I concur wholeheartedly. The interesting thing is that, according to comments attributed to Owen himself when he was unveiled as co-commentator, he was expecting to be a pundit too. I can only assume that someone very senior at either BT or Sunset and Vine thought that he could do co-commentary and refuses to bow to the criticism he has received. Someone at BT obviously likes him. Remember that he appeared in those adverts with Gareth Bale, Wes Brown and Shay Given when BT got those DTT slots to show Sky Sports 1 & 2.
I wrote to Simon Green, head of BT Sport, at the end of last season, detailing just how unsuitable Michael Owen is as a co-commentator. I pleaded with him not to continue usiing him, but to move him into another role. Alas, to no avail. He is truly awful and a million miles away from ever being acceptable in the role. BT should have started him off with a role such as the one they've got him in tonight on SportsHub, where he can just chat about football and offer his opinions, away from the pressure of a live game, and where his voice doesn't grate quite as much.
Agreed. I actually thought he was decent on "Fletch & Sav" where he was just sat on a sofa chatting about football with 3 others. He doesn't suit commentary at all.
Just me who's not offended or even that bothered by his co commentary? Some people need to chill out a bit in my opinion!
Everyone will have different opinions. The majority seem to think that he isn't a good co-commentator, and I'd agree with them. There are far better out there, and putting Owen who was completely unproven in the role in such a high profile position was a mistake from BT. Sadly one which they don't seem to want to acknowledge as of yet.
Just me who's not offended or even that bothered by his co commentary? Some people need to chill out a bit in my opinion!
I respect your opinion, of course. You're not the first I've heard to express such a view. However, I've yet to stumble across a single person who offers a positive view on his co-commentary which has the same strength of feeling as those who have been critical.
Just me who's not offended or even that bothered by his co commentary? Some people need to chill out a bit in my opinion!
The problem with a bad commentator or co-commentator is they can have a negative impact of one's enjoyment of the match. Turning down the sound is far from great, and if you try to listen to the radio commentray instead it only needs to be a second or two out of synch and that doesn't work either.
I think that's why people get so fired up about Owen, and some of the other less than wonderful co-commentators. I don't think e.g. Andy Townsend is that bad, but clearly a lot of people do, judging by the comments on here and other forums.
Cricket, on the other hand, seems blessed with lots of terrific ex-players in the booth. Boycott can be a little grating at times, but he is at least entertaining.
I wrote to Simon Green, head of BT Sport, at the end of last season, detailing just how unsuitable Michael Owen is as a co-commentator. I pleaded with him not to continue usiing him, but to move him into another role. Alas, to no avail. He is truly awful and a million miles away from ever being acceptable in the role. BT should have started him off with a role such as the one they've got him in tonight on SportsHub, where he can just chat about football and offer his opinions, away from the pressure of a live game, and where his voice doesn't grate quite as much.
I wrote to Simon Green praising Owen's co-commentaries so maybe our dialogues cancelled out!
I believe I've read previously that Phil Neville was initially BT's first target as co-commentator but he opted for coaching instead. It's interesting they haven't gone back for him now. I actually really don't rate Owen as a studio pundit. I've never liked him on MOTD because I've found him rather slow and indecisive and to this extent wasn't expecting to rate him at all as a co-commentator but have been pleasantly surprised.
