There was a new look and feel to the Womenâ€s Champions League this week as live matches on Disney+ arrived. With the streaming platform embarking on a five-year deal, the tournament is in intriguing territory with a paywall, and audiences will be hoping for some Disney+ magic to justify their subscriptions.
Football-wise, whether it was Barcelonaâ€s masterpiece, Twente holding Chelsea or Melchie Dumornayâ€s second goal arrowing past the Arsenal defence, the entertainment level was thankfully more Mulan than Mulan II, but could the same be said about the coverage?
In terms of broadcasting the on-pitch action, there was a noticeable uplift with a minimum of six cameras covering every match, double the minimum under the previous rights deal with Dazn. It is some way off the dozens of angles often available for menâ€s Champions League ties but a step in the right direction. It meant that when Cecilia Salvai headed Juventus level against Benfica in the first half of Disneyâ€s first game replays showed four angles, accompanied by the words of a polished Jacqui Oatley and Anita Asante.
That commentary duo were among several good examples of what Disney appears to have nailed. It has chosen on-air talent with knowledge and professionalism that give the coverage credibility, with experienced broadcasters such as Lucy Ward, Lianne Sanderson and Vicki Sparks on a long list of strong names. Seeing Jeanette Kwakye, the lead presenter of BBC Sportâ€s world athletics championship last month and another top operator, presenting live from Leigh Sports Village added to the feeling Disney has recruited well.
That said, it looks rather jarring when these presenting teams are standing pitchside with a fairly meagre-looking table rather than in a shiny, newly designed studio that some might have hoped for in this new dawn. For the Arsenal v OL Lyonnes game at Boreham Wood, for example, Alex Scott and Fara Williams – another top-tier presentation team – had people repeatedly walking behind them during their analysis.
Cecilia Salvai of Juventus after scoring against Benfica, a goal that Disney+ was able to show from four different angles. Photograph: Diego Puletto/Juventus FC/Getty Images
Some may feel it adds to the sense of “being thereâ€, but to others it will have looked somewhat tacky. It feels as if the casting crew secured Tom Hanks and Ellen DeGeneres as voiceover artists, but the animation does not quite match that calibre yet, although it is understood Disney will have a studio show for Decemberâ€s programme in match week six, when all 18 teams will play simultaneously.
The scale of Disneyâ€s task on match nights is vast and the ambition is to be applauded. Every game has a pitchside presenting team, with 20 minutes of buildup and half an hour of post-match reaction. It is not hard to understand why that would have been an appealing message of equality for Uefa; the same resources given to every league phase fixture, whether it is St Pölten or Barcelona.
Viewers around Europe may have been a tad disappointed that the pitchside presentation was only in English, but there will be multi-language pitch presentations for the knockout stages. An impressive array of languages is already served. For example, from a device in the UK, Barcelonaâ€s 7-1 win over Bayern Munich can be rewatched – in full – in English, Spanish, German, Danish and Polish and Lyonnes†2-1 win over Arsenal can be watched in Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish as well as English and French. A big tick.
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Ellen White was part of a slick commentary team at Juventus v Benfica but they were let down by the video feed. Photograph: Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images
Whether fans of so-called bigger clubs become frustrated at not having an hourâ€s buildup may become apparent across the league phase. The short buildup for a huge game such as the defending champions hosting the eight-time winners felt a slight shame. It meant there were no recorded packages, no Gabriel Clarke-esque voiceovers, no dramatic montages. No deep, meaningful sit-down interviews filmed in a dark room with Chloe Kelly.
CBS has set an impressive bar on the other side of the Atlantic. Its slick coverage had a world-class look and feel akin to its menâ€s Champions League coverage, in a great studio where it can get the best out of guests such as Kelley Oâ€Hara and Jen Beattie.
It would be harsh to accuse Disney of cutting corners. Sending presenting teams to every match will not be cheap, but with commentary teams off-tube it feels as if its priorities are the wrong way round. Also, the lack of a dedicated post-match interviewer meant that Scott was doing the interviews at Arsenal away from the presenting table, leaving Sparks to vamp for an unusually long time after the final whistle – she held the fort well.
At other games there were momentary glitches or slightly awkward pauses. The pitchside duo covering Tuesdayâ€s opener at Turinâ€s Allianz Stadium, Ben Haines and the former England striker Ellen White, were slick, insightful and knowledgable in their half-time analysis – but only once the feed joined them. At half-time viewers were initially treated to a view of the pitch sprinklers and replays of the goals without commentary, before Hainesâ€s and Whiteâ€s analysis. Those were teething problems the technical team will surely resolve before the second round of matches next Wednesday and Thursday.
The biggest long-term gains may come through other means: social media videos of Millie Bright forgetting the stars of Greyâ€s Anatomy while trying to do keepy-uppies provide the kind of cultural crossover Uefa will hope attracts more fans and grow the sport. As far as that plot line goes, there is a long way left in this story.
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