Have you ever wondered why sometimes when you’re watching a totally legal, 100% legitimate UFC stream the swearing is edited out?
Let John Gooden fill you in.
There was quite a bit of foul language during the UFC London broadcast, which meant that the commentator was forced to apologise.
A lot.
This move grated on some UFC fans and these select few let him know all about it on Twitter. Gooden received so much criticism for apologising that he felt compelled to offer an explanation. He confirmed that the reason no apologies were heard on US streams was because those broadcasts go out on a delay.
“The reason why you don’t see apologies on the US broadcast, I am told, is because it’s on a delay. That means that they take out the swears, so you don’t hear. So therefore, there is no need to apologies.”
“Sometimes they even cut to a shot of the Octagon just to completely remove any of those bits where you see people flicking the Vs on you, that stuff.”
“I was just screaming scared, you know” #UFCLondon https://t.co/QGeVEeJ1Ii
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) March 19, 2017
The reason why Europeans heard him excusing the cursing so often is all because of business. The broadcast that goes out on FightPass is distributed all over the world. Certain broadcasting partnerships in certain countries face serious repercussions for swearing going out on air, so he has to say sorry for them.
“When FightPass is broadcast it’s taken to a feed which is distributed all around the world and some broadcast partners get heavy, heavy fines if there are any words that are deemed to be inappropriate or could cause some offence. Therefore, because of those partnerships, at that point, we have to apologise.”
“It’s a live feed. If you guys wanted it on a delay, it costs a bunch of money and people will bleep it out. When you can’t do that, I have to do apologies. It isn’t a personal thing that I want to do, and I try to balance it by saying how emotional these moments are and that’s why people use such pertinent language. Sometime it’s for motivation, I get it.”
Simples.
Hey fight fans. Here's my explanation for why we have to apologise for bad language on air. Thx for watching 👊🏼#UFCLondon pic.twitter.com/nLQzHzTRXK
— John Gooden (@JohnGoodenUK) March 19, 2017
