What are the best Danish TV Channels for Badminton?

[danbelcher]

I am based in southern England and it is possible with the correct package to receive danish TV but I need to know which are the best channels for badminton and would welcome any advice.

The satellite I am thinking of using picks up DR1, DR2, DK4, TV2 Zulu, TV Danmark 2.

Would these be ok or do I need any other channels?

many thanks

[Thorberg]

Hi Daniel.

In Denmark we have the same problem as you in England. Badminton is absolutely undercovered in the medias - specially in television. It is TV 2 (with the channels: TV2 and TV2 Zulu) who own the rights to show badminton, but the dont't use that possibility too much - but if you are lucky you can pick some badminton up on TV2 Zulu. They showed for example manu hours each days from the european chams, and normally also from All England, Danish Open and Copenhagen Masters. Concerning the olympic games both TV2 and DR have the rights to that event - and nobody knows for the moment, if it will be DR1 or TV2 or TV2 Zulu who will show badminton.

I hope this can be to any help to you, Daniel.

Best regards from Denmark

Michael

[danbelcher]

Thats a great help, thank you Michael.

I'm suprised that you have a lack of coverage in Denmark. I understood it got a lot of TV exposure. Are the players household names? What was the reaction to Paaske and Rasmussen becoming World Champions? Is badminton bigger than Handball?

[Thorberg]

I'm afraid we have exactly the same problems with the coverage in the medias as you guys. And no - Paaske and Rasmussen are only well know among people interested in badminton. Only Camilla and Gade are what you can call householdnames in Denmark. Handball - specially for woman - is much bigger in the medias. During the season (9-10 month a year) there's a lot of handballmatches in tv each week - most of them from the danish leage for women. But after all - danish women won olympic gold in the last two olympic games. Football is naturaly also big in Denmark - but what wonders most danish badmintonfans is, how tennis have a coverage in the medias wich has absolutely no relation to the strength of the players. Danish tennis tend to be a joke compared with for exampel Sweden ... but the few danish proff-players are more well know than topclass badmintonplayers like Paaske, Rasmussen, Eriksen, Jonassen, and Lundgaard. All players with at least a chance of an olympic medal in Athens.

I guess this dont make any sense, if you tend to argue rationally in terms of aletic level, chance of olympic medals, history and so on. I think its a matter of money (crisis in asia has removed a lot of economic strength from badminton), and its a matter of, that badminton to a certain degree has failed to make the big events suitble for modern tv-coverage. Basicly it takes too long time.

In Denmark there is absolutely no tv-coverage (and very little in the newpapers) on the danish badmintonleage. It obveusely dont count that most of the best european players act on the courts in the teammatches. Each match take too long with two mixeddoubles, two ladies singles, two ladies doubles, four mens single and three mens doubles - hard to overview when played on three or four courts - and too long tine for tv-coverage.
Best clubs and the danish federation are discussing to change this - and most of us hope they will succeed. If tv will be there, the newspapers will ... and money and new talented boys and girls will pick up a badmintonracket instead of choosing a handball.

[Martin Dew-Hattens]

Michael,

Maybe you don't realise it but coverage of badminton in Denmark is easily 100 fold that of that in England. In Denmark we are lucky enough to see hours of All England, Europeans, Worlds etc ....

Even though this is mainly on Zulu and TV2 then it is still coverage and should consider ourselves blessed to those poor hungry souls left searching for televised badminton in England.

Zulu is a pay channel so you are going to need a decoder!

We are lucky in Denmark. Everything is relative ....

[danbelcher]

Thanks for your advice. I believe I need a conax card to decode zulu. I will let you know if I am successful. It looks like the only route to watching it over here.

The BBC did show extensive coverage during the Commonwealth Games on their interactive service but that is no guarantee that they will show any badminton from the Olympics, which is the most likely event for them to consider broadcasting. Not much chance of any other event.

All credit to Sky for showing coverage of the AE and Worlds but they have pushed it onto Sky Sports Extra (not available to cable customers, and they seem to have stopped showing highlights of the Copenhagen Masters and English National Championships which they did a few years ago)

Perhaps if we get a medal position it may change.

[Thorberg]

Hello Martin.

Guess you are right ... that we have much better coverage in Denmark, but still its too poor. Specially if you compare to other sports such as football, handball, tennis and golf (sic!). Up to one billion viewers saw semifinals and finals in Thomas and Uber Cup - Denmark joined mens final and were very close in the womans semifinal. But nothing in danish television except very short news without tv-pictures. In DR1 sportsnews the historical final against China were introduced with the sentence: New disapointment for danish badminton. In badminton only gold and glory counts - in tennis or golf its gets large optimistic coverage, if danes can get in to the top 100. That's frustrating - and can you explain Martin - or others?

Best regards from Michael

[Phil McBride]

Daniel - Sky did show the Copenhagen Masters about 6 times over a 3 day period, but I think the timings were in the wee small hours!

Martin - spare a thought for the Scots since we don't get the same coverage as in England - we get less!!

Can you get Zulu/TV2 through your normal sky box?

[Martin Dew-Hattens]

All tv coverage starts with money. To get money you have to get the MD of some multinational company interested.

The problem lies in that it at the local sportcentre it looks like a pathetic game. The shuttle moves very slowly and so do most of the players. A self respecting MD is more likely to take up golf or tennis since its they are respected sports. Many MD's will use golf as a way of doing business.

So the real problem is to change the image of badminton away from a garden event to the tough sport which it actually is at the top end!!

How can we do that ? I have no idea -I play with computers all day long for a living.

Thats what we pay marketing people for!

The only place it works right now is in the far east since it has the right image. Those of you who have not been out to Indonesia or Mayalaysia can only guess at the aura of the event. Imagine a Wembly cup final in Jakarta. 10,000 people all smoking and the temperature at 35. Its electric. The crowd bring it alive and brings goose bumps to all those that see it for the first time.

How can we duplicate that in Europe ?

(answers on a piece of paper to S. Baddeley, BA of E, MK).