大象传媒

You still can't beat the radio for commentry though, at least they talk about what's happening in the match vice churning out endless and generally pointless facts. I know I'm not the only one who watches the football on TV, but listens to the commentry on the radio at the same time.

Aircool

I agree that although the 大象传媒 are not Sky, at least they're not ITV.

The coverage from ITV has been woeful. The choice of Mick McCarthy as an analyst is at best entertaining. How can someone who managed a club that recorded the lowest points haul ever in the Premiership complain about the way international teams are defending is beyond me.

I do have some concerns about Motson though, have his eyes gone? He doesn't seem to see as many of the deflections as Lawro does, and seems bewildered by obvious corners - only seeing the reason in the super slow-mo replay.

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silas

I think the real difference here is the quality of the picture (forget the punditry as David Pleat long since lost any credibility) on 大象传媒 as compared to ITV. ITV's picture quality is utterly appalling and is a classic example of no competition resulting in a reduced product for the viewer. Comparing the 大象传媒 PQ to that of ITV it is clearly apparent that ITV are operating on the mimimum bandwidth and resolution they can get away with. I am talking about viewing through DSat but Freeview offers only minor improvement. Quite how they are allowed to get away with this is beyond me. The 大象传媒 answer to the license fee payer but also treat technology and quality seriously but it is apparent that ITV answer only to their shareholders and "the viewer be damned". Until more fairness is brought into the slicing up of World Cup broadcasting in this country we will continue to be forced to watch half the matches on a channel that cares not for it's viewers and produces a sub-standard product.

That's the only way to watch the ITV matches I fine ;-)

Though if you think things are bad over here, have you seen the US broadcasts of World Cups? I caught a few games on ESPN2 whilst I was over there recently, it takes a while to get use to comments like EPL (English Premimer League) and Extras rather than subs. Still, they were certainly into the US game with Italy, with typical Hollywood trailers for the build-up

I really love the 大象传媒 coverage of the worldcup for one main reason:

The 大象传媒i service allows me to turn off the commentator completely and watch the game with stadion sound only.

Normally, the commetary draws attention away from the game, as it's pointless to comment on what the viewer can see.

It's an awsome experience to watch a game on your own without being exposed to the commentary's interpretation of the action.
Being allowed to think on your own during games is a great new improvement in TV football.

Thanks 大象传媒i, for providing this option.

I'm not an expert on producing TV coverage for football, however the few times I have watched football matches on Sky, they really didn't seem to me that much better produced than matches coming out of publicly funded channels.

I'm from Germany originally and have found the same thing there, namely that the German version of Sky Sports (the German Premiere channel) didn't really offer a vast improvement over the public broadcaster's coverage.

It all seems like a bunch of marketing and corporate hype to someone like me, an average non-expert who just wants to see his football on TV without having to pay Rupert Murdoch. (I already pay my TV license...) In my cynical eyes, the only improvement to be found in Sky's or Premiere's coverage was to their bottomline.

When comparing the different networks coverage of the world cup so far, the 大象传媒 always have the advantage of no commercials. Disregarding the distraction of these advertisment breaks, then the 大象传媒 and ITV are as close as I can ever remember them being. The 大象传媒 always used to have the better commentary team, but Gareth Southgate has really grown in the co-comentator role and has enhanced the ITV experience immensly. For the B-teams David Pleat offers tactical nouce but lacks entertainment. Gavin Peacock was surprisingly good for the 大象传媒.
In the studio, as much as I want to like Terry Venables he never seems to be able to construct a cohesive, coherent sentence. Ian Wright must be the 大象传媒 mascot, because they surely cant have employed him for any insightful punditry. The 大象传媒 will always win in the pundit stakes, however, for the simple fact that they have the legendry Alan Hansen. He is head and shoulders above anyone else from both the 大象传媒 and ITV. Oh, and good job on Leonardo; he is class.

I agree Aircool - just wish the radio broadcast matched with the pictures coming through - even on the 大象传媒 interactive service on Freeview, the Radio Five commentary is just slightly ahead of the TV pictures. Very frustrating.

I think the Beeb do a brill job of covering the world cup & love the fact you can change the commentry of the match. I to love the radio commentry of Alan green & Terry Butcher very honest in their views

I'm suprised about the votes for radio commentary. Has Alan Green been sacked? His commentaries during the season were always so depressingly negative I preferred listening to the radio with the sound off!

There is one thing alone which makes 大象传媒 coverage of the World Cup entirely unwatchable - And is name is Ian Wright.

When it comes to Football there are lessons that Sky, the 大象传媒 and ITV need to learn.

Firstly, 大象传媒 have got the correct balance of when to start coverage. They aim for no more than 30 mins before the game ( with major finals differing.) ITV have got better but typically have 1 hour of build up. Sky seem to have too much build up and padding.

Secondly, The interactive features on Sky are superior to those of the 大象传媒 and make ITV interactive look laughable. I know the 大象传媒 are publicly funded but more angles , cameras can't be that expensive can they? Sky have a good feature in fan zone to add to the interactive mix, can the 大象传媒 have this?

Thirdly, the standard of commentators and pundits on these channels has been woeful but has been going downhill for a while now. What creditablity does Southgate have on ITV - little. Pleat - none. Lee dixon as a half time pundit - why? he has restates the views of whoever is sitting next to him. Ian Wright - he brings the spice needed at half time. He adds passion , a real fans view and is funny. Alan Hansen is the best pundit in his field and offers sensible and good views on football. I am glad that the 大象传媒 has not put Graeme "I know nothing" Le Saux. Not only is he irritating but he has about as much football know how as Diana Ross.

Fourthly, to link on from this, the standard of commentary. What is the point of voicing opinions during s football game. Fans will always disagree on line ups , changes and what the player should of done. ITV commentators plainly have no clue. They make comments that make everyone in the pubs / home raise an eyebrow. David Pleat can not even get or pronounce the names properly. The radio offers better commentary as they are stating what is happening rather than raw opinion in the heat of the moment.

Fifthly, 大象传媒 has no adverts which is great and Sky with ITV have too many. But the 大象传媒 plug some shows too much which can seem like an ad break.

Lastly, the news that is before the highlights programmes - why do they have to blurt out the scores or even show the games goals. People have NEWS 24 for this to see the goals.

So my main plea is can the respective channels please remove or retrain the following individuals : Southgate (remove) A.Gray (retrain) L. Dixon ( remove) Motson ( calm down - hid his stat book) M. Lawerence(ma ma)son - (remove from all shows and put him back under the rock from which he crawled out from.) D. Pleat (literally fire) K. Keegan when he was on tv never let that happen again. On the radio - Kevin Gallagher are you having a laugh - why? because he played against Brazil. ! LOL!

Lastly - G. Peacock - I know who he is but my mates and my family said who is he? He has rather misguided opinons and looks odd. Maybe Ming like?

Also please commend : Ian Wright , Alan Hansen, Martin Tyler, Ian Pierce ( when not mental)

These channels are great but you need to put polls out there for the fans of what commentators they want to listen to.

For me Motson is getting too slow at spotting things like noticing people are injured or they've been booked and then copmunds it by asking Lawro what's happened 30 seconds after everyone else has seen it. Still i'll take Motson over Clive Tyldesley any day.

The thing thats annoying me about the bbc coverage is just how many pundits they've flown out there, i know there's a lot of games but there's far too many pundits doing a couple of hours work and then off playing golf the rest of the time.

大象传媒 have got it just about perfect in terms of coverage but there should be more time to talk over the game after a live match,not having to rush off for the news,make the news 15 mins later it does not always have to start at ten!!!! I know if you have digital you can press the red button but most folk don't have it.

Gareth Southgate has come across as a fair and knowledgeable commentator.
But Mark Lawrenson constantly appears to be trying to get in cheap gags all the time.If comedy was required the 大象传媒 would be better served asking for Peter Kays opinions rather than a centreback who belongs in a different era.

I think the 大象传媒 has always been very slick with their presentation of the World Cup.

Not having to put up with the adverts sets the Beeb aside from it's rivals.

Keep up the good work boys and girls!

i feel tha the 大象传媒 coverage of the world cup has been excelent. There coverage is more indepth than ITV and have more to show than ITV.

Also England Hardly win when its on ITV so the 大象传媒 should get all the England games for the future.

A question: why do 大象传媒, ITV, five and SKY pretend that the others do not exist?

In American coverage of sports, if a rival broadcaster is carrying a particular game live, they won't try to kid their viewership that live coverage doesn't exist, or that 'listening to the radio' is the only option. They say "that's over on ABC". No doubts, no confusion. Dare I say a "Public Service" within commercial broadcasting?

Instead we get these carefully-worded links about how Five Live is "the only place to catch the game live on the 大象传媒", and even the 大象传媒 Wall Chart seems to suggest that 50% of the games aren't live on television at all!

Come on, let's be adult about these things. You know that we'll listen to Five Live if we can't watch the telly, but we're going to watch it live if we can.

