The English commentators- views

[Seiyashi 4,108]

8 hours ago, Katooshu said:

I believe that Ishiura speaks English, maybe he could give it a try once he retires.

Somehow I don't think he's sticking in the NSK once he retires. I feel his retirement job is already sorted out for him - succeeding his father as sumo coach at Tottori Johoku.

Edited June 19, 2021 by Seiyashi

[Katooshu 3,335]

Do you have to be an oyakata to be a guest commentator? 

[Eikokurai 3,437]

11 minutes ago, Katooshu said:

Do you have to be an oyakata to be a guest commentator? 

Mainoumi isn’t.

[WAKATAKE 2,671]

5 hours ago, Eikokurai said:

Mainoumi isn’t.

Kitanofuji isn't either. NHK operates independently from the JSA in terms of the broadcasting, so they're free to bring in whomever they want for the broadcast. Although I'm very sure the people they bring in that aren't part of the JSA need to be in good standing with them. No way that NHK would bring Takatoriki in for guest commentating. I've seen them bring famous fans in, maybe some Japanese Olympians, or even Demon Kogure who is a well known sumo fan too.

[Kujo 123]

On 19/06/2021 at 14:03, Seiyashi said:

Does that make Musashigawa (ex-Musashimaru) the only oyakata with any decent command of English in the entire NSK?

Musashigawa was a very entertaining and informative guest commentator on the english broadcasts, but it's probably been 10 years since I last seen him on it.

Maybe Moti-san can shed some light on why he hasn't been on recently (by recently I mean prior to all the covid restrictions).  

Edited June 20, 2021 by Kujo
I can't spell

[gunner 10]

I enjoy all the commentary. as I am not Fluent in Japanese the various English commentators help me understand more easily even the ones who add the letter U after the O as in Kaio.  Thanks and I Appreciate all the work you have put into the Sumo Kintamayamau.

Edited June 22, 2021 by gunner

[Kintamayama 45,530]

On 20/06/2021 at 12:43, Kujo said:

Musashigawa was a very entertaining and informative guest commentator on the english broadcasts, but it's probably been 10 years since I last seen him on it.

Maybe Moti-san can shed some light on why he hasn't been on recently (by recently I mean prior to all the covid restrictions).  

No idea.

[Seiyashi 4,108]

32 minutes ago, Kintamayama said:

On 20/06/2021 at 17:43, Kujo said:

Musashigawa was a very entertaining and informative guest commentator on the english broadcasts, but it's probably been 10 years since I last seen him on it.

Maybe Moti-san can shed some light on why he hasn't been on recently (by recently I mean prior to all the covid restrictions).  

No idea.

I believe I either read or heard somewhere very obliquely, from a John Gunning interview, that the English audience for makuuchi broadcasts just simply isn't good enough by the numbers to justify to NHK having two commentators, and borderline if not at all for production specials like on the dohyo at Edo Noren. I started following sumo in 2018 and it's been a solo English commentator since then.

Edited June 22, 2021 by Seiyashi

[Shinobi Steve 146]

1 hour ago, Seiyashi said:

I believe I either read or heard somewhere very obliquely, from a John Gunning interview, that the English audience for makuuchi broadcasts just simply isn't good enough by the numbers to justify to NHK having two commentators....

I don't doubt that, but I wonder if NHK have ever thought about the potential audience number if an English stream were to be made widely accessible internationally? 

I understand how difficult expressing yourself can be in a non-native language. That said, I don't speak a word of Japanese so I appreciate the service provided by all of the English commentators. 

[Seiyashi 4,108]

4 minutes ago, Shinobi Steve said:

I don't doubt that, but I wonder if NHK have ever thought about the potential audience number if an English stream were to be made widely accessible internationally? 

