Graphics very good, bit of a mixture though between their own and HBS. Scorebar seems clearer than the BBC's.
Opening titles very good, but music a bit disappointing.
Gabby seems a bit flat. Clive and Ruud doing well. Early doors on Gareth Southgate.
Sponsor bumpers almost as bad as ever, but possibly less cringeworthy/obtrusive than some previous efforts.
Think theHBS coverage of tonight's game is better than the opening - main camera for opening game seemed all over the place - too many rows of the crowd and not very even. Perhaps the gantry isn't so good.
Nice titles - loving the gold bars flying out at the end. Not sure about the music but then I've never really been a fan of the classical ones.
I agree you can't exact sing or even hum along to the classical ones
The World Cup 2002 titles are on TV Ark, but can anyone remember what each channel used in Euro 2004?
I think the BBC's music is the best they've had since 98 - call me cultured! But come on, it's the setting for a well known hymn (Thine be the glory, risen conquering son) so if little old ladies can belt it out in church, surely you can hum along. Stand up like a man and hum for England!
I liked ITV's opening titles, basically it was a montage of Previous World Cup's and their respective winners, being backed by a remix of Heroes by David Bowie, something different.
Though I liked ITV's France 98 music better, I've still got the CD somewhere...
France 98 and Rendez-Vous was a hit for ITV.
I think that a BBC Blog Writer summed it up as 'showing you what France is all about, at the time'.
It's slightly my favourite with Pavane, coming in second place.
I have to disagree on ITV's graphics, there are pretty poor really for a major tournament, ITV's titles are very good, but it pixellated into squares on Sky Digital!
Gabby sounds disappointed, I guess as she's playing second fiddle to Steve, haven't seen the BBC's efforts, but it's graphics are a class apart, I presume they are using the same signalling system that they used for the 2002 WC?
BTW if you want to know what the Germans are doing, well the pay TV provider used the official style HBS graphics, but they were in German, they used I think the official HBS scoreboard, not sure though, it was available in 4:3 and 16:9 and HD, two soundtracks, German and the original language in this case it was commentators from Equador, they also had an interactive option showcasing four additional camera angles, but they are not selectable to be full screen!
the FTA broadcaster ZDF had a totally different scoreboard, not at all related to the World Cup, didn't see if they are using HBS graphics though, but the picture quality was a lot better then the pay broadcaster!
Gary Bloom was the international english commentator for the Poland match with John Helm covering the Germany match, I've read that Andy Gray was the co-commentator for the second match!
Are they having some technical problems with the England game? The screen has gone blank a few times, and there's no graphics on the screen.
It's been suggested that it's a problem keeping the graphics in synch, i.e. because the BBC is relaying all the HBS info through its own graphics style. Don't know if it's true, but if it is, then "hoisted by their own petard".
And WTF is Motson on about, "you've probably got your windows open back home"!
Disappointed to see Ian Wright there too - according to the listings he wasn't supposed to be o, but he's turned up like a bad penny! Shame he wasn't late like last week!
Are they having some technical problems with the England game? The screen has gone blank a few times, and there's no graphics on the screen.
I noticed that the feed (including graphics) went blank about 3 times during the first half. I think they gave up and crossed to a feed without graphics eventually. About 5 minutes later, they faded the feed back in but it kept going black so it went to a clean feed. Finally, the graphics faded back up and it was fine.
Pretty crap game though. Paraguay dominated the second half.
Well done bbc