I have to say, having watched football coverage in general over the past few years, I always prefer the 大象传媒's coverage of a match to any others. If it comes to a choice of 大象传媒 over ITV and even SKY, i prefer to watch 大象传媒 (my main beef with sky is a) having to pay for a lot of waffle b) having to watch endless adverts on a subscriber channel c) Andy bl00dy Gray !)
The 大象传媒's coverage of Germany'06 has been superb, its just a shame that more of our matches are on ITV ! Clive Tyldsley's a blimmin negative misery. what makes me laugh is that the Radio Times have spelt his name 3 different ways in the current issue !! the only thing ITV have over the 大象传媒 is Stuart Pearce as panellist. good job guys! shame its not beeb cameramen too! well worth the hundred odd quid a year licence fee !

For many viewers, Ian Wright makes us laugh. He certainly adds to the panel.

One downside to being on the other side of the World is missing out on the coverage back home.

Here in Bali we have the Indonesian broadcaster and a South African sports channel as well.

The South African channel is so anti English you have to hear it to believe it! They are revelling in England's lack-lustre performances and poor old Gary Mabbutt is taking a hammering as a half-time pundit.

The Indonesian coverage is in Bahasa but then switches to English commentators during the match! Not great for the locals...

The other sad thing is that only the wealthy locals can afford the subscription for coverage which is poor form in a country that loves their football.

I agree with the comments about Lawro's cheap jokes, but he also has a habit of completely changing an opinion after the replay has been shown a few times.

Ian Wright - we pay a licence fee for that?

I have always wondered why the 大象传媒 doesn't use some professional watchers of the game who are coherent and incisive. I have in mind the likes of Brian Glanville and Simon Barnes. There are other respected, thoughtful journalists who could make a considered contribution, I am sure.

That said, I have to admit a deep loathing for the ITV dumbed down coverage.

Just a few of points-

I am currently watching the World Cup in HD - and I have to say that again, the 大象传媒 HD coverage is heads & shoulders above the ITV HD. The PQ is clearer, sharper, and better defined.

Also, I will also choose to watch a match / event on 大象传媒, whenever I have a choice. Their presentation mostly seems balanced and entertaining.

Finally, 大象传媒 need to plug a few shows during air time, mainly, I suggest, to give the presenters / pundits / crew a break from talking continuously.

Sorry, one final thing - Ian Wright HAS to stay on screen - watch him making faces or playing with his hands when someone else is talking, and if Wrighty thinks that no-one else is watching him.. always makes me laugh!

One word to describe all coverage of this years world cup: diabolical. The commentry drom the 大象传媒 during the Brazil v Croatia game was the worst amount of bias I have ever heard. The one line that I thaught was really really sad was "do Brazil even need to bother with corners". Well the simple answer to this is YES this is a simple part of football and it needs to be done by all teams.

P.S Thank you 大象传媒 for not employing David Pleat.

One word to describe all coverage of this years world cup: diabolical. The commentry drom the 大象传媒 during the Brazil v Croatia game was the worst amount of bias I have ever heard. The one line that I thaught was really really sad was "do Brazil even need to bother with corners". Well the simple answer to this is YES this is a simple part of football and it needs to be done by all teams.

P.S Thank you 大象传媒 for not employing David Pleat.

I'm really enjoying the 大象传媒's coverage aswell as the build up to games on UKTV G2. The co-comentators on ITV seem very poor and I find David Pleat especially annoying. I think Ian Wright has come in for too much undue critisism and as find him very entertaining.

My opinion is that the ITV coverage is poor compared to the 大象传媒 in terms of hosts, pundits and analysis, but I would be surprised to find that the quality of their pictures is lower than the 大象传媒's. Isn't everybody using the same feed provided by the German broadcasters? If there is a difference in quality then it may well be down to the delivery method in the UK. ITV on Sky has always looked poor quality to me.

The biggest complaint about ITV's coverage has to be that annoying 'Win Big' interactive icon in the top right corner of the screen. It drove me mad last night. Every time I pressed the 'Back' button on my Sky remote to get rid of it it would pop back on after a few seconds. Grrrrr!

I haven't read all the posts, so apologies if this has already been commented on. Am I the only person who finds Mark Lawrenson extremely irritating? He adds little in the way of informative comment. His smart arse-jokes are crap and patronising. I like my pundits to tell me something I don't know or haven't thought of. Isn't this what experts are supposed to do. Although I generally much prefer 大象传媒 coverage, Southgate is by far the best commentator sidekick/pundit at this world cup. He is informative, bright and balanced. Someone tell Lawro that its his job to analyse whats going on and NOT try and entertain us.

My opinion is that the ITV coverage is poor compared to the 大象传媒 in terms of hosts, pundits and analysis, but I would be surprised to find that the quality of their pictures is lower than the 大象传媒's. Isn't everybody using the same feed provided by the German broadcasters? If there is a difference in quality then it may well be down to the delivery method in the UK. ITV on Sky has always looked poor quality to me.

The biggest complaint about ITV's coverage has to be that annoying 'Win Big' interactive icon in the top right corner of the screen. It drove me mad last night. Every time I pressed the 'Back' button on my Sky remote to get rid of it it would pop back on after a few seconds. Grrrrr!

My opinion is that the ITV coverage is poor compared to the 大象传媒 in terms of hosts, pundits and analysis, but I would be surprised to find that the quality of their pictures is lower than the 大象传媒's. Isn't everybody using the same feed provided by the German broadcasters? If there is a difference in quality then it may well be down to the delivery method in the UK. ITV on Sky has always looked poor quality to me.

The biggest complaint about ITV's coverage has to be that annoying 'Win Big' interactive icon in the top right corner of the screen. It drove me mad last night. Every time I pressed the 'Back' button on my Sky remote to get rid of it it would pop back on after a few seconds. Grrrrr!

Just like to add to the above point about the radio commentary being slightly ahead of the pictures if the viewer choses this option: Is there no way a delay can be put on the Five Live commentary to sort this out? Surely no-one wants to hear a goal indicated before the pictures have shown it?

Just like to add to the above point about the radio commentary being slightly ahead of the pictures if the viewer choses this option: Is there no way a delay can be put on the Five Live commentary to sort this out? Surely no-one wants to hear a goal indicated before the pictures have shown it?

talking of radio coverage whilst driving to work today i tuned into TALK SPORT.Whilst Alan Brazil is fine and can be amusing the rest of the presenters mainly some idiot called" beaky" spoke utter nonsense Im not sure if he has any idea at all about football and must of been "enjoying " something else other than watching last nights game.He is without doubt the most uninformed sports presenter of all time!!!

The 大象传媒 is still the automatic choice for the big games and their interactive coverage is a godsend for people like myself who have to work late and therefore miss most of the live action.

No one has yet mentioned Jonathan Pearce who to my mind is maturing into the best commentator on the box and who would appear to be a natural successor to Motty.

The 大象传媒 will always get my vote for the best coverage. Although the overall presentation isn't as good as Sky, the punditry is first class. The only thing I would say is for God's sake get rid of Motson and that clueless Lawrenson.

Motson brings nothing to the game and, as other people have said, he seems to miss most of the important events. Lawrenson seems to be in a perpetual state of lethargy.

I, for one, will always prefer Alan Green and Mike Ingham on 5 Live but I'm still hoping that Bary Davies can come out of retirement.

I am lucky in that I have been watching the 大象传媒's games through Sky High Definition and the picture quality is fantastic. I am surprised you have not mentioned HD in your article. Keep up the good work Auntie Beeb.

we love your output but Mick McCarthy on the 大象传媒? are you sure?I'm sorry but he's not up to your usual high standard

I would like to commend the quality of 大象传媒's coverage of this years world cup, but I have to agree with some other comments highlightling some of the poor quality commentary and punditary.

Mick Macarthy although humourous at times is not of the quality that the 大象传媒 should aspire too, and some of the other commentators have a urge to over analyse and try to add controversy to every decision during a match.

And then there is John Motson, although a legend in sports broadcasting he is becoming irritating with his habit of announcing to the viewers in great excitement that he has spotted something on a replay that everyone else saw in open play, it time for him to move on and retire but the 大象传媒 have less depth to thier squad than a pub football team forcing him to carry on at the viewers expense.

Sort it out 大象传媒 TV, find out how 5 live develop thier team and get some quality rather than notoriety.

I now live abroad and really miss MOTD/MOTD2. In the UK there was no competition for me, the Beeb were the best for football....by far! I like the fact you get a good discussion and a bit of fun at half-time instead of a load of adverts. Would I be right in thinking, Lineker et al have been more entertaining than England so far?

With access to 大象传媒 & ITV coverage only, there is no contest - 大象传媒 by a country mile. Also looking forward to what seems like a rare southern visit from the 大象传媒 big screen to Southern England (Southampton)for - hopefully- England's quarter-final. Thank you.

I have read no end of horror stories about TV coverage in the UK from 大象传媒 and ITV although, as tradition dictates, the Beeb seem to be held in higher regard. I have been watching the World Cup in Italy (where I live) this time around and here, Sky Italia have exclusive rights to all 64 matches (Rai, the public service broadcaster, has one live match a night). I have been really impressed with the presentation and commentary from their set-up. Theirs is no doubt a similar set-up to you guys, with pundits in Italy, in the stadium and then the commentators. All link in and discuss things in a straightforward manner, with just the right balance between football-ese for experts and laymans terms for those who don't watch much football (my wife).

