Goalissimo has been part of my weekend routine for about 14 months now, after starting to watch last summer during the close-season. Broadcast sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning, then again on Saturday morning on Channel 4, it’s a weekly round-up show of goals and highlights from around the world.
It’s a strange and somewhat charming little show in that it is very restricted in what it can actually show by it’s obviously miniscule budget (when it’s broadcast in the middle of the night on Channel 4, there are advert breaks with no adverts, just previews of other shows, so clearly not a ratings winner). It tries hard however – making up for not being able to show the Premier League highlights by showing photos of the previous weeks matches.
The format tends to be pretty regular – goals from a few matches in a couple of leagues, and then extended highlights from a couple of matches – currently these tend to be Swedish, Brazilian and American. They either have a globetrotting commentator travelling the world to provide commentary, or some poor lackey in a studio somewhere talking over the already edited highlights.
Each week, there’s a few interview pieces, often featuring global projects to improve an area using football, or an interview with a big star at some promotional event. For some reason, they tend to sit on these interviews for a while before broadcasting them, meaning the content can quickly become out-of-date.
Highlights wise, currently we have Portuguese, German, Swedish, Brazilian, American goals. Occasionally we take a trip to Africa for highlights of some international matches (often several weeks after they happen) or African Champions League coverage. It’s usually quite scattergun, almost as if they get a list of fixtures and put it on the wall, chucking darts in the general direction to pick which matches they show.
It’s early in the season, so new TV contracts mean some leagues will disappear, or might take a while to come back – currently Serie A and Ligue 1 haven’t reappeared on the show after being show last year. Unfortunately it seems for the show, their portfolio is decreasing in direct proportion to increasing amount of money in football, pricing them out of rights to show highlights.
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
Podcast Review - World Football (BBC)
Subscribing to this podcast gets you two podcasts for the price of one. The first, the World Football Program, which is originally broadcast on the World Service is presented by Alan Green. Now I hate Alan Green - his pompous level challeneges Andy Gray's at the best of times - but loathe as I am to admit it, he's very good on this. His knowledge as passion for the game come through as he links interviews and reports on diverse subjects - it genuinely is a World Football Show, with it's reports coming from BBC reporters based across the globe. It's perhaps a little on the dry side, but very interesting, and refreshing to get a much more global perspective, especially with the incredibly English-centric media in this country.
The second part of the podcast is edited highlights from the World Football Phone in, which is broadcast in the middle of the night on Radio 5 Live. Now, being in the middle of the night limits the audience somewhat, so listen for more than a couple of episodes and you'll start to become familiar with the listeners. It can be an aquired taste - such regular contact between presenter and listener allows them to build up more of a relationship than perhaps a "normal" football phone in would allow, and personally I find the in-jokes and the nicknames they have for each other cringeworthy, but move beyond that and it can be a very interesting broadcast.
With it being listener driven, by questions asked to the pundits by either phone or email, the quality depends on what's being asked this week, but there is no denying the pundits know their stuff. Stand-out pundit is Tim Vickery (the Vikipedia), representing South American football, and this man's knowledge is vast. Other pundits cover Australasian football, European Football, African Football, and there are two or three pundits each week. Many of the questions are centred on reports of players who may be heading to the UK to ply their trade, but there is also a variety similar to the other part of the podcast. I've only ever listened to the 40 or so minutes highlights show, I've never considered staying up to listen to it live, but if you want to keep up with more of what's going on in the world, it's a very worthwhile listen.
The second part of the podcast is edited highlights from the World Football Phone in, which is broadcast in the middle of the night on Radio 5 Live. Now, being in the middle of the night limits the audience somewhat, so listen for more than a couple of episodes and you'll start to become familiar with the listeners. It can be an aquired taste - such regular contact between presenter and listener allows them to build up more of a relationship than perhaps a "normal" football phone in would allow, and personally I find the in-jokes and the nicknames they have for each other cringeworthy, but move beyond that and it can be a very interesting broadcast.
With it being listener driven, by questions asked to the pundits by either phone or email, the quality depends on what's being asked this week, but there is no denying the pundits know their stuff. Stand-out pundit is Tim Vickery (the Vikipedia), representing South American football, and this man's knowledge is vast. Other pundits cover Australasian football, European Football, African Football, and there are two or three pundits each week. Many of the questions are centred on reports of players who may be heading to the UK to ply their trade, but there is also a variety similar to the other part of the podcast. I've only ever listened to the 40 or so minutes highlights show, I've never considered staying up to listen to it live, but if you want to keep up with more of what's going on in the world, it's a very worthwhile listen.
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