A few observations on the broadcast of Wanderers live games:

- SKY are obviously, to my mind, spreading their expertise a little too thinly.  Whoever the director is for our games is obsessed with multiple replays from all of the angles available, even while the game is in progress.  Even more annoying is the habit of dwelling on individual players, or worse the bench, when the action on the pitch has restarted.  Crowd scenes and manager shots have their place but they are held for too long in my view.

- the commentator for SKY is clearly not at the ground.  They only see what we see.  That is evidenced by their reading of the on-screen captions which we can all read for ourselves and which often block the view of the action.

- there was a match earlier in the season, I can't remember which, where the SKY feed from the stadium was lost completely.  The commentator was also blind to the action and had to mumble on apologetically.   Presumably Derek Clark and Super John could continue commentating on Wanderers TV.

There is often debate on here about actual attendances, particularly for midweek games.  I presume the TV audience is not included either, because the club would be double-counting ST holders and the eventual total would end up greater than the stadium capacity.

I just wondered whether the club ever published the Wanderers TV audience figures, many of whom are using VPN 😉?

I stare your opinions on the quality of Sky coverage for all the reasons you state. We pay to watch a football match not see the crowd, extended replays or members of coaching teams whilst play is continuing. I don’t know about the commentary but I do know that I was much happier with the previous Wanderers TV coverage than I am now with the Sky offering.

The obsession with replays in all football coverage does my fucking head in. The fuckers will be slow motioning a pointless passage of play while the opposing team are at the other end attacking and we're getting the commentary on the part of the game we're missing out on 😡

The fucking camera panning to the crowd someone picking there nose or the floodlights or a pigeon when the ball is in play is annoying 

19 minutes ago, deeane Koontz said:

The obsession with replays in all football coverage does my fucking head in. The fuckers will be slow motioning a pointless passage of play while the opposing team are at the other end attacking and we're getting the commentary on the part of the game we're missing out on 😡

 

1 minute ago, Farnywhite said:

The fucking camera panning to the crowd someone picking there nose or the floodlights or a pigeon when the ball is in play is annoying 

Not just me then!
 

I also get a bit frustrated when a couple of players who have had a bit of a tussle throughout the game are obviously going to set to it after the final whistle.  You can hear the commentator saying “ hello, there’s a bit of afters going on here!” while we are watching the coaches shaking hands.

Naughty I know, but it’s all part of the spectacle for me.  Ever since the Dave Higson moments and the infamous Wolves match 👹

And yet when a goal is scored, I want that camera on the crowd - not focusing on the players doing a pre arranged dance routine

None of the issues raised about the coverage has bothered me at all. I can't say that I've even noticed them.

Only my take on it and nobody has to have the same opinion.

I was paying my Sky subscription so that I had the choice of watching as much or as little live games whether its Prem, EFL, Scots, foreign leagues, as well as some other sports on and off - cricket, golf, tennis etc.

Then they decided every EFL midweek game (including cups) would be available to watch live.  The subscription hasn't increased other than inflation related, I'm basically getting all our midweek games free, as well as any other EFL team should I want to see any.

Its well worth it for me and I don't feel inclined to pick holes in their coverage for these "bonus" games, I'm not expecting FA Cup Final standard coverage or commentary, its a camera and a bloke commentating on his own.  Very much a case of if I don't enjoy the coverage, I'll listen on the radio and/or read Mark Iles updates as I did previously.  

The best commentary ever was years ago when they lost the commentary feed at the ground.

Some YTS lad who had left the office had to go back and try his best.

He'd never seen a game in his life and had no idea what was going on.

"I'm really sorry, I'm sat in the dark watching on my phone, I'm trying my best" 🤣

24 minutes ago, barryk32 said:

The best commentary ever was years ago when they lost the commentary feed at the ground.

Some YTS lad who had left the office had to go back and try his best.

He'd never seen a game in his life and had no idea what was going on.

"I'm really sorry, I'm sat in the dark watching on my phone, I'm trying my best" 🤣

Sounds like Bolton FM every week.

