Ssb - o'sullivan fails bbc personality test

[Miss Ellie]

If Hendry can't win it after being 7 times world champion before the age of 30 or 6 times champion at the age of 26, 5 World titles on the spin and losing in the final the year after that and having 9 years at number 1 then Ronnie has no chance.

I think Hendry definitely deserves some kind of recognition for his achievements, even if snooker isn't a main draw sport, it still has a pretty high following. I guess those years where it practically died a death has done it some damage that it's still not recovered from.

[gavpowell]

You'd never get anything through the Beeb these days -not glitzy enough and prime Hendry can hardly be accused of being a personality. Whether it was the BBC's decision or TWI's to replace Clive Everton with Ken Doherty I'm not sure, but it's all part of the same problem - an obsession with celebrity types, rather than aged, respected journalists.

The one thing I would say is Hendry has been an absolute revelation in the commentary box - he's an ex-player but very much his own man, so we get very off-message comments like:

"People keep saying Judd's the next big thing, but he doesn't look it to me at the moment."

[SnookerFan]

The BBC see snooker as a ratings filler, as much as anything.

Look at The Masters next week. On weekdays, there is no evening coverage at all. They are using is as a way to fill daytime schedules. Not a lot more. In previous tournaments they have cut back their red button snooker coverage too. I notice they find themselves capable of giving the yawnfest that is Wimbledon plenty of red button coverage. But not snooker?

Even their experts on commentary show little knowledge of tournaments that aren't on the BBC, and constantly admit to not knowing who some of the less established players are. This is just not good enough for people paid to be experts.

I'm legitimately glad that the bigger tournaments are on terrestrial television and not Sky Sports, as I don't have it. But the BBC don't exactly make snooker a priority.

[DeanH]

I think I am giving up on BBC coverage, Eurosport all the way I'm afraid, shame as BBC does do good stuff, especially the little bits off table can be great.

[Neil Taperell]

Eurosport for me as well Dean

[Miss Ellie]

The BBC see snooker as a ratings filler, as much as anything.

Look at The Masters next week. On weekdays, there is no evening coverage at all. They are using is as a way to fill daytime schedules. Not a lot more. In previous tournaments they have cut back their red button snooker coverage too. I notice they find themselves capable of giving the yawnfest that is Wimbledon plenty of red button coverage. But not snooker?

Even their experts on commentary show little knowledge of tournaments that aren't on the BBC, and constantly admit to not knowing who some of the less established players are. This is just not good enough for people paid to be experts.

I'm legitimately glad that the bigger tournaments are on terrestrial television and not Sky Sports, as I don't have it. But the BBC don't exactly make snooker a priority.

I don't have Sky Sports either, only have Eurosport so I'm glad of it when BBC or ITV are not showing any snooker. I've been pretty fed up with the BBC cutting a match off at a crucial point and not even going on to red button though, it's so infuriating.
I usually keep it on BBC as I like the commentary and the adverts on Eurosport can get annoying, but looks like I'll be switching on to Eurosport where I can if the BBC won't be showing evening matches.

[DeanH]

I tend to record and watch Eurosport and also record BBC to try to catch the good bits off table

[moose]

I still tend to watch more Beeb than Eurosport because of their off-table stuff, especially the interviews with players. If Hendry is commentating I'm on the Beeb for sure, he's by far the best of the lot. Davis is all over the shop but I kinda like it, makes me laugh. Don't mind Griffiths, he's got a nice turn of phrase and doesn't talk in cliches like the rest. All the other BBC commentators annoy me, trouble is so do the Eurosport ones!

ITV's coverage is the best, got everything you want really. Top class commentators, very good pre- and post-match coverage. You'd never get a 10+ minute post-match interview and shot analysis with the winner on the BBC. McManus I think might be my favourite commentator, his knowledge of the game and safety and shot selection is wonderful, plus he's got a good tv voice.

Really want to hear MJW and ROS commentating on a match, just to see how they'd fare.

[Alba_]

I still tend to watch more Beeb than Eurosport because of their off-table stuff, especially the interviews with players. If Hendry is commentating I'm on the Beeb for sure, he's by far the best of the lot. Davis is all over the shop but I kinda like it, makes me laugh. Don't mind Griffiths, he's got a nice turn of phrase and doesn't talk in cliches like the rest. All the other BBC commentators annoy me, trouble is so do the Eurosport ones!

