I actually saw some comments online praising Hamish McLachlan and missing him, as well as a LOT of comments saying they miss Seven’s coverage in general.
I’m 50/50, I don’t think Nine have vastly improved on Seven’s coverage which I believed was their best of what the network covered.
I like Nine’s stronger on-air appearance with the studio and hosts, as well as 9Now having all streams in HD for free.
What I think has been terrible is not telling viewers about other matches on the app or 9Gem, they may have shown them, but clearly didn’t tell viewers where to find them, so something sneaky going on there.
Just like cricket on Nine, tennis just doesn’t feel like tennis when it’s not on Seven. It’s been an institution for many years on the network and without it it feels…off
Not discrediting Nine’s efforts but just saying…
Seven’s coverage wasn’t world-class but it was perfectly acceptable compared to the dregs of their cricket and AFL coverage.
Nine’s online innovation is one of the strongest improvements to the coverage. With the world moving quickly from linear TV to streaming this allows Nine to remain competitive with other streaming services. Their hosts are pretty good, as are most of their commentators (many of whom are from Seven).
Credit where credit is due, pretty sure it was actually Seven who were the innovators with the app and live streams, which exploded in popularity (even if we were behind the times).
Nine have just continued the platform on their own, but taking away the feee for all courts and HD.
Overall, there’s still some areas that needs to be improved. Their own graphics would be great and they shouldn’t have Kyrgios commentating. His ego is irritating.
[quote=“Tom_TV7, post:744, topic:4957”] Their own graphics would be great
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Why? The graphics package is excellent. If you use your own style then you’re changing styles between transitions etc… these graphics are fresh and strong.
Basil was fine as a host but his commentary (if you can call it that, more like a summary) was atrocious. Glad Nine isn’t using their hosts (Tony, Bec, James) as commentators. Leave the commentary to the experts.
NB/ I agree about Basil. I didn’t think much of Hamish’s calling either, but his hosting was pretty good, especially natural/ad lib banter or when taking viewers around the grounds (“that’s on Two, the breaker on the app but back we go in RLA for this”).
Also, unlike Basil, Hamish had at least been part of the coverage for a decade and comes from a strong sport and sports admin background.
Nine need to get better with updating scores which was something Seven did quite well with those updates that would come up. Overall I preferred Seven’s but Nine isn’t far off. I could do without the McEnroe/Woodbridge pairing though, boring as hell.
