OLN Coverage Sucked

Quoted message said:

So, euros with real coverage:

I know you get 5 hours or so. Do they break for commercials constantly?
Or do they run the last hour or so straight through?

I watched on Belgium TV, live from about 80 km's in the race to the finish without breaks (about 5 hours).
The coverage is really good (the best?) with knowledgeable commentary, link with commentary guy on motorbike in the race and
sometimes live phonecalls with teamcars etc. Dutch TV instead have some breaks, usually on the hour to show the news, and commentary
is of much lower quality (too much focus on heroic stuff which is usual with commentary by Mart Smeets).

"Jesse Thompson" <jesseth@removethis_gwi.net> wrote in message news:1gc3ozs.13j5lm154x4kwN%jesseth@removethis_gwi.net...

Quoted message said:

C. Zoh said:

I thought it was completely disjointed, but I guess it's better than nothing.

How about that Leif Hoste and that flag? I am in utter amazement that
he kept his bike up. Wow.

So, euros with real coverage:

I know you get 5 hours or so. Do they break for commercials constantly?
Or do they run the last hour or so straight through?

Here's what Americans saw: (and yes, I remember when I saw nothing...)

Commesso break, cut, Arenberg, cut, Kirsipuu solo, cut, Boonen/Hincapie
break, cut, Hammond/Backstedt break, Museuuw flat, cut, velodrome
finish.

40 minutes total coverage. No continuity, no sensible narrative. Just
5 or 6 seperate unconnected events tacked together.

They did the same thing with Flanders last week. After every
commercial, 10-15 km lost on the editing floor.

Reading Cyclingnews has more suspense. OLN is just a tease.

David said:

On Sun, 11 Apr 2004 23:05:55 -0500, jesseth@removethis_gwi.net (Jesse

Thompson) said:

So, euros with real coverage:

I know you get 5 hours or so. Do they break for commercials constantly?
Or do they run the last hour or so straight through?

I watched the Eurosport coverage. Coverage started at 1:30 (at about
km 90 or so), and continued until the finish. They have a (short)
commercial break every 30 minutes or so, but seem to go out of their
way not to go break at inappropriate times.

British Eurosport covered about two hours live then cut to a Seria A
game. They then came back for a further recorded two hours but
inexplicably after a commercial break at about 30k to go they rejoined
at under 6k when all the action had happened!!!

Regards!
Stephen

"Robert Chung" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Tom Kunich said:

"curt" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

You must understand, the US is not a cycling country. France is. We
got the coverage one would expect here in the US. I am surprised it
was covered at all.

So tell me why I was in that cycling country for two weeks and until the
Tour stage in Paris I never saw a single Frenchman on a racing bike?

Because they saw you first.

ouch

Did anyone turn on OLN at 9am - just on the slim possibility that they had
had a change of heart? I guess a puppet show on hunting was more lucrative
then live P-R coverage. My take on the disjunctive coverage is that Phil and
Paul are ultimately gearing their commentary for WCP coverage, and thus
don't update viewers about what happened during the ubiquitous breaks (that
will not be in the DVDs). It's frustraing that the breaks are longer and
more frequent when the race is most exciting, and the longest uninterrupted
coverage is during the initial color commentary.

-r

"Ronald" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

So, euros with real coverage:

I know you get 5 hours or so. Do they break for commercials constantly?
Or do they run the last hour or so straight through?

I watched on Belgium TV, live from about 80 km's in the race to the finish

without breaks (about 5 hours).

Quoted message said:

The coverage is really good (the best?) with knowledgeable commentary,

link with commentary guy on motorbike in the race and

Quoted message said:

sometimes live phonecalls with teamcars etc. Dutch TV instead have some

breaks, usually on the hour to show the news, and commentary

Quoted message said:

is of much lower quality (too much focus on heroic stuff which is usual

with commentary by Mart Smeets).

