‘Glitches and disruptions’ – The new I-League broadcast fast turning into a farce

After seeing red over Star Sports’ decision to reduce the number of matches they would telecast during the 2018-19 I-League season, one of the clubs’ demand was to insist the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) found a new broadcast partner for the 2019-20 campaign.

And when AIFF’s I-League Department announced Lex Sportel Vision Pvt. Ltd as the broadcast partners for the latest edition of the I-League, the decision was welcomed by all stakeholders. Moreover, to produce feed of the live audio-visual coverage for their broadcast on DSport, Instat – an Ireland-based company – was roped in for three years.

The deal with Instat was touted as revolutionary, with the promise of world-class coverage, thanks to their extensively experienced team and eight-camera set up for each game among others.

However, a month into the season, things have not been as rosy. In fact, the telecast on DSport can only be branded as a ‘joke’. And that is a lenient assessment.

Rarely has a match been shown properly in manner befitting a football game. There have been glitches with the coverage, there have been frequent interruptions with European league games and other content suddenly streaming in between I-League matches. Embarrassingly, there have even been strange advertisements that have popped up while the matches have been live. The worst thing is that this has been a regular occurence in almost all the matches.

Gokulam Kerala vs NEROCA on November 30 was not telecast at all due to technical reasons.

Most recently, the defending champions Chennai City’s 2-2 draw against NEROCA’s game saw the coverage get interrupted abruptly and the fans were left without coverage for most of the 90 minutes.

Forget the glitches and disruptions, the standard of telecast has been atrocious.

Understandably, DSport has copped a lot of flak from frustrated fans which forced the I-League and the channel to issue a vague statement that this was not DSport’s fault. It was pretty much made clear that DSport’s brand name is suffering for no fault of theirs.

Basically, the fingers waggled towards Instat.

Apparently, Instat do not have the required satellite back-up nor the technical setup needed for an uninterrupted coverage. In fact, reports have suggested that Instat have faced challenges with bringing their entire repertoire of equipments to the stadiums. It became so bad that in one match (Punjab FC vs East Bengal), Instat allegedly used mobile phones to record the matches.

Many, including league officials and club owners, have cited Instat crew’s lack of experience as a reason for most of the issues, including poor camera focus on the proceedings on the field.

There have been instances where a goal was completely missed during the telecast and the feed has been shaky at times as though the camera was being handled by a child.

There were no sideline cameras in Goa, not even at the Fatorda stadium which has tracks around the pitch. There were games where the full coverage was in zoom-in mode, which in itself reduces the picture quality

All of this begs one question. On what basis was Instat given the deal to produce the broadcast for the I-League?

If their team was so amateur, why were they entrusted with producing the feed for the league? Why is Instat facing difficulties in even getting their equipment to the stadiums? Are they working on a shoe-string budget? If they are doing so, why did they promise a world-class feed for the matches?

Forget all this, would you hire a company that does not have the technology to even provide uninterrupted coverage which is a basic requirement of any broadcast?

A lot of questions with very few answers!

And it is not as if Instat have no experience covering football leagues. They list Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Lokomotiv Moscow among their clients and have broadcast Russian and Mexican football leagues in the past.

Ironically, Instat promises 1080p or 4K quality feed during their broadcasts, an eight-camera setup, on-screen graphics and stat support on their website. But it has been all talk and no action so far.

I-League has been a very unpredictable competition in the recent years, with the likes Chennai City and Punjab FC winning the title ahead of big names. But this season, Instat has managed to apply the unpredictability into the league’s TV coverage as well.

The AIFF’s I-League department did a great job in finding a broadcast partner who would telecast all their games this season. However, the production house has let down the federation, clubs and fans.

One of the reasons why the I-League clubs pressed hard for a new broadcast partner was to ensure they could attract sponsors. However, the kind of broadcast going on right now will drive away sponsors.

Yes, there have been a couple of matches where the telecast has been at an acceptable level. But with Christmas around the corner, all clubs and fans will be wishing fervently for Instat to finally get their act together and start delivering what they promised.