The blurred figure in the center of the frame is Oleksandr Kucher, head coach of Dnipro-1. The silhouette of the young coach is complemented by a title with his name and position - white letters superimposed on a bright fashionable color. All subtitles are in English, because "Lviv" vs. "Dnipro-1" is a broadcast of international standards. There can be no others on the "Setanta" international platform! Is it possible?
Screen from the broadcast on "Setanta Sports"The "Setanta" platform has one small problem - physical absence in our football latitudes. "Give you the money, give us the finished picture" is the simple logic with which "Setanta" turned to the Ukrainian Premier League in the summer to look for contractors with high-quality equipment. In mid-August, UPL announced that the "technical tender" was won by three contractors - the companies "Ukrainian Workshop of Television", "Soft Group" and "Engineer Service". These companies have expensive, high-quality equipment to show football properly. So why is there such frank slag at the exit? Why are these broadcasts going "with gi*n and sticks"? Why does UPL choose cheaper equipment? And what is the real price of such a product?
Perhaps someone has not yet understood, but "Setanta" does not have its own production capabilities and is essentially a buyer and relayer of the picture (EPL, Bundesliga, NBA, NHL, etc.). According to the contract, UPL had to provide the customer with a ready-made signal for "Setant" money.
In the search for the "right translator" and the "right signal producer", the UPL struggled a lot, wrote the regulations, and quarreled with the refusing clubs. Everything to grab a piece of financing from "Setanta" and to technically master the funds for technical production. When bidding for football, both the UPL and the UAF (which received its percentage from the sale of rights), of course, thought exclusively about the viewer. Well, not about myself! And what does the viewer now have at the exit? And what does the customer have? Let's see.
Operator Andriy (name changed - ed. note), who has been working on football match broadcasts for many years, agreed to comment on the quality of broadcasts of the so-called "official broadcaster" on the condition of anonymity.
— How did it happen that in a cheap football broadcast we see such a cheap frame? — we ask Andrii about the shot with Kucher.
— Poor quality lens. This is to explain to the reader in simple language. In professional terms, "it blurs at a long focus." The camera that showed the coach is called "reverse". She is on the other side of the field opposite the coach. According to the requirements of the tender that was written in the UPL, this camera should be of such quality that it can zoom in 33 times. But no matter what the camera is, if it has a bad lens, it all boils down to one place.
- Could this be bad operator work?
- No, this is a bad technique. We're not just talking about this shot. I have seen many such examples during these few tours. Poor focus, pale, indistinct, often overexposed picture.
Screen from the broadcast on "Setanta Sports""What kind of Huawei is it all being filmed on?" — the same people who two months ago happily drooled about UPL broadcasts on "Setanta Sports" are now spitting. It suddenly became clear that the live broadcast of the match "Minai" - "Dynamo" is much inferior in the quality of the broadcast "Southampton" - "Chelsea". Snow White, who was watching the sweet dreams of the English Premier League, woke up to the starting whistle of the match "Vorskla" - "Alexandria". UPL itself wrote the technical requirements, so that they would be happy not to fulfill them!
Screen from the broadcast on "Setanta Sports"By the way, in the video called "Vorskla VS Alexandria. Full match" (4th round) you will not see the full match on "setanta" YouTube. For 30 minutes the blurry figures ran, then hovered, and then there was 9 minutes of total darkness.
While the audience was enjoying the black screen, referee Yuriy Ivanov stopped the game for a few minutes. Few people paid attention to this event, and for good reason. Even for Ukrainian football, it is unique. This is what the Premier League wrote on its website:
Screenshot from the official website of the UPL"At the end of the first half, the telecast of the match was suspended because there was an instability of the power grid at the Minai Stadium, which required additional time to restart the Mobile TV Station."
The "firewood" on which the contractor showed this match could not withstand the tension and burned out. It seems that there was no backup generator, which in such cases must be on board the PTS machine. Rebooting PTS is a waste of time.
