Golf coverage on TV

SevesThreeIron

Surely it's time for an overhaul of golf coverage on TV. Took a random five minutes of champions tour coverage on Sky at the moment and it had the following: 1 drive, 1 approach shot, 10 putts, 1 approach shot, 3 putts, ad. Enough to put anyone to sleep.

Listening to a discussion recently on radio and they nailed it - should be more shot tracker (certainly on every drive), higher weighting towards long game coverage and more access to all players' rounds. Tiger or Rory can be finished before transmission begins and you don't get to see any of them, often in majors. Mad stuff when you compare it to other sports.

bustercherry

SevesThreeIron wrote: »

Surely it's time for an overhaul of golf coverage on TV. Took a random five minutes of champions tour coverage on Sky at the moment and it had the following: 1 drive, 1 approach shot, 10 putts, 1 approach shot, 3 putts, ad. Enough to put anyone to sleep.

Listening to a discussion recently on radio and they nailed it - should be more shot tracker (certainly on every drive), higher weighting towards long game coverage and more access to all players' rounds. Tiger or Rory can be finished before transmission begins and you don't get to see any of them, often in majors. Mad stuff when you compare it to other sports.

Wonderful but outdoor sports broadcasting costs a lot of money. How do you balance the additional cost with the simple fact that adding all the above will not improve viewing figures significantly?

SevesThreeIron

Take your point about the extra costs but would it be crippling? A protracer camera on each tee, an editorial shift to more long game action. Would that really break the bank? As you said yourself it would be a wonderful product then.

You could make the opposite argent that people not renewing their TV subscriptions costs them money too.

Keano

More golf = less advertising time = less revenue for the game.

SevesThreeIron

Keano wrote: »

More golf = less advertising time = less revenue for the game.

Absolutely, wasn't suggesting less ads in fairness. Rather, the same amount of time given to golf but with a different focus. Surely there's scope for more 'red button' coverage like you have in the masters and other majors. If the game is dwindling in support as everyone suggests then surely it's a no brainier to improve the presentation of the headline product. As opposed to not seeing any of Tiger because he played early in the day.

Golfgorfield

Anybody got any idea where Mark Roe is gone to from Sky??

Its been months since hes been on

bustercherry

SevesThreeIron wrote: »

Take your point about the extra costs but would it be crippling? A protracer camera on each tee, an editorial shift to more long game action. Would that really break the bank? As you said yourself it would be a wonderful product then.

You could make the opposite argent that people not renewing their TV subscriptions costs them money too.

I was being facetious with my wonderful comment

Protracer camera's have to be set up/taken down/maintained/transported.... it's not just about buying them. Further why would you have them on every tee, there is only a certain amount of shots you can show in coverage. Unless you one sided coverage from the tees it's pointless wasting that money.

More long game action would requires more camera towers/cranes set up. If you go to a normal tour event (Irish Open for example) and The Open, there is a massive difference in the TV infrastructure. You can offset the higher logistics costs against being the host broadcaster (and revenue) of a major but there is only so much revenue from advertising. Therefore there will always be compromises on a normal tour event coverage.

Golf isn't like other sports, the field of play is much larger than for example a football stadium. I'd argue the costs of broadcasting a normal tour event are still in excess of a live football match. In the ideal world, we would be able to press the little red button, watch from whatever angle and who you want. In reality the logistic of offering such is currently not sustainable.

Seve OB

Take a look at what the OP is saying. Champions Tour golf. American. PGA Tour is the same. Now it hasn't been said yet, but I'm sure it will be as it always is, about how Sky are showing more daffodils, mountains and studio footage than golf.

So before you start going on about all that, make sure you are aware that Sky pretty much buy in all those pictures from the yanks.

If you want to see how much golf Sky actually cover, watch a few European tour events. Sure they might not have all the fancy pro-tracer stuff, but you know what do do show????? Yep, you got it, lots of golf shots!

IMO anyway.