BT Sport 1
w/e 10 Aug 2014
1 FA COMMUNITY SHIELD (SUN 1430)874
2 PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY (SUN 1200)244
3 RIO MEETS JOSE (SUN 1731)207
4 UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE (THU 1930)53
5 BT SPORT FILMS (SUN 1745)51
6 PREMIERSHIP RUGBY 7S SERIES (FRI 1745)32
7 FA COMMUNITY SHIELD (SUN 2300)30
8 FRENCH LIGUE 1 (SUN 1959)28
9 THE VANARAMA CONFERENCE (SAT 1200)26
10 EUROPEAN FOOTBALL SHOW (SUN 1846)26
BT Sport 2
w/e 10 Aug 2014
7 day data (000s)
1 MOTOGP 2014 (SUN 1840)133
2 MOTOGP 2014 (SUN 1705)84
3 MOTOGP 2014 (SUN 1530)78
4 MOTOGP 2014 (SAT 1700)45
5 MOTOGP 2014 (FRI 1805)37
6 MOTOGP 2014 (SAT 1400)37
7 MOTOGP 2014 (FRI 1400)26
8 WTA - ROGERS CUP (WED 1659)16
9 BTS FILLERS (FRI 1757)15
10 SERIE A 2013/14 (FRI 1646)14
ESPN
w/e 10 Aug 2014
7 day data (000s)
1 MLB (MON 1700)21
2 FRENCH LIGUE 1 (FRI 1925)18
3 WTA - ROGERS CUP 2014 (SUN 1800)14
4 BASEBALL TONIGHT (FRI 2130)13
5 ESPN KICKS (SUN 1541)7
6 COLLEGE FOOTBALL LIVE (TUE 2331)7
7 MLB (WED 1900)7
8 MLB (THU 1059)6
9 CPL T20 (THU 2050)6
10 NASCAR SPRINT CUP HIGHLIGHTS (MON 2131)5
Just to comment on the above figures I can see some excellent figures for the Community Shield. Also very good figures were those for Liv-Dor it was a meaningless friendly on the opening week of the Championship which was being shown on Sky along with SPL football.
Moto GP continues to prove it's a very good filler for BT to have accquired with it consistently topping 100,000 viewers at some point in the week. It's a shame that it went head to head with the brilliant European Football Show as it probably lost the show a number of potential viewers. I'd like it to get around 50k or so on a weekly basis but its just getting it out there and recognised.
Again decent figures for the Non League game as it went head to head with Sheffiled United v Bristol City on SS1. United have a large fanbase for League 1 - as do Bristol City and the fact it's kick off was at 12.15 meant the Conference football was always going to lose viewers but fair play with a respectable 26k.
And ESPN got some decent figures with four events reaching into five figures!
Moto GP continues to prove it's a very good filler
Speak for youself. MotoGP is the only reason I want BT Sport and would rather they made room in the schedules for a quali highlights/rerun as well as for a full race rerun (not just highlights). It can be overnight if they like, just so long as I can have a second go at recording them when quali fails (as it has several times this summer). For me, it is the footy which gets in the way.
Depends. Did BT really part double or triple BBC's contact to get those numbers?
Me thinks not.
I think MotoGP is rating about as would be expected.
It's much more than filler - and it is rating much higher than filler.
But at the same time live Moto GP rights are not that significant - even if BT did double / treble what BBC was paying they are still paying a comparatively small sum.
I don't recall a precise rights value being reported but presumably it's now something in the rough region of about £4m or £5m per year - for that level of rights quality it's rating about where it should do.
Look at it this way - BT is paying £6.5m per PL game. They are paying roughly the same or a bit less per season of MotoGP that is achieving an audience for each race of about 15% to 20% of its PL audiences + it's filling a lot of airtime + giving the BT Sport channels credibility as all round sport channels + bringing in a few dedicated MotoGP fans who don't follow football.
In the round, it looks OK.
Finally, compare MotoGP's audiences to its audiences for European football leagues about which we hear so much on this thread - it's operating at a significantly higher level than any of the European leagues.
I wrote to Simon Green praising Owen's co-commentaries so maybe our dialogues cancelled out!
Indeed. It appears so.;-)
I actually really don't rate Owen as a studio pundit. I've never liked him on MOTD because I've found him rather slow and indecisive and to this extent wasn't expecting to rate him at all as a co-commentator but have been pleasantly surprised.
If he eventually settles into one role or the other, then one of us is going to be very disappointed. Simon Green told me in his response that they are thinking hard about their Champions League coverage next season. I suspect that they may be working towards giving themselves the option of using Owen in both roles, rather like Sky do with Gary Neville. Time will tell.
From a logistical point of view there is no reason for BT not to use the same presenters / pundits / commentators / co-commentators on their CL coverage as they use on their PL coverage - because they only have one PL game each week on a Sat so there are no time / workload constraints in using the same people in midweek on CL.
However there are obviously several CL games to deal with and there are constraints for anyone working Tue + Wed if onsite overseas so additional people will also be needed.
However I think the expectation should be that BT's "1st choice CL team" will be the same as its PL team. Why wouldn't it be?
BBC, ITV and Sky (***) all use the same 1st choice team on all their different football competitions so why wouldn't BT?
