23rd March, 2015
Reply #1: Monday
Name: Matt Riley
Team supported: n/a
Twitter: @mattRiley16
The key phrase for TV coverage of the TPL is quantity over quality. Trusport might have wall-to-wall televised games, but there seems little in the way of innovation, preparation or an understanding of how much background viewers need to add to improve on watching games on mute. With the increased profile of Thai football across ASEAN after the AFF Suzuki Cup triumph, the lack of English commentary continues to restrict the chance for the game here to establish new markets. The continuing refusal of Trusport and the Thai FA to give highlights to Fox Sports also makes the game here seem parochial and lacking marketing ambition.
The large majority of studio pundits expertly emulate rabbits caught in the headlights of a speeding car and the Thai commentary is often limited at best to the verbal equivalent of oohs and ahhs. The shining example of a more professional approach is Khun Nut who is not only unusual in the Thai football world for being a woman, but an even more rare example of a highly profesional presenter who researches deeply and talks with a calm authority.
Television coverage needs to be much more innovative, accessible to foreign viewers and better researched if Thai football is to be seen as anything more that a mutated version of the beautiful game only available for the Thais, of the Thais and about the Thais. It also needs teeth so that it can bravely highlight the weekly carnival of unprofessional behaviour on and adjacent to the pitch and be a force for good instead of being happy to be the bland leading the bland.
Reply #2: Tuesday
Name: Malcolm Imray
Team supported: n/a
Twitter: @BKKFootballBlog
I’ve got to say that I’m generally satisfied with True Visions coverage of Thai football. Every top flight game is shown live and many of them are being screened in HD now. With so much choice, it’s actually made me a bit lazy to attend games particularly during the rainy season.
As far as commentary goes, I’ve gotten use to listening to Thai. It helps me to learn the correct pronunciations of the Thai names although the childish giggling gets on my nerves. Strangely enough, I can’t stand watching European football with Thai commentators. I’d rather watch it with the sound turned down.
It would be nice to have some English speaking pundits in the studio to analyze the match though. That doesn’t mean picking ex EPL stars who have zero interest in anything outside of the English game. There are guys like John Wilkinson and Steve Darby that know the Thai game and they have experience of being pundits with ESPN/Fox Sports. Also former TPL players like Michael Byrne and Steven Robb could be used to share their knowledge of the Thai football scene.
I’m in agreement with Matt when he said that the Thai FA and True need to do something to promote the game across the ASEAN region. The recent AFF Cup success coupled with Buriram’s decent form in the AFC Champions league has shown that Thailand is the dominant footballing force in the region. The people controlling the game need to open up and stopped being frightened of marketing outside of their comfort zone.
From a selfish point of view, my biggest gripe with the TV coverage this year is that all the live Division 1 games coincide with the TPL ones. Last year many matches were shown at 4pm so that meant I watched plenty of Division 1 action. This season I don’t think I’ve watched any. The only choice now at 4pm is SSF who usually show two university teams from the Bangkok regional league. Even that’s a tough watch for a football addict like myself.
Lastly, we often miss the opening 20 minutes of 6pm kickoffs due to the Junta news. The recent Buriram and Bangkok Glass games thankfully weren’t affected by this so hopefully this is a sign of things to come. If not then kick off times should be altered to accommodate this issue.
Reply #3: Wednesday
Name: Russ John
Team supported: Nakhon Ratchasima
Twitter: @russreport
To be honest, I am more than happy with TV coverage of the Thai Premier League, however there are some aspects of scheduling that I feel could be improved:
⦁ Make sure that any coverage does not clash with big EPL and other European League fixtures eg 1930 EPL kickoffs clash with some TPL fixtures (difficult I know but worth looking at)
⦁ Live matches at 1800, 1900 and 2000 on a Saturday night mean that viewers have to choose which games to watch. How about keeping the 1800 and 2000 matches ie no clash and record the 1900 match and show it at 2200.
⦁ Run a “Monday Night Special” (and/or “Friday Night Football”) with a top TPL fixture shown live.
⦁ Work around the ridiculous situation whereby viewers miss the start of matches due to Junta TV – 1830 kickoffs maybe?
These points aside, carry on the good work, True!!!
Reply #4: Thursday
Name: Lewis Caple
Website: www.clubwebsite.co.uk/armyutd
Twitter: @Army_Utd_FC
Russ, makes some interesting points there however I wouldn't like to see games spread over the week, especially with Friday and Monday night games. I prefer going to games rather than watching them on the telly. Midweek games, in particular when away, are a pain in the A**E to get to after work. I wouldn't want to have to miss any games unnecessarily just for the casual armchair fan to maybe watch a game after Corrie on Monday or Friday night.
