Poor Show ESPN-Star
Heat’s first ever title. Another title for Shaq. One for Wade and Mourning. Don’t tell me I didn’t tell you Heat will win it and Mr. Nowitzki will run out of steam. World Cup fever has meant that I have missed most of the NBA finals and an exciting NHL playoffs final series as well.
Dhoomk2 informed me that ESPN-star haven’t been showing the finals live in India. I was shocked by it as this is in complete contrast to the Jordan days where then showed all games live from around the Conference semis. When he switched on his TV set late at night, they were showing some aerobics or something. Bewildering.
It is true that the NBA has gone downhill since then but the current playoffs have seen a rebirth for the league. ESPN-star missed the bus to attract new viewers to the game and have a select audience. Live telecasts of the NBA don’t clash with other sports most of the time and had a more serious approach been given to NBA, I am sure it would have reaped long term benefits.
I kept seeing repeated ads of TNA between breaks of the world cup highlights show apart from the cricket ads. Surely other sports have their audiences in India apart from cricket, football and erm, wrestling? A few days ago, I saw an ad for Wimbledon thus -
The only time you get to see girls groan on grass.
Uh WHAT? How is that a good way to draw an audience for a sport? If people are interested in porn or have a soft porn mentality, they won’t switch on to a sports channel for the same. Even if they switch on to sports for a moment as a result of this, you are targetting the wrong kind of audience which isn’t sustainable.
It also shows that you are not confident in the sports viewing audience of the country. True, the segment is smaller than usual. But if you think having a Harsha Bhogle presenting the world cup will draw in the house wifes and the cricket following audience to follow football in India, you are missing the picture. It is similar to Mandira Bedi being called up by Set-Max though not as clearly identifiable.
If you do not take the audience seriously, it will not take you seriously. It will switch to the other sports channels whenever it can - some thing I am sure you would not like.
Tags: ESPN Star.
June 22nd, 2006 at 4:38 am
totally agree. its those jordan days that first pulled my interest to basketball. shame that viewers missed out on some cracking games from the current finals. the india victorious cricket games have been played to death. i have to admit espnstar have let their guard down over the last 1-2 years. even their cricket coverage standards have fallen with gimmicks like professor dean jones during the asia cup/indian oil cup a season or 2 back.
June 22nd, 2006 at 11:11 pm
[…] Pratyush is disappointed at ESPN-Star’s showing in today’s sports world. They are showing mindless aerobics when the most exciting NBA Finals is on. […]
June 23rd, 2006 at 1:21 pm
I agree in general about the thigns you said. But I disagree about your coment on Harsha Bhogle. He is a cricket man no doubt, but he is doing a good job in FIFA WC 2006. His football knowledge is also very good. Remember, that he is the quiz master for one of the best sports quiz in the country, and his questions have a decent level. He is not like Mandira Bedi who is just there to show how little she knows about cricket…
June 23rd, 2006 at 5:24 pm
So totally agree with you dude. Basketball is a dying art form when it comes to Indian television. I really miss those days when they used to broadcast every playoff matches LIVE, now not even the Finals is LIVE. Really really sux.
June 23rd, 2006 at 7:46 pm
Maverick: I still remember with horror the professor Dean Jones stuff..
Mahesh: Mr. Harsha Bhogle might know football. However, he isn’t going deep into discussions. When Germany didn’t impress as much earlier, he said the German machine doesn’t look good. When they did in the previous match, he said some thing on the lines that the German machine was looking good.
Even an Andrew Leci would have been good. You have to ask why the broadcasting company went with a cricket figure. Would you see a Vijay Amritraj compare cricket for ESPN-star?
Apart from being a good host, if you aren’t going indepth with the game analysis, either
a) you don’t know much about it, or,
b ) the channell is insisting that you keep the discussions light.
Neither is desirable.
Kima: Glad you agree.
June 24th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
mahesh wrote
“like Mandira Bedi who is just there to show how little she knows about cricket…”
It shud have been like this …”who is just there to show,among other imp things ,how little she knows abt cricket..”
June 24th, 2006 at 6:03 pm
Heh!
June 27th, 2006 at 12:52 am
i have to say as far as the world cup goes, one gets spoilt by the punditry thats on show on BBC. the coverage is top class.
June 27th, 2006 at 12:53 am
here in england ofcourse
June 27th, 2006 at 6:08 am
Lucky you..!
July 7th, 2006 at 3:48 pm
I agree with you about the ad for Wimbledon. It is a disgrace that women tennis that it is being marketed in such an ugly manner. If we are only interested in good looking babes, we would be watching FTV and not Wimbledon.
It is really sad that ESPN Star gave preference to Harsha Boghle over Andrew Leci or John Dykes or why not Andy Penders and Colette Wong. Harsha Boghle can neither be considered in a serious sense or in humourous sense. He does not fit well in the football scene.
Finally, I think ESPN Star is obsessed with EPL. Why dont they start showing matches from other leagues?
July 7th, 2006 at 5:46 pm
If you have ever watched Football Focus, they only discuss the EPL 90% of the time.
ESPN-Star also show a bit of Spanish League but there have been times last season where they have delayed a Barcelona la liga match to show an English Premiership game.
I like the Ten Sports football coverage much better despite having fewer live games - they have highlights shows of the Serie A, Bundesliga and Purtuguese Super Liga.
As they have the rights to the EPL, they focus much more on it which I feel is wrong.
August 19th, 2006 at 5:41 pm
[…] I have been critical of ESPN-Star in the past. I was gaining back my love for them because of excellent coverage preceding the English Premier League and the classy presenter John Dykes. […]
November 1st, 2006 at 12:17 am
By the way, are they showing any live NBA regular season games this season? Whenever I search their website for NBA games, it says ‘No program schedule found!’ Wonder wat hapnd.
November 1st, 2006 at 6:57 pm
I got the same when I went to ESPNStar’s website. I am not sure dude but I will be very surprised if they do not show any NBA season games at all.
November 4th, 2006 at 1:39 am
They havent yet shown any NBA ads also…Certainly not for November…Really disappointing.
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