I've been watching high class matches on TV all my life, but usually with sound turned off. Comments are usually just computer analysis read out loud and background trivia like "he played similarly 2 years ago against XY" don't provide any benefit to me.
That's not how the Norwegian broadcasts have been, at all. Three different producers have been trying different stuff, and made it really approachable. First it was NRK (the national channel, like BBC for norway) and VG (the biggest newspaper) that both made their own live coverage. And now lately TV2 (biggest paid channel) is also in the game.
The coverages usually consist of a panel with a chess expert and a professional commentator/host, and then various other guests swapped each day. Mostly one celebrity and one other chess player. Then when a move is made it's discussed for some time and variants shown (not just computer analysis read out loud....), mostly by the professionals not looking at a computer. And then the guests can ask noob questions that's also what we viewers are wondering about ("why not just do X") and the chess experts show why.
Then it may be twenty minutes to the next move, so the discussion becomes like a chess-focused talk-show for some time until the next move is made. Or if it's speed chess, that kind of talk is in the 15-20 minutes between each game.
I'm actually going to miss having the speed chess world championship this christmas. Almost become a tradition watching that with the family.
That's how I know chess broadcasts. For me the signal to noise ratio is simply not favorable, I rarely learn from the comments because they cater all levels of players, not just mine. I found it more worthwhile to replay the moves at my computer and ask it: "why not just do x?".