But this is by no means a reason to stop a football match. In what regulations is this written? Have there been such cases in the history of football? How is that even possible? Perhaps! After the breakdown of the PTS, somewhere in the House of Football realized that it was too hard to choose, it carries reputational risks and, apparently, quickly instructed the referee to suspend the match - until the TV signal appears again))) Imagine the level of disaster! Money was taken from "Setanta", technical requirements were written, film crews were attracted, and at the exit - slag!
"The cameras are unbalanced, the picture is dark. The quality of the picture shows that the cameras are very old, perhaps artificially converted to HD" - says Oleksii (name changed - ed. note), an experienced director of concerts and sports broadcasts. We talk to him about broadcast "Heath" - "Motion" in the 5th round. "Veres" was just opening the renovated stadium and was probably counting on a high-quality show by the "official broadcaster".
"Viewers of "Setanta" should forget about the high-quality display of UPL" - adds Oleksii. And he gives an example of another recent match - "Metalist-1925" - "Colossus":
— "In Ukraine, there is a very narrow circle of people who film and show football. Everyone knows each other and it is very difficult to hide something in terms of organizing broadcasts. As far as I know, this broadcast was collected from 20 years old cameras, the very first HD cameras. They show a faded, not saturated picture. It was noticeable how the cameras were "twitching". This means that they were mounted on old "worn" tripods.
— Can we say that the showing of this match was budget-friendly?
— I don't know what goal the organizers set for themselves. I am only talking about technical means.
According to the results of the production tender, "Setanta" allocated 1.6 million dollars to the Premier League. The customer expected that for this money UPL and its contractors would provide a high-quality picture of 240 matches (30 rounds of 8 matches). Approximately 6.5 thousand dollars for the production of one match. Both of our interlocutors are convinced that in reality the broadcasts of the championship of Ukraine from the so-called "official broadcaster" are much cheaper.
"A priori, different broadcasts cannot cost the same amount. After all, PTS machines, as well as most of the employees, are based in Kyiv. Therefore, showing Kyiv matches will be cheaper", - says Andrii. And adds some market numbers: "Logistics of the car, for example, in Lviv + expenses for broadcasting staff (fees, per diems) will cost around 3-3.5 thousand dollars. The real price of renting such outdated equipment, which UPL contractors use, is about 1.5-2 thousand dollars. In total, not even 6.5 thousand. That's what I'm talking about away match. The broadcast of the game "Metalist-1925" - "Colossus" in Kyiv cost 2-3 times cheaper than the away game. Somewhere in the range of 2-2.5 thousand dollars."
After 5 clubs "fall off" on "1+1", the seasonal load on the UPL decreased to 165 matches. If "Setanta" left the same 1.6 million for their production, this is a luxury in general. For almost 10,000 dollars, you can produce an extraordinary quality picture of one match. However, it is not yet known whether the "Setants" took the rest.
How much is a broadcast in which a goal is not shown is a rhetorical question. Andrii Tsurikov scored a beautiful ball into the Ingulets goal, but it is unlikely that you will send your friends a link to the full match. Tsurikov's goal at the start of the second half "Ingulets" - "Alexandria" became a victim of "hangover" of low-quality equipment. The price of such a broadcast is also 6.5 thousand bucks?
Screen from the broadcast on "Setanta Sports"It seems that after 5 rounds of the championship, no one has any doubts that the "offices" give football for "Setanta" platforms. The more the tournament, the clearer the understanding - from the organizers of the competition from the House of Football and from their quality contractors can be expected. The main thing is that the funding does not stop.
Here's a good money story for the finale. Do you remember how, in the first round, 2 PTS - "Upl-ivska" and "Plyusivska" - came to the match "Zorya" - "Vorskla"? Then the host of the match, "Zorya", refused to let the UPL contractor PTS into the stadium. Several sources confirmed to us that "Setanta" ordered to pay the members of the film crew a full fee for that match - "people came to Uzhhorod, spent a lot of time." But somewhere in the House of Football, people's fees were cut in half - "that's not how they worked." Where the difference went is currently unknown. But there are big doubts that it was invested in the quality of broadcasts.
Vasyl LEVCHENKO for Dynamo.kiev.ua
