Albisu, Peña II, Jaka and Mariezkurrena, in Berriozar. /
Friday’s game in Berriozar, which started at twenty to twelve at night, reactivated the debate on the schedules of televised games
Twenty to twelve on Friday night in Berriozar. The first match of the Couples Championship begins. Is it reasonable that a competition starts almost at midnight and ends up touching one in the morning? It is a matter that flies over the programming of the professional hand in a cyclical way.
In the late start of the match between Peña II and Albisu and Jaka and Mariezkurrena II several factors influenced. The first, the time set for the start of the festival: ten at night. The second, that the first game was very long, over 800 balls. As it was also a championship, in this case of Promotion (Zubizarreta III and Erasun beat Alberdi and Uriondo 22-18), the duel got tougher and lasted until one hour and 23 minutes. The pelotaris returned home well into the morning.
Change of order
ETB1 starts its Friday night broadcasts from 10 am after ‘Goazen!’, A successful youth program that provided very good audiences to the network that same day. Television has carried out tests, such as altering the order of the games, putting the star ahead, and bringing the start of the broadcast to 9:30 p.m. During the pandemic this applied to games on Mondays, especially, and also on Fridays.
Thinking about the influx of public, companies prefer that the second game is the stellar one. For television, the ideal would be the opposite, starting the broadcast with the first meeting. They point out from the public chain that although this formula would be their favorite, it also involves complexities. Right now the large audience of ‘Goazen!’ drags public to the ball, which is maintained throughout the broadcast. If the star were in the first place, the predictable thing is that the spectator would disconnect in an important way for the second game. They recognize in the chain that it is something similar to the blanket game, that to cover the feet you have to uncover the head, and vice versa.
European schedules
The meeting on Friday night, without going any further, gave ETB1 good audiences. If the average of the chain is a 2.2% share, on Fridays it reaches 3% and the strip of the ball goes to 4.2%. Almost double the average. That figure, however, is widely exceeded on Saturday afternoons, when it rises to 8.4%. Although the fans respond, the lateness of the meetings is a problem that is on the table of the companies and ETB.
In both cases, it is detected that there is a certain change in customs in society as a result of the pandemic, which some identify with a trend towards more European, earlier hours.
Both the Aspe and Baiko companies have in mind the possibility of altering the order of the parties. The return of normality, detect those responsible, has not brought an identical recovery of customs and the late start of the festivals is a setback for a sector of the fans, problems that were less present before, according to their diagnosis.
The first to organize games on Fridays were those responsible for the Elgeta tournament at four and a half, back in 1980. Before it was not scheduled on that day. They started on Fridays at nine o’clock at night, with festivals of three or four games. ETB did not retransmit them. Its organizers thought it could be a good day, at the end of the work week and a time when many people were staying for dinner and meeting.
The date set and today is usual. Last Friday, without going any further, in addition to the Berriozar professional appointment, there were four amateur festivals, in Areta, Lezama, Huarte and the Bankoa Abanca-DV Tournament.
Tennis, a sport that frequents the early mornings
The problem is with the ball, but other sports also have late hours. Where it raises the most controversy is in tennis. In the Davis Cup in Madrid last year there were games that started at two in the morning, but it is not an isolated case. The tennis players threatened with a plant. The same did the women in the recent Billie Jean Cup. But it happens in the Masters or Masters 1000 tournaments, with hours of dawn.
The football game that starts later today starts at 9:00 p.m., the same as in the basketball ACB, although in the Cup they can start later, around 9:30 p.m. Ice hockey, which has always been the most late-night sport, does not start its games later than ten o’clock, one hour and 45 minutes earlier than Friday’s game in Berriozar.
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