The failure of the BBC in 2012

Teddy Westside

meursault wrote:

You may be right, not really compared the two comprehensibly. Although, even looking at high end TV's in Sony shops and the like hasn't convinced me.

Not that I needed convincing by then but while watching one of the rugby Six Nations matches this year on BBC1 HD, the signal momentarily switched to SD and the difference was immense -from crisp, clear images of players around 3" high on my 42" screen to rather blurry figures.

Perhaps you just need to see 2 feeds side by side to be convinced.

BelgianBeerGeek

TakeTheHighRoad wrote:

BelgianBeerGeek wrote:

andyp wrote:

I think the BBC's sports coverage is generally appalling, with bland anchors and idiotic ex-sports people offering clichéd platitudes in that inane cosy house style, so I'm delighted that they don't do much in the way of cycling coverage.

^this.

Don't watch much F1 then, no? I wouldn't call Eddie Jordan bland, idiotic or clichéd in any way.

No.

pablojag

Wish when reporting on stage races they'd keep up to date, lost count of how many days the same report is still on the website & tv text .
The also need better commentators for the road footage, if only to stop me shouting in frustration at their inability to recognise riders.

rick_chasey

^^ Enter Rick Chasey.

gsvbagpuss

Having watched the highlights of last years Worlds last night in preparation for Sunday, surely the biggest failing was not putting Hugh Porter out of his misery.

"It's a break by a British Rider!...No, it's a dutch rider....no it's an motorcycle....no, that's from the back of the second group, some 5 minutes behind"

Sigh, might have to get Eurosport player just to avoid it on sunday, although I will have to put with Sean Kelly droning on about putting in "a real big effort here"

Richmond Racer

GSVBagpuss wrote:

Having watched the highlights of last years Worlds last night in preparation for Sunday, surely the biggest failing was not Hugh Porter out of his misery.

"It's a break by a British Rider!...No, it's a dutch rider....no it's an motorcycle....no, that's from the back of the second group, some 5 minutes behind"

Sigh, might have to get Eurosport player just to avoid it on sunday, although I will have to put with Sean Kelly droning on about putting in "a real big effort here"

Give me Sean 'certaintly' Kelly and Dave 'drama queen' Harmon over Porter any day of the week

MartinGT

Hugh Porter is like Murray Walker. They no doubt had it, but there comes a time that they should retire.

The way he kept calling the Netherlands in the Olympics 'Holland' annoyed me, anal I know, but still. His pronnuciation of teams, riders etc also annoys me. In the Tour of Britain someone needed to tell him how to pronnounce Euskaltel because I was close to smashing the TV to bits.

His lack of homework too on some of the races was pants too. In the Tour of Britain it was a Sky & Endura wankfest because thats all he clearly knew.

ocdupalais

As a pacifist, I wouldn't want to advocate any wilful harm to others: but if there is some way we could arrange for Anthony McCrossan to fall on Hugh Porter from a great height, I might find myself a bit tardy in calling an ambulance...

squired

I chuckled a little when Porter made some comment about the Saur-Sojasun team, how he'd never come across that team before, or something like that. Clearly Hugh doesn't really follow pro riding on the continent, other than maybe that race in July and the events he is required to commentate on.

Earlier in this thread I made a comment about how the BBC should consider showing female cycling. After noticing the other day that they had a live female football game on (England vs someone) I couldn't but help think that while it fits for the BBC to show female sport, the one sport that doesn't need any more tv time is football. Come on BBC, other sports do actually exist!

Tom Butcher

ddraver wrote:

MTBing is more popular than road in the UK - Should nt they be starting there? No one covers that on any TV anywhere so that ll be nice and cheap!

Oh no, cos that's not what you want to hear it it...

MTB XC is dull as ditchwater to watch - on a par with time trialling - plus road cycling must have overtaken MTBing in the popularity stakes now judging by the bikes on display at most shops round here.

