1 of 1- RadioActive
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The Longest & Most Unnecessary "Pre-Game" On TV
And no, I'm not talking about Saturday's way-too-early-in-the-morning crowning of King Charles. (Did it take place on Coronation Street?) That coverage started at 4 AM and went on until 10 AM, but at least things were going on all that time.
My reference is to the almost unbelievable amount of time NBC gave to the Kentucky Derby on Saturday afternoon. It was absolutely stunning. The annual event, which is one of the most famous in all of horse racing, is important. But their coverage went on - and I'm not kidding - 7 hours straight! 7 HOURS! For a race that lasts about 2 minutes in total and doesn't happen until around 6:50 PM.
The pre-game, as it were, started at 12 noon and the broadcast finally ended at 7 o'clock. I know the Super Bowl has a long pre-game as well, but at least the final contest is three hours long or more.
While I'm sure NBC sold out all its inventory and made a lot of money off the day-long event, to me, that was just ridiculous over-kill.
- paterson1
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Re: The Longest & Most Unnecessary "Pre-Game" On TV
Last year NBC had five and a half hours of coverage for the Kentucky Derby and TSN4 had over 7 hours. Today TSN had nothing, either did CTV. Looks like no Canadian network covered the derby at all this year.
TSN had some of their own pre race coverage last year. Wonder what happened? Must admit the race seemed a bit of a non-event this year. Forgot it was even on today.
- RadioActive
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To be fair, I believe there were a few races at Churchill Downs Saturday prior to the Derby. But I don't know if NBC even bothered to carry them. I'm almost positive if it wasn't the Kentucky Derby, NBC wouldn't have bothered with any of them. I almost wish I would have watched some of it, if only to see what, exactly, they did to use up all that air time.
I would have been out of things to say in the first hour, let alone 7 of them.
And yes, I also noticed there were no Canadian stations taking it. I guess they didn't have the time to give up for that long.
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Thread Starter- Tomas Barlow
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RadioActive wrote:
To be fair, I believe there were a few races at Churchill Downs Saturday prior to the Derby. But I don't know if NBC even bothered to carry them. I'm almost positive if it wasn't the Kentucky Derby, NBC wouldn't have bothered with any of them. I almost wish I would have watched some of it, if only to see what, exactly, they did to use up all that air time.
I would have been out of things to say in the first hour, let alone 7 of them.
And yes, I also noticed there were no Canadian stations taking it. I guess they didn't have the time to give up for that long.
This was covered last year I believe, and again there were 14 races on the card and again all of the important ones were televised. There is a story behind every horse that involves dozens of people, from average Joes to some almost cartoonish characters. Also, several horses died at the track this week, once again prompting calls for accountability and increased safety measures for the horses. As a result, more horses than usual were scratched for the derby because no one wanted to risk injuries or deaths. So why doesn't that level of caution happen every year? All of those storylines were covered, and there were swings in the betting line as the day went on. It's actually quite compelling. You should have watched it instead of complaining while admitting to not knowing much about it. TSN probably didn't cover it because this year the main NBC network had most of it, which would take about 50 percent of the audience away from TSN. In previous years, the now defunct (and unavailable in Canada) NBC Sports Network used to carry much of the day because the main network had the NHL obligations, so TSN had the entire audince for the majority of the day.
Last edited by Tomas Barlow (May 7, 2023 2:34 am)
- Radio Bob
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Finally! Someone finally mentions the coronation coverage, at least in passing.
I thought you guys would be crapping all over it. I called that one wrong. Good thing I hadn't posted any online bets. 
- Radio Bob
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By the way, I heard CBC Radio's 11 o'clock news last night, read by Claude Feig, and there was not a word about the coronation, proving that the rest of the world did not stand still all day.
- RadioActive
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Re: The Longest & Most Unnecessary "Pre-Game" On TV
And no, I'm not talking about Saturday's way-too-early-in-the-morning crowning of King Charles. (Did it take place on Coronation Street?) That coverage started at 4 AM and went on until 10 AM, but at least things were going on all that time.
My reference is to the almost unbelievable amount of time NBC gave to the Kentucky Derby on Saturday afternoon. It was absolutely stunning. The annual event, which is one of the most famous in all of horse racing, is important. But their coverage went on - and I'm not kidding - 7 hours straight! 7 HOURS! For a race that lasts about 2 minutes in total and doesn't happen until around 6:50 PM.
The pre-game, as it were, started at 12 noon and the broadcast finally ended at 7 o'clock. I know the Super Bowl has a long pre-game as well, but at least the final contest is three hours long or more.
While I'm sure NBC sold out all its inventory and made a lot of money off the day-long event, to me, that was just ridiculous over-kill.
