Equestrian is the Laughing Stock @ NBC

[MFP]

OK… Not to throw anyone under the bus, but a good friend of mine husband is one of the highest ranking decision makers at NBC’s Olympic Production (He is a really great guy and I would hate to make his name public). I had dinner with this them right before he left for China… and I asked him why NBC never covers Equestrian Events. He started Laughing. He mentioned that Equestrian is the ‘joke’ at NBC… Any time they are looking to fill a spot with coverage someone states “lets put on equestrian” (sarcastically) and everyone in the room laughs. He said that Judo is also the other running joke at NBC as well.

He also mentioned that no one at NBC really knows anything about equestrian, and they also get the most request for our sport. FYI, NBC is not in Hong Kong covering equestrian… they contracted it out.

Personally, I am happy that we have the live feed… that is a good start. Too bad Animal Planet or Outdoor Sports Network can’t step in and purchase the rights to the equestrian. I have no idea how that stuff works…

-MFP

[ponyjumper4]

did you really expect differently?

[Bugs-n-Frodo]

They laugh because they are ignorant! I’ve heard it say like this: They don’t know no better.

[yaya]

@MFP;3441452

and they also get the most request for our sport.

Shouldn’t that tell them something!!!

[Wellspotted]

OK, once these Olympics are over, let’s ALL sit down and write letters to Bob Costas and the other NBC Olympics people.

I mean ALL. OF. US. All horse fans. Anyone who wants to see more equestrian coverage in 2012.

Write intelligent, well-thought-out letters, or send e-mails with links to exciting video clips. Maybe from the BBC and other networks that do cover equestrian sports. After all, if an “ordinary working man” in England can know the names of show jumpers, why can’t an ordinary American?

Sell the sport to NBC. Be a REAL supporter. Convince them. Invite them to your barn, to local shows. SHOW them that equestrian competition is exciting. Introduce them to a horse up close–maybe a big 17-hand-plus WB to impress them. If the Clydesdales can sell Bud, can WBs and TBs and DCs (DXs?) and all other horses sell equestrian sports?

Some woman (sorry, don’t know her name) brought Bob Costas a scorpion on a stick tonight, and he suggested that tomorrow she cover the traffic in Beijing. Stick Bob on a big-moving dressage horse or face him with a cross country fence and SHOW that it’s exciting!

And for the sport’s sake, MFP, tell us your friend’s name so we can write to him! As he’s such a “really great guy,” maybe he’ll sit up and take notice!

[MFP]

[QUOTE=Wellspotted;3441489]
OK, once these Olympics are over, let’s ALL sit down and write letters to Bob Costas and the other NBC Olympics people.

I mean ALL. OF. US. All horse fans. Anyone who wants to see more equestrian coverage in 2012.

Write intelligent, well-thought-out letters, or send e-mails with links to exciting video clips. Maybe from the BBC and other networks that do cover equestrian sports. After all, if an “ordinary working man” in England can know the names of show jumpers, why can’t an ordinary American?

Sell the sport to NBC. Be a REAL supporter. Convince them.[/QUOTE]

I am ALL FOR THAT!!! It would be nice to see COTH or the USET develop a ‘standard’ letter that we can all print, sign and send off… Also, there has to be people from all three disciplines that are willing to work with NBC as ‘experts’ in our sport so they will have more of a comfort level covering it.

[Ajierene]

That doesn’t really coincide with the fact that Oxygen has been showing Equestrian sports between 6 and 8 pm - prime time hours.

While 8pm and later are better slots as far as ratings go, 6-8pm are still great slots.

If the Equestrian sports are really the ‘laughing stock’, why wouldn’t they show them at midnight or later.

EDIT: I do think that writing letters thanking for the live feed and mentioning how much we liked the TV coverage would help in getting the Equestrian sports on TV more.

[Wellspotted]

OK, well, once these Olympics are over I will do my best to get in touch with the one “big league” barn near me and try to get them interested in working on this with us. I know of a couple of other local barns too and will try to get them in on it as well. We may be the “minors” here where I live, but we are horse people and we all have TVs!

[BoyleHeightsKid]

I’m all for writing letters. I think that’s a great idea! We would all need to do it though, to get their attention.

