How how do we feel about Arabic speaking commentators then?
Aren't they great?
Aren't they great?
Are female commentators so bad?
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for the record, neville is my least favourite commetantor, though this thread is more about main commentators as they occupy the most air time.
That doesn’t surprise me.
From a commentary standpoint I cannot say that I have much of an opinion, there is only the one female commentator used regularly on the Premier League coverage here in the states and she is middle of the pack, she does not annoy me nor do I find her especially enlightening which is how I feel about most of the men also. Now when you get to studio hosts it is another story, we have Rebecca Lowe hosting the PL coverage here and she is hands down the best studio host working in football and I am enormously thankful that I get to watch the NBC coverage. Of course, Rebecca is fantastic because she is incredibly good at her job and this is nothing to do with x or y chromosomes, she could easily be terrible as so many of the men are, I just don't think gender has any bearing on the ability to talk about sport.
Awful. The high-pitch grates.
Rebecca Lowe is great. Very knowledgeable.
To be honest there aren't many commentators who I don't find irritating either because of what the say or the way they say it. I'm stuck in the past really - Barry Davies or someone like that would suit me best.
However, given that's not happening, I usually just turn the volume down if it's a particularly annoying one.
I think there can be a particular problem with commentators who've been given an instruction from a director to "make it sound exciting". Some of them have better acting skills.
Maybe it's just that the sheer number of televised matches means that we have to listen to some who wouldn't have got a job before.
As for male/female - it's early days for women commentators. Ten years ago there were hardly any - even on club TV or local radio. Doesn't mean we have to set the clock back twenty years though. Just that the business of recruitment, training, developing experience will mean dropping some commentators as well as recruiting others and sometimes it'll mean listening to some who are works in progress rather than the finished article.
However, given that's not happening, I usually just turn the volume down if it's a particularly annoying one.
I think there can be a particular problem with commentators who've been given an instruction from a director to "make it sound exciting". Some of them have better acting skills.
Maybe it's just that the sheer number of televised matches means that we have to listen to some who wouldn't have got a job before.
As for male/female - it's early days for women commentators. Ten years ago there were hardly any - even on club TV or local radio. Doesn't mean we have to set the clock back twenty years though. Just that the business of recruitment, training, developing experience will mean dropping some commentators as well as recruiting others and sometimes it'll mean listening to some who are works in progress rather than the finished article.
Is it? I would challenge the view that not wanting a woman to do commentary specifically (and solely) because of the tone of her voice is sexist; provided you have the same distaste for a man with a voice of a similar tone, I don't see what gender has to do with it.
All correct, and like hosts, there are good female pundits, and bad female pundits the same as bad male ones. Where commentary is concerned though, I just dont think the broadcasters have done their job in finding the best
I generally like female commentators, I don't think it has anything to do with their gender, they just happen to be good. Though It's mainly in Rugby.
This is a great reply, particularly the last paragraph. Whatever is going on in recruitment, and training prior to it, has to, and will surely, improve. Its a small sample size of female commentators and they are I suppose paving the way for what comes next.
I find most punditry to be dull nowadays, be it from men or women. Podcasts are much better. Stick to Football, for example, is a much better listen to hearing out Neville and Carragher on Super Sunday. There is a lot of good football related content nowadays that isn't punditry on television.
One would think it'd be pretty easy to convince the best ones to sign up as the attitude and the climate around female commentators seems so warm and welcoming.
There is so much of it that it's often wading through shite to get to the odd bit of decent content. The likes of Goldbridge are just awful thrash, but gender is not an issue.
Oh yeah, I wouldn't even do punditry the disservice of lumping the YouTube content creators in with them - they have little to offer, outside of giving fans a voice. Generally, I'll stick to the podcasts near the top of Spotify monthly listens. I think less and less consider the commentary/punditry during a football broadcast to be of any significance. Gone are the days of Dunphy, Brady, and Giles on RTÉ!
Thats probably a bit simplistic. I think as jojojo mentions above, its a new venture in many ways, so perhaps it will take some time. I was reading about one PL commentator just now, who qualified from her University in 2019 and was commentating on sky sports in 2023, after the world cup in 2022. Thats a huge leap. These commentators are the ones tasked with breaking through and it may be down the line that things are better. All this said, I do think potential female commentators are being sold short by the existing crop, and even allowing for inevitable sexism, it cant be heartening to see so many videos chat dominated by talk about the commentary, such as the one I used in my OP. I think the troll comments will always exist, but think there'd be far less talk generally if the standard was better.
The only female commentator who did my head in a bit, was the one who overdid it a bit on MOTD. Especially with a weird shouty "JAMIE VARDDDY" when he'd score. But it is hard to know the quality of a person's work from a highlights show, when they've been condensed into such a small sample size.
There are plenty of Commentators I can't stand, Darren Fletcher and Matterface for a start. As for pundits there a plenty both male and female who are total shite, but still get over used regardless of the channel. A bit like Sky Sports has a tendency to try out ex players in various roles (co comms, punditry or presenting) and just settle on one they are the least shite at.