Two things have stood out and when I return to the UK tomorrow for a few days, I hope the Beeb can match them:
1. The high standard of the pundits (Paolo Rossi, Beppe Bergomi, Gianluca Vialli, to name three);
2. The quality of the match montages. At half-time and full-time, Sky Italia have a montage of highlights of the match, backed by some excellent choice of music which matches the rhythm of the match. Cleverly produced and they really do create a 'feel' for the match. Prodigy - 'Smack my b**** Up' was used for the England-Sweden full-time montage!

What the 大象传媒 lack is a decent comentator and sumeriaser team. The Sky have Martin Parry and Andy Gray who are brilliant. ITV have the guy who does the champions league games, again very good. For the 大象传媒's big matchs you have Motson and someone else.

Motson is simply arwful, jibbers on about annoying things, repeats himself and gets foreign players name wrong, must recent example that comes to mind was the Italian Pirlo, even when his co comentator said it correctly he still continued to say it wrong, has Motty never watched a Champions league or Seria A game before.

I'm glad I have digital some I can turn the Radio comentary on, Motson should get the boot.

ITV havnt had a decent co-comentater since Big Ron was sacked. He was wicked. He was both tactically aware and funny. "that was a stick on penalty" hehe

not being much of a footbal fan, i have preferred the bbc to itv as usual, that david pleat bloke is appalling! but then again ,so is mccarthy, even though he is fellow northerner, he sounds terrible.
ian wright provides the passion and the naughty schoolboy element, just don't let him speak too much!
and gary still doesn't come across as totally in control of things, it's like he's getting instructions in his ear all the time, steve rider was better.
oh, and why do the itv people has cotton buds stuck to the side of their heads??

Where is Graham Le Saux?? He is my favourite comentator/pundit and as of so far have not seen or heard him on any of the 大象传媒 coverage.

Is he really not there or have I just missed any coverage with him on, either way I think we need more Graham.

When will the 大象传媒 finally realise that John Motson is totally past it.

Please retire him after July 9th.

I would like to say that as a non-football follower, your balance between technical and non-technical speak is great. It is brilliant to at last be able to join in the lunch time banter and discussion surrounding the England (and indeed other country) matches. Thank you, you are doing a storming job

last night i found the itv commentry, particularly that by clive tyldesley utterly depressing, i found myself shouting "shut up!" at the tv in the last half, not only is he a doom and gloom merchant with nothing positive to say, he also has this habit of counting his chickens before they hatch... the only time he says anything positive is when england are about to concede. apparently he is itv's "top" commentator!!!

When it comes to commentary I wonder is anyone else missing Barry Davies?His incisive and enthusiastic commentary was something I always enjoyed and he is the only TV commentator I remember who consistently refused to join in the simpering and fawning flannel thrown at players and managers by so many others.When a game was rubbish he said and rather than tying to hype the product and his own TV channel, etc., he simply called it as he saw it.

I am lovin the coverage keep it up.

I cannot stand ITV's coverage of any football at all. It is insulting, ill informed and second rate. I thank god the day Sky Sports got hold of the Champions League, that the Beeb won the premiership highlights back and then got the England deal.
Some of the comments, "punditry" and coverage by ITV has been woeful especially anything that comes out of Andy Townsends mouth is moronic at best.
His comments about Basques and Catalans during the Spain v Ukraine game simply showed him to be an ill educated fool who should stick to sweeping streets.

ITV should realise during a world cup that people watch it because they have to, not because they want to.

I too watch the match but have Five Live commentating. The sooner John Motson is put out to grass the better. The 大象传媒 might then get some kudos back in commentary terms.

clive tyldsley lasst night v sweden really got on my nerves too .

kept going on about no attacking options , really dooming and glooming , he never mentioned poor little walcott even though at one stage there was a close up on him sat on the bench ?

gerrard and lampard from midfield have scored more goals than rooney and owen put together and if push came to shove im sure gerrard could be excellent pushed further forward , but the no mention of walcott just made me feel as though tyledsley forgot he was there .

please please please get rid of John Motson and offer a deal to Barry Davies that will make him come out of retirement. John Motson is the worst commentator on the box and can't understand why the 大象传媒 hold him in such high regard. He's RUBBISH!!!

How dare you all talk about Motson in this way!! He's a god!! ;-)

I prefer the 大象传媒 coverage anyday. Garath Southgate is rubbish. He just states the obvious all the time.

Long live the 大象传媒!!

I must say that I find the bbc's commentators very biased AGAINST England. I think they have forgotten which country they are from and who they are commentating for....

I think that the commentators should show at least some patriotism about the game that the ENTIRE country is passionate for.

On the Match itself If we had drawn 0-0 then that would have been a poor match....
1-1 would have been impressive from a team that have not beaten the Swedish side since 1968.

But to have equalised 2-2 was finally showing the performance of a WORLD CLASS TEAM. They deserve to be in the top 16 and will continue to show this increasing performance.

Michael Owen's Injury was indeed shocking and somewhat worrying for a team that had been practicing formation strategies for the match itself.

But to compensate Crouch and lampard made an impressive tag team and Joe Cole delivered some amazing crosses and up to now made THE goal of the tournament.

So i ask those who read this and before commenting on the way England played please show some respect and make it clear on who you are supporting.

Come on lads you deserve to go far this tournament.

Make every person who is an England fan proud (even though they already are) to be supporting a team that can deliver some impressive football!!!!

and yes barry daives was by far bbbc's best commentator .

i'm 44 years old and always always begged for davies to be commentating on cup final days , soon as i found out it was motty i turned onto itv or sky instead .

one criticism of bbc though . is why do they turn down the crowd noise ? i can always notice a better 'at the match itself ' feel on sky or itv ? its as if the producer has turned the stadium crowd volume down too much .

actually i find mick mcarthy quite amusing really , especially when he's having a pop at refs , infact anyone who has a dig at the game spoilers (refs , liners, fifa, ) gets my vote ! carry on mick , lawro , wrighty , strachan etc , we cannot be bloody too serious and boring all the time , if your man enough to let your passion and frustration boil over into your views and comments i applaud that ...it shows your true love of the game that is being ruined by stupid referees and these rules they are having to stick too .

i say more of ' that refs puddled ' and ' that linesman should borrow my specs' etc etc because lets face it everyone else at home is screaming far far worse words than that ! i am !

The plus/good points of the 大象传媒 commentary/coverage of the world cup for me:

1.Gary Linekar : Now has matured into an excellent presenter, he is entertaining and if England play poorly he makes it known(a relief- hare presenters who blindly cliam a team is playing well when it isn't)

2.Leonardo: Very impressed by his knowledge,views and all round comments. A good selection by the bbc

3.Mick Mcarthy: This guy is so entertaining! I don't care if Sunderland were regulated and what his credential are...he is PURELY entertaining and something that tv viewers like me need.

4.Martin O Neill: Again entertaining and great pundit at the world cup

5.Jonathan Pearce: He has come along way since his channel 5 days. A very good commentator now, I feel he is better than Motson

The bad/negative points:

1.Ian Wright: I can see why some people find him entertaining by him just being there but honestly he is bringing the qualtiy of the 大象传媒 down with is "y'kno what I mean" lingo. I don't enjoy his views and he is simply a weak pundit and his jokes arn't funny. He must not be used by the 大象传媒 after this tournament

2.John Motson: Now he is just boring and ruins the whole experiece for me. Especially when he over elaborates the tiniest of positive plays by England. He ruins it for me and is totally biased

3.Gordon Strachan: entertaining but puzzling

4.Alan Shearer: Ruined it for me with his over the top cheer leading when he said "England have 5-8 world class players". Alan we haven't. We have 3 world class players at best. Most of us can see that.

大象传媒 could do with Ruud Gullit...not a cheerleader and will tell it like it is.

The 大象传媒 coverage, as usual, has made ITV look like a bunch of 6th-form Media Studies students. The ITV studio anchors are wooden has-beens who seem to get rolled out for every sporting event, whereas the 大象传媒 studio teams appear natural, knowledgable and entertaining.

ITV are pure "on the cheap" populists, whereas the 大象传媒 woo their viewers (be they hardened footie fans or people caught up in World Cup Fever) with a certain pinache and experience that's usually lacking in both ITV and Sky productions. The ITV mob are relentlessly negative, frequently dull and seldom have either the turn of wit, scope or nouse to add the customary 大象传媒 level of fun and insight. I'd agree with other posters that the ITV choice of pundits have been pretty poor in terms of both media skills and reputation, whereas watching the 大象传媒 pundits almost feels like sitting with some mates in the boozer chatting about the game with the benefit of an editing suite under the bar!

I find it hard to believe that anyone can describe Gareth Southgate as a good commentator as he seems to know nothing about the game and just talks nonsense. Last night there were uncomfortable silences where you could almost hear the clockwork going and then he would start to say something and realise he hadn't bothered to think how he would finish. He also stated that Sweden were a good team without any stars apart from Larrson, Ljungberg and Ibrahimovic, so only a quarter of the team then Gareth. Lets just hope that he doesn't follow The inept Steve Mclaren into the England job otherwise the next generation as well as this generation of footballers is going to be wasted.