I do think the commentary derek and  John is good noticed super John isn’t afraid to give a bit of criticism when it’s warranted obviously you expect a bit of Biase it is a bwfc channel after all . It’s a lot better than other clubs dish out if you watch a bit of there games in league 1 

Every time our game is on the red button I get frustrated at the amount of times it shows the managers whilst the ball is in play.  I’m not being funny I don’t care about SS or the opposition manager during the game I want to know where the ball is.  We or they will have a throw in a good position and it pans to the benches next minute it’s being passed around the back line by the other team.

On wanderers TV I get bored of hearing our guy read out adverts and tweets 

I like McGinlays observations, often insightful, but Derek Clark speaks entirely in cliches and it winds me up. It’s almost as if the guy has never had an original thought of his own.

As an ex Live Sports Producer and Director, it's very frustrating watching the live TV coverage of Bolton games and this season my wife has learned a few new swear words. I directed all the home games at the Reebok when we were in the Premier League with six cameras. These were for live coverage around the world and UK match of the day highlights in the UK. Watching the matches this season is like watching a media student with a new toy, using cameras and replays just because they are available.

Showing countess shots of managers, crowd, pigeons etc when the commentators are describing someone running down the wing is a true sign of an untrained director or a person who doesn't understand the game. Maybe used to working on a slower sport or none at all. 

Having worked at six World Cups as Senior Broadcast where the Director has over 30 cameras to choose from, I dread to think what they would do then.

Sometimes less is best. Use the bench shots sparingly on game delays, substitutions, cards being issued etc but not during a free flowing action.

Don't start me on the ads.

One last thing. At the end of the match, endless pointless stats and full match replays should come after players walking off the field, other results then most importantly the updated League Table as everyone wants to know where that leaves us in the league positions. Sitting through all the other garbage first is tedious.

Apart from a few sensible adjustments needed, it's still great to watch us every week. 

 

I'm just glad I can watch all the games I can't get to, you're all just a bunch of miserable fuckers 

1 hour ago, noxid said:

As an ex Live Sports Producer and Director, it's very frustrating watching the live TV coverage of Bolton games and this season my wife has learned a few new swear words. I directed all the home games at the Reebok when we were in the Premier League with six cameras. These were for live coverage around the world and UK match of the day highlights in the UK. Watching the matches this season is like watching a media student with a new toy, using cameras and replays just because they are available.

Showing countess shots of managers, crowd, pigeons etc when the commentators are describing someone running down the wing is a true sign of an untrained director or a person who doesn't understand the game. Maybe used to working on a slower sport or none at all. 

Having worked at six World Cups as Senior Broadcast where the Director has over 30 cameras to choose from, I dread to think what they would do then.

Sometimes less is best. Use the bench shots sparingly on game delays, substitutions, cards being issued etc but not during a free flowing action.

Don't start me on the ads.

One last thing. At the end of the match, endless pointless stats and full match replays should come after players walking off the field, other results then most importantly the updated League Table as everyone wants to know where that leaves us in the league positions. Sitting through all the other garbage first is tedious.

Apart from a few sensible adjustments needed, it's still great to watch us every week. 

 

Many thanks for those comments.  Those irritations are the very ones I, and others, were highlighting which is why I started by by saying that I thought that SKY had overstretched their available expertise.

 

It is very frustrating to hear that the match is continuing while the director lingers on the bench or the replays.

As an international fan - while these things do bug me, I also want to say how much improved Wanderers TV has become over the years.. I can distinctly recall subbing to ifollow when it was first offered. The Bolton FM simulcast was often out of sync with the actual match. Technical issues with the feed were a regular occurence. And Derek Clark (on his own) was average at best. Fast forwards to today, rarely are there ever feed issues, the Bolton FM nonsense only intrudes during pre match and halftime (there is one fella on there whose voice and cadence makes me want to stab myself in the ears). And most importantly, Derek and John have become an excellent partnership. Super John in particular I feel could do color on a much bigger stage. When you hear some of the simpleton ex-players SKY puts on their 6th/7th/8th string comms, SJM sounds like a real pro.

Edited February 16Feb 16 by pfk505

For my twopennoth The 2 commentators in Derek & SJm do  a fine Job , We want biased commentary but also interjected with nuggets of truth . They also have much better guest pundits when SJM is away . Recently I thought Neil Redfern was excellent. 

Yes they have to mention the sponsors and the shout out to the fans abroad but so what ? 