[Portia]

Equestrian may be the name they use for their jokes, but let’s face it – they feel that way about virtually every other sport outside of gymnastics, swimming, diving, volleyball, basketball, soccer, and athletics (track & field). We’ve all seen tons of white water rafting, haven’t we? And that ten minutes of the women’s time trials in cycling that they showed tonight on NBC primetime was really great, given that the gold medalist was an American. :rolleyes: They don’t even have correspondents in Beijing for most of the sports – they’re just looking at the feed and commentating from the NBC studios at 30 Rock.

We – and the fans of all the other marginalized sports – are getting the live feed, which is great and far more coverage than in the past. That access is only going to be greater in 4 years. And they’ve been showing far more of the equestrian on Oxygen than they ever have in the past – they put it on the women’s channel and they know that’s the audience for it in this country. So I’m happy about that and not going to complain.

They’re buying the equestrian feed from the BBC – you can see the BBC cameramen sometimes – and what would be really great is if they would just go ahead and use the BBC commentary on the live feed at the same time. So maybe suggestions rather than complaints might be more useful in the long run.

[Anne_FS]

[QUOTE=MFP;3441501]
It would be nice to see COTH or the USET develop a ‘standard’ letter that we can all print, sign and send off… [/QUOTE]

A standard letter is not nearly as effective as individual letters. Getting 1,000 letters that are obviously identical and part of an organization’s campaign doesn’t have nearly the weight of 1,000 letters that are all obviously individually written.

I agree that kudos for the live feed are definitely in order.

[springer]

you can’t fix stupid

America wants T & A. A few letters aren’t going to fix it. I wish I could move to Germany!

[dwblover]

I agree that we must thank them for the internet coverage. Something is better than nothing. And I also think they do not know just how many fans of dressage and other equestrian sports there are in this country. I think letters would be wonderful, but not angry letters about what they didn’t show. They will get thrown in the trash. But letters thanking them for the coverage they had and asking for more. If we all wrote letters they would get an idea of just how many of us there are.

[STF]

I say we put the big wigs at NBC on a XC Olympic run and after they pull their sphincter (sp?) muscle out of their throat, then they can laugh about “equestrain”…

[twofatponies]

[QUOTE=springer;3441654]
America wants T & A. A few letters aren’t going to fix it. I wish I could move to Germany![/QUOTE]

Fine, so put the dressage riders in bikinis! :rolleyes:

[LessonLearned]

It’s sad

You know, I have just found the coverage – ‘banished’ to a minor cable network – sad. I realize that this is the most concentrated coverage Equestrian sports have ever have. And I am delighted to not have to be up at 6 a.m. to catch a glimpse of some dressage.

However, I remember being a little kid and watching the primetime Olympic coverage. It was my introduction to eventing and the only time I ever saw anything related to horses (other than racing) on television. For a kid from Philadelphia that was huge.

I imagine many kids are not getting that ‘glimpse’ this time around. I agree that we NEED to let NBC know that they need to take Equestrian sports seriously!!!

[Lost_In_Space]

It’s great so many of you can get the live feed but for those of us with Mac’s we aren’t able to. Don’t you think someone like NBC could figure out how to make it available for Mac users too. I would love to watch the live feed. I watched the Oxygen channel, I also video taped it, saw only 2 horses go. I might have missed others since I was switching channels. How long was the Equestrian on?

[FAW]

I’m staying up all night for the checkers coverage…lol

[yaya]

@Wellspotted;3441489

Some woman (sorry, don’t know her name) brought Bob Costas a scorpion on a stick tonight, and he suggested that tomorrow she cover the traffic in Beijing.

If you gave me a scorpion on a stick, I’d tell you to go play in traffic too! :eek:

[fsf]

@Lost In Space;3441697

It’s great so many of you can get the live feed but for those of us with Mac’s we aren’t able to. Don’t you think someone like NBC could figure out how to make it available for Mac users too. I would love to watch the live feed. I watched the Oxygen channel, I also video taped it, saw only 2 horses go. I might have missed others since I was switching channels. How long was the Equestrian on?

:mad: Equestrian was only on for 30 min., and the only ride they showed in full was Courtney’s. Then they switched to gymnastics.