Commentary on TNT and other WB brands

[tao bleeding heart]

No doubt there are millions of Eurosport viewers who, like me, are gripped by the Prediction competitions between the studio presenters / pundits and tune in every day on the edge of their seats to find out who everyone has picked. The banter is absolutely unwatchable unmissable. Oh how we laughed when Dan Lloyd picked someone who wasn't even in the race. I do, however, think that we need a way to follow the competition more easily during the race. Can I suggest perhaps Eurosport could get the riders to wear different coloured jerseys if they are picked by one of the experts so that we can easily spot them during the race (e.g. Adam's pick could wear a Hawaiian shirt). Or at least have live on-screen graphics with the live time gaps between Orla's pick (hooray) and Robbie's pick (boooo)

infuriating Eurosport... really fkin annoying... pishing around in the studio with their own predictions 'ceremony', amongst other inane chat, whilst ignoring the actual podium presentations on-screen in the background.
Same story at TdF iirc - with all the choppy back & forth - but fortunately ITV4 are there give the full coverage.

 

[kingjr]

infuriating Eurosport... really fkin annoying... pishing around in the studio with their own predictions 'ceremony', amongst other inane chat, whilst ignoring the actual podium presentations on-screen in the background.
Same story at TdF iirc - with all the choppy back & forth - but fortunately ITV4 are there give the full coverage.

Eurosport player had a separate stream where they showed the podium presentations and allowed you to avoid all that other stuff

 

[wirral]

Eurosport player had a separate stream where they showed the podium presentations and allowed you to avoid all that other stuff

Sometimes it is not clear which stream is which but in this case it was. I always select the multi-audio stream.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

infuriating Eurosport... really fkin annoying... pishing around in the studio with their own predictions 'ceremony', amongst other inane chat, whilst ignoring the actual podium presentations on-screen in the background.
Same story at TdF iirc - with all the choppy back & forth - but fortunately ITV4 are there give the full coverage.

Gross mis-reading of who their audience is. Make Dan Lloyd the main presenter, or at least the one who has editorial control: he is the only adult in the room on too many occasions. He knows how to be humourous without being infantile, to address an audience without patronising them.

 

[zlev11]

Yeah, I have mentioned this a couple of times on this thread. Brian Smith has no problem being obviously disdainful towards her on air. It is painful to listen to.

i love when she will ask Brian a question or look for him to add to something and he just no-sells it with complete silence. he's such a pompous dipshit.

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

i love when she will ask Brian a question or look for him to add to something and he just no-sells it with complete silence. he's such a pompous dipshit.

Well you know, she acts like a know-it-all and Brian has always been a no-***-just-facts kinda guy, they're just the worst possible combo to get...

 

[Tim Cahill]

infuriating Eurosport... really fkin annoying... pishing around in the studio with their own predictions 'ceremony', amongst other inane chat, whilst ignoring the actual podium presentations on-screen in the background.
Same story at TdF iirc - with all the choppy back & forth - but fortunately ITV4 are there give the full coverage.

I like Chris Boardman a lot but I'd take a 6 hour showreel of Adam Blythe running through a compendium of Geriant Thomas' greatest attacks over another minute of listening to Millar. Had enough of his nonsense when he was actually cycling.

 

[awavey]

I like Chris Boardman a lot but I'd take a 6 hour showreel of Adam Blythe running through a compendium of Geriant Thomas' greatest attacks over another minute of listening to Millar. Had enough of his nonsense when he was actually cycling.

Chris wasn't great on the Ride London Classique yesterday, tbf he had ridden the 60mile course before commentary,but they weren't watching the pictures properly or the actual race situation and combined with Simon Brothertons style of commentary which is basically all about identifying team kit colours and then quoting stats about those teams, he does football 90% of the year, I guess it shows Eurosport could be alot worse

 

[kingjr]

Well you know, she acts like a know-it-all and Brian has always been a no-***-just-facts kinda guy, they're just the worst possible combo to get...