Quoted message said:

"Jesse Thompson" <jesseth@removethis_gwi.net> wrote in message

news:1gc3ozs.13j5lm154x4kwN%jesseth@removethis_gwi.net...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

C. Zoh said:

I thought it was completely disjointed, but I guess it's better than

nothing.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

How about that Leif Hoste and that flag? I am in utter amazement that
he kept his bike up. Wow.

So, euros with real coverage:

I know you get 5 hours or so. Do they break for commercials constantly?
Or do they run the last hour or so straight through?

Here's what Americans saw: (and yes, I remember when I saw nothing...)

Commesso break, cut, Arenberg, cut, Kirsipuu solo, cut, Boonen/Hincapie
break, cut, Hammond/Backstedt break, Museuuw flat, cut, velodrome
finish.

40 minutes total coverage. No continuity, no sensible narrative. Just
5 or 6 seperate unconnected events tacked together.

They did the same thing with Flanders last week. After every
commercial, 10-15 km lost on the editing floor.

Reading Cyclingnews has more suspense. OLN is just a tease.

Tom Arsenault said:

"Jiyang Chen" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

The coverage in America is brought to us by OLN.

Once again, as mentioned probably a million times before, it's still
better than nothing. At least we get coverage now. Aside from that,
you could have read the live reports on various cycling internet
sites, and gotten a blow by blow analysis of the really good stuff.
OLN is the best, and only coverage we've got of cycling events in the
US. I'll take that over nothing anyday.

You could also get the live audio of Duffield wanking on about the new
Shimano Deore crankset for over 5 minutes and how he got down on his hands
and knees and counted the number of spokes people were using in PR, with
occassional race commentary. Actually, Sean Kelly as a sidekick wasn't bad
but he's chosen a strange Purgatory for himself playing the straight man for
the Duffer.

h squared said:

i had problems following it too. i actually like that they showed some
of the earlier parts of the race, but the final bit was confusing.
mike
made a good point that since they had time to edit it, they could have
done a better job.

The final bit was confusing anyway because there weren't enough cameras to
cover every group of riders, so some groups dropped out of the game at some
points. I think Robert already covered this in another thread. I think OLN
just made best with what they had. Also, Eurosport took that time to go to
commercial, so I don't think George's group getting caught was even aired in
Germany or Britain. Of course I may have missed it because I was also
reading the live reports, keeping an eye on the map for the next pave
section and listening to Duffield on 20 second delay. I just remember
thinking, "Oh, George isn't there anymore. Figures".

C. Zoh said:

I thought it was completely disjointed, but I guess it's better than nothing.

In the good old days of CBS, maybe. But P-R was the opening salvo of an
agenda promising to bringing live coverage of the TdF to the unwashed
masses of US biking folks. That agenda was accomplished. Clearly, they
are scaling back. As a result, the P-R highlights was a hastily thrown
together montage of Arenberg, Cysoing and few other spots. Utterly
missing were the creation of the 5 man break that failed, the move that
brought Museeux to the front, the dropping of Hincapie, etc. In the last
year, a troubling trend has been progressing at OLN.

1. ESPN's morning weekend fare has been moved to OLN and given prime time
slots (hunting and bass fishing, Running of the Bulls in Trample-ona).

2. Indoor pro bull riding has taken over prime time

3. Imitation FOX Sports "You Gotta See This" amateur videos of fools
getting their just desserts doing things that simply shouldn't be aired
are on prime time.

4. Gone are the climbing.

5. Gone are mountain bike racing.

6. Gone are hiking and camping.

7. Gone are kayaking and river sports.

8. Gone are biking equipment reviews.

In short, OLN has decided to ignore their mission and name and become
ESPN3, taking the fringe programs from ESPN, and removing their
own signature programs. Now, having succeeded in getting their commitment
to the live TdF, they are scaling back the other biking. P-R is a
casualty. I hope viewers are savvy enough to figure what will happen when
Armstrong retires...

