actually thought about this and the bbc definitely has a specialist

Pronunciation Unit, staffed by language and phonetics experts, which researches names, places and foreign words for presenters, newsreaders and commentators. It maintains a very large internal pronunciation database, and staff can request guidance or audio pronunciations.

For major football tournaments, commentators will normally also receive team information packs containing things such as squad numbers, biographical details and phonetic spellings of players’ names. They may supplement that by asking the player, the national association or local broadcasters.

ITV almost certainly supplies similar production notes and pronunciation guidance, particularly for World Cups and European Championships, but I cannot find evidence that ITV operates a permanent specialist unit comparable to the BBC’s.

Its commentators are also experienced freelancers who often do their own extensive preparation and may use pronunciation information supplied by UEFA, FIFA, clubs or national teams.

i'd have been surprised if they had just let their staff just wing it.

Posted By: Tombs on July 14th 2026 at 18:12:27

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