The problem is, as a license-funded broadcaster of public interest, with only power to enforce collection domestically and a firm stance against advertising (hence the zooming out when kensho banners are shown), it's difficult to see how the NHK bigwigs can make an internationally-accessible sumo stream a commercially-viable operation. Just to fairly remunerate Murray or John for a basho would probably take the collective amount of what we on SF would be willing to pay, never mind the other costs. There's probably pockets of support in Georgia (that will vanish once Tochinoshin retires or soon after), and a pretty strong permanent base in Mongolia, but beyond that...

Edited June 22, 2021 by Seiyashi

[Morning 85]

I for one am not willing to pay the 60€ per month receiving NHK premium would cost. Their free service is sufficient for me and they are now streaming live all three Sundays. It's not like I have time to watch under the week anyway and even the highlights can be difficult to catch.

Edited June 22, 2021 by Morning

[sumojoann 1,268]

I am happy to pay the $25USD/month for TV Japan through my cable TV company.  For that I receive the 2-hour nightly live broadcast (usually from 2 to 4 AM) of the Makuuchi bouts and 25-min daily highlights.  But I am retired so I can stay up all night without any problems.

[Seiyashi 4,108]

I wonder if we should try the experiment and "go round" with a virtual collecting tin, as it were: how much would each of us pay specifically for makuuchi coverage, in English, as NHK currently presents it?

I'm surmising if between us regulars here we can't get up to a four digit figure, that's going to be a bust straight out.

I'd say 50 USD a basho for me (so 25 USD a month, effectively), and that's pushing it on the expensive side already. Any more and I'd rather go watch live.

That makes it 50 USD/month from Sumojoann and me.

PS: Sorry if this is going off topic mods. Perhaps it's best to start it as a poll, but I guess this is still somewhat relevant to the topic of consumer reaction to the English broadcast, including whether it's worth paying good money for.

Edited June 22, 2021 by Seiyashi

[Asojima 2,874]

19 minutes ago, Seiyashi said:

I wonder if we should try the experiment and "go round" with a virtual collecting tin, as it were: how much would each of us pay specifically for makuuchi coverage, in English, as NHK currently presents it?

I'm surmising if between us regulars here we can't get up to a four digit figure, that's going to be a bust straight out.

Before I cut my cable, my provider offered TV Japan live coverage for US$25 a month.  I could cut that down to about $15 per basho by selectively starting/stopping TV Japan.  I used it a few times, but found I was satisfied by available internet live streaming.  Again, I have little interest in the English commentary.

[Kaminariyuki 500]

5 hours ago, sumojoann said:

I am happy to pay the $25USD/month for TV Japan through my cable TV company.  For that I receive the 2-hour nightly live broadcast (usually from 2 to 4 AM) of the Makuuchi bouts and 25-min daily highlights.  But I am retired so I can stay up all night without any problems.

And, as a bonus, you get to hear the rikishis' names pronounced correctly!

[Kaminariyuki 500]

9 hours ago, Seiyashi said:

I believe I either read or heard somewhere very obliquely, from a John Gunning interview, that the English audience for makuuchi broadcasts just simply isn't good enough by the numbers to justify to NHK having two commentators, and borderline if not at all for production specials like on the dohyo at Edo Noren. I started following sumo in 2018 and it's been a solo English commentator since then.

I suppose that's easy to believe but I wonder how they come to that conclusion. I'm not sure how they determine viewership numbers on NHK, and in the age of cable and internet tv. I pay for NHK as an add-on to my cable. They could very well have a mechanism for knowing how many folks are watching but I'm not sure how that would be done.

I don't bother watching the extended broadcasts on Days 1, 8, and 15, so I guess I wouldn't be willing to pay anything for the 2 h broadcast. Now, if they changed the format to always have the camera on the dohyo, while they talk nonsense, I'd be willing to match Seiyashi and Joann for a contribution. I can always turn the sound down if they're irritating an old boy, but when they put up graphics when I actually want to see the yobidashi and the niramiai, they've lost me.