I actually like the commentators that are usually on the German matches on Sky, they aren't selected by Sky but from the world feed I believe.
There are plenty of Commentators I can't stand, Darren Fletcher and Matterface for a start. As for pundits there a plenty both male and female who are total shite, but still get over used regardless of the channel. A bit like Sky Sports has a tendency to try out ex players in various roles (co comms, punditry or presenting) and just settle on one they are the least shite at.
I actually like the commentators that are usually on the German matches on Sky, they aren't selected by Sky but from the world feed I believe.
Ahh this is a reminder of Justin tv days, and streams that died just before a goal.
If the poster is suggesting all voices higher than a certain octave are terrible then yes, he's on a sticky wicket.
If he just says certain voices sound annoying, he's more than entitled to say that.
Jacqui Oatley in the OP has been around for about 20 years.
Ya, I know, I remember her starting on MOTD.
Why are you speculating what women want regarding women’s football when you admit you don’t watch it and you are not a woman?
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That’s the issue. The OP doesn’t comment on male commentators.
For sure, we're still in the pioneer era for women commentators. The ability to survive is still the defining factor of the current group.
It's not just the commentators and potential commentators who are put off by it either. People can't even blame it on vocal range when it's just as likely to get used against female reporters, administrators and medical staff.
Only female I can’t stand in football is farrah Williams
good god her voice is so grating.
good god her voice is so grating.
Yeah, for me it's pretty much this.
I find most current commentators annoying, regardless of gender.
And, yes, I realize this is probably because I'm now an old or at least old-ish fart. But that's how I feel, go feck yourselves millennials and zoomers!
This is your preference OP, not a universal truth.
Why is how she sounds related to her gender?
Also you have terrible male commentators too
What a hill to choose to die on. @SER19 just ask if you want your account banned, you don’t need to choose a topic to go mental on
Arabic speaking and South Americans are the best by some distance but the former are just amazing.
In before the lock!
Some of the commentators remind me of when TV shows let kids do it for a game. I don't like any of them, especially TNT's princess and the shoutie king of Sky.
Im really surprised by this post. 'Banned'? 'Mental'?For real? Every post Ive made has been measured and stressed to avoid the trappings of the sort of sexism that accompanies some gender discussion online. Overall i think the thread is a credit to the forum as some jokes aside, people have engaged with one another respectfully and shared different opinions - of which mine is that for some reason we still have not had a good female commentator. I really dont see anything Ive said or done that warrants talking about banning and so on.
To query why a man and womans voice might be different is to query well established science.
You are surely just trolling now, or didnt read the OP. Literally the second sentence addresses this and throughout the thread Ive hammered drury and neville as awful
hence the question mark and the healthy discussion and viewpoints throughout. The very nature of a forum
Surely that should be because they talk thru their arsehole
How many good commentators can you think of at all in all sports? What makes them good? Now ask yourself, what does the sex have to do with the job performance?
When did you first see a woman commentating on sport? How long after was that after a man first commentated on sport?
I've heard about 10 different new Icelandic ones in the past 3-4 years. They all sound exactly the same because they don't know what they're doing and just copy someone. Same rhythm, same weird pronunciations. Same parts of football where they feign excitement.
There's about 2 good ones out of the lot which is a poor success rate for the males. Why are the males so shit?
The English co-commenrators fall into 2 different categories. Ex-pro older than 50. Ex-pro younger than 50. The old guard all use the same adjectives. The banter is the same as it was 10 years ago. Nothing has changed. The younger ones have a different banter and use "touches inside the box" more and are seemingly incapable of judging the performance without stats.
Don't see any difference between men and women really. I see a box that people fit into if they want to keep getting gigs.
First of all to respond Id have to narrow immediately to football. As other posters have mentioned, there are female commentators they rate in other sports, but each sport is unique, and commentating on a 90 minute premier league match is different from match to match, let alone versus boxing, cricket or tennis for example. A top male snooker commentator probably couldnt do the premier league job either, and neither could morgan freeman despite peoples fondness for his voice.
I think what seems to have especially rankled people here is that i specifically criticised the woman in the OP's voice. In the same OP, I said that I dont doubt that women exist who can do the job well but people have in part, ignored this. Of course, like everything, it comes down to taste, and for my taste, the clip used features really awful commentary, almost certainly down to her voice rather than what is being said. We all have different voices, I know I'd be a terrible commentator, but there is also a well established difference between male and female voices, for the majority part., so its not unreasonable to query if this has been a factor in the poor output so far, though as others have highlighted, recruitment and training play a part too.
As for what makes a good commentator, there is of course the content of what is being said, which was not criticised in the OP and in fact was pointed out as something I didnt feel needed criticism. The same as many roles in the world that rely on voice, I think some voices are better suited to commentary, ideally one that doesnt have to go through an extreme range, or have to hit an incredibly high pitch at key moments. What im saying here is not science, but seemingly im risking a ban by talking about it even in a measured way.
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