Football commentary

In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer, sportscaster or play-by-play announcer) gives a running commentary of a game or event in real time, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. The comments are normally a voiceover, with the sounds of the action and spectators also heard in the background. In the case of television commentary, the commentators are on screen rarely if at all during the event (although they may appear on camera at the start or near the end of the broadcast).

The main commentator, also called the play-by-play announcer or commentator in North America, blow-by-blow in combat sports coverage or lap-by-lap for motorsports coverage, is the primary speaker on the broadcast. They are valued for their articulateness and for their ability to describe each play or event of an often fast-moving sporting event. The ideal play-by-play voice has a vocal timbre that is tolerable to hear over the multiple hours of a sports broadcast and dynamic enough to convey and enhance the importance of the on-game activity. Because of their skills, some commentators like Al Michaels in the U.S., David Coleman in the UK and Bruce McAvaney in Australia may have careers in which they call several different sports at one time or another. Other main commentators may, however, only call one sport (Mike Emrick, for example, is known almost exclusively as an ice hockey broadcaster). The vast majority of play-by-play announcers are male; female play-by-play announcers have not seen sustained employment until the 21st century.

Radio and television play-by-play techniques involve slightly different approaches; radio broadcasts typically require the play-by-play host to say more to verbally convey the on-field activity that cannot be seen. It is unusual to have radio and television broadcasts share the same play-by-play commentator for the same event, except in cases of low production budgets or where a broadcaster is particularly renowned (Rick Jeanneret's hockey telecasts, for example, have been simulcast on radio and television since the late 1990s).

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