[Kaminariyuki 500]

On 17/06/2021 at 10:40, rhyen said:

The Japanese sides have 3 commentators, usually NHK + Kitanofuji/oyakata of the day (typically ex-Yokozuna/Ozeki/management) in the booth + popular rikishi/impending retirees somewhere else. 
 

we usually tune in for Kitanofuji’s zingers more then anything else. 
 

even when he is not on, the synergy between the other oyakatas is much more fun, especially among recent retirees. Looking forward to Hakuho + Yoshikaze/Toyonoshima/Aminishiki. 

Such a great question by Yamanashi, and I appreciated this response. I'd love to hear an example, or two, of Kitanofuji's zingers. Even better, maybe a thread during the basho where those of you who are fluent or conversational in Japanese can keep us lowly Japanese language students up-to-date?

[specialweek 2 136]

Fixed camera was the NSK presentation at a ridiculously high price and look how long that lasted.

I would pay $150 a year to watch. Japanese people pay about $250 a year for NHK license fee.

[Asojima 2,874]

19 minutes ago, specialweek 2 said:

Fixed camera was the NSK presentation at a ridiculously high price and look how long that lasted..

1.  It was way overpriced.
2.  There was a whole bunch of us who knew the 15 URL's that they used to manage their distribution system. For us, it was a free ride. 

Edited June 22, 2021 by Asojima

[Kaninoyama 1,818]

10 hours ago, sumojoann said:

I am happy to pay the $25USD/month for TV Japan through my cable TV company.  For that I receive the 2-hour nightly live broadcast (usually from 2 to 4 AM) of the Makuuchi bouts and 25-min daily highlights.  But I am retired so I can stay up all night without any problems.

You can of course also record the broadcasts with a DVR and watch them at a time of your leisure. That's what I used to do when I still lived in the States. 

[Kaninoyama 1,818]

1 hour ago, Kaminariyuki said:

Such a great question by Yamanashi, and I appreciated this response. I'd love to hear an example, or two, of Kitanofuji's zingers. Even better, maybe a thread during the basho where those of you who are fluent or conversational in Japanese can keep us lowly Japanese language students up-to-date?

I believe Kintamayama keeps a thread like you described going each basho. 

[Eikokurai 3,437]

14 hours ago, Seiyashi said:

I believe I either read or heard somewhere very obliquely, from a John Gunning interview, that the English audience for makuuchi broadcasts just simply isn't good enough by the numbers to justify to NHK having two commentators, and borderline if not at all for production specials like on the dohyo at Edo Noren. I started following sumo in 2018 and it's been a solo English commentator since then.

I'm fairly sure Murray gave an interview (perhaps in a podcast?) where he said that sumo is far and away the most watched thing on NHK World, which gives them some protection at HQ. I think in the interview they went into it a little bit about the possibility of doing more for sumo and the ratings were mentioned as leverage they could potentially use to do that. I wish I could remember where I saw or heard this. Tachai maybe?

[Tsuchinoninjin 1,276]

3 minutes ago, Eikokurai said:

I'm fairly sure Murray gave an interview (perhaps in a podcast?) where he said that sumo is far and away the most watched thing on NHK World, which gives them some protection at HQ. I think in the interview they went into it a little bit about the possibility of doing more for sumo and the ratings were mentioned as leverage they could potentially use to do that. I wish I could remember where I saw or heard this. Tachai maybe?

My biggest disappointment with TV Japan (which was mostly NHK World) was that other than sumo the rest of the programming was completely uninteresting. That's why I discontinued it. Most of the ex-pats here put some internet connected repeater thing at someone's house in Japan and control that over the net.

[Kujo 123]

16 hours ago, Kintamayama said:

No idea.

But o-mcgoldennuggets-sama (are we still on the Mickey D's theme?) I thought you were the all knowing/all seeing  

[Kaminariyuki 500]

2 hours ago, Kaninoyama said:

I believe Kintamayama keeps a thread like you described going each basho. 

I've certainly seen him run some translations of announcements, etc, but I don't think I've seen such a thread. I'll be looking for it now, though...