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2014 FIFA World Cup


skbl17

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It's 4:05 PM EDT on Thursday, June 12. The first match of the 2014 FIFA World Cup has begun...Brazil v. Croatia!

 

This is the official thread for discussion of coverage of the month-long event. As we know, this is the last World Cup that ESPN/ABC and Univision will air this decade (FOX and Telemundo take over for 2018 and 2022), so hopefully, they'll give this their all!

 

Who do you think will win? What surprises do you think ESPN and Univision will bring this time around? What about broadcasters in other countries?

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It's 4:05 PM EDT on Thursday, June 12. The first match of the 2014 FIFA World Cup has begun...Brazil v. Croatia!

 

This is the official thread for discussion of coverage of the month-long event. As we know, this is the last World Cup that ESPN/ABC and Univision will air this decade (FOX and Telemundo take over for 2018 and 2022), so hopefully, they'll give this their all!

 

Who do you think will win? What surprises do you think ESPN and Univision will bring this time around? What about broadcasters in other countries?

 

Just for fun I'll go with the US, it would be hilarious to watch their coach win after saying it was unrealistic (which it probably is).
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I was watching a livestream of ITV's coverage in the UK. It was pretty good. Adrian Chiles does well as host.

And I enjoyed the hell out of the game. Sure, it was slow, but I enjoyed it.

 

Their scoreboard looked rather funky; someone on Twitter said it reminded them of FIFA 98 on the PlayStation.

 

Meanwhile CBC just had the stock world feed design; the production style of their Olympics coverage has clearly rubbed off on it this time around. It is also CBC's last year too, as the rights to the next World Cup will go back to CTV and TSN (probably for good, given that CBC's getting out of the professional sports business)

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Ah, the sweet sounds of bad calls, dives, and yellow cards...the World Cup has arrived in spectacular (unless you're Croatian) fashion! Just some quick notes I've gathered from checking other feeds throughout the match (thanks to the glory of VPNs):

 

Canada: I don't get CBC/Radio-Canada's infatuation with using the world feed graphics for everything. They (mostly) did it during the 2014 Olympics, and they're doing it again now. Almost every graphic element, including those used during pre- and post-game shows, use the look used by the world feed during the actual games. Not saying that I hate it, but its interesting to think about. Their scoreboard was incredibly minimal, but I liked it.

 

UK: I tried watching ITV's coverage...first, there were a lot of technical issues with the stream. When the stream did work, the scoreboard was absolutely atrocious. The concept was good, but the execution was almost as bad as the calls made during the actual match. During the match, ITV's studio was damaged by some protestors. The BBC will air their first match tomorrow, so we'll see what they do then. Things haven't been going well for UK broadcasters thus far.

 

US (English): As usual, ESPN did pretty well this time around on air. On Twitter, well, their @ESPNFC account did, at first glance, seem biased in favor of Brazil. On air, the presentation was sharp, the commentators did a fairly good job, and the scoreboard was a nice play on the "official" look. Also, their studio in Brazil has a fantastic view of the shoreline.

 

US (Spanish): Unfortunately, I didn't get to see Univision coverage, so I'm not going to comment on the commentators or presentation. However, from the GIFs I've seen floating around on the interwebs, their scoreboard was a bit closer to the official style than ESPN.

 

The next match is Mexico v. Cameroon (12:00 PM ET, ESPN2, CBC, ITV). Also, the rematch of the 2010 final is tomorrow, Spain v. The Netherlands (3:00 PM ET, ESPN, CBC, BBC One). The USA's first match is a rematch of their 2010 match against Ghana (Monday at 6:00 PM ET, ESPN, CBC, BBC One).

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Ah, the sweet sounds of bad calls, dives, and yellow cards...the World Cup has arrived in spectacular (unless you're Croatian) fashion! Just some quick notes I've gathered from checking other feeds throughout the match (thanks to the glory of VPNs):

 

Canada: I don't get CBC/Radio-Canada's infatuation with using the world feed graphics for everything. They (mostly) did it during the 2014 Olympics, and they're doing it again now. Almost every graphic element, including those used during pre- and post-game shows, use the look used by the world feed during the actual games. Not saying that I hate it, but its interesting to think about. Their scoreboard was incredibly minimal, but I liked it.

 

UK: I tried watching ITV's coverage...first, there were a lot of technical issues with the stream. When the stream did work, the scoreboard was absolutely atrocious. The concept was good, but the execution was almost as bad as the calls made during the actual match. During the match, ITV's studio was damaged by some protestors. The BBC will air their first match tomorrow, so we'll see what they do then. Things haven't been going well for UK broadcasters thus far.

