Right now, football fans throughout Europe and around the world are riveted to Euro 2008. But if you’ve watched “Through The Night” the past few days, you’ll have noticed that Sky Sports has led with different stories and relegated Euro 2008 news to the second or third stories of the night.
While Sky Sports doesn’t own the license rights to show Euro 2008 matches in England (rivals BBC and ITV are showing the matches instead), Sky Sports still owes its viewers unbiased news coverage.
Sure, Sky Sports is unable to even show highlights of the goals from the Euro 2008 matches, but their level of reporting is amateurish. Sky Sports should have reporters either at the grounds or in the fan zones in Switzerland and Austria. They could have recorded live or taped segments to bring “Through The Night” viewers a unique angle on the stories, but instead they get nothing other than the scoreline and a few seconds of Turkish fans jumping for joy in the Geneva fan zone.
Unfortunately this is nothing new from Sky Sports. During September 2006, BBC’s Panorama program revealed the bung scandals in English football. While it was the biggest football story in quite some time, “Through The Night” ignored the story and when Sky Sports did report about the news in their program, it was usually a short segment about midway through their show.
It’s obvious that Sky Sports and BBC are very competitive with their sports news coverage, but Sky Sports is acting like a spoiled brat. Instead of raising its standards and giving viewers the service they should receive, Sky Sports reveals itself as a poor sport yet again.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
It was exactly the same during the last World Cup. It’s quiet embarrassing to be honest, watching the reporters concentrating on Greyhound Racing, Super 14 rugby league and Speedway.
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Typical of Sky Sports.
They have the UK US Open rights, correct?
They would have spent the whole show on Lee Westwood had he made that birdie putt on 18 to get into the playoff.
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i wish fsc would stop broadcasting that waste of an hour on television
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I like the show typically but was amazed at the poor Euro coverage I saw the other night – the lead in was 20/20 cricket. UGH – then something else pointless which i cant remember, this on the day of the second round of Group C fixtures. It takes away from their integrity for sure – anyone know how Setanta news has covered it?
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Baster:
Well said, the one hour delayed broadcast is a waste of time. You want the news go to the Sky Sports Website or the BBC site.
Has Sky Sports made the informed choice of downplaying Euro 08 to their target audience. In the UK it’s tennis, cricket, and golf season, and whats a football tournament without and Uk/ Irish teams. No wonder why!
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Fox Soccer Report looked pretty sad when the tournament started. 3 guys sitting around discussing still photos. Has anyone caught the show lately? Is this still the case? If so, I wonder why they wouldn’t have access to highlights?
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For the same reason Sky doesn’t – both are NewsCorp.
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Fair play to Fox Soccer Report. On the same night that I wrote the article about the pathetic coverage by Sky Sports, the first 20 minutes of Fox Soccer Report had news and highlights from Euro 2008.
That’s pretty sad when Fox Soccer Report outdoes Sky Sports.
If you haven’t watched Fox Soccer Report lately, I recommend you do for one major reason: the highlights from Euro 2008 feature the commentators from England, so it’s nice to hear Steve Banyard and company commentating on the game.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
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