Richmond Racer

Now this is interesting....David Millar's just tweeted that he's going to be commentating on Sunday for the Beeb



I like...Millar's very articulate...and can pronounce all the riders' names Though he'll have to tone down the sweariness, the Beeb wont like it

ddraver

Tom Butcher wrote:

ddraver wrote:

MTBing is more popular than road in the UK - Should nt they be starting there? No one covers that on any TV anywhere so that ll be nice and cheap!

Oh no, cos that's not what you want to hear it it...

MTB XC is dull as ditchwater to watch - on a par with time trialling - plus road cycling must have overtaken MTBing in the popularity stakes now judging by the bikes on display at most shops round here.

I'd be lying if I knew the numbers for 2012, but taking a look at the Car Park at somewhere like Llandegla would suggest it's still pretty close. UK roads are still not too friendly to road cyclists...

Anyway the point was that the BBC does nt have to show stuff just becasue it's popular, especially when there are 2 other channels showing it already! Whether it's XC, DH, rugby, squash, tiddlywinks, whatever....

carl_p

Here are the viewing figures for the 2011 ToB. Even if they doubled this year I would imagine it's still low compared to say MOTD.

http://www.tourofbritain.com/_ns_news/?news_id=233

Probably more people watched it roadside than bothered to turn on their TV and endure the 5 minutes of adverts for each ad-break on ITV4.

I've seen nothing that betters Eurosport's coverage.

BBC have hardly failed and they even managed to get Claire Balding on Channel 4 for coverage of the Paralympics.

Tom Butcher

That doesn't sound bad to me. A quick google turned up this http://www.itvmedia.co.uk/itv-platforms/itv4- and the cycling figures look OK compared to the tennis, motorcycling and football - all fairly mainstream sports. I don't think anyone is saying the Tour of Britain is rivalling the Premier League but neither should we be classed with stuff like mountain biking, squash, curling, table tennis or other sports which really are a niche audience.

meursault

Carl_P wrote:

BBC have hardly failed and they even managed to get Claire Balding on Channel 4 for coverage of the Paralympics.

That's good for cycling then. :?

I agree she was the highlight of the Olympics though, with the other two swimmers.

ms_tree

cougie wrote:

I cant believe the amounts of magazines out there - what is there to write about Carp that requires more than one magazine ?

It's not just magazines. We used to have to stock books on carp and they were always getting nicked.

As regards the BBC I've just read an article with the new DG in the new Radio Times and he says that he would like to cover more women's sport.

ddraver

Tom Butcher wrote:

That doesn't sound bad to me. A quick google turned up this http://www.itvmedia.co.uk/itv-platforms/itv4- and the cycling figures look OK compared to the tennis, motorcycling and football - all fairly mainstream sports. I don't think anyone is saying the Tour of Britain is rivalling the Premier League but neither should we be classed with stuff like mountain biking, squash, curling, table tennis or other sports which really are a niche audience.

Sorry Tom but cycling is a niche sport. OK so we ve got a bit of popularity thanks to the Olympics and BW, but see how many people switch on to watch Paris Roubaix - I ll bet you a groat that It'll just be us wierdo's again...

Yellow Peril

squired wrote:

I chuckled a little when Porter made some comment about the Saur-Sojasun team, how he'd never come across that team before, or something like that. Clearly Hugh doesn't really follow pro riding on the continent, other than maybe that race in July and the events he is required to commentate on.

Earlier in this thread I made a comment about how the BBC should consider showing female cycling. After noticing the other day that they had a live female football game on (England vs someone) I couldn't but help think that while it fits for the BBC to show female sport, the one sport that doesn't need any more tv time is football. Come on BBC, other sports do actually exist!

Probably because he only watches the BBC

gsvbagpuss

But it's his job to know things, he gets paid to doreseacrh. Just read a few issues of Pro Cycling and he'd be so much better informed. My other highlight from last years worlds was "Australia have no good sprinters". No, of course, they only came second with a man Cav said just a few weeks before was the only man he feared. It's juts atrocious.