The feed they use is the same as SKY/Now TV . At least with Wanderers TV you have commentators actually in the ground not a studio .

You have 36 games in the EFL  to televise/record with 2 cameramen at each game . 72 camera operators . These arent the experienced pros covering the premier League with multi angles and a director jumping from angle to angle but are rookies learning their trade , being told to make room for edits and breaks and are autonomous for who they point the camera at for replays, crowd (oh look its me ) bench , rain , subs warming up etc and at times follow the commentary i.e talking about a specific player , quick focus on that player . 

Yes it lingers far too much and is very frustrating to watch at times and Im sure we would all rather go back to Dave , Stuart et al but those days are unfortunately gone. 

Its much better than iFollow was and has improved a lot . 

As for cliche driven commentary , most tv commentary is that way . Radio commentary is completely different and  know a lot of people used to have the TV pictures on mute with the radio commentary on , back when it was in synch .

Its also cheaper than SKY/NOW TV per game unless you have a dodgy box or whatever the equivalent is . 

The only thing thats worse than iFollow is that they used to announce the viewer numbers per game . Which I found really interesting . 

23 hours ago, noxid said:

Watching the matches this season is like watching a media student with a new toy, using cameras and replays just because they are available.

 

Who else do you expect to be working on a feed of Bolton vs Mansfield on a Tuesday night, watched by 10k people?

I accept people are paying a lot for Sky generally, but there's no way it'd be viable to staff a full EFL programme with seasoned pros every week. 

Back when we were in the Premier League, the only option of watching us was to run the malware gauntlet to find a dodgy, buffering stream on Al Jazeera #57. We literally don't know how good we've got it.

Edited February 17Feb 17 by Tombwfc

52 minutes ago, Tombwfc said:

 

Who else do you expect to be working on a feed of Bolton vs Mansfield on a Tuesday night, watched by >10k people?

I accept people are paying a lot for Sky generally, but there's no way it'd be viable to staff a full EFL programme with seasoned pros every week. 

Back when we were in the Premier League, the only option of watching us every week was to run the malware gauntlet to find a dodgy, buffering stream on Al Jazeera #57. We literally don't know how good we've got it.

Couldn't agree more.  Of all the "first world" problems in our lives, cutting to the wrong scene for 5 seconds or the commentator not being peak David Coleman is right up there.  We've moved on a bit since I was waiting for teletext updates or hourly radio bulletins to find out how we were going on in a night match at Newport or Gillingham, and if I wanted to see the goals I had to buy the video at Christmas or end of season. 

Or just go to the game.

3 hours ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Couldn't agree more.  Of all the "first world" problems in our lives, cutting to the wrong scene for 5 seconds or the commentator not being peak David Coleman is right up there.  We've moved on a bit since I was waiting for teletext updates or hourly radio bulletins to find out how we were going on in a night match at Newport or Gillingham, and if I wanted to see the goals I had to buy the video at Christmas or end of season. 

Or just go to the game.

The commentators do not bother me , but I think it was the Stevenage game where the game was broken up by pictures of the bench and the rain on a regular basis. It was bizarre as it would cut to the benches just as the keeper launched a long ball and then cut back to the game for the next throw in. 
 

Overall I agree that the coverage is miles better than anything we have had in the past, but it just seems daft to have limited cameras and then use one of them to concentrate on anything other than the game. 

11 minutes ago, Ani said:

The commentators do not bother me , but I think it was the Stevenage game where the game was broken up by pictures of the bench and the rain on a regular basis. It was bizarre as it would cut to the benches just as the keeper launched a long ball and then cut back to the game for the next throw in. 
 

Overall I agree that the coverage is miles better than anything we have had in the past, but it just seems daft to have limited cameras and then use one of them to concentrate on anything other than the game. 

As we were away at Stevenage we might not have any control over the cameras?

1 hour ago, DirtySanchez said:

As we were away at Stevenage we might not have any control over the cameras?

I watch on Sky, I am certainly not blaming the club. And I appreciate we not getting 47 different camera angles, but actually showing the game would seem like an obvious ask 👍😎😂😉

Anyone ever seen Charlton tv? They have a proper tv studio at the ground with guests. Proper doings that.

Coverage last night on Sky was miles better, they must be reading the comments on here.