Euro 2012 final: CBBC's red button football frolics
2nd July 2012
Sonali was part of the CBBC commentary team for the Euro 2012 final last night. She comments on the reaction they've had to their offering...
''The idea behind the CBBC commentary was to provide six- to 12-year-olds (the channel's target audience) an alternative way of watching the match. Kids who didn't fancy sticking with the usual BBC offering were able to press the red button and hear four familiar voices (three ex-CBBC presenters in me, Joel Defries and Michael Absalom, and Chris Johnson who is a current face on the channel) chat about the action and provide them with fun facts and quizzes about the tournament, the two nations, the teams and the players.
We viewed it as a complement, not antidote, to the conventional commentating on the main channel.
It was also great to get any children who had been allowed to stay up for the match involved. Anyone that's ever read the CBBC message boards knows how opinionated, cheeky and funny today's kids are – not always intentionally. They got in touch with us through email, phone and those messageboards – telling us where they were watching the match, who they were supporting and why, who they were watching the match with, their match predictions, their favourite goals of the tournament and of course their favourite hairstyles.''