TdF TV Coverage

The Raucous AUK

Some superb coverage this year and some stunning and inventive camera shots/angles. And how about the parallel tracking camera covering the sprint?

Chapeau to the French TV stations responsible for the coverage.

LangerDan

The Raucous AUK wrote:

Some superb coverage this year and some stunning and inventive camera shots/angles. And how about the parallel tracking camera covering the sprint?
Chapeau to the French TV stations responsible for the coverage.

It was good, wasn't it? A motorbike camera travelling in a segregated lane alongside the finishing straight.

trailtrash

It's the first year that I've properly followed the race and I've watched each ITV4 highlights show and most of the live weekend stuff. I'm also a bit of a TV nerd and I cannot agree more about the camera work. It's been stunning. The two bits that stick in my mind are the rainy time trial where the helicopter was getting down low to provide tracking shots of the riders because the bikes had to stay behind and the stage in the mountains where he who shall not be named (his name begins with 'V') was climbing up a packed mountain road.

The shot looked down the road and the rider could just be picked out in the scrum and the angle changed to one of the bike cameras. You could see the rider, the throng of fans, the camper vans, and then hovering behind them, over a bend in the road, the tv helicopter. So cool!

Graham Wilson

Just back from a fortnight in France, where we sat by the side of the road for two days (Stage 14 and 17), as well as a watching a lot of TV coverage. I can only marvel at the motorcycle camera operation, which looks even more scary than taking still photos. As to the helicopter shots, there were at least two aircraft employed on the stages we saw, the teams involved usually doing 'eye in the sky' car chase coverage - judging by their proximity to the road.
The French all day TV coverage was absorbing, even with my limited grasp of the language. It was just unfortunate that I could not stretch the TV cable so that I could sit in the garden at the same time

northturton

The helicopter footage as shown on eurosport is out of this world - what a perfect advert for France. Amazing views in the Pyrenees, the chateauxs and ruins, the mountains and forests... I forget there's a cycle race going on!

adz999

i can't understand itv only showing live coverage at the weekend on itv4, even though during the week the channel does not broadcast until 18:00 they could show it live all week and earn extra revenue from advertising. :?:

schlepcycling

adz999 wrote:

i can't understand itv only showing live coverage at the weekend on itv4, even though during the week the channel does not broadcast until 18:00 they could show it live all week and earn extra revenue from advertising. :?:

I suspect that the channel that ITV4 is broadcast on is used for somethings else during the day possibly the ITV childrens channel?, just like the BBC do with CBBC and CBeebies which become BBC3 and BBC4 at 7pm.

p.s. Just checked and indeed the ITV4 frequency is used for CITV until 6pm weekdays and until 12.30pm at weekends.

afx237vi

Also: Credit where credit is due for Eurosport, because their coverage was great for the entire three weeks. I can't recall a single day where they messed up, which for them is pretty rare.

redddraggon

afx237vi wrote:

Also: Credit where credit is due for Eurosport, because their coverage was great for the entire three weeks. I can't recall a single day where they messed up, which for them is pretty rare.

Some days they missed the beginning of the stages out. Stupid things like MotoGP were over running - They missed the beginning of the stage through scheduling and then the MotoGP overan and then the commentators talked for ages. I think that was during the first ITT.