The scheduling of games by BBC Scotland is getting odder and odder. Often there is a problem with midweek games where, if they over-run or if there is extra time the game is shunted over to BBC2 to allow for the 10pm news. Always looks clumsy, but I can see the point. They can't move it on to BBC2 because it's still running when Newsnight is on.
But they've outclassed themselves for Wednesday night. Ukraine v Scotland will start off on BBC2 Scotland at 5.45pm. Then it's moving over to BBC1 Scotland at 7pm. A really, really odd decision which will just serve to annoy people at home and mean chaos for pubs.
Presumably there's no reason why the 6pm news couldn't be shunted over to BBC2 for one night. As far as I can tell there is a version of BBC2 Scotland on satellite and cable, and it doesn't share the same problem as the English regions.
I don't get it. Why not a) Show the whole game on BBC2 or preferably b) show the whole game on BBC1, and shunt the news over?
If you want crazy scheduling...football was on both BBC One (England game), BBC Two NI, and BBC Three (both NI game) between 7:00-7:05 last night. True it was only for five minutes.
And not to upset Northern Ireland supporters - but why did the BBC feel the need to send two commentary teams to the NI game yesteday! Could BBC Three not just have taken BBC Two NI's commentary?
And not to upset Northern Ireland supporters - but why did the BBC feel the need to send two commentary teams to the NI game yesteday! Could BBC Three not just have taken BBC Two NI's commentary?
I've always wondered why they send the commentators to the actual location considering most of the time they are too far away to get a good view of the action and are just watching the game on monitors. Wouldn't it be cheaper to have them in the studio?
It can be quite vital actually. If they are dependent on what they see on monitors then they can miss vital action during replays. Watch Eurosport (who only do commentary from their booths in France) to see how they struggle with any off-screen offside decisions. Most of the time they'll watch the game on monitors, but they need to have the option of seeing the game unfold in front of them as well. How many times have we had commentators breaking away from describing the replay because something vital is happening off screen?
A classic example from STV (who else?). During a Rangers v Celtic match one year a commentator was so busy watching a replay of a goal for one of the teams he didn't realise that it had actually been ruled offside. Somehow (God only knows how) no-one else on the team clocked this either. Somewhat sheepishly, later on in the match, he had to announce that the goal had been disallowed and the score was actually something else to what he had been describing for quite a while.
But they've outclassed themselves for Wednesday night. Ukraine v Scotland will start off on BBC2 Scotland at 5.45pm. Then it's moving over to BBC1 Scotland at 7pm. A really, really odd decision which will just serve to annoy people at home and mean chaos for pubs.
Surely it's not that difficult to just the the channel from BBC1 to BBC2. Do they do it in the middle of the match or during half time?
Presumably it'll be done right at the end of half time/start of the second half. I would guess Reporting Scotland will finish five minutes early and link straight over to allow for any early start.
It's obviously not that difficult to switch channels (although I'm sure pub owners, who'll have packed premises and enough things to do without switching a channel over when they suddenly realised it's switched over), but it's just odd. The network would never do it for an England game.