(***) The only exception is Sky where Stelling presents CL but there are reasons for that - Chamberlin is doing PL on Sun + Mon and also Chamberlin became PL presenter "from nowhere" when Keys left - so Stelling provided a sense of continuity / familiarity being a high profile, existing, Sky presenter. The same issues do not apply to any other broadcaster.
Has to be regarded as pleasing figures for BT's opening game even more so considering how close they got to SNF on a free weekend's viewing for Sky.
Next week's figures should I would expect, half with Ast-New a game with two of the biggest fan-bases outside the "big seven" however it's not a huge match on paper. Having said that, nor is it a dud match for BT and they picked well here to ease fears of quota overload on the big teams.
If 818k is the average for Man-Swa, what do you feel we can expect from the other PL games such as Bur-Man, Man-Eve, Ars-Mcy, Liv-Eve, Mcy-Tot, Liv-Che?
Sky Deutschland are reshuffling their 'Topspiel der Woche' lineup - that is the main Bundesliga game of the week, shown on a Saturday evening.
It's been announced today that Owen Hargreaves has joined Sky Deutschland as a pundit to cover the 'Topspiel' games, Champions League coverage and, occasionally, their Sunday night talk show 'Sky 90'. He'll sit alongside Didi Hamann, Lothar Matthaus and Christoph Metzelder on 'Topspiel' games.
I think this may signal either a complete breakaway from BT Sport, or a partial split, with him returning over the Christmas period.
Sky Deutschland are reshuffling their 'Topspiel der Woche' lineup - that is the main Bundesliga game of the week, shown on a Saturday evening.
It's been announced today that Owen Hargreaves has joined Sky Deutschland as a pundit to cover the 'Topspiel' games, Champions League coverage and, occasionally, their Sunday night talk show 'Sky 90'. He'll sit alongside Didi Hamann, Lothar Matthaus and Christoph Metzelder on 'Topspiel' games.
I think this may signal either a complete breakaway from BT Sport, or a partial split, with him returning over the Christmas period.
Probably answers the question as to why we haven't seen him so far this season, not a great loos for BT if he has moved on as I personally found him a very bland sounding pundit.
However I think the expectation should be that BT's "1st choice CL team" will be the same as its PL team. Why wouldn't it be?
BBC, ITV and Sky (***) all use the same 1st choice team on all their different football competitions so why wouldn't BT?
This might be true. The only think I would say is I think in general the Champions League will be a higher standard of competition than most of their current Premier League coverage so they might be able to attract bigger names on a regular basis compared to their general standard of Premier League games. Of course it might also present them the opportunity to 'poach' some big names from other broadcasters.
Of course the likes of BBC and ITV do often use some high profile guests for the World Cup only for instance so I wouldn't rule out the possibility of BT doing the same. There might be some high profile pundits who don't want to do regular work throughout the season but are happy to be guests for the big Champions League matches.
Personally I think there might be a few significant changes from what we're currently seeing on BT's Premier League coverage by the time they start showing the Champions League. And regarding Michael Owen even if they want to keep him on co-commentary they might feel they need a second big-name co-commentator if they're showing 1st choice games from different countries on Tuesday and Wednesday, etc.
Next week's figures should I would expect, half with Ast-New a game with two of the biggest fan-bases outside the "big seven" however it's not a huge match on paper. Having said that, nor is it a dud match for BT and they picked well here to ease fears of quota overload on the big teams.
If 818k is the average for Man-Swa, what do you feel we can expect from the other PL games such as Bur-Man, Man-Eve, Ars-Mcy, Liv-Eve, Mcy-Tot, Liv-Che?
I would expect the Man U v Everton Sunday fixture to be very close to 1k equally the Liverpool Chelsea game will rate highly as well.
To be fair all those games you have listed should all easily exceed 700k or be pretty close to say the least.
This might be true. The only think I would say is I think in general the Champions League will be a higher standard of competition than most of their current Premier League coverage so they might be able to attract bigger names on a regular basis compared to their general standard of Premier League games. Of course it might also present them the opportunity to 'poach' some big names from other broadcasters.
Of course the likes of BBC and ITV do often use some high profile guests for the World Cup only for instance so I wouldn't rule out the possibility of BT doing the same. There might be some high profile pundits who don't want to do regular work throughout the season but are happy to be guests for the big Champions League matches.
