The trouble with T&F TV coverage

[Jack Slocombe]

Started watching the ESPN coverage at Boston and after 20 minutes of coverage only the 1000 had been run. Everything else was jaw flapping and commercials. Sigh. I said to hell with it and went over to the Buick in La Jolla and watched a very exciting golf match won by Tiger. Every time I went back to ESPN.........more jaw flapping.

Maybe the key is avoid live coverage. Shoot the meet, edit like mad and then show it in a 1 hour program rather than drag it out for 2 hours.

Just one man's opinion.

[macbradaigh]

Unfortunately, most americans love jaw flapping and prefer it to actually watching the actual sport. Greatest example: The Olympics - "up close and personal." In Europe, I have watched many track meets without commercials - one event after the other - it's great. I gave up a long time ago on watching track meets on american TV. Remember ESPN's road race of the week? They showed about 5 minutes of the race and 25 minutes of commercials and interviews and jaw flapping.

[fieldguy]

i tuned in after watching lebron james go crazy and beat phoenix and then watching some of the miami-houston nba game. i watched about 20 minutes from boston in all and saw only the women's 400 and 1500. oh, and a quick montage of the shot put competition, which is all the field events usually get. when you're actually at a track meet, it's a three-ring circus. it's awful the way tv translates that experience.

[trackstar]

You saw live coverage of Boston on ESPN? Where? The only coverage I saw was ESPN2's taped coverage the day after (Sunday).

[Powell]

Unfortunately, most americans love jaw flapping and prefer it to actually watching the actual sport.

Do they really? Then why aren't the major sports shown in this way?

[Conor Dary]

'Started watching the ESPN coverage at Boston and after 20 minutes of coverage only the 1000 had been run. Everything else was jaw flapping and commercials....'

The coverage of Geb's half-marathon on Saturday, on FSN, was the exception to this. A superb hour of coverage. Hats off to Tony Reavis.

[EPelle]

What I read about LeBron:s play yesterday:

"Two plays. Six seconds. Over 100 feet. Thousands of dropped jaws."

[Daisy]

Unfortunately, most americans love jaw flapping and prefer it to actually watching the actual sport.

Do they really? Then why aren't the major sports shown in this way?

I could not agree more. ALL the other sports show a lot of action. What is the obsession with jaw flapping in T&F? In the UK they used to show tape delayed 30 min shows that crammed in as much action from the GP events as possible. It was non stop action and definitely gave the three ring circus effect. I have NEVER seen that in the US on TV. However, Walt's excellent internet coverage of the worlds last year and the Mt Sac relays do an excellent job on the internet. I hope that is the future of track in this country (US). I stopped watching televised meets a long time ago.

[tafnut]

The problem is they had to s-t-r-e-t-c-h to make the overlong time-slot. There was about 45 minutes worth of good stuff at most. It was not an auspicious start for the indoor season. I hate to admit it, but I taped it and zoomed through the whole tape in half the time. That's not what ESPN and the sponsors want to hear, but if *I*, the 'nut, can't take it, who can?

[Powell]

The problem is they had to s-t-r-e-t-c-h to make the overlong time-slot. There was about 45 minutes worth of good stuff at most. It was not an auspicious start for the indoor season. I hate to admit it, but I taped it and zoomed through the whole tape in half the time. That's not what ESPN and the sponsors want to hear, but if *I*, the 'nut, can't take it, who can?

That is total BS. If only they actually showed all the good action that took place, they would have easily filled the slot and then some. If you went to the meet in person, you'd be sitting there for 2 hours and never have the feeling there's nothing going on - in fact, at times there would be too many things going on at once.

[Jnathletics]

Why can't they include the crowd noise and the splits in the race. The whole atmosphere of a track meet is missed by having ESPN and it's bad crew of announcers cover the event. :evil: :twisted: How are you suppose to follow a race when they cut away to commercial and when they comeback you have no idea of what lap they are on or their splits.???

Are their heads always up their (bleep), so they never listen to any criticism??? :roll:

[EPelle]

Something to keep your eyes focused on the scorecard instead of the tv:

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More

[marknhj]

I completely forgot to either watch or record. Sad thing is I'm not really that bothered...

[guru]

Unfortunately, most americans love jaw flapping and prefer it to actually watching the actual sport.

Do they really? Then why aren't the major sports shown in this way?

They are. It's why ESPN has NFL Countdown, NFL Primetime, College GameDay, and Baseball Tonight(nightly!) and CBS and Fox both have hour long NFL pre-game shows.

Oh, yeah, and doesn't the Super Bowl have a few minutes or so of pre-game too? :roll:

[trackstar]

I completely forgot to either watch or record. Sad thing is I'm not really that bothered...

You should be, it was a good meet, whatever the quality of coverage. The high jump was good (but covered in the usual manner, completely robbing it of the drama), but the two-mile was a fascinating tactical race. The 600 and 1000 were also quite dramatic.