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NBCSports coverage

Old 07-17-16, 10:03 AM
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Chicago Al 
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NBCSports coverage

Doubt anyone else will agree, but we (wife and I) are finding the NBC commenting a real step up this year. Christian VdV has become much more comfortable on air, has learned to slow down and not swallow his words; he and Bobke have a good rapport, and with the occasional color comment from Jens, it's a good mix of insider insight and generally entertaining personalities. Our 20 year old son has been watching with us for the first time, and he likes those guys, particularly Jens, though at first he had no idea about Jens' career! That's good TV. (Also son has naturally picked up on the appeal of vivid personalities, Sagan foremost of course.)

A real surprise has been Paul Burmeister as anchor during the first several stages. Not being a football fan, I had no idea who Burmeister was, but his many years of experience really show, he is smooth and knows how to control and pace the discussion. Also, he makes no bones about knowing cycling, but does know sports, so he is probably the perfect guy to lead the discussion, for a (hopefully) growing audience of new fans. Todd Harris is okay for dedicated fans, but I don't think anyone casually tuning in is going to listen to him and stick around. (Anyone new to cycling who ever tuned into a race anchored by the old team of Steve Schlanger and the odious 'Go Go' Gogulski probably tuned out, never watched again, went to the garage and threw out their own bike.)

Then there's Phil and Paul. Phil does make more and more mistakes, and Paul just keeps recycling the same cliches...every Cat 3 is 'nawsty,' every descent calls for 'expert bike hondling,' and so on. But even that is actually kind of enjoyable, they are in on the joke, and they are so familiar I think we'll miss them when they're gone.
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Old 07-17-16, 12:16 PM
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the amount of coverage stinks.
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Old 07-17-16, 02:20 PM
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I start watching the stage on EuroSport via a streaming site while I eat breakfast. Then I move to the big screen TV and NBCSports. The difference between commentators is not great. Carlton Kirby and Sean Kelly have lots of background but they can also drone on during the slow times of the stage. I agree Bob and Christian work well together. Todd is okay and I wasn't sure who Paul B. was. The TV feed is the same. I tried ITV4 and their commentators are okay but not great. I subscribe to cycling.tv but only recently. I will watch their upcoming races and see how their commentators do. Sometimes I tempted to turn the sound off and watch.
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Old 07-22-16, 09:05 PM
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Did Paul B.make the mistake of going drinking one night with Bob and Christian?
Phil and Paul need to pass it on to Bob and Christian, Phil is a liability and even Paul's stream of cliches can't cover it up.
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Old 07-22-16, 11:28 PM
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Can they stop cutting away to NASCAR crap next year? It's so frustrating not being able to see all of the interviews, let alone evening replays. They do the same thing with F1 and it drives me bonkers.
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Old 07-23-16, 09:55 AM
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We have been DVRing the morning broadcast, including the prerace show, which usually overlaps the race start. Only one stage had the very last few kms clipped. I may have set the DVR with a half hour buffer at the end though.

Phil seems to get as many names wrong as right these days. Jarlinson Pantano became 'Pantani' over and over. Pantani of course being an important name--but that was 20 years ago! Still...I'll miss Phil when he goes.

Christian is getting better and better; I wonder if he could ever transition from talking 'among the boys' about cycling to talking directly to the TV audience. Not that he necessarily needs to, Todd Harris actually is quite good at that. I've also gotten a whole new appreciation for Steve Porino, the cleft-jawed Huey Lewis lookalike who is usually 'inside the race' on a motorbike. They've had him do some color stories and his somewhat goofy persona works there.
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Old 07-25-16, 03:10 PM
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I guess our Canadian feed is different from that of the US. For the last couple of years fellow Australians Matt Keenan and Robbie McEwan have co- hosted the first part of the race, before handing over to Phil and Paul who still do the final 50k or so. They are beyond excellent in depth of knowledge of the race and riders. I was actually hoping that at the end of stage 21 Phil would dramatically announce his retirement so those two guys could take over full commentary. I've enjoyed Phil and Paul for many years but maybe it's time to hang up the mic. I did LOL at Phils comment this year when the camera zoomed in on a small herd of cows on one of the mountain stages...."those cows could never have walked up here by themselves, someone must have driven them up in a car"
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Old 07-25-16, 06:27 PM
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Originally Posted by peter_d
I guess our Canadian feed is different from that of the US. For the last couple of years fellow Australians Matt Keenan and Robbie McEwan have co- hosted the first part of the race, before handing over to Phil and Paul who still do the final 50k or so. They are beyond excellent in depth of knowledge of the race and riders. I was actually hoping that at the end of stage 21 Phil would dramatically announce his retirement so those two guys could take over full commentary. I've enjoyed Phil and Paul for many years but maybe it's time to hang up the mic. I did LOL at Phils comment this year when the camera zoomed in on a small herd of cows on one of the mountain stages...."those cows could never have walked up here by themselves, someone must have driven them up in a car"
That's the feed we get in the US too. I said it before too, those two guys, Mathew and Robby, are amazing to listen to. But I do love Phil for the precise reason everyone thinks he should go. He gets stuff wrong, realizes it, and then laughs at himself. And the cow thing was a riot.

