Sky sports commentators (from left) Jeff Wilson, Hemana Waaka, Tony Johnson, Laura McGoldrick and Justin Marshall. Montage / Paul Slater.
Sky sports commentators (from left) Jeff Wilson, Hemana Waaka, Tony Johnson, Laura McGoldrick and Justin Marshall. Montage / Paul Slater.
Sky Sports commentators are being trained and asked to speak more te reo Māori on air.
Sky TV’s head of Māori Strategy, Kirstin Te Wao-Edmonds, said the broadcaster has a “mission to normalise te reo in mainstream sports broadcasting”.
Sky rugby commentator Tony Johnson told the Herald pronouncing names correctly is a way to honour Māori and Pasifika friends who have had an impact on his life.
Rugby commentators have long opened their commentaries with the classic “kiaora” but that was just the start, said Te Wao-Edmonds (Te Arawa, Waikato-Tainui, Samoa) who joined Sky in 2022.
“We’re investing in building the capability and confidence of our Sky Sport talent in using te reo in our English language broadcasts,” she told the Herald.
The network has also invested in research to understand audience perception of te reo Māori commentaries.
Sky TV's Head of Māori Strategy Kirsten Te Wao-Edmonds said the broadcaster has a mission to normalise te reo Māori in mainstream sports broadcasting.
“Sky Sport is one of the areas we have focused on early.”
Longtime rugby commentator Tony Johnson told the Herald he makes sure he knows how to pronounce names and places correctly to honour the many Māori and Pasifika friends and colleagues who have had an impact on his life.
Codie Taylor of New Zealand leads the New Zealand All Blacks Haka;
Photo: Marty Melville / Photosport
“I had a First XV coach in Picton, Monte Ohia, who instilled in me that names have deep meaning and if you don’t pronounce them properly, you don’t give them their true meaning and I always wanted to do the right thing by him,” said Johnson, who has called between 40 and 50 matches per year over the past 20 years.
It is also about respecting the te reo - the language of this country
“There have been a lot of Māori and Pasifika people through my career who I have gotten close to and part of my kaupapa is to do the right thing by them as well.
“It is also about respecting te reo - the language of this country.
“We have had really good sessions and been encouraged to use more te reo with different phrases and words and it has been embraced by all of us.”
Johnson said, like the haka, te reo is “unique to Aotearoa”.
“Same with mana, everyone knows its meaning because it has been part of everyday usage.”
He said his job “is a privilege but with privilege comes responsibility. It is something I take pretty seriously,” Johnson said.
Early signs are good for Sky’s bilingual te reo strategy.
The Women’s Rugby World Cup is broadcast in English and te reo Māori and the te reo commentary viewership numbers have surpassed the target of 75,000 viewers for the entire tournament - yet the Black Ferns are still to play their semis and possible final.
Sky Sports te reo Māori commentator Hemena Waaka.
“Our te reo coverage of the 2023 Men’s Rugby World Cup reached 72,000 viewers on linear TV, across seven All Blacks Tests,” Te Wao-Edmonds said.
“Our te reo content at the current Women’s Rugby World Cup has reached over 112,000 viewers in the first three Black Ferns tests, with te reo Māori Live, replays and highlights.
“In FY25 te reo Māori coverage reached over 240,000 viewers across Sky Sport and Sky Open.”
Te Wao-Edmonds told the Herald that Sky is committed to both investing in te reo commentators, and empowering English-speaking talent to use te reo in their broadcasts.
“It is a powerful tool for oratory,” she said.
Former All Black and Sky rugby commentator Justin Marshall.
Specialist te reo speakers brought in by Sky to support its commentary teams have also talked about understanding the culture that accompanies the language.
“If we are not using te reo constantly, it’s easy to forget and there’s many of us guilty of that,” Te Wao-Edmonds said.
“Te reo is not going to please everybody but we are clear that our responsibility as a Aotearoa media company means that te reo is important to us, tikanga is important to us and growing Māori leadership is important to us as a company.
“What we have seen and feedback from the teams is we want te reo on a regular basis and it’s great to see our teams requesting and wanting more.”
Sky rugby commentator and former All Black Jeff Wilson.
Te Wao-Edmonds said critics of te reo were a minority.
“The biggest challenge for non-reo speakers and for Māori speakers is fear of getting it wrong and during big games, you have a cast of millions who let you know if you get something wrong,” she laughs.
“When we have te reo and English commentaries side-by-side it provides options for our audiences.
“We have on-the-job te reo training for our commentators... not only [for] their mahi for Sky but... as we lean into our identity as a country it is important our presenters and commentators to have skill sets in their pockets.”
Te Wao-Edmonds said commentators work extremely hard on their pronunciation of Māori and English players’ names - as mispronouncing names has been a main criticism aimed at sports commentators.
“In Māori and Pasifika, they are tupuna (ancestral) names and we want to make sure we do them justice,” she said.
Joseph Los’e is an award winning journalist and joined NZME in 2022 as the Kaupapa Maori Editor. Los’e was chief reporter, news director at the Sunday News newspaper covering crime, justice and sport. He was also editor of the NZ Truth and before NZME worked for urban Māori organisation Whānau Waipareira.
