Originally Posted by chrisr21:
“So the game we're getting early on Sunday will have Fox's number 7 commentary pairing, with 2 guys making their commentary debut. Excellent!”
I understand your point. I imagine they have chosen the Lions with the second international series game in mind. Also, the NFC North is generally a strong division although the same could be said for others. Which game do you think they should be showing instead? Pittsburgh @ Cleveland is a good AFC North clash? Carolina @ Cincinnati features two teams with strong starts to the season?
Originally Posted by hendero:
“I wonder if it's time for Sky to decide to just show the best game, especially if the alternative is likely to be a dud, as was Jets-Chargers. How many UK-based Jets and Chargers fans are there vs total NFL fans in the UK? If the goal is to grow the sport in the UK, the best way to do it is to have what looks like the best match-ups in every time slot.
On an unrelated subject, the Sky studio team do seem a bit better this year. Shaun Gayle is a definite plus, I like how they are dropping in Red Zone highlights and spending less time waffling about nothing. Neil seems a bit more comfortable on camera, and is it just me or is Kev a little more focussed?”
It's a difficult balance between quality games and showing all of the teams. I don't know whether Sky's contract comes with any caveats about showing all of the teams, or if there is a maximum/minimum quota. Of course it's easy with hindsight to judge the games. Who would have predicted Tampa @ New Orleans would have been one of the better matches last week?
Overall I agree that the coverage has improved this year. I wasn't too impressed a couple of weeks back when Sky were flicking between game coverage and Rezone. It was like leaving a two year old in charge of the remote control! That seems to have settled down now and I think with the 6pm slot, sky do a reasonable job of keeping across all of the action during the breaks in the main game. The game itself probably doesn't need to much analysis during the breaks as the Redzone coverage fills in well.
For the 9pm slot when there are not so many games they have more time for analysis, emails, tweets etc. I think Shawn Gayle contributes well and I much prefer him to Cecil Martin. The TNF shows work well with just the American coverage.
Channel 4's production has really sharpened up as well and is not as rough around the edges as it has been in the past. Nat and Mike continue to work well together and the analysis here is important and Mike seems to reinforce some of the excellent points made by Chis Collingsworth in the commentary. I don't feel that "Ask Mike" as been a big loss. The highlights programme on Monday is also improved. Shame it can't be 24 hours later to include the MNF match though!