He never gets Nibali's name right either.
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Old 07-25-16, 07:01 PM
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Always watch on Eurosport.. Carlton and Sean have their own things but they know the riders and get stuff right most of the time. I had to watch one stage on tv and it was just phil and paul yelling random names until one was right.. they still haven't figured out that riders drop back to get bottles and jackets without "cracking"
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Old 07-27-16, 09:18 AM
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Originally Posted by thin_concrete
Can they stop cutting away to NASCAR crap next year? It's so frustrating not being able to see all of the interviews, let alone evening replays. They do the same thing with F1 and it drives me bonkers.
+1

NBC Sports coverage stinks (I'm not talking about Phil, Paul, Bob, Christian, et al--I'm talking about NBC and the typical American broadcaster's mercenary attitude). I had watched the BEin Sports coverage of the Giro d'Italia and now I'm spoiled. Their coverage had few commercials and the ones that did air were incredibly short. The commentary (in Spanish) was excellent and even featured Santiago Botero's analysis. Everything was covered--the preliminaries and well as the podiums; and nothing was ever shortchanged.
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Old 07-27-16, 11:58 AM
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So, silly question - are the people watching this on Eurosport or BeIn watching online or are these channels available from your cable provider? Comcast offers neither of those.

I know for F1, a lot of people stream the Sky Sports feed online and am curious if this is the same for these channels.
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Old 07-27-16, 12:10 PM
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Originally Posted by thin_concrete
So, silly question - are the people watching this on Eurosport or BeIn watching online or are these channels available from your cable provider? Comcast offers neither of those.

I know for F1, a lot of people stream the Sky Sports feed online and am curious if this is the same for these channels.
I have Comcast and BEin Sports is offered in northern California. I was actually surprised that BEin was broadcasting the Giro. As I said, the coverage was beyond excellent. I really wished they had the rights to both the TDF and the Vuelta.
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Old 07-27-16, 04:17 PM
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Originally Posted by Scarbo
I have Comcast and BEin Sports is offered in northern California. I was actually surprised that BEin was broadcasting the Giro. As I said, the coverage was beyond excellent. I really wished they had the rights to both the TDF and the Vuelta.
I have Comcast and watched the Giro this year, in English. It was fantastic.
Last year we didn't have beIN and I watched the Giro on a Spanish language station.
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Old 07-27-16, 08:10 PM
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I watched the Giro on BeIN. The first 2 Saturday's the coverage was bumped by soccer. Not thinking the coverage would be everyday I signed up for the streaming offer ($6.99/month) from The Guide to Cycling Live Race Coverage - Women's + Men's - Videos, Streams, Photos, Results - Watch Cycling TV Online - CF LIVE | www.cyclingfans.com to futo.tv. BeIN is on Dish satellite 492. The streaming had issues some days and BeIN on Dish was my main source.
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Old 07-27-16, 08:13 PM
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Originally Posted by thin_concrete
So, silly question - are the people watching this on Eurosport or BeIn watching online or are these channels available from your cable provider? Comcast offers neither of those.

I know for F1, a lot of people stream the Sky Sports feed online and am curious if this is the same for these channels.
You can VPN into EU to stream Eurosport pseudo-legally. I pay for Eurosport streaming 100%, I'm just VPNing in to access it.

Discovery Channel, which owns Eurosport, does not license it for cable company broadcast outside the EU...Why? Because they don't feel like it.
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