 

US (English): As usual, ESPN did pretty well this time around on air. On Twitter, well, their @ESPNFC account did, at first glance, seem biased in favor of Brazil. On air, the presentation was sharp, the commentators did a fairly good job, and the scoreboard was a nice play on the "official" look. Also, their studio in Brazil has a fantastic view of the shoreline.

 

US (Spanish): Unfortunately, I didn't get to see Univision coverage, so I'm not going to comment on the commentators or presentation. However, from the GIFs I've seen floating around on the interwebs, their scoreboard was a bit closer to the official style than ESPN.

 

The next match is Mexico v. Cameroon (12:00 PM ET, ESPN2, CBC, ITV). Also, the rematch of the 2010 final is tomorrow, Spain v. The Netherlands (3:00 PM ET, ESPN, CBC, BBC One). The USA's first match is a rematch of their 2010 match against Ghana (Monday at 6:00 PM ET, ESPN, CBC, BBC One).

I enjoyed ESPN's coverage. My one complaint is the scoreboard: the score was in a white font on a light blue background. A little hard to see/read. Dark blue would've been better.

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ESPN needs to do something with the score bug. Putting the score in white over a baby blue colored backdrop is just stupid. You can't see the numbers unless you squint.

 

I like the one for the World Feed better. ESPN just took the bug they used for the 2010 World Cup and put a blue backdrop behind it instead of the colors they used for 2010.

 

I agree, it look pretty cheap and hard to read. The rest of their graphics look really good.

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Canada: I don't get CBC/Radio-Canada's infatuation with using the world feed graphics for everything. They (mostly) did it during the 2014 Olympics, and they're doing it again now. Almost every graphic element, including those used during pre- and post-game shows, use the look used by the world feed during the actual games. Not saying that I hate it, but its interesting to think about. Their scoreboard was incredibly minimal, but I liked it.

 

Considering how they're about to lose tons of money losing the rights to the NHL (even though Rogers is putting some of the games on CBC, I think Rogers keeps the money), as well as efforts by the current government to cut back the amount of funding for the CBC, I can see why they're going the cheap route with the graphics.

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Considering how they're about to lose tons of money losing the rights to the NHL (even though Rogers is putting some of the games on CBC, I think Rogers keeps the money), as well as efforts by the current government to cut back the amount of funding for the CBC, I can see why they're going the cheap route with the graphics.

CBC/Radio-Canada isn't the only one that uses the feed graphics provided by broadcasting association. TSN also practices this on several soccer games. (i.e. UEFA Euro 2012.) So I won't call it "cheap" but just trying to align itself with FIFA graphics-wise.
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That's true. Of all of the broadcasters I've seen, the only ones that are using their own graphics are ESPN, ITV, and BBC. Everyone else I've seen uses the world GFX, including Univision (although they do add their Univision Deportes logo on the left side of the scoreboard).

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CBC/Radio-Canada isn't the only one that uses the feed graphics provided by broadcasting association. TSN also practices this on several soccer games. (i.e. UEFA Euro 2012.) So I won't call it "cheap" but just trying to align itself with FIFA graphics-wise.

 

Actually pretty much only the L3's are the world graphics. Everything else from both Sochi and the World Cup is custom and looks very good. For the latter, their intro has stylized renderings of Brazil in green and yellow; clearly, they didn't cheap out on that. It's a lot more vivid than ESPN (which went down more of a rustic route).

 

But yeah, like we noted earlier, CBC's Olympics graphics did have custom stuff too, but it looked like they were also striving for a level of continuity with the OBS graphics (at the previous Winter Olympics, CTV went all out, NBC-style, and even did their own production on the hockey games that didn't use the world feed graphics at all.)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Since this World Cup will be ESPN's/ABC's last before Fox takes over in 2018...very, very soon, I'd like to see CBS/Turner Sports go for the English language U.S. rights (with Univision still retaining the Spanish rights).

 

Just like March Madness, matches would be on TBS, TNT (who broadcast the 1990 WC), and truTV, with some weekend matches and the finals on CBS. As for hosts? Ernie Johnson, Greg Gumbel, and James Brown (sorry, no Jim Nantz).

 

By the way...the only World Cup that wasn't broadcast on U.S. TV at all was 1978, meaning we had to rely on newspapers and the radio for coverage.

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