In case anyone gets this far down (!) I'd just like to add that nothing annoys me more than any pundit or commentator using the term 'goals', eg 'xyz striker was almost through on goals there'. I just can't stand it. Mainly seems to be Andy Townsend that does it on ITV so that's just one more reason why I prefer the 大象传媒 coverage.

大象传媒 is best by light years. Pundits actually give constructive comments with some humour. ITV are shocking. Do their commentators have a copetition to see how many times they can mention England in every other game? England were poor in the second half last night and Gerrard and Lampard just does not work. Beckham not worried about set pieces? I would be. Keep up the good work 大象传媒.

i agree on the lineker thing i quite like gary coz if the game is boring and crap he will say so , and start chucking in the odd humourous comment .

imagine if cloughy was still with us and he was on the panel ...wahey that would be fun , especially with all this stupidity from refs .

ok i will admit it ..i hate refs , they have ruined my beutiful game , its getting cut to peices by idiots sat round a table talking b-ll--ks , not realising people are falling out of love with the game

rant over . gosh i wish i could have said that live on the telly ! lol

Hi all,

First of all I've got to say that overall the Beeb is head and shoulders above ITV's tabloid/inane coverage of football.

Before last night's game ITV had a VT where the England team one by one, turned to camera, gave a mean stare and said their name and position. It depressed more than the second half performance that this sort of Americanized tripe was shown on British TV. ITV don't seem to realise that the public don't still want to be watching Gladiators.

While there are slight problems with the Beeb's commentary team, the in studio panel are top rate and the presentation of the programme always seems to tread the fine line of building up the game but not turning it into an overhyped Superbowl Carnival type affair.

Keep up the good work.

I think the 大象传媒 has it more or less spot on at this world cup. No adverts help of course, but in the main the Beeb is kicking ITV鈥檚 bottom I鈥檇 say 鈥� particularly their highlights package. Obviously, like the rest of the world, I'm as puzzled by Wright鈥檚 inclusion in the punditry squad as I am by Theo's inclusion in the playing squad. I mean, Wrighty is being paid to communicate even though he is the least articulate man 滨鈥檝别 ever heard on TV (yes including Benny from Crossroads) and Theo is being paid to play despite the fact that he doesn鈥檛 or hasn't - go figure.

I also think that the 大象传媒 is many times better than Sky for one very good reason. All the broadcasters on Sky (whatever the sport but particularly for football) are in fact only part-time broadcasters. Their first and real job is to sell satellite dishes. To do this they employ constant, never-ending and mind-numbing hyperbole. So every player is a great player, every goal is a great goal and every game is a great game - they usually know that before it's even kicked off.

I agree with technohippy Clive Whatsit really was a gloom and doomer, a crowd of us were also shouting at the screen. Also Beeb coverage is better but could have more interactive features. For those listening to radio and watching digital TV, then DAB radio coverage timing is closer to the picture. Is the "Steve Ryder" who thought ITV coverage better (one of few), the Steve Ryder? Finally why have UK Gold got coverage, they have not been involved in sports coverage before, having said that they may be a better bet than ITV.

I think the player names pronounciation has been very good. The one amazing mispronounciation is that of Ukraine (ookrayne). Commentators even call it the Ukraine, which is like saying the England, the France.

Best things about the TV coverage:

1) ITV's opening montage - nostaligia central!
2) ITV's themetune - Heroes by the wonderful Kasabian.
3) 大象传媒 Interactive options - why put up with Steve Wilson when you can listen to John Murray?
4) Peter Brackley's "fabulous" voice.
5) 大象传媒 commentaries from Guy Mowbray & Gavin Peacock.
6) Gabriel Clarke's reporting style - very clever chap, nice turn of phrase. Ivan Gaskell, his 大象传媒 equivilant, is also very good.
7) The return of Jim Rosenthal to top line football presenting. Very welcome.

Worst things about the TV coverage:

1) The 大象传媒's lacklustre themetune - really sets the scene, NOT!
2) Ian Wright's belligerent xenaphobia and lack of any redeeming features.
3) Steve Wilson. Please make him stop, his voice makes my ears bleed.
4) The likes of Alan Hansen and Martin O'Neil (usually very good) leveling often unfair, blanket criticism at the smaller, "less fashionable" for the slightest of errors.
5) Mick McCarthy's moaning at the slightest thing.
6) Ned Boulting - why? What did Dave Beckett do to the ITV Sport bosses to deserve to be dropped in favour of this dullard?
7) The lack of Tony Gubba on the 大象传媒 coverage.

From a US point of view: I read the 大象传媒 website and live commentary because the ESPN site is constantly crashing due to demand!

The 大象传媒 realize the World Cup is a major sporting event, and ESPN doesn't.

To the commenter who marveled at ESPN announcers telling you what's on "over at ABC": that shouldn't be surprising; they're both owned by the same company. The same crews produce the coverage, but some games are on ESPN and some on ABC. They won't mention anything on another network.

大象传媒 coverage will bring on a sigh of relief for many I'm sure. ITV can never seem to sort their set out. At least they've finally given up on stuffing pundits/presenters behind Fast Show/Channel 9 oversized desks with everyone looking seriously uncomfortable. Unfortunately their current attempt comes across looking like a few garden chairs in a portacabin. Their cheap budget seemed seriously stretched trying to accommodate Psycho's thighs in such a tight space. Here's hoping the next match gets the coverage it deserves!

I have just returned from a holiday in Canada and am sorry to report that, considering the resources available to them, TSN and Sportsnet are doing a better and more professional job of broadcasting the World Cup than either 大象传媒 or ITV are.

The only pundit worth listening to on either 大象传媒 or ITV is Sam Allardyce; he offered insightful, compact views on the England game last night. Had this been on 大象传媒, we would have heard Ian Wright saying something like "Yeah, like, this was when the shot went in, oh no it's the other one, innit." Alan Hansen is good when he talks football but that rarely happens these days since he is too busy being matey with Wright. At least he can construct a sentence unlike Terry Venables on ITV.

Gary Lineker is simply irritating as linkman, as well as joining in the babyish atmosphere in the 大象传媒 Studios. Give me ITV professionals any day over him.

All of the commentators have been awful.

Overall, I rate the 大象传媒's coverage as pathetic and ITV's as poor.

If it's important (like world cup football) and you have a choice of 大象传媒, ITV or Sky you watch 大象传媒 - end of!

Can I just ask one question, re ITV's coverage ... Clive Tyldesly ... why? The bloke is an absolute misery. Owen goes off in the second minute and he winges for the next ten about how we don't have any other strikers. Eventually camera gives us a shot of Walcott on the bench, and CT delivers his witheringly insightful argument as to why Walcott is a waste of space: 'He's got a provisional driving license'.

I know he doesn't work for you; all the same, can't you sack him?

H.

Just to say I agree with 99% of the comments re:John Motson, he's way past his best and his best was never that good. With this overwhelming support for Motty to be put out to grass, would anyone from the 大象传媒 (Paul Armstrong?) care to comment on their plans for his replacement, it's going to happen one day even if not sooner the better as most of us would wish.

I have in the past listened to 5live with sound down on the tv, but Alan Green!!! If there's anything he loves more than football it's his own opinions and he comes across as arrogant and biased.

Also agree that Leonardo is excellent, just as he was in his acting days as an animated mutant ninja turtle (sack me now... that's less funny than Ian Wright on a bad day, and he has plenty of them!)

Oh...and when Motty is given his one way ticket to somewhere far far away from my TV screen, can we chip in and buy a ticket for David Pleat to go with him please.

大象传媒 are by far the best at football coverage.

Pundits?
Gary Lineker is by far more intellegent, funny, and interesting to listen to than any of the lead pundits on ITV (Gabi Logan/Steve Ryder etc...)

Wrighty, Shearer and Hansen are all interesting to listen to and make a great team. They communicate well and the 大象传媒 team make us laugh and thnk.

The ITV team is so amateurish and seem so proud to be showing every game...take so much pride in "advertising" their next game.

As for the commentators....well no one can touch Motty with a ten foot pole. And having a commercial between the anthems and the kick off completely disrupts the momentum of the match build up.

ITV should just hand over all the England games to the 大象传媒 no one is going to watch the games that are covered by both on ITV.

I think the Beeb's coverage has been great, can't say the same for ITV. I wish they would stop telling people on digital sat to press the red button, is so annoying when sitting in the pub, also why can't the red button display disappear ofter 1 minute or so, that is even more annoying. And another gripe which is about the delay in analogue and digital, when is this going to be addressed ???? there is a clear 4-5 second delay. which is awkward when you have to setup both types to watch the games. Gripes over, Come on England, show us what you can really do!!!!!

I just wish I had the opportunity to complain about British coverage. I'm a displaced Brit living in Boston and have to deal with the utter drivel that the commentators come out with here. I cringe every time I hear one of those idiots pretend to know what is going on. At least they get the names right in the UK. And have half a clue about what happened in previous tournaments. My US friends are equally as appalled and are dreadfully embarrassed at the quality of coverage. And to top it all off, graphics that take up 2/3 of the screen are displayed periodically because clearly knowing when the next game is on is more important to the broadcasters than showing the game that is actually being played.

I know I should be grateful that ESPN and ABC are showing the games without commercial breaks so I don't have to pay $20 to watch them in the pub (as I do during the regular season). I just wish there was a separate audio channel that filtered out the commentary...

