media coverage

[ians]

badminton seems to be getting less and less media coverage thesedays.take the world champs for example. held in england but only seemed to be covered by the national papers in their tiny results sections.its allegedly the nations favourite racquet sport so why can't we attract the crowds and column inches that tennis can when its much more exciting.are we always going to have to wait until the olympics or commonwealths to be in the spotlight? why can't we build on the successes we have at these games?

[Tito]

As long as the sport is dominated by the far eastern countries I don't think the media is going to be interested, unlike Denmark who can hold their own. Only way is to produce players that can consistently compete at that level and get the sponsers involved. Until then ho hum!

[clingfilm]

the thread which had most media coverage with 7600 hits in ten days, is locked because poeple are 'misusing' it. strange logic.

[SUPERTED]

There are plenty of other sports where england have little and even less success than badminton and yet they have still managed to get T.V coverage. Tennis,swimming,Table tennis,skiing,cycling and im sure theres more. All of the above are regularly shown on sky sports or eurosport. How do they manage it when we cant even though we have more results as well as it being the nations most participated racket sport,which you would think is a major selling point?

[ians]

i remember a few years ago carlton organised an exhibition event in sheffield. promoted it exstensively and sold over one thousand tickets. unfortunately they didn't seek permission from the ba of e to hold the event so were forced to scrap it and refund everyone as the ba of e would not let it go ahead!! i even played in an exhibition in birmingham once for the local leagues there and the ba of e tried to stop them also as they weren't affiliated players?! is it any wonder why people are becoming disinterested

[doesitmatter]

i definetely agree with you there ian, and also with you dave. another sport is golf, more boring than watching paint dry, but it's on the tv for 6 hours at a time. i never knew the amount of insomniacs has risen dramatically. exhibition matches are the best idea to get more people interested in badminton. my mum played in many and she said the crowd loved it. what is the baofe doing, if they want a wider fan base or more people interested in badminton then why cancel them. get your act together. also, it's not that england aren't getting results that badminton isn't on tv. look at our mixed players, top in the world and doubles players and now women's singles players. they are all getting good results so you can't say badminton has no coverage because england players don't do well enough rudy.

[Tito]

Might be top in ranking but when it comes to the major opens and world events, most are out by the 2nd or 3rd round. Occasionally quarters and rarely semis. So unless the tv companies are willing to screen the earlier rounds, they and the potential sponsors have very little to get excited about.

[ians]

badminton has a severe image problem in this country.it is seen as a soft game.when people see a real top quality match they can't believe the power, speed, agility etc... it is totally different to what they thought it would be. exhibitions are a great way of promoting the game because people can see up close the speed and skill of the game. you sometimes lose a bit of that watching it on tv. a competitive series of exhibitions around the country would,i believe,be very popular as you can see first hand the beauty of the game. and exhibitions are a lot of fun too for players.if you ever get the chance to see rexy mainaky in an exhibition then take it because his array of shots is simply staggering!

[MKCGavin]

Ian, I find what you said about the Carlton Organised Exhibition to be shocking! What power does the BA of E have to stop a comercially organised event, is it because it was going to take place as part of a BA of E event?

[dlp]

Rudy, at the moment English players / pairs are consistently reaching the quarters or beyond, on the Far East tour and at the recent Denmark Open, in mixed, womens singles and even mens doubles.

If you look at other sports our idea of the sport is 99% from TV coverage. I have never witnessed top tennis, golf, squash, basketball etc live but I am familiar with the rules, players etc from TV. Yes badminton is one of the fastest, most exciting sports but noone will know this without TV exposure.

Unfortunately possibly the only way badminton can gain media coverage currently is for off-court drama, i.e. bad behaviour, one of the players having a famous boy/girlfriend. Simon Archer's appearance on superstars will probably reach more people outside the hardcore badminton fans than any other event this year!

[markdfield]

G,Day Mr Sullivan & Mr Lindley,

Sorry I missed you when I came back Dave !!