OLNTV does have an Email comments spot on their web page. I'd strongly
urge readers to give them their feelings.

You could even tell them how happy you were to not see Madame Gum, for
those who still have a problem with her.

Quoted message said:

How about that Leif Hoste and that flag? I am in utter amazement that
he kept his bike up. Wow.

C. Zoh <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<2004041116012016807%shelmerdudley@earthlinknet>...

Quoted message said:

I thought it was completely disjointed, but I guess it's better than nothing.

How about that Leif Hoste and that flag? I am in utter amazement that
he kept his bike up. Wow.

I hate the way OLN starts their coverage in the middle of the race.
The cut out a lot of the good early climbs in the TDF. It might be
nice if they had a post broadcast version that had clips from the
early parts of the race. I would like to see more behind the scenes
clips from the races.

France 2 coverage was quite good (4 hours of coverage without commercials),
but they have the most annoying commentator on god's green earth- Goddard.
They relegated him to riding around on the second motorcycle after he got
into a tussle with a photographer in last year's tour de france, but his
screaming, ingratiating name dropping just ruins it for me. Even if I didn't
understand French, I'd find him annoying. Why does he feel it necessary to
yell, just to tell us that someone (not even a P-R favorite) has flatted
with 150kms to go?

Thankfully, Jaja is on the other motorcycle, his obvious knowledge of
stategy, tactics and the races has been augmented this year by his improved
ability to express it. Plus he doesn't play Goddard's game of trying to make
every moment seem exciting. Sometimes, there are moments in a 260km race
whe're there really is nothing happening. (For those times, France2 has a
color commentator who's job it is to tell us the history and monuments of
the region the riders are passing through. Since it's France, there's always
something to talk about.)

Kyle Legate said:

Tom Arsenault said:

"Jiyang Chen" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

The coverage in America is brought to us by OLN.

Once again, as mentioned probably a million times before, it's
still better than nothing. At least we get coverage now. Aside
from that, you could have read the live reports on various cycling
internet sites, and gotten a blow by blow analysis of the really
good stuff. OLN is the best, and only coverage we've got of cycling
events in the US. I'll take that over nothing anyday.

You could also get the live audio of Duffield wanking on about the new
Shimano Deore crankset for over 5 minutes and how he got down on his
hands and knees and counted the number of spokes people were using in
PR, with occassional race commentary. Actually, Sean Kelly as a
sidekick wasn't bad but he's chosen a strange Purgatory for himself
playing the straight man for the Duffer.

George's group getting caught wasn't shown by France2's live coverage
either. Plus, it caught the commentators completely by surprise. The
director switched cameras to show the trio and the commentators said
something like, "Here we are with the three men at the head of the course
and they can certainly be a danger." Meanwhile, the camera was panning back
and showed that they in fact were back in the lead group. The commentators
were quite surprised.

Kyle Legate said:

h squared said:

i had problems following it too. i actually like that they showed
some of the earlier parts of the race, but the final bit was
confusing. mike
made a good point that since they had time to edit it, they could
have done a better job.

The final bit was confusing anyway because there weren't enough
cameras to cover every group of riders, so some groups dropped out of
the game at some points. I think Robert already covered this in
another thread. I think OLN just made best with what they had. Also,
Eurosport took that time to go to commercial, so I don't think
George's group getting caught was even aired in Germany or Britain.
Of course I may have missed it because I was also reading the live
reports, keeping an eye on the map for the next pave section and
listening to Duffield on 20 second delay. I just remember thinking,
"Oh, George isn't there anymore. Figures".

The coverage reminded me CBS on an off year. Too much of Frankie talking
and talking and.........Better to show racing. It seems as though they're
trying to explain it to the OLN fishing and bull riding fans, and maybe Tom
Kuinch. ;-)

"Mike Jacoubowsky" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

You must understand, the US is not a cycling country. France is. We

got

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

the coverage one would expect here in the US. I am surprised it was

covered

Quoted message said:

at all.