Personally I think there might be a few significant changes from what we're currently seeing on BT's Premier League coverage by the time they start showing the Champions League. And regarding Michael Owen even if they want to keep him on co-commentary they might feel they need a second big-name co-commentator if they're showing 1st choice games from different countries on Tuesday and Wednesday, etc.
Yes, all fair points.
My reason for posting was that there seemed to be a proliferation of posts suggesting wholesale changes left, right and centre and such changes seem totally unrealistic in my view.
But the points you make are, as usual, much more sensible.
My reason for posting was that there seemed to be a proliferation of posts suggesting wholesale changes left, right and centre and such changes seem totally unrealistic in my view.
But the points you make are, as usual, much more sensible.
Much like commentators they will need more co-commentators and hopefully decent ones at that.
Your right even if they use Owen for their main game they will need others to cover other English teams that night, time will tell who however.
Highly unlikely that the problems with streaming quality were related to my ISP.
I regularly use other streaming services with a much more consistent quality and on the few occasions I've had issues with them such as NFL's gamepass on a Sunday evening (peak time much like M.Utd vs Swansea on BT) it has certainly not been unique to me.
Last season this was a regular problem for many users and although they seem to be now avoiding the stream dropping altogether - they are certainly unable to provide a consistent high quality stream via the webpage whatever the quality of other avenues which presumably aren't a direct like for like replication of the web page based stream.
I wonder if there may be some sort of partnership between BT and BeIn when it comes to the CL and commentators?
I believe Sky and BeIn share commentaries at present for the CL, and this may be something worth looking at for BT - their loan of Andy Gray in the FA Cup last season indicates there's certainly room for some form of relationship. The best thing about such a partnership would be that BT wouldn't be able to fill their broadcast of the games with promotion of upcoming content!
Even without BeIn I reckon we could have a very strong roster of commentators on BT. Indeed the likes of Darke, Fletcher, Rae, Drury, Wilson and Pearce are all very much realistic possibilities.
Next week's figures should I would expect, half with Ast-New a game with two of the biggest fan-bases outside the "big seven" however it's not a huge match on paper. Having said that, nor is it a dud match for BT and they picked well here to ease fears of quota overload on the big teams.
If 818k is the average for Man-Swa, what do you feel we can expect from the other PL games such as Bur-Man, Man-Eve, Ars-Mcy, Liv-Eve, Mcy-Tot, Liv-Che?
Forgive my ignorance here, but am I missing something? How can those figures be classed as impressive when you factor in ALL of BT Broadband customers get the channel free...how many households is that when you factor in Virgin XL customers. On a slightly different matter, has it ever been discussed what ROCE BT are receiving by the investments made in BT Sport? Yes they are stemming the loss of broadband customers but has it actually been worth it considering the amount paid out for rights.
Comments
Everyone will have different opinions. The majority seem to think that he isn't a good co-commentator, and I'd agree with them. There are far better out there, and putting Owen who was completely unproven in the role in such a high profile position was a mistake from BT. Sadly one which they don't seem to want to acknowledge as of yet.
I respect your opinion, of course. You're not the first I've heard to express such a view. However, I've yet to stumble across a single person who offers a positive view on his co-commentary which has the same strength of feeling as those who have been critical.
The problem with a bad commentator or co-commentator is they can have a negative impact of one's enjoyment of the match. Turning down the sound is far from great, and if you try to listen to the radio commentray instead it only needs to be a second or two out of synch and that doesn't work either.
I think that's why people get so fired up about Owen, and some of the other less than wonderful co-commentators. I don't think e.g. Andy Townsend is that bad, but clearly a lot of people do, judging by the comments on here and other forums.
Cricket, on the other hand, seems blessed with lots of terrific ex-players in the booth. Boycott can be a little grating at times, but he is at least entertaining.
I wrote to Simon Green praising Owen's co-commentaries so maybe our dialogues cancelled out!
I believe I've read previously that Phil Neville was initially BT's first target as co-commentator but he opted for coaching instead. It's interesting they haven't gone back for him now. I actually really don't rate Owen as a studio pundit. I've never liked him on MOTD because I've found him rather slow and indecisive and to this extent wasn't expecting to rate him at all as a co-commentator but have been pleasantly surprised.
