Equestrian is the Laughing Stock @ NBC

[AHC]

Free live feed is fabulous

Of course I’d like to see the equestrian events covered in prime time, but I think it’s pretty amazing to be able to watch the live feed on the computer with no commercials. Especially this morning when the US team won show jumping gold! And if I had missed it, I could go back and watch later. That’s good too!

While in theory I want more people to see how amazing these human and equine athletes are, mostly what I care about is being able to watch it myself. And I want to watch every horse, not just the half dozen the network chooses to show me. So I will definitely send a thank you to NBC for the live feed.

My guess is that the show jumping will be mentioned on the prime time broadcast tonight on NBC. Maybe they’ll even show a round or two. Why? Because we won the gold, and as we know, they do tend to report on sports when we win.

[gully_s_pilot]

My children and I were glued to the computer for eventing and for this morning’s final showjumping round. I would so much rather watch the entire thing with no commercials or bone-headed remarks than ever see it on networks again.

[Spooks]

I think you folks in the US should definitely make yourselves heard, in time for the next WEG which will be held in Kentucky. There is just no reason why one of the networks can’t cover that event. CBC does do a great job here - they show all of the big events at Spruce Meadows all summer, plus the Royal Winter Fair, and their affiliate Bold has 100% WEG and Olympic coverage (also covers Spruce too) with really good commentary as well.

I think if I had to listen to Bob Costas cover equestrian events I would watch on mute. Even the NBC commentary for the opening ceremonies was a disgrace to broadcasting.

[lms]

Well NBC does want to show an interest in horse sports…maybe not as much as beach volleyball or trampoline but…see the press release on 2010 WEG

05/01/2008

LEXINGTON, KY - The World Games 2010 Foundation and NBC Sports today announced NBC as the official network broadcast partner for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, which will be held at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY from September 25th to October 10th, 2010.

The Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games will be the largest equestrian event ever held in the United States, and will be America’s largest spectator sporting event in 2010. More than 800 athletes and 900 horses from 60+ countries will compete for eight world championships in equestrian sport.

NBC’s coverage of the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games represents the largest major network broadcast of equestrian sport in U.S. television history.

NBC Sports will provide six hours of televised coverage during three weekends across the sixteen days of the Games. The programming will include coverage of the world championships in each of the eight equestrian disciplines of the Games, as well as coverage of opening and closing ceremonies and other features surrounding the event. Additionally, NBC Sports holds the digital rights for the event, making it available on multiple platforms including mobile and live streaming on NBC Sports.com.

“NBC Sports is thrilled to be the broadcast partner of the world’s most prestigious Equestrian event,” said Jon Miller, Executive Vice President, NBC Sports. “By devoting six hours over three consecutive weekends, in addition to our digital rights, we will bring viewers comprehensive coverage of the biggest event in the sport of Equestrian.”

“NBC’s historic commitment to the 2010 Games is a significant milestone for equestrian sport and for the World Equestrian Games, and we are very enthusiastic about their decision to devote such considerable coverage to America’s largest spectator sporting event in 2010,” said World Games 2010 Foundation CEO Jack Kelly.

The Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, to be held at the Kentucky Horse Park September 25-October 10, 2010, are the world championships of the eight equestrian disciplines recognized by the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), and are held every four years. The Games have never before been held outside of Europe; nor have all eight disciplines ever previously been held together at a single site— both firsts that will be achieved at the Kentucky Horse Park. The 2010 Games are expected to have a statewide economic impact of $150 million, and current sponsors include the Rolex Company and an unprecedented $10 million title sponsor, Alltech. It is anticipated that more than 600,000 spectators will attend the 16-day competition.

[poltroon]

NBC has also been covering Rolex for the past few years, and some network (is it NBC?) has also been covering the World Cup when it comes to Las Vegas.