Agreed, great that we did have coverage. But it wasn't very good... the
first half-hour seemed useless, so, out of a 5+ hour race, you get

one-half

Quoted message said:

hour of decent race coverage? No, if it was decent race coverage, there
wouldn't have been so much question during the final part of the race as

to

Quoted message said:

where George Hincapie disappeared to.

Seemed like they could have done a better job of cherry-picking the better
parts of the race to show, since it's put together hours before it's

shown.

Quoted message said:

And they could have edited it better so we knew in semi-real-time what was
going on with George. It's not like they didn't play up George a lot

before

Quoted message said:

and during the race!

Maybe it will make more sense when I watch it again.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
http://www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

I agree that it was better than nothing but they really could have
done a better job editing it. It was hard to follow what was going
on. Perhaps OLN needs to receive some feeback from cycling fans. The
URL is http://www.olntv.com/feedback.asp.

C. Zoh <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<2004041116012016807%shelmerdudley@earthlinknet>...

Quoted message said:

I thought it was completely disjointed, but I guess it's better than nothing.

How about that Leif Hoste and that flag? I am in utter amazement that
he kept his bike up. Wow.

"Clovis Lark" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

C. Zoh said:

I thought it was completely disjointed, but I guess it's better than

nothing.

Quoted message said:

In the good old days of CBS, maybe. But P-R was the opening salvo of an
agenda promising to bringing live coverage of the TdF to the unwashed
masses of US biking folks. That agenda was accomplished. Clearly, they
are scaling back. As a result, the P-R highlights was a hastily thrown
together montage of Arenberg, Cysoing and few other spots. Utterly
missing were the creation of the 5 man break that failed, the move that
brought Museeux to the front, the dropping of Hincapie, etc. In the last
year, a troubling trend has been progressing at OLN.

1. ESPN's morning weekend fare has been moved to OLN and given prime time
slots (hunting and bass fishing, Running of the Bulls in Trample-ona).

2. Indoor pro bull riding has taken over prime time

3. Imitation FOX Sports "You Gotta See This" amateur videos of fools
getting their just desserts doing things that simply shouldn't be aired
are on prime time.

4. Gone are the climbing.

5. Gone are mountain bike racing.

6. Gone are hiking and camping.

7. Gone are kayaking and river sports.

8. Gone are biking equipment reviews.

In short, OLN has decided to ignore their mission and name and become
ESPN3, taking the fringe programs from ESPN, and removing their
own signature programs. Now, having succeeded in getting their commitment
to the live TdF, they are scaling back the other biking. P-R is a
casualty. I hope viewers are savvy enough to figure what will happen when
Armstrong retires...

It sounds like OLN is becoming like OLN canada. All we get is the TDF, and
the rest of the time it's dog shows, strong man contests, idiotic travel
shows featuring emaciated hostesses, and nature shows. LIke we can't see
half of that [censored] anywhere else. TSN shows strong man contests and dog
shows, and nature shows are on nearly every channel in canada!

"Marlene Blanshay" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

nature shows are on nearly every channel in canada!

That's because Canadians have such poor memories. It comes from shivering
all the time.

Well you see the crowds they get when a race is going on in France. In the
US, the crowds suck. We are too busy watching NASCAR or interested in huge
powerful SUV's and whatever else is big and powerful. We don't care about
cycling unfortunately. Here in Pittsburgh we had a race called the Thrift
Drug Classic. It was a great race, but no one came to it. I mean no one.
I could just drive down and park anywhere I wanted and watch where ever I
pleased. There were more policeman at the race than fans or supporters. By
the way, Lance was here racing in it and that didn't even make a difference.
It was part of a series of races to win a million dollars.

Look at the races in France. The streets are filled with cheering educated
fans. Lets face it, they have it going on over there and we don't. Most
everyone in the US just look at bicycles as an annoyance. We have a guy
that already tied the record for the TdF and no one over here cares. If he
wins 6 and becomes the all-time tour winner, maybe a few dozen people will
notice over here.