I'm maybe not the best person to ask about TV coverage as I rarely ever watch any TPL on the telly. I go and watch my own team in person and have no desire to watch any of the other lot on the box. Partisan I know but I'll have a quick look at the results and maybe watch some highlights on t'interweb if there has been any decent goals/incidents.
I think it's good good that True have all the games shown live, it would be nice for some English commentary but I doubt this will happen anytime soon. One thing they need to sort out is Junta News coming on. We all know it's gonna happen, so why not move the kick offs back 20 mins? It happened last year. You would think True would use a bit of common sense on that one. The only game I watched on TV this season has been Army away to Chainat. Nothing happened at the game in the 20 minutes in which I got to listen to our former chairman telling us how rosy life is, except me and everybody in the pub wanting to watch the game getting increasingly agitated. I might have to phone the new Junta hotline to complain.
Reply #5: Friday
Name: Dominick
Team supported: Thai Port
Twitter: @dominick_1975
As far as TV coverage goes I can understand a small percentage of what's being said, the bits I can understand rarely add that much to the game. I like the over excited reactions to any shot vaguely near the goal, but when it comes to being overly excited the South American commentators have put the bar quite high on that one. I like to keep the sound on, but more because I want to hear the crowd noise to get some atmosphere to the coverage. It would be great to have regular English commentary but unfortunately I think that is a way off.
Two things the TPL could introduce is highlights show in English and a reliable online resource for decent 10+ minutes highlights of games this barely exists in Thai let alone in English. The True visions youtube site is a good resource but it doesn't even have a dedicated youtube channel it's lumped in with the other true visions videos. I normally end up going to the Facebook site run by sbobet to get highlights of games their page is more convenient, the rather hopefully titled "Thai Football going to the World Cup".
The TPL needs to understand it's in an incredibly competitive global market, rather than guarding the games like some precious treasure that will be stolen from them they need to come up with a strategy for marketing the Thai league to Asia and the rest of the world. Sorry to say it FATty but this has to be in English. Having a TPL Match of the day style program in English is central to building this. There are some half decent Thai round up shows but normally a few days after the games. Other shows on the day too often consist of two guys looking at two lap top computers saying things like "Oh Buriram just scored they will be happy".
I'm pretty bad for just following my own club and not being too bothered about other matches going on but things like Matt's old round up of the TPL and Div 1 on youtube or Malcom reviewing the matches on BKKfootballblog or Thai League football. These are the kind of things that help you get involved. If the whole league is presented then you start getting invested in other rivalries and stories around the league.
The money in the league is coming from individual clubs presenting their own team, it's fair enough that they want to do this but they could invest in promoting the league as this will benefit them massively in the long term. New markets don’t just spring up it takes time and money to build them. It wouldn't take that much money to start this process. TPL World on true sports 2 is a bit short but it's ok and it's available online https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQvVNtRanora5WOdgcozz4g.
The show exists already why not dub it into English and you have an instant English TPL review show. Not great but it is a start.
The TPL is doing very well for itself and the game is slowly improving but unless it starts taking steps now it could be overtaken by other SE Asian Leagues or just miss out on the current golden opportunity it has to promote the league.
The Final Word: Saturday
Name: Matt Riley
Team supported: n/a
Twitter: @mattRiley16
After reading the comments posted by fellow fans and talking to supporters in Singapore, I was too harsh with my initial statements. Singapore has only one live game a week and precious else in support of their moribund league as most fans stampede to the EPL and offload another few million dollars to stars who barely notice it.
For all its weaknesses in terms of broadcasting quality, at least every game is live here. I agree that a Match of the Day/ Football League Show format would be a good focal point for the weekly highlights and interviews and also appreciate that widespread English commentary is never going to happen. I assume that, if Army keep their place at the top of the table, the Junta will let their games start uninterrupted but I see they have already addressed that issue by giving the club a splinter deal with Channel 5 to show their games.
Television has helped to mop up a lot of the jaw dropping behaviour we used to witness when games went unbroadcast and the flexible kick offs we had to put up with have, apart from Huddle Time, largely disappeared. There is a lot more that the All Seeing Eye can do to drive development in the Beautiful Game, but at least it has opened up a window on the Thai game to an increasing audience that can have a more meaningful say on development, if they can be prized off their armchairs to express it...
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