Yep, the 大象传媒 might claim to be the all wonderful, unbiased 'auntie'. But for Brits who live abroad and cannot receive so much as a radio signal (web based or otherwise) they are very poor value for money. The Beeb continually hide behind the comment..."due to contractual obligations". Basically saying that they will not transmit match details to people who live abroad...and have still paid their liscence fee. Very poor service. Come on Sky!

As a true neutral (Canadian living in the UK) I have to say that the 大象传媒 is just as biased as all the other stations. In our local pub we have a non scientific study (a sweepstake) to predict how many times in a NON ENGLAND GAME either "1966", "wayne rooney" or "england in the final" is mentioned. The 大象传媒 currently tops "1966" mentions while ITV is running away with "rooney".

It's very irratating for us neutrals to have to listen to all this non essential hype. You really should hear yourselves sometimes.

During Germany-Ecuador for example, the commentators already had England into the last 8 because Germany were "no match" and Ecuador would be "swept aside easily". Rooney was mentioned 17 times, 1966 5 times and who England were going to play in the final was discussed 3 times. And this was only the first half!

Last nights ITV coverage however was the icing on the cake. As soon as the match was over, ITV led with..."our Harley street physio (complete with X-Ray picture of knee)gives his expert analysis of Owen's knee injury and how it will affect his next game". If only we could channel our resources into a cure for cancer as effectively.

All this makes me wonder...would the same bias/coverage/hype be given if it were Ireland,Scotland or Wales...food for thought.

The 大象传媒's coverage has been second to none, though I wish the analysis was meatier and there was more focus on the World Cup as an event rather than just what's happening on the pitch.

Can't stand the ads on ITV.

Keep up the good Beeb!

Here is an email I sent to ITV's programming department recently. I was quite annoyed at the time!

Dear Sirs,

This year's World Cup has been a revelation for those of us condemned to the office for much of the tournament. Technology has moved on significantly in the four years since England were so disappointingly knocked out against Brazil in Japan/South Korea.

With detailed radio coverage and even text updates on the internet there really is no excuse for missing out on what's going on in Germany... Unless, it happens to be a game shown on ITV.

You have a good pedigree when it comes to technological failure what with ITV Digital, but surely you could manage to get your website sorted so that the football loving masses can watch the game over the internet? We don鈥檛 all have a television to hand in the workplace, so tomorrow I am forced to lug a large CRT into work with me just so I can endure the second-rate drivel of Peter Drury, Clive Tildsley and Jon Champion.

Is it really any wonder that everyone respects the 大象传媒 more than yourselves? I despise everything about your channels and strongly believe that you should not be allowed to show an important sporting event until you have moved into the 21st Century and can offer us some modern alternatives for viewing games. Are you not embarrased by the fact that the 大象传媒 has shown you up so massively with their range and detail of coverage?

This email and your response will be published on the internet.

You really wanna see punditry, well check out the Irish national channel RTE... no punches pulled, whereas in UK both 大象传媒 & ITV pundits are afraid to call it how it is... i.e. (no offense intended) England have no hope of winning this tournament this year. Wrong captain, wrong midfield, wrong strikers (best English EPL goalscorer this year sitting at home, go figure) Its a shame coz we do follow teams in the UK, for me Liverpool. However, its all pretty much sanitised on UK tv, and no one pundit will have a proper 'pop' at some players that deserve it and even more so the English FA & Ericsson for this 'PR' team on display. They are usually more accurate when not discussing Englands matches. You need a Clough in charge and you need Cloughs as pundits. Hansen will do, but will never bite the hand that feeds him. An opinion.

I don't know why Gary Linekar is rated so highly as a presentor. He is wooden, and not really funny. A classic example is during the Tunisia/Spain Match at half time. When he started talking about Luis Aragones' "nervous breakdown", and the silence from the studio that followed.

Also what have we done to deserve Ian Wright? The guy is annoying and talks rubbish. Another classic example was after the France/S.Korea, when he labelled Saudi Arabia as an "improving African nation"

The 大象传媒 coverage is by far superior to the ITV coverage; ITV has one or two thigns going for it, namely Mick McCarthy and Ruud Gullit. The 大象传媒's pundits are light years ahead of anyone else on ITV, with the possible exception of Ian Wright. The fierce debate generated when O'Neill, Hansen or Strachan disagree with each other is by far preferable to the blind nodding and agreement of ITV's team.

To the person that complained about anti-England bias - are you watching the same stuff as I am? The constant 1966 mentions; the constant referall as we; the constant digs towards Scotland (reference the otherwise wonderful series on 大象传媒 3 featuring all the goals of the world cup - whenever a goal was scored against Scotland, the presenter "wittily" said "byeeee") are all monotonous and un-needed. It's the BRITISH broadcasting corporation, not the ENGLISH broadcasting corporation.

Le Saux had contractual problems with the 大象传媒 (he wanted more money), so that's why he's not there.

Barry Davies got the hump after not getting a cup final a couple of years ago or some such. He still does stuff like gymnastics and tennis for the Beeb though. That's ok by me; I never could stand him and found him arrogant and patronising.

Motson is always tedious, but at least having Mark Lawrenson along side seems to help.

The most irritating commentator by a country mile is ITV's Peter Drury. The guy clearly had a bizzare teleporter accident envolving himself and a copy of Roget's Thesaurus. I call him 'Sumptuous' & his pant wetting, overblown commentaries are beyond parody.

I prefer the 大象传媒's coverage overall, but then ITV are pretty clueless for most things. Sorry guys, but football and wearing suits in the studio is a no no for a start. Jon Champion is easily the best ITV commentator.

Commentators who insist on calling Linesmen "referee's assitants" also wind me up. Oh and somebody please tell Jonathan Pearce not to pronounce Luis Garcia as 'Loooish GarTHEah'. It's not big and it's not clever.

Clive Tyldesley is absolutely awful. Every sentence is dripping in his own prejudices.

John Moston isn't much better. I can't believe he's still employed. I suspect that the 大象传媒 are under the illusion he's held in some sentimental regard by the British public.

As for the studio pundits... ITV's team are a joke. They offer nothing in the way of insight or even humour. 大象传媒 have always been head and shoulders above them. However, the recent trend of dumping professional presenters in favour of old pros has created a rather cosy old boy atmosphere. They do rather tend to protect their own and the players (particularly the England players) all too often get the benefit of the doubt. The challenge was clumsy not dirty, the clash was accidental not intentional, it's frustration not violence etc etc. What I want is an honest opinion not the sanitised platitudes of an old colleague. Adrian Chiles is a notable and worthy exception to this trend. Give him the main anchor role!

I think Gareth Southgate on ITV has been very good (a rare beacon of quality) as has Leonardo, Iain Dowie and Lee Dixon on the Beeb. Alan Shearer has also been good (much to my surprise). I thought LeSaux was an intelligent and honest pundit too so I was sad to see him go.

Lawrenson lets the 大象传媒 team down badly though. What a smart alec. The constant insinuation that the latin players are feigning injury is very insulting. Particularly when he's dumbstruck at Joe Cole's diving! Please desist! But the award for worst 大象传媒 football pundit has to go to Garth Crooks. Thankfully he's been kept to the sidelines in this tournament so far. Keep him the England camp 大象传媒, at least then we'll only have to suffer him until the quarter finals.

Finally, the World Cup is a poorer event without the inimitable Allan Parry in the commentary chair. Shame on you 大象传媒 for casting aside such a legend!

Whenever there is uninterrupted highquality football (both picture and commentary) for more than 2 hours, 大象传媒 makes me feel proud for the monthly TV licence fee I pay.

We love playing the '66 game with the commentators.

大象传媒 are winning with their guy telling us that one on the players in the Spain/Tunisia match is the only player in the World Cup this year who was ALIVE when England won the World Cup in 1966.

Beats the previous 'how many days old a player was when England won the World Cup' in a San Marino game a few years back.

And you wonder why we want you to get to the final but not win!!!!

Bleh, I don't like how some of our football is subscription. It's a sport that became popular because it was available to the masses, everyone. Down with Sky, down with Murdoch. :)

+ point has been Steve Rider showing the 大象传媒 what they are missing, intelligant questions and he is smooth and slick and a sharp operator in front of the camera

-Point, any commentator who fills time by talking pointless waffle, Motson,Tyldsely are the worst by some way

Another + point 5 Live, the best all round sports team in the UK

I have to agree with aircool. R5 live is beating everyone with there commentary, well done R5!

Motty is a bit like Crouch seems to be doing a job but everyone knows theres a better finisher out there.

I'm a big fan of Sky's La Liga, shame you couldn't offer short contracts to those guy's doubt there up to much over the summer.

So Summing up if you got rid of Lawro and that over critical Mick McCarthy and brought in Gerry Armstrong, Martin Jol and Peter Brackley you would have it sewn up, but like i said thank god for interactive and R5!

big Sam has been my favourite pundit by far, I actually feel like I learn something when he comments on a game. He doesn't waffle in cliches or try to be 'one of the boys' like the 大象传媒 team seem obsessed with doing, he actually gives an intelligent insiders perspective.

I was ground-down by the ITV commentary on England vs Sweden, that was one of the worst I have ever heard from a 'pro'. Clive Tyldesley I think it was, wow, that was really bad uninformative nonsensical waffle. Painful.

