Kan complains to World Cup filmographer over broadcast quality
Public broadcaster said it has been inundated with complaints: "We can hardly see the ball."
By AMY SPIROUpdated: JUNE 17, 2018 14:41Iceland's Hannes Por Halldorsson saves a penalty from Argentina's Lionel Messi on June 16th, 2018(photo credit: REUTERS/CARL RECINE)
Israeli public broadcaster Kan has submitted a letter of complaint to HBS, the company responsible for filming the ongoing World Cup, over poor quality.Kan said on Saturday that HBS (Host Broadcast Services) had received thousands of complaints over the World Cup broadcasts from Israel and many other countries.“On behalf of millions of viewers in Israel, in addition to our governing bodies, I would like to officially file a complaint regarding what I cannot describe as anything but [the] unacceptable, and at times unwatchable feed of the UHD/HDR transmission of the World Cup matches from Russia,” Kan’s acting chief technology officer, Cory Korkos, wrote in a letter to HBS on Saturday. Korkos said that there were issues with the Friday games, and even more severe issues with the Saturday games.“We at Kan/IPBC (Israel) have been under non-stop media and viewers’ extreme criticism and scrutiny,” Korkos added. “The complaints from the public all basically say the same [thing]: the matchs’ camera shots are so far from the field, we can hardly see the ball.”Korkos said that viewers are reporting “great anguish and distress... We are therefore asking for HBS’ official response and suggested plan-of-action items to resolve this matter without delay – for the benefit of our viewers – as we are under extreme public pressure.”The World Cup games have been garnering huge ratings for Kan, the fledgling public broadcaster. The much-anticipated Argentina-Iceland game was watched by 18.6% of the viewing public, and the Spain-Portugal match was viewed by 19.5% – more than 600,000 people in Israel. The games have also given a ratings boost to Kan’s primetime news broadcast, which generally falls far behind the Channel 2 and Channel Ten offerings.
