Blog - Streaming Issues
Something I want to touch on briefly: there has been a lot of complaining recentlty regarding broadcast and streaming of snooker tournaments, and in some cases the lack of coverage. This is also something in which we’ve come a long way, and it is easy to forget that 3-4 years ago, the qualifiers were unseen, and we were restricted to what was broadcast on tv. Nowadays, we’re able to watch two tables during the qualifiers, and often able to watch one or both tv tables at all events broadcast by Eurosport through their Eurosport Player.
Indeed Eurosport has been a blessing for the game of snooker in Europe, with the traditional BBC not broadcasting more than 3 events these days, and it happening more and more that they choose to stick to their programming schedule, and interrupt live coverage to show repeats of ancient cooking programs which not many watch rather than stick with the action. Eurosport broadcasts the vast majority of large events, provides extensive coverage, sometimes on both their channels simultaneously, and crucially for the more casual fans it offers commentary in native languages, something I’ve been lucky enough to contribute to.
The one problem is that Eurosport is a commercial broadcaster which needs to make money, and has many customers to please. This means that sometimes the snooker has to make way for other sports. It is very unfortunate, and should be avoided, that this has several times cost us the live broadcast of a final. I feel though that times have moved on, and it is perfectly possible to use the Eurosport Player or Liveworldsnooker.tv to follow the matches. Indeed, if you have a Chromecast or Apple TV you can send the stream to your tv, and bang, no more need for cable channels to broadcast them. It does definitely need commentary though, which is not always available today!
Written for Snooker Magasinet
Indeed Eurosport has been a blessing for the game of snooker in Europe, with the traditional BBC not broadcasting more than 3 events these days, and it happening more and more that they choose to stick to their programming schedule, and interrupt live coverage to show repeats of ancient cooking programs which not many watch rather than stick with the action. Eurosport broadcasts the vast majority of large events, provides extensive coverage, sometimes on both their channels simultaneously, and crucially for the more casual fans it offers commentary in native languages, something I’ve been lucky enough to contribute to.
The one problem is that Eurosport is a commercial broadcaster which needs to make money, and has many customers to please. This means that sometimes the snooker has to make way for other sports. It is very unfortunate, and should be avoided, that this has several times cost us the live broadcast of a final. I feel though that times have moved on, and it is perfectly possible to use the Eurosport Player or Liveworldsnooker.tv to follow the matches. Indeed, if you have a Chromecast or Apple TV you can send the stream to your tv, and bang, no more need for cable channels to broadcast them. It does definitely need commentary though, which is not always available today!
Written for Snooker Magasinet