I think there's a bit of a problem with hiring players as pundits or commentators based on 'experience', as very few have the intelligence to articulate what they can do well physically.
I generally prefer the comments of articulate managers to dense 'wooo / boo, sucks' player comments. Ruud Gullit, Big Sam, Arsene Wenger, Martin Jol are all people who have done good punditry in this vein.

It's a generalisation of course. Alan Shearer will be going into management soon, but I would pay to never, ever, hear his turgid and torpor inducing tones again.
Someone put him out of my misery

"Finally, the World Cup is a poorer event without the inimitable Allan Parry in the commentary chair"

What am I talking about? I mean Barry Davies. The man is a legend. He's the 大象传媒's best football commentator ever. Makes Motson, Tyldesley and Peter Dreary look like the biased amateurs they are.

Jonathan Pierce has plummeted in my estimation though. First there was his puzzled and slightly unbelieving delivery of the fact that the Argentinian Heinze speaks Welsh. Why is so difficult for you to believe Jonathan? A cursory knowledge of British history (not English history) would reveal the existence of a Welsh colony in Patagonia. Even a quick glance at the details of the recent Welsh rugby tour would reveal this.
Then there was the most tenuous and desperate 1966 link in the Spain v Tunisia game when he mentioned that a Tunisian player "was the only player alive when England won the World Cup in 1966". Unbelievable and also pathetic.

Got to say I very much like Graham Taylors commentary. He often has something insightful to say and is one of the few pundits who speaks from experience.

I think Martin O'Neill is excellent in the studio, he knows what hes talking about along with Alan Hansen, unlike most people who try to make alot of stuff up to sound intelligent, keep it coming 大象传媒!

大象传媒 coverage is head and shoulders above ITVs. I don't understand why Steve Rider is anchoring ITV's coverage of the England games - he is a golf and a motorsport man.

The one MAJOR problem with the 大象传媒 is John Motson's commentary. My friends and colleagues are all in agreement that it is utterly pointless. There are some talented commentators out there - it's time for some new blood.

Looking across to Cricket, Richie Benaud was a superb commentator, mainly because he knew when to shut up. You don't need to talk ALL the time and get every single statistic and fact that he has written down into the commentary. A lot of it is nonsense and completely unnecessary.

I know he is seen by some as a national institution but I think it is time for him to go.

It's such a shame that all matches aren't shown on the 大象传媒. Although I usually prefer the 大象传媒 coverage to ITV's, for this World Cup the ITV commentry has been woeful. Gareth Southgate was appalling during the England v Sweden match, and all the way through the tournament we've been inundated with useless information, when all is needed is who has the ball at that moment, and who it's being passed to.
Once again Gary Lineker and Alan Hansen have proven their class, with able and excellent support from the other ex-players & managers, although like a few other people I don't believe Motty's the commentator he once was, although he's still 1000 times better than anything ITV can offer. I would also like to praise Mark Lawrensen who makes an excellent co-commentator, with insightful and astute observations. Well done 大象传媒 - I'm sure (as in previos years) when ITV and the 大象传媒 show the same match, the 大象传媒 will win the viewing figures battle with ease.

Only really one thing to say about the 大象传媒's world cup coverage, and it is this:

Ian Wright is the most truly, staggeringly, amazingly awful pundit in history.

He brings nothing to 大象传媒's world cup coverage, nothing at all. Instead he brings about a million 'innits' 'you knows' and 'likes'. He appears to know nothing about football, which is quite surprising for a man who was so good at it, and his continual hatred and baiting of Sven for daring not to take his semi-retired (living on the bench) son is pathetic.

He's truly woeful, and the sooner the 大象传媒 shoot him out of a cannon towards ITV the happier everyone will be.

If you want positives, I have generally enjoyed the commentary, the late night editions are marvellous and I think Chiles is an inspired choice as the 'everyman' anchorman.

and you're still several country miles better than ITV.

The best thing about the 大象传媒 has been some of the detailed tactical stuff, showing EXACTLT where thinsg have gone wrong/right. I'm thinking of teh comparison in tactics between England and Argentina, that was run during the Argentina 6-0 game, the piece last night on why England were losing goals v Sweden (Beckham at the near post). Its the sort of stuff that Sky ITV don;t have time for because of adverts. I'd be more than happy if you gave it a regular slot, as long as it didn't only focus on England, and didn't feature Ian Wright.

Leonardo - brilliant
mick macarthy - turn on five live.... (where danny mills is doing a suprisingly good job!)

Am I the only one who noticed that Clive (sell me a clue) Tyldsley seemed to think Celtic won the Champions League this season, what with Larsson bringing a smile to so many Celtic fans faces in the final against Arsenal?
What a tool!

The Beeb has always covered sport far better than any other broadcaster and that has continued in this World Cup - the 大象传媒's coverage remains superior to that of ITV in every way:
1. The theme tune and opening titles - Handel's wonderful, stirring music compared to a tacky, unispired cover of Heroes.
2. Gary Lineker and Adrian Chiles or Gabby Logan and Jim Rosenthal - no contest, the Beeb wins hands down (Steve Rider at least brings a some authority to ITV's coverage but he is far more at home at Silverstone or Augusta).
3. John Motson, Steve Wilson and Guy Mowbray are the three best commentators by a mile (even Jonathan Pearce has become bearable) Peter Drury is the only ITV commentator I can just about put up with whilst has there ever been a person who has spoken so much nonsense as Clive Tyldesley does in his commentaries!
4. Mark Lawrenson is the top co-commentator (knowledgeable and I also find him quite amusing and entertaining) although to be fair to ITV Gareth Southgate is not far behind. I also like Mick McCarthey because he is not scared to speak his mind.
5. The pundits - Hansen, O'Neill, Leonardo and Shearer are always worth listening to whilst Stuart Pearce is the only one who provides any decent analysis on the other side. I even find Ian Wright entertaining - you need to have a mix of personalties on the panel to create interesting debate and discussion and the 大象传媒 have succeeded on that front (whilst the likes of Allardyce, Pearce and Venables are all quite similar in their views and thus contribute to some pretty bland analysis on ITV).
I should also mention that 5 Live's coverage has been as superb as ever - it is a shame that we don't have the option of listening to their commentary in ITV's games!
Thus, keep up the excellent work 大象传媒 and it's great news that all remaining England games will be in your safe hands (hopefully the final one will be on July 9th!).

This applies to most posts - but not all.

Before you start slagging off anyone, try improving your own spelling, grammar, and sentence construction.

If England play like most of you post, our squad would be on the beach right now.

POINT ONE: Why are we listening to Mick McCarthy? He was a joke managing Ireland, and his Premiership record - hopefully - will stand as a testament to his ineptitude for years to come. In the name of God, go now.

POINT TWO: Steve McLaren as England Manager? Good grief... Who'll be the first to complain that England play no better than Middlesborough?

Me.

I read all these comments complaining about the shortcomings of this commentator or that TV/radio channel. You ought to be in my shoes and working outside UK. All UK World Cup broadcasts are excluded from the internet or satelite because of the 大象传媒's "contractual responsibilities". I therefore have to watch the matches in Polish or Dutch or German.

Nobody else seems to take any notice of their "contractual responsibilities" so why should the 大象传媒? Or if they are, why don't they set up a special subscription servcie for those with residential qualifications in the UK?

Please treat us even handedly with other EU nationals.

The difference between Sky and the 大象传媒 is that you can choose to pay for Sky TV, but if you want a TV you have to pay a licence fee.

Cnsumer should have a choice in what product they buy. We should be given the choice to have 大象传媒 or not (or my preference would be the choice of having the 大象传媒 with or with out advertising).

Having said all that the 大象传媒's coverage of the world cup (or any other football for that matter) is the best bar none.

Sky presenters are suited corperate types (most of which probably didn't even like football until they went for the job).

ITV is just poor. There is a groan in our office when someone mentions that the match is on ITV and not 大象传媒.

大象传媒 presenters have passion. Gary Lineker and Ian Wright are brilliant - they really care about the game. It's great to see Ian jumping up and down and getting into it or Gary having his say, the way Gary does!

Well done the 大象传媒 for this fantastic World Cup broadcasting. Keep it up :-)

Following on from Davids comments, Why must tv commentators continually waffle on all through the game. I used to really enjoy the RTL football coverage of the Bundesliga on the old analogue Sky system, they spoke when they had to rather than continually. The other great thing about that coverage was they had a studio in the ground of the game they were showing and players used to come straight in after the game to discuss the match. V. Odd. And I snapped earlier and turned the sound off on ITV and put 5live on. I can't listen to ITV's "pundits" anymore.

I'm in Australia and I'd love the 大象传媒 here. Even with those dodgy (but amusing) presenters I saw when I was back a coupla months ago

Rikkie, Larssons two assists for the mighty Barca in the final meant that Celtic went straight in to the group stage proper, an Arsenal win in the final would have consigned Celtic to the third qualifying round.
BTW why hasn't Henry blamed eveyone else for Frances dreadful performances. Surely all the officials are South Korea/Switzerland fans. :)

Agreed with a previous poster. RTE are ahead of the rest when it comes to punditary. Graeme Souness is on the panel for this world cup. He can't beleive he can say what he wants. He's not like this on SKY! Refreshing!

