Television

I’m going to start this entry off with a question. Does anyone know anything about the “new” TV deal that is supposedly happening? It got quickly reported on volleynet but no one seemed to know anything about it. Are there going to be televised games in the next month?

In any case, I thought it would be timely to take a second to examine the value (or non-value) of being on TV.

Two out of the three years that I have played in Denmark I’ve taken part in some kind of television broadcast. My first year it was the finals on DR1 and last year, of course, was DK4. No doubt those experiences were positive, being on TV is a thrill and it is always nice to have something to show to others back home. But is having volleyball consistently on TV a good thing? I’m not so sure.

Last year, with the consistent broadcast schedule we all got to see a lot of volleyball on TV. As a consequence we all got to see a lot of bad volleyball on TV. As has been discussed at length, the elite division doesn’t have enough good teams to support strong competition all year long. That means that inevitably, DK4 sent out some games that were not played at a high level. I remember we played Lyngby in a televised match at the end of last year that was not particularly broadcast-worthy for example. It does not help the image of the sport to show these games to the rest of the viewing audience. If we want to grow the sport, we have to present an exciting product.

As was discussed recently on DK4, the surroundings also play a huge part in the way the sport presents itself. When there are 4 people sitting in the stands watching a match, it is unlikely that the casual viewer at home is going to think that the match looks interesting. If I happened to see a handball match on TV one Sunday and there were 7 people sitting in the stands making no noise whatsoever, I’m not going to be inclined to sit and watch the match. And empty stands happened far too often during the televised matches last year.

All of these things add up to create a poor product. Of course there were good matches, with good crowds, that were shown as well. But I would say that those matches were few compared to the poor ones. Who knows? Maybe this year would have been a whole different story with a more competitive league and different venues. The schedule certainly could have been stronger.

With all that said, television does offer a unique experience for fans and players alike. Quite simply, being on TV creates a different atmosphere in the arena. I don’t know if everyone agrees with me, but I can certainly feel the difference walking into a hall with lights, monitors and cameras set up. Maybe it feels more professional in a way.

Television also offers exposure that nothing else can. Seeing the game on TV can only help to expose it to more people. Especially as the number of KIDS volley players grows will this become important. Unfortunately at this point, DK4 Sport seems to be the only outlet for the game, but hopefully soon enough there will be more channels interested. The more volley is seen on TV, the more it can be accepted as a mainstream sport. The trick is just going to be to present a good product every time. In my mind, that means cutting down on the number of games shown and working harder to get the people in the stands when those games are on.