If you guys think the Badminton Coverage in the UK is bad then you should see it in Australia !! Some people dont even know what the game is !

It amazes me how Nath can get to World No.1 & Ant & Nath get in the World top 5 & yet virtually nobody outside of Badminton circles would recognise them.

The Badminton powers that be really need to start getting these guys the spotlight somehow .. need to let people know we have some Top World Players .. otherwise how do you expect TV Companies to take an Interest.

Lets face it the Public will always get behind a British sports person if they can identify with an individual .. be it a Henman or otherwise.

The current set up however is just not working ... you get a handful of people (usually parents) watching at the Premier weekends, & usually a lot of the England players are away overseas anyway.

I think Exhibition matches would be a good idea... maybe give schoolkids free entry .. good incentive for the parents to bring more supporters !!

I guess the real crunch is the Olympics though .. it seems as Archer proved, that the sport only really starts getting attention if we can give the public Olympic medals .. ever since Sydney, Simon Archer has been seen much more on TV than before .

If our guys dont win one of the Big championships I cant see the TV companies really moving !!

Cheers lads
Fieldy

[southernmonkey]

Agree with you Mark,personally the media want more than this and you cant blame them.
Take [They think its all over]TV show, all the sports guest who come on are sports people who have won the world title or the olympics or some major title,the players you have mentioned apart from Simon Archer haven't.
They might be in the top 5 in the world but thats clearly not important to the powers thet be.Iam also not knocking our top players however the connection is there to see that to get our sport and sportsman on tv more in this country we will have to win a big event like the worlds or the olympics and that isnt going to happen tommorow.
They are looking for the constant great result not they did well getting to the semis or quarters of an event.It is however a start in the right direction and i hope our talent can do this.

[Grover]

Disagree about having to be successful to get media coverage. Top media execs don't play badminton and neither do the execs from the top sponsors, instead they are involved in the likes of tennis and golf which are the sports that get the money. Much of the sponsorship money is gained from US parent companies and if the execs were to decide where their money goes it will be a sport they are familair with or play.

[dlp]

I don't quite see that winning a world class event is a neccessity for getting it on TV, although undoubtedly it would help, there isn't a direct link between other sports with more TV coverage and relative success.

We haven't had a wimbledon tennis finalist for twenty five years, we haven't won a golf major since Faldo years ago and we certainly don't feature at thew top of gymanstics, swimming or athletics world medal tables.

Yes the success of Paula Radcliffe in road racing has seen increased coverage but given that in events like athletics / swimming there may be some 20+ sub events I don't think that compares with badminton in which there is only singles or doubles.

Robertson/Clark beat a top chinese pair in the far east recently. A corresponding result in tennis might be Henman beating Roddick or Agassi at the US open, which I expect would merit a special BBC highlights programme at least.

At the olympics next year expect to be looking for badminton in the late night highlights programme after the shooting and weight lifting if we're lucky.

[southernmonkey]

Peterson,regardless of sub evevnts,daley thompson,duncan goodhew,Adrian moorhouse,and many more have boosted there sports and tennis is just tennis and will always be popular.Henman isn't famous because he has one victory over Roddick,he might make the headlines but there's nothing we can do about that.
We need a undisputed world no1 who wins big events on a regular basis,archer is on tv now because he got a bronze at the olympics.Nathan isn't despite the fact that he is in the top5 in the world,its results which we need not rankings its the same in the English rankings they dont mean much to the players apart from more lottery money.Good achievements yes but it wont get them on TV being felt up by Johnathon Ross and David Seaman.

[MKCGavin]

Simon Archer and Joanne Goode were on 'They think it's all over' soon after their medal victory in the 2000 Olympics, it was Rory McGrath and Gary Lineker who were doing the 'groping'.

I don't believe that having an undisputed no1 in your sport is actually that much of an advantage/factor to getting on TV, take for example Peter Nicol in Squash. He has been and still is highly successful but this doesn't seen to translate to TV coverage.

I think the biggest factor is Image, and in the country badminton is perceived by the majority to be a 'ladies' game.