I will say one thing for Lance, he is focused and it doesn't seem to bother
him he has very little support in his home country. He is amazingly strong
mentally to say the least.

Curt

"Tom Kunich" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"curt" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

You must understand, the US is not a cycling country. France is. We

got

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

the coverage one would expect here in the US. I am surprised it was

covered

Quoted message said:

at all.

So tell me why I was in that cycling country for two weeks and until the
Tour stage in Paris I never saw a single Frenchman on a racing bike?

I think it's getting better. In Georgia you can always see a great crowd
(30,000+) show up for the Twilight Criterium in Athens. Mind you the party
is a big part of the draw. Last years Roswell Criterium brought in a pretty
nice crowd of around 10-15,000. Tour de Georgia is expected to bring in
some pretty hefty numbers. I think as more folks get familiar it's
changing. Usually takes getting to a race here or there to start to
appreciate the tactics, et al. I particularly think the crits help in that
regard. Sure, it's not Europe but you gotta start somewhere.

I know everyone I have ever taken to one always comes away excited and
motivated to follow the sport.

Hard to believe but growing up in Daytona Beach 30 years ago no one was at
NASCAR but a small, shall we say eccentric, fan base. Now it's a main
stream sport and the largest in the US. It could happen. May not be
probable but it's possible.

"curt" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Well you see the crowds they get when a race is going on in France. In

the

Quoted message said:

US, the crowds suck. We are too busy watching NASCAR or interested in

huge

Quoted message said:

powerful SUV's and whatever else is big and powerful. We don't care about
cycling unfortunately. Here in Pittsburgh we had a race called the Thrift
Drug Classic. It was a great race, but no one came to it. I mean no one.
I could just drive down and park anywhere I wanted and watch where ever I
pleased. There were more policeman at the race than fans or supporters.

By

Quoted message said:

the way, Lance was here racing in it and that didn't even make a

difference.

Quoted message said:

It was part of a series of races to win a million dollars.

Look at the races in France. The streets are filled with cheering

educated

Quoted message said:

fans. Lets face it, they have it going on over there and we don't. Most
everyone in the US just look at bicycles as an annoyance. We have a guy
that already tied the record for the TdF and no one over here cares. If

he

Quoted message said:

wins 6 and becomes the all-time tour winner, maybe a few dozen people will
notice over here.

I will say one thing for Lance, he is focused and it doesn't seem to

bother

Quoted message said:

him he has very little support in his home country. He is amazingly

strong

Quoted message said:

mentally to say the least.

Curt

"Tom Kunich" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"curt" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

You must understand, the US is not a cycling country. France is. We

got

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

the coverage one would expect here in the US. I am surprised it was

covered

Quoted message said:

at all.

So tell me why I was in that cycling country for two weeks and until the
Tour stage in Paris I never saw a single Frenchman on a racing bike?

"Charles Hizark" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

C. Zoh <[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:<2004041116012016807%shelmerdudley@earthlinknet>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I thought it was completely disjointed, but I guess it's better than

nothing.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

How about that Leif Hoste and that flag? I am in utter amazement

that

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

he kept his bike up. Wow.

I hate the way OLN starts their coverage in the middle of the race.
The cut out a lot of the good early climbs in the TDF. It might be
nice if they had a post broadcast version that had clips from the
early parts of the race. I would like to see more behind the scenes
clips from the races.

They do show clips from the earlier climbs, and they list the results of
who got the mountain top points.

Just need more baseball fans to wake up and see there are sports that
can't be compared unfavorably to watching paint dry (in slow motion.)

