Time for BT Sport to sort themselves out

Yesterday I spent the evening in the Mill Hill Services club watching Manchester City stuff Tottenham Hotspur. I love watching football in pubs and clubs with a crowd. You get a completely different perspective on a match to sitting at home, where the atmosphere is calm and you can analyse things in a completely rational manner. Yesterdays match turned on the decision to disallow a goal scored by Tottenham Hotspur for offside. TV armchair fans have become used to the slick and professional presentation of SKY TV. What we witnessed yesterday was nothing short of scandalous. The coverage completely failed to show the relevant camera angle showing the offside line properly until several minutes after the incident. They also failed to show the view from the Linesman until much later. The graphics they used were derided in the club as looking like "subbuteo players". BT have spent a huge amount on the football contract, but seem to have spent nothing on investment in a proper backroom staff. One of my ex studio staff works as a live VT editor for SKY TV. When we discussed the job of a live VT editor, she told me that it is a highly specialised skill and few people are any good at it. Being able to supply the best camera angle and the best clip within seconds of the incident is a key part of the job and involves a whole team of people. It seems to me that BT are scrimping on this. Whilst the viewers at the club were interested in the football, by the end we were talking more about how bad BT Sport are at covering games, compared to SKY than what a great game of football we'd been watching. I wonder if the executives at BT who decide how much they want to spend on technical support for the games ever watch football at all, let alone in clubs and pubs. They need to sort it out ASAP as they are in danger of becoming a laughing stock.

Guest Blog - Rupert Murdoch gets green light totake over Sky TV

Guest Post by Allan Grote,

The Government has decided that Rupert Murdoch can gain control of one of Britain's largest news corporations.  Let's flood our politicians with tens of thousands of messages telling them we want Murdoch’s hands off our democracy: You can send a message to help stop this by clicking here -

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_rupert_murdoch_uk/?cl=968449309&v=8532





Murdoch has used his vast media empire to push war in Iraq, elect George W Bush, and block global action on climate change, and if he wins this week in Britain he will use his networks here to undermine all the issues that we care about. He has manipulated US, British and Australian democracy for years, but now he wants more complete control. In the US, most of the likely Republican presidential candidates are actually paid employees of Murdoch! When his Fox News Network was shunned by Barack Obama as a mere propaganda mouthpiece, it spawned the far right "tea party"and broadcast constant, often hate-filled attacks against Obama and his healthcare and peace agenda -- resulting in a huge win for Republicans in the 2010 congressional elections.

Murdoch media staff have trampled laws and standards when gathering news. Several News Corporation executives approved phone hacking and, when a formal investigation began, they had regular secret meetings with senior police officers who then failed to investigate the full extent of the scandal. Our government should punish such an organisation, not allow it monopoly powers over our media. But if Rupert Murdoch is allowed to buy all of BSkyB this week, he will soon own half of our newspapers and television. This should not be allowed in any democracy.

We can turn the tide on this powerful threat to our democracy. In the end the News of the World phone hacking scandal forced David Cameron’s communications director to resign. And a mass outcry from Canadian Avaaz members recently prevented a Murdoch-style TV network from getting taxpayer funding and stopped the Canadian government from removing the journalistic standards that would prevent this new network from spreading lies to the public. The fight against Murdoch has just begun, but already we've begun to win. Let's do the same in Britain! Click below to send an urgent message and send this on to everyone:

Across the Arab world and beyond, people are coming together in common cause across all boundaries. Murdoch's power is the ability to divide. His networks spew fear and misinformation, dividing left from right, citizens from foreigners, muslim from western, immigrants from non-immigrants, etc. Murdoch knows that democracy must be divided before it can be conquered. This week, let's show him what unity looks like.

Sources:

Murdoch close to deal with regulators over Sky
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a40fc482-4060-11e0-9140-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1FHWHwqJE

If Murdoch gets BSkyB, it will be a victory for monopoly capitalism
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/27/rupert-murdoch-bskyb-monopolies

'News of World' bosses dined with Met chief
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/news-of-world-bosses-dined-with-met-chief-2222814.html

Who is Rupert Murdoch?
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2004/07/b122948.html
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Allan Grote is a local environmental activist. Guest blogs are always welcome at the Barnet Eye. Just send via the link in the sidebar