Dear ITV,Thank you for letting me vent. Normal programming will follow shortly...
I logged onto your World Cup website this morning to see the headline "No excuse for blunder - Wilson". I assumed that Bob Wilson had been criticising the ridiculous error which meant that I, and thousands of other HD viewers, had missed England's opening goal of the World Cup.
But no. It was all about Robert Green. Your website contains lots of chat about Robert's blunder, but none about your own.
On your website you say "Green howler denies England" - where is the "ITV howler denies England fans" story? And "Capello rues Green error"? How about "Chiles rues error in moving to second-rate broadcaster"?
Adrian Chiles apologised for "a brief interruption in coverage" without acknowledging that ITV had failed to show us the most important part of the game, from an England fan's point of view. In fact, he was off-hand, rather than sincerely apologetic. There was no captioned apology, no apology from the commentators. It was, all round, a completely shoddy and amateurish mistake.
I say "amateurish" because I would have thought that a professional broadcasting organisation would have learned from its mistake when this happened in that Everton match last year.
Football fans have, for years, put up with ITV's presenters and pundits being second-rate, dull, uninformative and lacking in charisma. Now it seems we also have to put up with your engineers sabotaging huge matches.
If the BBC had done what you did last night, the national newspapers (especially the rabid Murdoch press) would be up in arms, demanding an end to the TV licence and de-construction of the Beeb. But this ridiculous blunder just gets ignored.
I have copied my MP into this message. Maybe there is something Parliament could to to stop ITV showing major football matches in the future? Possibly by passing a law to give the BBC sole rights to all England football and cricket coverage?
I'll be watching the next match (should you bother to provide pictures) with the sound off, listening to the BBC Five Live commentary.
ITV - you really are rubbish!
Sunday 13 June 2010
Getting Something Off My Chest
Do bear with me...
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2 comments:
Totally agree on all counts. We had a bunch of friends round to watch it and everybody's comments beforehand was "shame it's on ITV", or words to that effect.
I suggested things might be better now that they are showing it on HD, rather than the low-quality terrestrial stuff we've put up with over the years (where all the players look like they've been eating too much Ready-Brek). And they were fronting the programme with a former QMC SU president - what could possibly go wrong?
Unfortunately, I don't think your plan to listen to Radio 5 Live will work - you will hear about the goals being scored 5 seconds before you see them. Unless you sit about 1700 metres from the screen; then the sound and pictures will reach you at the same time.
It worked! Your plan, that is. Unfortunately, I now have to walk 1700 metres back to the house when I want to send emails or comment on blogs...
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