STAR should try to be more professional
I AM writing to express my disappointment after watching STAR TV's appalling production of the Rugby World Cup Quarter-finals on Sunday, June 11.
Not having STAR TV available to watch at home, I have been watching many of the games in various locations around Hong Kong.
To date, coverage has been good, so it was to my great disappointment to find that arguably the most important game so far in this tournament was shown 'delayed live'.
In the case of any game shown 'delayed live' there is a problem of trying to avoid hearing the result to prevent ruining the atmosphere and taking away the entertainment value of the game. This was successfully done in the local studio but within two minutes of kick off in the first game televised, the match commentator announced that 'the winner of this game looks forward to a semi-final place against England next Sunday'.
Well, there goes the suspense and entertainment value for the evening. Surely Prime Sports management did not think they could get away with showing the games in reverse order without revealing the previous game's results.
Unless, of course, the England versus Australia game was shown purposely delayed just to keep an audience tuned to the station for rating statistics.
Disappointing as this may be, it is understandable to a certain extent that the Prime Sports team in Hong Kong have no control over what the commentators at the match say.
What is inexplicable is that viewers were subjected to over 50 minutes of pure, meaningless, time-wasting when we had to put up with reviews, profiles, predictions and various other comments from the panel who already knew the results and the dramatic way the game finished, due to the commentary from the previous game. You had to feel sorry for the guys in the studio. What should have happened is that the second game should have been shown directly after the live broadcast and then had the panel discussing how the teams played afterwards.
Thank you for ruining what should have been a great evening's entertainment and if this is what I can expect from STAR TV, I certainly will not be rushing out to have it installed for home viewing. Please try and be more professional in your programming for this and other tournaments in the future. You will be surprised how much more entertaining it is for your viewers and customers.
TIM STEVENS Mid-Levels
