How many broadcasters does it take to cover a football match? No, that’s not the start of a joke, but a serious question that has arisen from the widely varying reports of how the world’s public broadcasters are planning to cover football's World Cup 2010 in South Africa.

On 2 June 2010, FIFA President Sepp Blatter opened the new International Broadcasting Centre near the Johannesburg Soccer City Stadium, built for the 2010 World Cup. The facility is expected to house more than 500 broadcasting organisations that will transmit World Cup images to billions of viewers in over 214 countries across the world. More than 13,000 accredited TV commentators, camera crew and technical staff will make use of the International Broadcasting Centre.

SABC's financial woes
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) will be the country's official broadcaster of the tournament. But while everything looks impressive from the outside, SABC’s plans for domestic coverage have been coming under pressure from the South African parliament.

SABC itself will not be using the International Broadcasting Centre, but instead has set up its headquarters in the Sandton Convention Centre at a cost of 14 million Rand (1.5 million euro). But while MPs have questioned this expenditure, their main cause of concern is the fact that live TV commentaries during the World Cup will be in only five of South Africa's 11 official languages, with the other six relegated to radio reports.

SABC bosses told parliament it had selected only five languages - English, Tswana, Xhosa, Sotho and Zulu - for TV commentary for logistical reasons and because of limited resources. But one MP said “We must make sure we speak the people's languages. They say if you can't speak my language then you can't be my leader”.

BBC's big budget
But while the SABC complains of limited resources, more than a few eyebrows have been raised in the UK at the BBC’s decision to send about 300 members of staff to South Africa for the tournament, and to rent its own facilities in Cape Town rather than use the facilities of the International Broadcasting Centre. The facilities are reported to have cost the BBC £1m (1.2m euro). The BBC is only showing half of the matches live in the UK, with the commercial ITV network providing live coverage of the rest, using less staff.

Executive producer Phil Bigwood, who is responsible for the production of BBC TV's World Cup coverage, wrote in March that “As far as staffing goes, I'm pleased we have been able to reduce numbers compared to 2006. In terms of TV Sport, we'll be sending a total of 190 to South Africa compared with the 210 staff who travelled to Germany. For Radio, the numbers are 48 compared to 69 and News will also send fewer staff than the 57 they had at the last World Cup. This is despite the fact our output will have grown since then and we will be working in a much more logistically challenging environment.”

The Irish solution
That may be so, but to put these figures into perspective it’s worth noting that Irish public broadcaster RTÉ will be showing 56 live games and will manage with an 11-strong team in South Africa: four commentators, four co-commentators and three producers. The presentation will be done from Dublin, whereas the BBC is sending all its presenters and pundits to South Africa. Furthermore, the BBC tends to have three pundits in the studio for each game, whereas many other broadcasters manage with two or even one.

It should be noted, of course, that Ireland did not qualify for the finals, whereas England is hoping to do well. But the BBC is only due to show one of England’s three group matches live (ITV will show the other two), and if it all goes horribly wrong for England and they get knocked out at the group stage, this may turn out to be the most expensive football match in English history. Of course, both BBC and ITV will continue to cover the tournament to its conclusion whatever happens, but audiences will be much smaller if England are knocked out.

Gamble
To some extent, it’s always a gamble for broadcasters planning coverage of major tournaments when there’s no way of knowing the fate of their national teams in advance. Should England manage to reach the final, the BBC would be criticised if was not able to give the game the level and quality of coverage that viewers expect of the national broadcaster. At least in 2012, when the Olympics are held in London, the BBC as host broadcaster will not have to be concerned about justifying the level of its coverage.