[rickys]

Don't be so sexist Gavin! Badminton is a ladies game and a gentlemans at that.

Seriously though, most people (the general public) haven't got any idea about the level of badminton and most think it's a "garden sport". I once heard someone saying "why don't they have open-air courts?" That just sums it all up!!!

Does anyone remember last seasons Argos Catalogue? I do, and I can tell you why, it had a Wison Badminton kit - illustrated with a picture of 4 players playing mixed (or trying), in a park!!!

With images like that around, it's hardly surprising why the public think like they do and most households in the UK have an Argos catalogue!

What we need is a massive push, a huge marketing campaign perhaps from the BaofE or the IBF in the UK or it's going to be curtains for the sport!

[southernmonkey]

yeah Gavin but thats squash, their worse off than us mate.Not a very good example?

[gruendau]

When people think of media coverage, they immediately think of the BBC & ITV, but how much badminton is covered by your local newspapers or radio?
I've tried to submit articles of local badminton without much success. Local newspapers seem quite happy to devote entire sections to the local angling competition but not to badminton leagues. Surely, when we address media coverage, shouldn't we talk about all round coverage?
If we could get the likes of local newspapers etc. to cover the sport, wouldn't the nationals then follow?
The more people write to television companies and/or newspapers then the more likely the media is to cover badminton.
I have my fingers crossed that Simon Archer does well in superstars as I know how much Brian Jacks did for the sport of Judo. The more people can bring to light this sport - the better.

[doesitmatter]

i also hope archer does well in superstars, it will prove badminton takes very physcial training to play at a high level. i also remember one incident on the radio. it was foxy on cpaital fm and he mentioned something about archer and goode winnign a bronze medal and he said, 'badminton? what's that?' this sums it up. what badminton needs is a top english player getting results and the baofe should make a video showing the training needed for badminton and get it on tv. the video would show the great demands the sport takes and the speed it's played at. how come people think it's still a garden sport when the record for the smash is 162mph, faster than tennis and cricket, plus that could go anywhere in the court and at any height plus he could disguise the next shot as a drop, there is plenty of other alternatives.

[TheDaddy]

Its a catch 22 for Badminton regarding the profile of the game. On one hand you have the fact that we dont really have a "world star" in any event which means we wont get the publicity the sport deserves. Added to that we probably wont produce a "world star" unless more money comes into the game from other parties, which will encourage younger players to take the sport more seriousley as regards to having a career in the game. Regarding image it has always seemed to me that the game discourages or frowns upon characters or anyone with a non conformist attitude. Can anyone think of a flamboyant character playing now in a similar mould to an Agassi, Beckham, Tyson, these kind of people promote the sport not just by being at the top of their profession but also by being the characters they are, Badminton seems to lack that kind of personality. Can anyone think of anyone who can or would be allowed to break the mould?

[johng]

Afraid to say as far as the TV programmers are concerned, there is simply no demand for Badminton to be shown.

Sure it may well be the 'Nations favoutite racket sport'.......It may well be action packed, explosive and full of touch and guile......butif only a handfull of people write to ask for more coverage.....where is the incentive.

If only 20,000 or so turn up during the week at tha NIA each year to watch the worlds 3rd most important event (after the Olympics and the worlds)...then where is the demand !!!!!.

Also have to agree, we could certainly do with a John McEnroe character ........or Nathan returning to the hair colour shop

[stuartwardell]

Cant see any players breaking the mould beacuse they would probably get a RED card or their lottery money taken away.

[rickys]

I agree with several of the comments made in this thread as to refer to the image of the game.

Well surely the only way is through marketing and I wonder if the BAofE or the IBF has ever thought of doing this through advertising say on the ITV for example, just before the All-England. I know it costs a lot of money but anything is worth a try!

It's no good advertising in the badminton magazine, as that audience is already probably aware of the event. The idea is surely to expose the sport to the general public and what better than showing some clips from previous years highlights with some music.

Make it look really cutting edge!