When I put up this rant last year, little did I know seven hours was nothing compared to what happened this weekend. NBC is showing U.S. Open Golf and I was astonished to see the coverage on Saturday lasted longer than 8 hours straight!
Look, I'm not a big sports fan (Blue Jays excepted, although the way they're playing this year, they may also join the list!) and I know golf has no clock. But man, eight straight hours of endless coverage of anything? That's as long as the average workday. Who has eight hours on a weekend to sit and absorb all that?
I mostly ignored it, but when it interrupts NBC Nightly News two days in a row, it starts to bug me. (The CBS Weekend News is awful and ABC's offering is almost unwatchable.)
I'm curious - did anyone here actually watch all eight hours of this stuff? If so, where on earth did you find the time?
If you did, you may have noticed the significant glitches that marred Saturday's broadcast, when the network lost one of its production trucks, leading to a ton of complaints from viewers.
Hey, at least things are better on Sunday. The endless display of duffers is only 7 hours long. Now that's more like it!
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Thread Starter- BowmanvilleBob
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Re: The Longest & Most Unnecessary "Pre-Game" On TV
NBC clearly expects people to dip in and out of coverage over the course of an afternoon as they channel surf through other potential viewing options or turn off the TV all together. The heavy ad rotation reflects this trend, although both NBC and CBS continue to offer the "playing through" options with letterboxed commercials while the action continues on screen. With baseball on Fox and the regional networks, there's not a lot of other sports options for the networks that will draw an affluent, up-scale audience for all those heart, ED and cancer medication commercials that seem to run endlessly these days. Add to this the need to push the various online gambling apps and the fact that Pinehurst is one of the toughest courses in golf can all combine to create a long afternoon for those who aren't fans of the game but are desperately searching for something to watch. I'll watch the final two hours of today's coverage to find out who wins, but I've got plans to enjoy the cooler weather before next week's heat wave hits.
- mic'em
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Re: The Longest & Most Unnecessary "Pre-Game" On TV
By the way, I heard CBC Radio's 11 o'clock news last night, read by Claude Feig, and there was not a word about the coronation, proving that the rest of the world did not stand still all day.
I heard Feig on the 4 pm broadcast, the 11 pm may have been a re-broadcast ?
- paterson1
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It's not like NBC or TSN for that matter have much else to show in terms of a top tier live event. As BowmanvilleBob mentioned above, 7-8 hours of golf or even tennis coverage is a "drop in and out" event for most viewers and is designed as such. I will be the same and watch a little this afternoon and about the last hour.
Beyond all of the medical and perscription ads on NBC, golf attracts other advertisers that don't really advertise much on TV. TSN/CTV2 don't have all of the healthcare ads, but do a good job attracting golf manufacturers (Titleist, Taylor Made, Nike Golf, Callaway), golf tourism advertising, golf courses like Cobble Beach, and luxury vehicles like Genesis, Mercedes, BMW, Audi etc.
Even in regular prime time programming we are seeing this happening with two or three hour blocks of America's Got Talent, The Voice, Survivor and others. This is as much for cost savings and a lack of popular programming as anything else.
- Glen Warren
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...
Hey, at least things are better on Sunday. The endless display of duffers is only 7 hours long. Now that's more like it!
Really? Final round coverage on Sunday continues to be "sub par" (sorry, I couldn't resist)
Although today the difference appears to be more to do with poor production decisions as opposed to the technical meltdown with a primary truck on Saturday
And to show that I have a heart... I really to feel for the truck EICs and the key members of the Operations crew on this major event. It was truly a stressful day for these Engineers and Techs. I wouldn't wish this on anyone.
Not being there in the compound, but it appears to be an issue with the twin "A" truck... The production demands of today's live sports and entertainment events require much more in terms of what was the previous norm or standard say 25 years ago. Network and the bid US Cable channel events no longer get by with rolling a single 53 footer and a support truck to a telecast.
Today, the majority of the network telecasts are using between 4 and 5 mobile trailer units and they are all interconnected. So when I mentioned above about a Twin A truck, it would be the second or sister/brother truck and in this case it houses the MAIN audio mix, and Electronic Graphics. (The other A truck would house MAIN Production and ISO/REPLAY - typically... sometimes)
It could have been a loss of a key component or a IP/Network LAN issue... or something mechanical like the loss of an HVAC AC unit or HEAT PUMP on the trailer. Like I say, its only speculation on my part as I have no first hand knowledge... It will be interesting if there is an article about this in a future edition of one of the US Broadcast Equipment mags.... SVG, or Broadcast Engineering etc.
- newsguy1
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This topic is really flogging a dead horse.