While I sit and watch, what has so far been, a really very exciting Wimbledon men’s final, my enjoyment has been somehow tarnished by the appalling quality of the commentary from the BBC – especially the inane comments coming from Andrew Castle, a man who made it further in Strictly Come Dancing than a Grand Slam singles tennis tournament.
This got me thinking about the need for commentary, in the broadcast sense, as it is used now and how it might be evolved.
With the rise of social television and the innovative uses for social media, in conjunction with broadcast media, there is no reason why we, the viewer, shouldn’t choose the people and organisations we trust and enjoy to inform and entertain us through those all important games and matches.
The Wimbledon Twitter feed has been particularly good this year, providing ‘back stage’ photos and fun snippets along with informed commentary. As well as this, there have been many blogs, some great radio commentary and tweets from friends, all of which, have provided me with so much more than the BBC’s television commentary.
So, let’s integrate social options into sport more thoroughly to give the viewers a choice of what they want to see and hear, rather than some stuffy, overpaid chaps waxing lyrical about the use of an umbrella on court, or asking who some pop star or other is in the audience.
Let me know what you think.
A smidge of what I fancy 
Couldn’t agree more. For a while now I’ve been muting my television and turning up the radio to get more informed, insightful commentary for sporting events.
Too much is dumbed down, commercial tripe that offers little more than background noise.
Your call for integrating social options and providing more choice for viewers is bang on. We can but hope.
Sky have offered alternative commentaries on football and other sports for many years. One option is 2 opposing fans. At one time there was an option to just have crowd noise with no commentary! Not sure they still do it. I often wonder how I manage to cope without commentators at football matches. Of course, I do have my son Harry!
Great points, Peter. I find watching live TV is given an entirely new dimension by Twitter, for example. Not sure what plans the BBC has for its Olympics coverage next year, but I believe there will be 24 channels streaming live during the hours of sport. I’m no expert, but I’d be surprised if there are enough commentators to cover all that!