Color Commentator - Europe

Europe

In Denmark, Norway and Sweden the term ekspertkommentator/expertkommentator (expert commentator) is used for a knowledgeable sidekick to the play-by-play announcer.

In Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries, the position is known as a comentador (commentator), in opposition to the narrador (narrator) who describes the action. Similarly, in Finland kommentaattori is used for the second commentator, and selostaja (explainer) for the main one.

In France, the term is "consultant" in opposition to the "commentateur sportif" (who is also a journalist)

In Turkey, the term "spiker (spEE-ker)" is used for both announcers, who are expected to interchangeably act as the color commentator and the play-by-play announcer.

In some countries, the two-person commentating team is not used as much as elsewhere. In Germany, most broadcast soccer matches feature a single play-by-play announcer, who is expected to provide background information and statistics by himself. If the broadcast is on TV, the commenter will usually not comment on visually obvious things. A two-person commentating team is used more often for sports where understanding of events depends on more subtle visual cues that not everybody might get (for example in auto racing) or when the public is not as familiar with the finer details of the sport as in the case of soccer (for example in winter sport). In those cases the co-commentator (normally a current or former athlete or coach) is called "Experte".