ITV's coverage is the best, got everything you want really. Top class commentators, very good pre- and post-match coverage. You'd never get a 10+ minute post-match interview and shot analysis with the winner on the BBC. McManus I think might be my favourite commentator, his knowledge of the game and safety and shot selection is wonderful, plus he's got a good tv voice.

Really want to hear MJW and ROS commentating on a match, just to see how they'd fare.

Agree with all except terry griff i would swap him for willy thorn

Henry/Mcmanus would be fantastic in the box together I like S Davis/doherty aslo and Thorn/Parrot and the main guy who does the Eurosport i can't remember his name he is good tho and Darran Morgan was good the few times i heard him and Dominic dale who is an interesting guy with loads of snooker knowledge. The bbc needs to have a clear out and let the younger guys take over.

[DandyA]

Agree with all except terry griff i would swap him for willy thorn

Henry/Mcmanus would be fantastic in the box together I like S Davis/doherty aslo and Thorn/Parrot and the main guy who does the Eurosport i can't remember his name he is good tho and Darran Morgan was good the few times i heard him and Dominic dale who is an interesting guy with loads of snooker knowledge. The bbc needs to have a clear out and let the younger guys take over.

maybe Dave Hendon or Phil Yates? ... they're both great and have similar voices except Phil gets rather animated at times and Dave really does his research and comes up with all sorts of interesting stuff (rather like supremo Clive Everton) ...

[edit] ... or maybe Philip Studd or Mark Johnston-Allen, they're all good on Eurosport, I also am a fan of Joe Johnson although I know a lot of people dislike him ...

[Alba_]

Yeah it was Dave hendon. I like all the Eurosport guys too even Joe. I remember Higgins saying if joe was not the worst commentator he was definitely in the top 3 after a match he lost lol That was a tad harsh. It's just the old BBC guys who kill my soul with there same lines over and over and the same old stories. Dennis and virgo especially. They need to do a skysports style make over like sky did after getting rid of keys and grey and went all technological with younger faces to shake it up a bit. Hendry, Davis, Ken and parrot etc are they way forward for the BBC. Eurosport are doing fine.

[Byrom]

I think they should get a proper broadcast journalist who is trained to raise the emotional level of a game or add quirky comments - too much of the broadcasting on tv these days is just jobs for the boys and most of them are stale now and its killing sports I think not just in snooker but in other sports like football too - has anyone heard Phill Neville on football? My favourite out of them all in snooker is actually Hendry and I must admit at first I did not think he would be up for it but he is.

Sidd Waddell, Murry Walker Ted Lowe where by far the best at what they did because it was what they did. I would like to see the broadcasting companies open it up and have a talent competition - find some new talent out there to commentate on TV sports instead of giving big contracts to already millionaire sports people.

[itsnoteasy]

The Eurosport commentators always remind me of the Mitchell and Web sketches, I'm sure they were based on Joe Johnson.

[SnookerFan]

I don't mind the Eurosport commentary. They do make the odd gaffe, but at least they aren't making out they have some superior knowledge like the BBC. I remember watching a match where Joe Johnson was talking about the Masters final where Steve Davis beat Ronnie O'Sullivan. He said; "I think it's around 2002, 2003 time." A brief pause whilst somebody googled it, and said; "Well, it was actually 1997. Wow. It doesn't seem like that long ago, does it?"

Now, you could complain that the experts should know facts off the top of their heads straight away. But at least he wasn't making any pretence of knowledge. During the match at The Masters when Maguire was playing Judd, it was mentioned on commentary that Maguire hadn't won a match at The Masters since 2010. Hazel repeated this fact to Mags, who then replied; "I got to the semis last year." Eurosport may not be as professional an organisation as the BBC, but any factual errors they make on commentary are quickly rectified.

Also, Eurosport seems more respectful of snooker. When The Crucible was on last year, the experts were claiming they didn't know much about most of the Crucible debutants. Why not, you're paid experts? And why admit it? It just shows disrespect to those players, some of whom had had decent runs in non-BBC ranking events.

I do watch it on BBC when that's the channel it's on, but when the coverage on BBC finishes, I find myself switching to Eurosport more than I do Interactive. Partly because the match I want may not even be on interactive.