I apologize for my language (Eurosport coverage)

Mark Alexander

Where the hell was the coverage for the end of the Giro?
I'm beeping p1ssed off. beeping Eurosport this is the end. I want to see the Giro, I've watched it for 2 weeks, I've missed the last 2 days because it doesn't effing exist.

F'ing incompitent f''errs.
Fucking Teats the lot of them!!!!!!!!! :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:


I'm normally chilled out by the way!

FCE2007

Seconded.

dbg

thirded

andyp

Saturday's stage was on British Eurosport 2.

blazing_saddles

andyp wrote:

Saturday's stage was on British Eurosport 2.

However, having first scheduled it for 2pm, they moved it to 3pm and eventually turned up at 3-50pm, missing the Mortirolo completely.
The missing of the Mortirolo has become a bit of an ESUK tradition.

I'm amazed that there are still people out there who continue to make excuses for this bunch of tennis and motorsport fanatics.

There are more alternatives, out there on the market. I suggest all go find one and dump these jokers.

ESUK have butchered the coverage of the Dauphine, next week, as well.
For what? More tennis of course.

andyp

Maybe some people just have to accept that cycling is a minority sport and doesn't attract advertisers? Eurosport isn't a public service, it's a business so they show the sports that make them money.

calvjones

andyp wrote:

Maybe some people just have to accept that cycling is a minority sport and doesn't attract advertisers? Eurosport isn't a public service, it's a business so they show the sports that make them money.

seconded

flattythehurdler

I would agree, BUT, missing the motirolo was a total pain. I had set the live cycling to record, not the highlights, so missed it completely.

Bronzie

andyp wrote:

Maybe some people just have to accept that cycling is a minority sport and doesn't attract advertisers? Eurosport isn't a public service, it's a business so they show the sports that make them money.

Ok, but what I find inexcuseable is that instead of showing more of the TT* on Sunday, they show a 30 mins "EuroCrash" prog - 30 mins of, yep you guessed it, cars, motorbikes, even cyclists crashing.

If I want to watch cock like that, I'll switch on Men & Motors at 1:30am

* - mind you, the TT wasn't very exciting :roll:

SunWuKong

I agree the eurosport coverage has been appalling.

The other that persistently annoys me is that say with sky sports you set a programme to record on sky+ and they bump it along your scheduled recording bumps with it. On Eurosport I get maybe 15 - 30 minutes of rallying or something then if I'm lucky the cycling.

Philip S

flattythehurdler wrote:

I would agree, BUT, missing the motirolo was a total pain. I had set the live cycling to record, not the highlights, so missed it completely.

Well, even if you had recorded the highlights you would have missed the Mortirolo, as the "highlights" were basically unedited coverage of the last hour or so of the stage (ie after anything of any note had actually happened)...

Having just really got into cycling (having previously been a one race a year spectator for the TdF) Eurosport's coverage has been immensely frustrating. There are issues with the coverage itself - admittedly they're taking live stream from RAI, so can't help the basic shortcomings of the Giro coverage - namely, lack of race information, frequent picture break-up, p!ss-poor camera work, and excessive helicopter footage of road side tree-canopy as opposed to cyclists - but their end of the coverage is done on the cheap: no detailed analysis of the day's racing, no interviews, no features, no nothing, and the highlights are barely, if at all, edited. It makes me appreciate the effort ITV put in to the TdF. And the unpredictability of the schedules is an absolute shambles - for those of us who cannot watch live, where the internet would be the best option, we need to rely on highlights programmes being at the time advertised, otherwise we get recordings of a bunch of pr*cks sitting round a green baize table wearing sunglasses (I presume in the evening Eurosport becomes Europastime?)... Shabby.

Did they actually show the final day time trial at all? I set the V+ box to record it earlier in the week, but by yesterday morning "Live Cycling" had morphed into 4 hours of "French Open Tennis".

Dave Cornwall

andyp wrote:

Maybe some people just have to accept that cycling is a minority sport and doesn't attract advertisers? Eurosport isn't a public service, it's a business so they show the sports that make them money.

Lacrosse or Poker can hardly be described as mainstream, but they still get priority.

My complaint is not that any of these other sports get shown, but they are on when cycling is advertised. Which surely means that fans of these sports are missing out too!