On the tv, Leonardo has been a revelation! But then, the Beeb always does it better than the rest. Gary Lineker is a first class anchor and Adrian Chiles is excellent. But they both have the key ingredient - passion. Thats what makes Ian Wright so watchable and (although there's no questioning his ability as a player) Alan Shearer so un-watchable. There's no spark there.

What amazes me is how Motty continues to be 'the voice'. For me, the Beeb let the best man go when Barry Davies walked. BD had humour and passion and his natural successor is the wonderful Clive Tyldsley. He may well waffle but at least its funny. The terraces are awash with humour and Tyldsley has it.

Unfortunatley Clive has to work with a poor back up team (except for poor Gabby of course who should never have been replaced by the dour Steve Ryder). Clive sounds to me like a fan, like he spent time on the terraces. Motty is like an antique. He doesn't actually do very much or have any real value, but you think there'd be uproar if you lost him. Err, there won't. Do yourselves a favour, make the biggest transfer coup of the summer and get Mr T.

R5 is excellent as always and makes the nonsense that is talksport seem laughable. Is it me, or are they pretending to be in the stadium when they are actually is Chiswick with some sound effects? Besides which any radio/tv station that hires an utter fool like Rodney Marsh deserves to have its license revoked. He is living proof that just becasues you played the game, you don't know the first thing about it.

I agree with "aircool" about the quality of the radio compared to the that on the television. I for one feel that Argentina's wonder-goal last week was ruined by the commentator churning out information about the players during the passing sequence.

Also I feel that Ian Wright is far too opinionated to be a paid pundit. If the 大象传媒 want an ex-professionals opinion, they should use Shearer/Strachen. If they want a biased, silly, petty comment then they should ask a fan outside the stadium. Wright is a disgrace, and as much as I hate to say it, the only time I look forward to seeing him is to see the look on his face when England get eliminated!

There is a certain level of triviality in the criticism of commentators/analysts. Sure some prefer the generic commentary of Barry Davies (it could just as easily be hockey as football), or the flag waving patriotism of John Motson, or the frequent "mentions" of the nation employed by Clive Tyldesly to ingratiate himself with the public. THIS is precisely why the 大象传媒's gives you the interactive feature allowing you to change commentary or listen to crowd noise only was invented (maybe ITV should have a try at this).

IMHO, 大象传媒's technical production has been excellent with the exception of last night's England Sweden highlights which seemed to omit the majority of the highlights of the first half in favour of just Joe Cole's wondergoal. It may not be Sky quality, but then again Sky have covered more live games than any other sports network in the world (apparently), and even they have never offered live streaming of the matches over the internet (which the 大象传媒 has done). Contrast this against ITV, and one can only realise that their coverage and their attempt at interactive television on satellite has been a total waste of resource and time. ITV's frequently voiced presumptions over who will be in the semi-final or the quarter-final merely indicate the scripted nature of the presentation, and the arrogance which permeates their coverage.

If I was to take umbrage with any element of the 大象传媒's coverage it would be Adrian Chiles. There are some fans(on this forum!) who apparently appreciate him, but I am personally not impressed by this jack of all trades whose presentation is still as ill informed and generic as it was on MOTD2. Having spent a season being entertained(?) by his West Brom anecdotes about fan spirit (certainly not quality of football), or his top 10 most inane footballing observations of the week, I think the last thing I was hoping to see was Chiles at the World Cup. In any case please could the 大象传媒 send this presenter back to Working Lunch and give somebody else a chance - do Alan Hansen or Shearer not harbour hopes of escaping the pundit role? In regard to some criticisms of Ian Wright, I would say that he may be opinionated but it keeps the conversation lively and varied. With a polyglot nation of presenters and pundits, surely this is room for one flag waving England fan called Wrighty.

In any case, lets hope the 大象传媒 keep flying the flag of fair, relevant and inspired coverage of the greatest tournament in the world, rather than 2 minutes on the match, five minutes to Sven, and seven minutes to advertisers. If England do make it to the semis then we can see people vote with their feet and show ITV's amatuer coverage the door.

Just want to add some praise for Martin O'Niell who not only has the know-how gained from reaching the highest levels of the game in playing as well as managment, but is not afraid to give his own views even if it contradicts Alan ''Wood-head'' Hansen.

O'Niell for England... what should have been...

I think Sky's football coverage is actually poor.

The 大象传媒 make it entertaining.

It is an absolute joy to watch Gary Lineker present the football in an enthusiastic and friendly manner.

The punditry is excellent on the 大象传媒 and you don't get pundits looking down at a screen in front of them whilst talking like you do on Sky (which I find to be particularly rude).

ITV commentary is so woeful it becomes entertaining in itself. For example during ITALY vs USA and it was 1-1. The USA looked like they had scored another goal to go to 1-2 and the commentator shout 'Equaliser!!!'.

You are also broadcasting the England matches in your website. 大象传媒 programs for the world cup is making a good impression among the fans as they are providing the inner news through the articles in 大象传媒 blog and broadcasting some program with the participation of specialists of the football world. I think 大象传媒 journalists are using the opportunity making some programs on some other subjects out of football like the 21st century Berlin.

大象传媒 Vs ITV --- Even prior to reviewing comments on this discussion board, I'd like to say the conclusive general opinion is that, 大象传媒 is superior to ITV in terms of coverage of the greatest tournament in world football.

As for commentry - 大象传媒's coverage is being presented to thousands across the UK, im sure many out there do not appreciate ITV's Clive Tyldesly, Venables, Andy townsend, Robbie earl, Alan curbishily etc etc repeatedly referring to England as "We" For God Sake your on TV trying to give your "expert" opinion from a neutral perspective! The whole of the ITV panel tend to get carried away in general and are way too biased

As for 大象传媒 commentary, I think Jonathan Pearce is quickly establishing himself as a replacement for John Motson who is also fading into a biased commentator. Okay we understand you know your statistics, but he over does it at times when there is no need for the audience to comprehend pointless information. Also, players like Ronaldinho, Requilme are hyped up double in commentary.

My praise goes out to Gary Linekar. Although an Ex-England centre forward and has every reason to be passionate, emotional and express himself鈥ut doesn鈥檛. He is the coolest, calmest, unbiased, presenter on television today!

Ian Wright 鈥� Talk with passion and comments are fair
Mark Lawro 鈥� what has happened to you this world cup with your cheap comments?
Alan Hansan 鈥� Correct & expert as ever!
Gavin Peacock 鈥� Gavin 鈥渟tate the obvious鈥� peacock
Lee Dixon 鈥� Who is he to comment on International matches 鈥� how many caps did you get lee? Oh yeah 鈥� and SMILE!!
Leonardo 鈥� Says the right comments at the right time 鈥� plain but fair
Dessaily 鈥� Neutral as ever, passionate, unbiased.
Gary Linekar 鈥� Legend!
Jonathan Pearce 鈥� Most underrated commentator 鈥� Very very good, passionate but unbiased!

ITV 鈥� Robbie Earle & andy townsend? who are they to 鈥渁nalyse鈥� matches. Weren鈥檛 exactly class themselves! Venables? what did he ever achieve in his management career, keep your opinions to yourself and resign. Steve Ryder- Please stick to your Grandstand Horse racing and golf. Makes TV depressing. Clive Tyldsley 鈥� most biased commentator ever! Peter Drury 鈥� okay lets stop at that.

And finally, Why on earth do people ring in to Alan Green on 大象传媒 talk sport voicing their concern? I mean, who is he?? England manager? A wizard who鈥檒 turn back time and correct things? And when people constructively debate with him and he gets the hint that he is wrong and the caller is right 鈥� he鈥檒l cut you off. Totally unprofessional by Alan 鈥渉ave it my way I know everything about football鈥� Green 鈥� Do yourself a favour and scrap your show. And all you people who actually ring in鈥� why are you voicing your comments to him?? Lol. Certainly makes me laugh.

Oh I forgot 鈥� Very glad Sky sports are not showing world cup, cannot stand Andy 鈥済rowl when I commentate鈥� Gray鈥檚 irritating voice. So a message for you Sky鈥� Whilst 大象传媒 and ITV show the world cup, you keep showing your 鈥渢his player has had so n so % shots and useless statistics. Who knows, Sky鈥檚 statistic dudes may even show in how many time Wayne Rooney visited the bathroom in one week in 2007!
And the getting dressed up like your wedding to simply read out pointless statistics and irrelevant news is so laughable. I mean a simple shirt (like the 大象传媒) is fine!! LOL

God TV can be irritatingly annoying sometimes.

Coverage on the 大象传媒 has been great so far. Lineker is a great front man and its good to see and hear the opinions of so many former internationals such as Desailly and Leo. Strachan and O'Neill have added the coaches view and the humour to the proceedings.
Two major criticisms however. One is Ian Wright. When asked for his opinion on the Dutch game he replied ' I only care about England' - well worth the license payers money for that insightful analysis!
The other is Alan Hansen. As a Scot I am appalled at his over the top enthusaism for England ('it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up')Fine supporting England but please dont refer to them as 'us'. You're a Scot who played for your country Alan- don't forget it!!

