Dale
Posts:1767
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| 01/17/2018 06:38 AM |
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This --> http://www.velonews.com/2015/09/commentary/commentary-kill-your-television_384325
talks about the difficulty of broadcasting cycling on TV. One of the issues is, quite frankly, road racing is boring. Most stages you can distill down to the last kilometer or so and watch the field sprint.
After having just watched cx nationals, which is an easy (comparatively) race to broadcast and watch.
Short, an hour or less. Compact, laps less than 3 k on a venue that is easily accessible and not strung out.
And yet they STILL make it mostly a snooze fest!
The mens race was great-- group of 6, then slowly whittled down to Hyde and Powers. Good racing, decent coverage.
The women race? 45 minutes of watching KFC go for a bike ride. Boring race, worse coverage.
With cx there is plenty of good racing.. might be for 4th and 5th but you'd never know.
My wife and I watched the women race. "Where's so-and-so?" No clue, some of the women that had front row call ups were only seen far off in the distance when they came into the field of view of the camera focused on 1st place.
Who produces these broadcasts? I give them a C- and that's being generous. There was more coverage on the fans next to Tim Johnson that on 3rd through last place. |
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zootracer
Posts:835
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| 01/17/2018 09:51 AM |
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| True...on the long stages, I watch from the beginning until I get bored to death then fast forward to the last 10K or so. Most of the time there is a bunch of nothing going on.... |
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 01/17/2018 10:05 AM |
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| Still beats the perpetual commercial break that is handegg. |
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Dale
Posts:1767
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| 01/17/2018 10:29 AM |
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You mean the three hour ad interspersed with committee meetings, violence, and CTE?
Several years ago my youngest daughter (19 at the time) walked in the living room when a hand-egg match was on the TV, looked sternly at me, and exclaimed, "Who are you and what have you done with my father?
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longslowdistance
Posts:2886
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| 01/17/2018 05:32 PM |
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Ban the radios. Problem mostly fixed.
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Habanero
Posts:257
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| 01/18/2018 07:20 AM |
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| Handegg sucks! |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 01/18/2018 09:40 AM |
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I've been on this soapbox for years...broadcasting multiple hours of races (especially stage races) is an exercise in curing insomnia. There is really no need to show anything other than the last 40K (max) of any race / stage.
There are obviously some exceptions...Roubaix, some key mountain stages (especially those which are short), etc., but for the most part 40K will give you ~1 hour of coverage that will keep people engaged in what they are seeing. |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 01/18/2018 10:39 AM |
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CK - the problem with that is you can never predict when the action will start.
You guys are also looking at it from wrong timezone perspective. When you are watching these races in the correct time zone on a saturday or sunday afternoon (after you're pooped from doing your own ride) there's a multitude of other sports being broadcast so you can keep flipping channels until the action really gets going. And all those Belgians, they're glued to their screens for hours. |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 01/18/2018 11:00 AM |
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OC, u fortunately, predicting when the action will start is becoming more and more reliable these days....even on a mountian stage, it is usually within the last 5K and alsmost certainly in the last 10K. (This will become even more reliable now that AC has retired)
However, if you use 40K as your point to begin broadcasting, and for some strange reason something happens earlier, you simply start with "Let's get you up to speed....So & So attacked on the Col d' Whatever, looking to gain time on the favorites.....he took blankety-blank with him and they now hold a X:XX lead"
Problem solved...  |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 01/18/2018 11:07 AM |
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Maybe in LeTour...not in Giro that's for sure. That's why its the far better race, relatively unpredictable.
And "Live or it didn't happen" :-)
I watch mountain stages once in a while after they're done (just cause I like looking at mountain roads) but never replay anything else.
You mean "the race leader took a nature dump and now he chasing off the back...". |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 01/18/2018 11:09 AM |
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Posted By Orange Crush on 01/18/2018 11:07 AM
You mean "the race leader took a nature dump and now he chasing off the back...".
Exactly!  |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Dale
Posts:1767
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| 01/18/2018 11:27 AM |
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| OR... the race leaders' key domestique got dropped like a hot rock so the race leader faked a weak bladder and took and extended nature break. More and more I dislike Froomie |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 01/18/2018 12:15 PM |
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Well, perhaps his "weak" bladder is a function of his "kidney failure"....
Yeah, i am officially over Froome....not that I ever was much on board with him.
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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79pmooney
Posts:3189
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| 01/18/2018 12:27 PM |
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In general I don't care for race radios, but ... if Froome takes an extended break to get his teammates back on board, the other DSs ought to be telling their teams to hammer it!
Ben
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79pmooney
Posts:3189
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| 01/18/2018 12:27 PM |
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In general I don't care for race radios, but ... if Froome takes an extended break to get his teammates back on board, the other DSs ought to be telling their teams to hammer it!
Ben
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