If they could just keep to the scheduals it wouldn't be so bad. for everyone.

flattythehurdler

Thanks, I actually feel better knowing that at least I didn't miss the mortirolo. I get eurosport as part of my package, and so, am grateful for the cycling they do show. Pretty much noone showed anything but the tdef until them so I take it as a glass two thirds full really. Sean Kelly is great to listen to as well. Even my wife, who hates cycinig watches. She reckons it's relaxing listening to him, like the shipping news.
Watching a time trial on telly isn't really much good, so you didn't miss much.
I, like you, remain frustrated by the lack of post race interviews etc. Didn't even chat to Chav or Steve Cummings which I find surprising.

andyp

You do realise that Eurosport's coverage is done on an absolute shoestring budget don't you? Kelly and Harman are not even in Italy and do their commentary over a feed from RAI from a studio in Teddington. Doing post stage interviews would require a team of at least three people to be in Italy for the race - the budget wouldn't cover that.

Some of us are old enough to remember when the only cycling coverage available was a brief summary of the Tour de France on ITV's World of Sport on a Saturday in early August. Be grateful that you get anything and, with the advent of streamed content over the internet, look ahead to a bright future.

biondino

10pm last night they had a half-hour highlights programme of the final time trial.

CyclingBantam

andyp wrote:

You do realise that Eurosport's coverage is done on an absolute shoestring budget don't you? Kelly and Harman are not even in Italy and do their commentary over a feed from RAI from a studio in Teddington. Doing post stage interviews would require a team of at least three people to be in Italy for the race - the budget wouldn't cover that.

Some of us are old enough to remember when the only cycling coverage available was a brief summary of the Tour de France on ITV's World of Sport on a Saturday in early August. Be grateful that you get anything and, with the advent of streamed content over the internet, look ahead to a bright future.

I'm sure they have made comments about being at the finish or out on bikes nearby on the course that morning etc?! I may be mistaken though.

Salsiccia

BenBlyth wrote:

andyp wrote:

You do realise that Eurosport's coverage is done on an absolute shoestring budget don't you? Kelly and Harman are not even in Italy and do their commentary over a feed from RAI from a studio in Teddington. Doing post stage interviews would require a team of at least three people to be in Italy for the race - the budget wouldn't cover that.

Some of us are old enough to remember when the only cycling coverage available was a brief summary of the Tour de France on ITV's World of Sport on a Saturday in early August. Be grateful that you get anything and, with the advent of streamed content over the internet, look ahead to a bright future.

I'm sure they have made comments about being at the finish or out on bikes nearby on the course that morning etc?! I may be mistaken though.

I thought they were actually there as well.

Eurosport have a few different priorities, especially this time of year - French Open tennis is one of their biggest audience pullers of the year, they had MotoGP which they show throughout the season, and the parent company of Eurosport (TF1) have a financial share in the World Touring Cars. At the end of the day their commercial interests will always decide the scheduling, and in Britain at least, cycling is still quite a tough sell.

campagchris

It is frustrating especially as they start a 3 week tour with loads of coverage,but then miss the most important part of a stageWould they start the tennis and then miss the semi final and final NO..I can't see why they don't show the climbs they miss through the day in their highlight programme though.Also why can't we have the red button option as BBC has for some sports programmes.
We need to complain to eurosport and to congratulate itv4 when they put cycling on the more emails to them the better chance we have.I can remember 15 mins coverage of the tour on itv and we have come along way since then thank god.

CyclingBantam

Personally I don't have a problem when the tennis or motor sport run over as that is what pulls in their audiencies (Don't get me wrong though it is extreamly frustrating though). The problem I have is when it is something useless like 'Euro Crash Bang Wallop' of something of that ilk. That is just a time filler that could have been sacrifised for 'live Cycling'.

To me that is bad scheduling. I think they could do more in terms of interviews etc but the coverage could be a lot worse.

blazing_saddles

andyp wrote:

You do realise that Eurosport's coverage is done on an absolute shoestring budget don't you? Kelly and Harman are not even in Italy and do their commentary over a feed from RAI from a studio in Teddington. Doing post stage interviews would require a team of at least three people to be in Italy for the race - the budget wouldn't cover that.

Some of us are old enough to remember when the only cycling coverage available was a brief summary of the Tour de France on ITV's World of Sport on a Saturday in early August. Be grateful that you get anything and, with the advent of streamed content over the internet, look ahead to a bright future.

and do you realise that Harmon and Kelly were merrily commentating away on ES International from 2pm?
There has been extensive English ES available throughout the week, only not in the UK!
I mean, how daft is that?
So budget doesn't enter into it, although, it's nice to see the old Duffield excuse wheeled out, yet again.