[LexInVA]

I hope they are gonna be shooting and broadcasting it in HD. It’s seriously pathetic and inexcusable that events like Rolex are shot by production companies using cameras almost as old as I am. When I read that they were broadcasting the last Rolex in HD, I was thinking, okay this is a good thing. I turn it on and what the **** do I see? The 4:3 SD feed with NBC borders upscaled to 1080i. :mad: It’s not hard to shoot HDTV footage and crop the video in realtime for SDTV. They do it for soccer, football, and many other sports.

[JSwan]

Lex - I’m not up on all this technology stuff… but WEG is going to be after February 2009… and we’re all supposed to have our TV’s upgraded or some such nonsense - because everything is going digital.

So… though I don’t think that really affects the method of taping/filming, is it possible crews are upgrading their equipment as well? Because I was under the impression that the quality of image is better with digital/HD, in which case pretty everything is going to look like doo doo unless they upgrade.

Could be off base - just speculating…

[LexInVA]

[QUOTE=J Swan;3456799]
Lex - I’m not up on all this technology stuff… but WEG is going to be after February 2009… and we’re all supposed to have our TV’s upgraded or some such nonsense - because everything is going digital.

So… though I don’t think that really affects the method of taping/filming, is it possible crews are upgrading their equipment as well? Because I was under the impression that the quality of image is better with digital/HD, in which case pretty everything is going to look like doo doo unless they upgrade.

Could be off base - just speculating…[/QUOTE]

Well, the information is kinda fuzzy regarding the WEG. The stuff on the website implies that it is being broadcast globally though NBC is simply getting footage cobbled together and broadcasting it. That means that some production company is going to be shooting the games so it will be in whatever format they shoot it in. They haven’t released any specifics about the production company and it’s possible they haven’t chosen one yet. The thing about the 09 transition that people don’t understand because of the marketing of it is that it’s not an actual transition to HD broadcasting. It’s just a transition to all digital broadcasting. Major networks will be broadcasting in HD but content will continue to be a mix of SD/HD across the board until they start shooting everything in HD. News and other live network content will continue to be SD for at least a few more years because live broadcast studio cameras are huge/expensive.

[Frank_B]

@Spooks;3454858

…CBC does do a great job here…

Agreed 110%! When the US mass media isn’t pushing it’s collective political agenda, it’s offering such programming milestones as Judge Judy and Bevis & Butthead!

[Wellspotted]

[QUOTE=Spooks;3454858]
I think you folks in the US should definitely make yourselves heard, in time for the next WEG which will be held in Kentucky. There is just no reason why one of the networks can’t cover that event. CBC does do a great job here - they show all of the big events at Spruce Meadows all summer, plus the Royal Winter Fair, and their affiliate Bold has 100% WEG and Olympic coverage (also covers Spruce too) with really good commentary as well.

I think if I had to listen to Bob Costas cover equestrian events I would watch on mute. Even the NBC commentary for the opening ceremonies was a disgrace to broadcasting.[/QUOTE]

I have been watching a lot of the competitions on mute. The ceaseless chatter (yes, chatter) of the commentators was giving me headaches.

Last night a woman was in the studio with Bob Costas (sorry, I don’t know her name) talking about kite-flying in China. She said that the Chinese had invented gunpowder, paper, and kites. Bob Costas replied, “Who knew?” I thought, “Well. Bob, honey, if you didn’t, you need to go bone up on your knowledge of Britain before the next Olympics.” I admit I was embarrassed for him and by him, but I also didn’t like his attitude of not even acting informed and interested. Sometimes he doesn’t seem to me to take a serious interested in his subject matter.

And OK, as long as I’m venting … am I the only person who was irritated that for 2 nights now NBC has not been doing live coverage in PrimeTime? I had been looking forward to watching more the gymnastics live, only to find that they were broadcasting a day late, and so I read on Yahoo! that Shawn Johnson had won the gold before I even got to see the competition on TV!

As for those people who prefer watching live streaming video on your computers, I don’t have that capability, so I am one of the people who wants NBC to cover more equestrian events and cover them live. Today I was at the library, which has superduper high-speed computers, and I couldn’t watch any of the videos there! And I really wanted to see Anky’s nonhalt for myself!