The Cameramen Strike Shows You Can’t Plug In Replacements To Adequately Air A Golf Broadcast
The popular golf tweeter Nolayingup.com was the first to report on the strike by union cameramen during the Sony Open on GolfChannel. The broadcast was decidedly weird, disjointed and relied way too much on blimp shots. The good news for the strikers is the presentation was so bad, there has to a resolution this week prior to the Career Builders in Palm Springs. Right? Or so you’d hope.
Camera operators and technical crew belonging to the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) union have been in negotiations with Golf Channel over compensation, as well as concerns with audio and utility issues, according to sources within Golf Channel and other people familiar with the situation. After threatening a work stoppage earlier this week, the strike became official Sunday morning, leaving the 11 a.m. Web.comTour broadcast in the Bahamas with a skeleton crew of non-union workers. After opening the disjointed telecast in the GC studio with Damon Hack and Paige Mackenzie talking over seemingly nonspecific highlights, the broadcast picked up coverage from on-site, obviously with a lack of cameras; coverage was seemingly limited to distant locked down shots and tower shots from the 13th and 14th holes.
Tower shots were only available on holes 17 and 18. And only for the final groups.
UPDATE: Golf Channel came on the air by addressing the labor dispute, offering the following statement and confirming a scaled-back broadcast team:
We are focusing on the final groups and final holes tonight because some technicians walked out on the job earlier today. Similar events happened at other tournaments in the Bahamas and Orlando. Our teams at the Web.com Tour and the Diamond Resorts Invitational did a great job. Our team here is ready to do our best.
GolfDigest.com’s Ryan Herrington adds some head-scratching details.
The primary announcers throughout the five hours of live coverage—George Savaricas, Billy Kratzert and Jim Gallagher Jr.—were not on the scene at Waialae Country Club, but rather sitting in Golf Channel’s main studio thousands of miles away in Orlando. And the voices of Whit Watson, Frank Nobilo and Mark Rolfing, reporting during the first three rounds of play in Honolulu, were nowhere to be heard as Patton Kizzire edged James Hahn on the sixth hole of a sudden-death playoff.
And, it sounded as poor as was read and shows avid golf viewers how much we take for granted on a typical full-crew broadcast.
What’s worse is the Sony went 6 excruciating playoff holes, thereby extending the viewing misery. I haven’t seen how far the two parties are apart in their negotiations, but shame on GolfChannel for apparently not doing anything meaningful since September. The procrastination will cost them.