Also, if ESUK is cash strapped: a) Isn't there a message in there about all this expensive tennis?
b) How come ESUK are the only version to have a special studio and guests for the Tour?

As for the bad old days. I was there, technology has moved on. No excuse.

Tom Butcher

The answer (if like me you can't get round to getting an analogue dish) is to watch it on the internet on either the Italian or Norwegian streams - quality isn't too bad and you get the Eurosport UK commentary though another link (though often now it seems only from when it actually starts broadcasting in Eurosport in the UK). Come the end of the TdF (which they generally do cover much better than anything else) I'm just going to cut my TV package to save some money as I only pay up to watch the cycling and most of the best action this year I've seen on line not on my TV.

Mark Alexander

My issues are really with the fact that if they advertise highlights, they're not live, and there should be no problem of keeping withing a sheduled time. The live cycling, I can partially forgive as live feed is still un-predictable. What got me was the fact that it was show, quite well (for Eurosport) over 18 stages and then stopped at the end when it was close and mattered. :x

drenkrom

At least you have some coverage in your country. Here, it's pure improvisation to watch cycling.

Still, if you write them and tell them you had to watch elsewhere, thus bringing your cycling advertising money with you to a competitor, that might ring a bell more than "please be nice to cycling fans". Wouldn't count on it too much, though.

Denny69

I'm a bit at a loss as this was the first year I've watched any competitive cycling on TV or at all for that matter. I thought the coverage was OK and enjoyed watching the Giro but like I say it was the first year I've watched competitive cycling on TV. One thing did bug me though and that was the inconsistent scheduling...one day 1400 next day 1500 then 30 minutes at 2200.......come on Eurosport you've got 2 channels + an on-line service surely at least one of these could have shown live coverage everyday at the same time??

They [British Eurosport] could even do multi channels on eurosport.com so you can watch from the start - finish. At least the Tour de France is on ITV4 too!

2Fast4Love

SunWuKong wrote:

I agree the eurosport coverage has been appalling.

The other that persistently annoys me is that say with sky sports you set a programme to record on sky+ and they bump it along your scheduled recording bumps with it. On Eurosport I get maybe 15 - 30 minutes of rallying or something then if I'm lucky the cycling.

This for me has been the worst. I had to take to recording the scheduled program, and the program immediately afterwards. The number of times I had to fast forward thru 30 minutes of rallying (which I'm not sure is any less of a minority sport than cycling), tennis, or even a review of Polands chances at Euro 2008... one one occasion I had a full hour of tennis from Roland Garros, and 0 minutes of Giro.

We'll have to see how they do with TDF. (ITV4 you say?)

Birillo

Thanks, I actually feel better knowing that at least I didn't miss the mortirolo.

Oh yes you did. It was on the analogue service. In English. For free.

Don't be misled by all these excuses. Eurosport did provide the coverage. British Eurosport decided not to broadcast it

magliaceleste

Their coverage really annoyed me to. Missing the Motirolo was annoying after watching so many other stages (well the last couple of hours of them) and having to put up with Euroports cr*p scheduling and basically unedited highlights - when they could be bothered to show them at all.

Thankfully at least ITV cover the tour.

I much prefer a well put together 30 min or hour long highlight program of stage.

ACMadone

I got to the point in the Giro when I was watching the stream off www.cyclingfans.com with the eurosport audio. Think I'll be doing the same for the Dauphine

deal

what pissed me off the most was the 'highlights' which were not actually highlights but just a re-run of the last 45 minutes of the stage :x

DavidBelcher

Blazing Saddles wrote:

I'm amazed that there are still people out there who continue to make excuses for this bunch of tennis and motorsport fanatics.

There are more alternatives, out there on the market. I suggest all go find one and dump these jokers.

ESUK have butchered the coverage of the Dauphine, next week, as well.
For what? More tennis of course.

Noticed a significant losing of the plot by Eurosport in the New Year, when they didn't bother to squeeze the world 'cross championships into the schedule as there were clearly more important events to cover, such as handball and - really taking the biscuit, and I'm not making it up either - live arm-wrestling! :x

David

campagchris

I agree with everyone here, but unless we email them to let them no how dissapointed we are nothing will change.
A highlights programme should be just that and not as pointed out the last 45 mins of a stage.Thank goodness you can buy the dvd at a later date.