1.32m (8.9%) average for SS1's coverage of Saturday Night Football.
w/e 10 Aug 2014
1 FA COMMUNITY SHIELD (SUN 1430)874
2 PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY (SUN 1200)244
3 RIO MEETS JOSE (SUN 1731)207
4 UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE (THU 1930)53
5 BT SPORT FILMS (SUN 1745)51
6 PREMIERSHIP RUGBY 7S SERIES (FRI 1745)32
7 FA COMMUNITY SHIELD (SUN 2300)30
8 FRENCH LIGUE 1 (SUN 1959)28
9 THE VANARAMA CONFERENCE (SAT 1200)26
10 EUROPEAN FOOTBALL SHOW (SUN 1846)26
BT Sport 2
w/e 10 Aug 2014
7 day data (000s)
1 MOTOGP 2014 (SUN 1840)133
2 MOTOGP 2014 (SUN 1705)84
3 MOTOGP 2014 (SUN 1530)78
4 MOTOGP 2014 (SAT 1700)45
5 MOTOGP 2014 (FRI 1805)37
6 MOTOGP 2014 (SAT 1400)37
7 MOTOGP 2014 (FRI 1400)26
8 WTA - ROGERS CUP (WED 1659)16
9 BTS FILLERS (FRI 1757)15
10 SERIE A 2013/14 (FRI 1646)14
ESPN
w/e 10 Aug 2014
7 day data (000s)
1 MLB (MON 1700)21
2 FRENCH LIGUE 1 (FRI 1925)18
3 WTA - ROGERS CUP 2014 (SUN 1800)14
4 BASEBALL TONIGHT (FRI 2130)13
5 ESPN KICKS (SUN 1541)7
6 COLLEGE FOOTBALL LIVE (TUE 2331)7
7 MLB (WED 1900)7
8 MLB (THU 1059)6
9 CPL T20 (THU 2050)6
10 NASCAR SPRINT CUP HIGHLIGHTS (MON 2131)5
Moto GP continues to prove it's a very good filler for BT to have accquired with it consistently topping 100,000 viewers at some point in the week. It's a shame that it went head to head with the brilliant European Football Show as it probably lost the show a number of potential viewers. I'd like it to get around 50k or so on a weekly basis but its just getting it out there and recognised.
Again decent figures for the Non League game as it went head to head with Sheffiled United v Bristol City on SS1. United have a large fanbase for League 1 - as do Bristol City and the fact it's kick off was at 12.15 meant the Conference football was always going to lose viewers but fair play with a respectable 26k.
And ESPN got some decent figures with four events reaching into five figures!
Depends. Did BT really part double or triple BBC's contact to get those numbers?
Me thinks not.
I think MotoGP is rating about as would be expected.
It's much more than filler - and it is rating much higher than filler.
But at the same time live Moto GP rights are not that significant - even if BT did double / treble what BBC was paying they are still paying a comparatively small sum.
I don't recall a precise rights value being reported but presumably it's now something in the rough region of about £4m or £5m per year - for that level of rights quality it's rating about where it should do.
Look at it this way - BT is paying £6.5m per PL game. They are paying roughly the same or a bit less per season of MotoGP that is achieving an audience for each race of about 15% to 20% of its PL audiences + it's filling a lot of airtime + giving the BT Sport channels credibility as all round sport channels + bringing in a few dedicated MotoGP fans who don't follow football.
In the round, it looks OK.
Finally, compare MotoGP's audiences to its audiences for European football leagues about which we hear so much on this thread - it's operating at a significantly higher level than any of the European leagues.
Has to be regarded as pleasing figures for BT's opening game even more so considering how close they got to SNF on a free weekend's viewing for Sky.
If he eventually settles into one role or the other, then one of us is going to be very disappointed. Simon Green told me in his response that they are thinking hard about their Champions League coverage next season. I suspect that they may be working towards giving themselves the option of using Owen in both roles, rather like Sky do with Gary Neville. Time will tell.
However there are obviously several CL games to deal with and there are constraints for anyone working Tue + Wed if onsite overseas so additional people will also be needed.
However I think the expectation should be that BT's "1st choice CL team" will be the same as its PL team. Why wouldn't it be?
BBC, ITV and Sky (***) all use the same 1st choice team on all their different football competitions so why wouldn't BT?
