Wednesday, June 11, 2008

A different voice

When I was with Solar Sports, one of my first recommendations was to build a core of homegrown TV talent as opposed to using the more known ones. Why was I against their continued "usage?" Simple. You see these guys everywhere. You see them in NBN, Channel 7, ABC-5 etc. The funny thing is, you hear them doing commentary for several sports. I preached for exclusivity. The most hilarious (though some claim pathetic) thing about local sportscasters was seeing many of them wing it during the last Manila SEA Games especially with sports they have passing knowledge of. That clearly demonstrated the dearth of talent available because they choose to stick with a chosen few who demand plum assignments all the time.

My reasoning was -- was there anyone else and are they the only authorities? What happens when we lose one of them; how do you replace them? How do you discover new talent when it's always the old guard? Like politics, sportscasting is an old boys network. Sila-sila na lang.

Did they ever listen? My immediate boss agreed. But the ones in the broadcasting side didn't.
Thankfully, they gave Vitto Lazatin and Reema Chanco a push.

My personal reasoning is, if it's a foreign competition, I want to listen to the foreign commentary. If it's local, I want the Filipinos street-style and all. When I was working for the Elizalde's and they would do the radio broadcasts of the PBA, incredibly, a lot of people in the provinces would turn down the TV commentary in favor of the radio while watching the live feed. It was really connecting with the audience. Of course the Metro Manila folk preferred the TV analysts.

Some viewers simply cannot stand the locals because there's the "baduy" factor and that their knowledge about these sporting events comes from what they read in magazines and from the internet as opposed to establishing ties with the teams and individuals.

While I may not like listening to some local sportscasters, I appreciate their efforts to come up with good broadcasts. But I still I think it's time to bring in fresh blood.

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