BBC Sportsound Scotland is a radio station dedicated to sport in Scotland. It can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/sportsound/ . This review focuses on one aspect of their coverage - the live SPL commentary.
-The setup:
At each match there are two commentators - one "professional" ... Read review
Advantages: Commentary on all SPL games... Disadvantages: ...when they can be nothered commentating
BBC Sportsound Scotland is a radio station dedicated to sport in Scotland. It can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/sportsound/ . This review focuses on one aspect of their coverage - the live SPL commentary.
-The setup:
At each match there are two commentators - one "professional" and one player or ex-player. (sorry - can't give names, not something I've kept track of). If there's more than one game ... .../>
I only recommend this service to those who want to listen to the SPL team they support and can't get to the match, see it on sky or listen to it on BBC Scotland. It's not great, but it beats watching score updates on text. (most of the time) ... more
BBC Sportsound Scotland is a radio station dedicated to sport in Scotland. It can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/sportsound/ . This review focuses on one aspect of their coverage - the live SPL commentary.
-The setup:
At each match there are two commentators - one "professional" and one player or ex-player. (sorry - can't give names, not something I've kept track of). If there's more than one game being played extra stations are opened for the durtation of the commentary. 90 mintues is given over to commentary, with score updates given occasionally for other games. At half-time there is a rundown of scores around the country.
-What I expect:
I think I have reasonable expectations. I expect to hear commentary of the match as it is played.
More importantly, what I don't expect is "TV commentary". By this I mean, wandering off-topic, listng the names of who has the ball without giving details and general "chit-chat". When you cannot see the game, this type of "commentary" is absolutely useless.
-What I get:
Around 10% of the time:
I actually get what I expect - good flowing commentary that allows me to keep track of the game.
Around 70% of the time:
I get what I term "TV commentary". The worst offence here is the endless name listing. A list of names does not give you any idea where on the pitch the ball is or if the team is attacking or defending. This commentary is effectively useless.
Also included in this 70% are breaks where commentators decide to discuss a player's international career, or the latest newspaper reports, or the supposed "transfer interest". Hello! There is a football match going on here! I want to know what's happening!
You can place monotone, off=putting commentary in this box too. The last thing you need is a commentator so disinterested that his voice alone is enough to put you to sleep. There are no pictures to make up for it - cemmentators need to be appealing, and sadly this is not always the case.
The other 20% of the time:
It gets worse, I fear. Around 20% of the time the commentators spend so much time "off-topic" that you just know they don't care one whit about the game. Some examples:
1) One of the first games of this season, at the beginning of the match, a standard team run-down is given, along with a note on what team is wearing what colour. Nothing wrong there. But to have that followed by a 10 minute discussion on the history of black goalkeepers' strips made it obvious that anyone listening wasn't going to hear much about the game.
2) The Dundee derby - the most important game to sets of both Dundee's team's fans. It's 0-0 (IIRC) and the commentators have decided the game will stay that way, so start talking about other things (not even half-time yet). They are so busy talking about these other things that they manage to miss the fact that Dundee United were attacking. A shocked "Goal!" by the commentator is all that reveals this fact.
Broadcast quality:
This varies from week to week. Some weeks the broadcast quality is perfect. No interruptions, no crackles, nothing to poke a finger at at all.
Other weeks the quality is appauling. There are long spells of silence, (the broadcast is still streaming), endless crackles and very quiet mikes (I shouldn't need to turn my speakers full up to hear them). Only once has a commentator actually bothered to appologise for the interruptions in the broadcast.
Reccomendation:
I only recommend this service to those who want to listen to the SPL team they support and can't get to the match, see it on sky or listen to it on BBC Scotland. It's not great, but it beats watching score updates on text. (most of the time)