(***) The only exception is Sky where Stelling presents CL but there are reasons for that - Chamberlin is doing PL on Sun + Mon and also Chamberlin became PL presenter "from nowhere" when Keys left - so Stelling provided a sense of continuity / familiarity being a high profile, existing, Sky presenter. The same issues do not apply to any other broadcaster.
Next week's figures should I would expect, half with Ast-New a game with two of the biggest fan-bases outside the "big seven" however it's not a huge match on paper. Having said that, nor is it a dud match for BT and they picked well here to ease fears of quota overload on the big teams.
If 818k is the average for Man-Swa, what do you feel we can expect from the other PL games such as Bur-Man, Man-Eve, Ars-Mcy, Liv-Eve, Mcy-Tot, Liv-Che?
Sky Deutschland are reshuffling their 'Topspiel der Woche' lineup - that is the main Bundesliga game of the week, shown on a Saturday evening.
It's been announced today that Owen Hargreaves has joined Sky Deutschland as a pundit to cover the 'Topspiel' games, Champions League coverage and, occasionally, their Sunday night talk show 'Sky 90'. He'll sit alongside Didi Hamann, Lothar Matthaus and Christoph Metzelder on 'Topspiel' games.
I think this may signal either a complete breakaway from BT Sport, or a partial split, with him returning over the Christmas period.
Probably answers the question as to why we haven't seen him so far this season, not a great loos for BT if he has moved on as I personally found him a very bland sounding pundit.
This might be true. The only think I would say is I think in general the Champions League will be a higher standard of competition than most of their current Premier League coverage so they might be able to attract bigger names on a regular basis compared to their general standard of Premier League games. Of course it might also present them the opportunity to 'poach' some big names from other broadcasters.
Of course the likes of BBC and ITV do often use some high profile guests for the World Cup only for instance so I wouldn't rule out the possibility of BT doing the same. There might be some high profile pundits who don't want to do regular work throughout the season but are happy to be guests for the big Champions League matches.
Personally I think there might be a few significant changes from what we're currently seeing on BT's Premier League coverage by the time they start showing the Champions League. And regarding Michael Owen even if they want to keep him on co-commentary they might feel they need a second big-name co-commentator if they're showing 1st choice games from different countries on Tuesday and Wednesday, etc.
I would expect the Man U v Everton Sunday fixture to be very close to 1k equally the Liverpool Chelsea game will rate highly as well.
To be fair all those games you have listed should all easily exceed 700k or be pretty close to say the least.
Yes, all fair points.
My reason for posting was that there seemed to be a proliferation of posts suggesting wholesale changes left, right and centre and such changes seem totally unrealistic in my view.
But the points you make are, as usual, much more sensible.
Much like commentators they will need more co-commentators and hopefully decent ones at that.
Your right even if they use Owen for their main game they will need others to cover other English teams that night, time will tell who however.
Don't rule out some kind of role for Andy Gray
Highly unlikely that the problems with streaming quality were related to my ISP.
I regularly use other streaming services with a much more consistent quality and on the few occasions I've had issues with them such as NFL's gamepass on a Sunday evening (peak time much like M.Utd vs Swansea on BT) it has certainly not been unique to me.
Last season this was a regular problem for many users and although they seem to be now avoiding the stream dropping altogether - they are certainly unable to provide a consistent high quality stream via the webpage whatever the quality of other avenues which presumably aren't a direct like for like replication of the web page based stream.
I believe Sky and BeIn share commentaries at present for the CL, and this may be something worth looking at for BT - their loan of Andy Gray in the FA Cup last season indicates there's certainly room for some form of relationship. The best thing about such a partnership would be that BT wouldn't be able to fill their broadcast of the games with promotion of upcoming content!
Even without BeIn I reckon we could have a very strong roster of commentators on BT. Indeed the likes of Darke, Fletcher, Rae, Drury, Wilson and Pearce are all very much realistic possibilities.
Forgive my ignorance here, but am I missing something? How can those figures be classed as impressive when you factor in ALL of BT Broadband customers get the channel free...how many households is that when you factor in Virgin XL customers. On a slightly different matter, has it ever been discussed what ROCE BT are receiving by the investments made in BT Sport? Yes they are stemming the loss of broadband customers but has it actually been worth it considering the amount paid out for rights.
I'm sorry but he really is truly awful i've switched over because his commentary is that bad:o