Randy Walton said:

I think it's getting better. In Georgia you can always see a great crowd
(30,000+) show up for the Twilight Criterium in Athens. Mind you the party
is a big part of the draw. Last years Roswell Criterium brought in a pretty
nice crowd of around 10-15,000. Tour de Georgia is expected to bring in
some pretty hefty numbers. I think as more folks get familiar it's
changing. Usually takes getting to a race here or there to start to
appreciate the tactics, et al. I particularly think the crits help in that
regard. Sure, it's not Europe but you gotta start somewhere.

I know everyone I have ever taken to one always comes away excited and
motivated to follow the sport.

Hard to believe but growing up in Daytona Beach 30 years ago no one was at
NASCAR but a small, shall we say eccentric, fan base. Now it's a main
stream sport and the largest in the US. It could happen. May not be
probable but it's possible.

"curt" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Well you see the crowds they get when a race is going on in France. In

the

Quoted message said:

US, the crowds suck. We are too busy watching NASCAR or interested in

huge

Quoted message said:

powerful SUV's and whatever else is big and powerful. We don't care about
cycling unfortunately. Here in Pittsburgh we had a race called the Thrift
Drug Classic. It was a great race, but no one came to it. I mean no one.
I could just drive down and park anywhere I wanted and watch where ever I
pleased. There were more policeman at the race than fans or supporters.

By

Quoted message said:

the way, Lance was here racing in it and that didn't even make a

difference.

Quoted message said:

It was part of a series of races to win a million dollars.

Look at the races in France. The streets are filled with cheering

educated

Quoted message said:

fans. Lets face it, they have it going on over there and we don't. Most
everyone in the US just look at bicycles as an annoyance. We have a guy
that already tied the record for the TdF and no one over here cares. If

he

Quoted message said:

wins 6 and becomes the all-time tour winner, maybe a few dozen people will
notice over here.

I will say one thing for Lance, he is focused and it doesn't seem to

bother

Quoted message said:

him he has very little support in his home country. He is amazingly

strong

Quoted message said:

mentally to say the least.

Curt

"Tom Kunich" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"curt" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

>You must understand, the US is not a cycling country. France is. We

got

Quoted message said:

>the coverage one would expect here in the US. I am surprised it was

covered

>at all.

So tell me why I was in that cycling country for two weeks and until the
Tour stage in Paris I never saw a single Frenchman on a racing bike?

Clovis Lark <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

OLNTV does have an Email comments spot on their web page. I'd
strongly urge readers to give them their feelings.

Unless you're going to send money, don't bother. It's a business....your
best interest stops where theirs begins. You're seeing less cycling because
you're seeing none of those annoying Mercury commercials. That's a big
chunk of money to loose without another big sponsor to step up to the
plate. Cycling is much like golf in this respect. Except for a few of the
majors, golf sponsors pay way out of proportion for the number of eyeballs
watching. They're paying for image among what they consider a prime
demographic. When you consider that cycling's ratings are paltry in
relationship to golf....well, you can imagine the difficulty in attracting
sponsors. Sure, you'll see a whole bunch of Subaru and Nike around the
Tour, but they're trading on thier relationship with Lance and that whole
cult of personality. When he leaves cycling, so will their $$$. Without a
big sponsor willing to throw their money at a small fan base that is viewed
as being neither homogenous or brand-loyal, don't expect to see more
cycling coverage any time soon.

"Jiyang Chen" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

"Charles Hizark" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

C. Zoh <[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:<2004041116012016807%shelmerdudley@earthlinknet>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I thought it was completely disjointed, but I guess it's better than

nothing.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

How about that Leif Hoste and that flag? I am in utter amazement

that

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

he kept his bike up. Wow.

I hate the way OLN starts their coverage in the middle of the race.
The cut out a lot of the good early climbs in the TDF. It might be
nice if they had a post broadcast version that had clips from the
early parts of the race. I would like to see more behind the scenes
clips from the races.

They do show clips from the earlier climbs, and they list the results of
who got the mountain top points.

True they do show some, I just wish they would show more. The coverage
is 1 1/2 to 2 hours, which is plenty of time.