwing a serve

on the subject of bad serving - after playing a few matches tiredness, tension stress and pressure begin to become a factor -errors are made by everyone especially when playing at the highest level

[Martin Dew-Hattens]

Badminton Lovers,

I see my name mentioned here as a possible pressure point. Well forget it I have no such power.

There is only one way to get more badders on the TV - and that is for the English players to regularly win international events. That means winning All England, Europeans, Grand Prix events etc ....

If any of you care to look up past results in my era and just before and search for names such as Tredgett, Talbot, Whetnall, Boxall, Gilks, Stevens, Perry and of course little old me then you will see that we where up there in the top. This was the hayday of televised badminton in England.

It is no coincidence.

To make it clear lets compare the current ladies singles champ - Julia Mann versus her previous version Gillian Gilks. Both have won the Nationals singles title 10 times but look at the difference in International results. Simply being National champion is meaninless. I am not being cruel to Julia - I don't even know her!

We won and got reported. Its as simple as that.

The players of today have the odd result. Archer was doing well and could do again if he got a strong partner beside him.

The powers that be must be in panic by now. They have chucked thousands of pounds into training, traveling, buildings, coaches, analyists of various types and the results just keep getting worse.

In comparision Smith down in Portsmouth does his own thing and gets good results and a bright future. Now I will be the first to admit that Dave Hunt was my mentor and I can see in Smith a possible champion for England.

Andrew may not suceedd for one reason or another but for Englands sake I hope he does. He is a pleasant young man who takes his badminton seriously whilst accetping its not all in life. Most of you young players should actually be curious as to how Dave does this.

Enough for now!!

Soon time to watch the All England live on Danish tv. I suppose I will have to cheer for the Danes again!!

[rickys]

Hello all & Hi Martin.

Martin, as much respect that I have for you and I think that you make many valid, if not controversial comments and I've even got I think what was probably a copy of the last All England you played in (1984) with Mike, incidentally televised by the BBC for almost 2.5 hours, I see that the Danish women didn't fair well at all in the women's doubles scoring a poor 11-0, 11-0 against the Chinese, which only lasted 17 minutes!

Now, I have the greatest respect for Rikke Olsen as I think she is an excellent player whom I've admired for years now but what happened?

At least Emms & Kellogg managed 11-7, 11-1 against the same Chinese pair!

Therefore, I conclude that it’s not only the English that are struggling against the Far East.

One last thing folks, I've selected some of the comments written in this thread about the lack of TV coverage and copied them in to an e-mail, which I've now sent to the BBC!

[Grover]

Do we know what coverage there will be of the World Championships?

[Giggle3]

No, but in their All-England highlights programme the BBC did say that they would be covering the World Championships. Watch this space!

[badger]

i watched alot of badminton when th eall england was on tv, however i dont think the tv coverages gives it the best publicity as it makes the game look slower than it is and even the smashers dont look that fast and the courtr looks small, does anybody agree?

[fred]

yes i think the tv should make the game look abit faster, the actuall speed that the game is being played it makes it look like slow motion.