I would be glad to see any British coverage of the World Cup. I live in Canada and can only get TSN ot Sportsnet coverage - both with truly appalling pundits who think they are watching something called "soccer".
There is one particular Scottish pundit who I believe once saw a Scottish 2nd Division game so is an obvious expert in North America.

I'm in Australia at the moment watching the world cup on SBS, who's coverage although being Autralian biased is still pretty shoddy. Wish there was some way I could get the 大象传媒 coverage with the choice of commentary etc. Although SBS do have a digital station to get a bit more interactive.

We've got Martin Tyler commentating here as well as some ex beeb and ITV guys, they're ok and too their credit talke about England as much as Australia! Martin Tyler mentioned Owen, Rooney, etc and even Emile Heskey during Hol vs Arg this morning!

The 大象传媒 has always been light years ahead in my opinion, they have the best pundits, the best interactivity and analysis and including the website deliver the best package overall. Hansen, O'Neill and Strachan are superb and I think that Shearer and Dowie could soon be up there with them. And lets not forget good old Gary.

Looking forward to being back in blighty for Euro 2008 and some more great coverage!

Oh you poor miserable unfortunate lot! I'd give my right arm (I need my left one to type with) to have either 大象传媒 or ITV coverage in New Zealand. We get the national anthems, team line ups and the match - end of story. No previews, interviews after the games, table updates etc etc - all the stuff you expect back home. Thank God for the internet. Thankfully at least the commentators are British but only the dregs from C5 like John Helm and Gary Bloom (I say those two 'cause I recognise their voices because we don't even get told the commentator's name here).
We don't get any co-commentators, no half time discussion and have to get up in the middle of the night or early morning to watch the games live.
As an expat who chose to live down under, I know who has the best coverage and it's certainly you lot back in old blighty. In fact the television sports coverage in the UK is second to none as is TV generally so don't complain 'til you've seen worse. Glad I'm not in the USA - at least I don't have to watch the 'World Series of Soccer Cup' from Europeland as a ESPN broadcaster called it. They are the worst of the worst and anyone who has heard Tommy Smith (not the Liverpool one) on ESPN will know what I'm talking about!
Hopefully England can improve and go on and win the World Cup - even if I have to get up at 4 or 5 in the morning to see it.
So to all you Brits be grateful for what you have - some of us are just green with envy.

I have to agree with some of the expat comments that have been aired so far. We are absolutely spoilt in the UK with our sports coverage and having so many channels competing for the footballing rights pushes the standard ever higher (can people remember how low-key football was in the schedule before Sky? - the FA cup being the exception).

I'm currently watching the world cup on Sakhalin Island (a Russian outpost east of mainland Russia). We have to get up at 2 or 3am to watch coverage that starts as the players are just kicking off. Usually the coverage starts in black and white and slowly reverts to extremely blurred colour. Typically they will go to some adverts before play has finished in the half and will continue to show adverts, returning only once play has been underway for several minutes.

I would kill to listen to Ian Wright's verbal stumblings and watch the match on good old Low Definition 大象传媒!

The 大象传媒 is doing a gr8 job congrats!!!!
On Sky, in the News the WC 2006 has little impact.
What about LIM production with Gary Bloom & Co?

So much to read and so little worthwhile content. Quite simply the best way to watch is through 大象传媒i. You can watch without all the inane warbling of Stato Motson and if you need additional info go interactive and all the stats are there for you to read whilst you watch! The radio 5Live commentary is incisive and entertaining, additional filler not required for these boys they say what they and you see.

The ITV coverage is indeed woeful and does not deserve any substantial comment!

ITV Picture Quality (Sky and Freeview) is the worst I have ever seen for football coverage with many digital artifacts caused by low bandwidth transmission. This compares with 大象传媒, which is much better, although seems to be compromised when interactive services are active. ITV seem to have chosen to compromise their Picture Quality.

Lot's of good, constructive comments here but I wonder if the producers at 大象传媒 and ITV bother to read them? For my part, 大象传媒 has always been streets ahead of ITV in sports coverage - you might compare the 大象传媒 as The Guardian/Sunday Times whereas ITV barely make The Daily Star let alone The Sun. As for Stuart Pearce on ITV? Every time he speaks I lose the will to live - does he ever smile? I've never seen it happen. He does share one thing in common with Ian Wright, however - their command of English is slightly worse than my 2 year old daughter.

Talking of balanced coverage (as you were in there somewhere), why is 大象传媒1 showing Brazil v Japan tonight when the real interest is in Croatia v Australia. I get the impression that the rule is 'if it's Brazil, stick it on?'

Sorry i'm only 33 but I yearn for the commentary of David Coleman and Barry Davies compared to modern day fare. To me Coleman saying 1-0 was an iconic statement. Barry Davies was always more suited to international football than Motty. Motty is only third choice for me and comments better on domestic football. With the presentation skills of Des Lynam and the analysis of Martin O'Neill and Alan Hansen, it represents a Dream team...

He in we get the World Cup through SBS. Their service is excellent. Obviously they rely on the host broadcaster for their pictures, but they back that up with their own comentators plus those from Sky I presume. Our first games start at 11pm and finish at 7am. SBS endeavours to show every game live, and only show replays when there is a clash of times, as is the current case when two games from the same group are in progress.

By seven o'clock Friday morning we will know if Australia goes on, but that will not stop SBS because they will keep on broadcasting until the World Cup has been won.

Thankfully SBS will have the broadcast right for the 2010 series in South Africa.

In 2002 a commercial station gazumped SBS by paying huge sums to gain broadcasting rights. They then found that the contract stipulated that the games had to be shown live, and without adverts during the play. Not only this, it clashed with their coverage of Wimbledon and the rugby league. Who did they they go back to to share games with - SBS.

If Australia goes through to the next round this country will go wild. It will also showcase SBS, which works on a shoestring compared to the commercial stations in Australia , but that string is like a silken rope when it comes to broadcasting this huge event.

No doubt someone from the 大象传媒 will mention this but the reason you can't listen to Five Live's coverage on the 大象传媒 website if you live abroad is because the 大象传媒 don't have international broadcasting rights. I live in Dubai and listen to Five Live a lot online but the 'contractual obligations' they talk about are simply down to rights. It's the same for the Premiership broadcasts which again you can't access online abroad.

In terms of TV coverage, again I'm sure the 大象传媒 are winning hands down for many of the reasons stated above. The coverage here in Dubai is provided by ART Sports who are making people pay not just for the WC coverage but also for the forthcoming Premiership Season coverage as well, but they seem to be just taking a standard feed from the UK which I'm sure is being shown in many countries around the world. The problem here is that most of the games simply have a commentator and no summariser and I kind of feel for the guys having to do a full 90 minutes on their own.

Someone mentioned earlier that as a UK TV licence fee payer living abroad could there be some system where you regsiter online to have access? Not sure how (or if) this would work but just a thought!

Incidentally, although I'm missing the atmosphere back home, Dubai is a great place to watch the World Cup because most nationalities are represented here and you can find a group of supporters for virtually every game!

In answer to Gerry (comment 123),
I can assure you that many senior figures in 大象传媒 Sport are reading your comments.
Paul, who posted this entry, is the editor of Match of the Day and has replied to comments where he can/feels able to
/blogs/worldcup/paularmstrong/
The big boss, director of 大象传媒 Sport Roger Mosey, is also a keen reader and blogs regularly on our Sport Editors blog.
/blogs/sporteditors/

All of you guys back in Blighty don't realise just how lucky you are!! The coverage in Singapore is poor at best. Even ITV is better than these chaps. The commentators are very bad and make you long for Jon Champion!! Although the best commentary line I have heard so far is "Lampard to Joe Cole, who is no relation to Ashley Cole" which I heard during the first Engalnd match whilst visiting Thailand. Brilliant!!

The only thing they do get right is having two dedicated World Cup channels that are on throughout the day and night thoughout the tournament. They have show all of the highlight packages. The cost of these is only 3 pounds for the tournament which is very good value. Could we not somehow do this in the UK?

for gods sake
were through
we won two drew one
scored 5 goals
many countries like scotland would love to be in our position
(sorry shouldnt have mentioned Scotland although i still have Allies Army on good old vinyl)
The press generally are almost so despondent they defy belief, no doubt 40 years from now they will be talking about when we last won the world cup in 2006, cheer up media it could be worse

The Beeb has been excellent, ITV completey sub-standard.

Links is a classy presenter and Leonardo has been fantastic and i'd like to hear more from him; intelligent and fair.

I do have a problem with Martin O'Neill, the mans a buffoon who must have an oppositional disorder because he won't even entertain anyone elses opinion.

ITV is shocking!I do not think their commentators watch the game, constantly missing the obvious!!

Spain for the cup!!!
Visca Espana!

The Comentator Motty, is useless . Retire by the time the next world cup comes around please. He needs to comentate on the game not past history. He is so anti British it is not true. Where on earth did he come from. He has England losing before the game starts. And his voice is so boring compared to Andy Gray. What a pity that Sky did not have the coverage for the World Cup . The only thing to do is to turn the sound down and tune into the 大象传媒 radio. Sorry , for these words ,but Motty makes me so angry. I wish he was in the room with me right now. Maybe he would explain some of his remarks