That's how he likes to present himself at least

 

[zlev11]

Well you know, she acts like a know-it-all and Brian has always been a no-***-just-facts kinda guy, they're just the worst possible combo to get...

i dont think she acts like a know-it-all really. he should show his colleague some respect.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Chris wasn't great on the Ride London Classique yesterday, tbf he had ridden the 60mile course before commentary,but they weren't watching the pictures properly or the actual race situation and combined with Simon Brothertons style of commentary which is basically all about identifying team kit colours and then quoting stats about those teams, he does football 90% of the year, I guess it shows Eurosport could be alot worse

Yeah you might be right tbf, haven't heard his commentary for long time as I've avoided ITV for years. The studio stuff with him and Imlach was always to the point though and whilst there was an extra focus on British riders they were never in awe of them like they are on ES.

I think my view of him is based on his character rather than commentary style, he's always walked the walk and gone to bat for cyclists in Britain against some nasty political forces and is a pretty effective media communicator, though unfortunately seems to be fighting a losing battle.

 

[awavey]

Absolutely Chris is normally a good sage voice to listen to on all topics cycling.

He just seemed distracted by the race this time and wasn't really providing clear comms on it.

Maybe it was more difficult because the camera coverage was appalling, more interested in aerial views of London and tourist sights.

But they just kept missing crucial parts of the race happening.

I haven't watched the Eurosport highlights to compare but it would interesting to see if they also had so much tunnel vision on Wiebes winning, they missed the battle for 2nd place too

 

[argyllflyer]

Right... does anyone know what is going on with ES this last fortnight? Two stages races with the commentator doing it alone (Cox & Kirby), and also a few one dayers as well with Been. Have they lost some co-commentators?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Probably quite similar here with Finnish Eurosport. We’ve got a legend Peter Selin doing the races. He usually has his son or some retired pro or semi-pro (Jussi Veikkanen, Kimmo Kananen) with him.

I don’t particularly like the way in which some (English) commentators try to fill in and hype up every boring moment of the race. Like, we have eyes, you don’t need to tell us that someone is taking a turn or turning his/her pedals. Finnish style is more conversational during these periods.

Weirdly enough, one of the best of the Eurosport bunch for that filling-time-when-nothing's-happening kind of action is Jip van den Bos, precisely for the more conversational manner.

Unfortunately when there is action going on, she's terrible, so she's well down the totem pole when it comes to handing out the roles.

 

[Izzyeviel]

A reminder how much Eurosports coverage has improved over the years. (also any excuse to remind people this actually happened)

 

[Potomac]

A reminder how much Eurosports coverage has improved over the years. (also any excuse to remind people this actually happened)

Any particular moment in mind? Sean Kelly is just as exciting then as now.

 

[Izzyeviel]

Production values, the better advert placement, & the commentary of course. (we can now tell what Sean is saying for example)

 

[awavey]

Production values, the better advert placement, & the commentary of course. (we can now tell what Sean is saying for example)

I dont know that its production values, technology is better for sure which makes it easier to show a stage like that now and make it not feel you were all watching it through a mud/rain filter.

that for me is probably the main difference, there were ad breaks Harmon was calling there that were perfectly placed, Seans cadence has slowed with the passing of time. the fake helicopter sound amused me as it sounded like theyd picked some american combat helicopter

but its the style of Eurosport I first started watching which was uncompromising in so far as they treated the viewer as someone interested enough to watch them, but it was upto you to pay attention and concentrate if you wanted to learn about the sport, they werent going to be going through a 101 of riders or rules all the time.

nowadays and I know Ive heard it said before with so many channels and the average viewer pauses for 5 secs on what theyre watching before channel hopping, theyve got 5secs to make you stay watching. which is why everyone has to be epic all the time to grab your attention.


its funny because Ive been watching alot of Roland Garros this week, you cant really avoid it in Eurosport at the moment, and its much more similar to that old school Eurosport approach that I like. measured commentary, well except when John McEnroe turns up (tbf he wasnt that bad, its that danger aspect and it didnt help he was in Paris, his co commentator was in the cube so there was always a delay between them) , no one hyping it to the n t all the time, no bantz, no one having to be corrected, all describing the games and players well.

their roving court reporter style bit works too, though having a duo probably helped as they can do back and forth with each other, rather than be too intense by themselves.

and even their cheesier version of the breakaway, kind of works better, though thank god they havent found the disco lights button for the cycling stuff yet.

so it is doable to get the balance right , even with modern Eurosport/discovery+/Max/digital platforms

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Rob Hatch; "Look at that, the motorcycles are struggling to keep up!"
Matt Stevens (should have said): "No, Rob, they are very powerful motorbikes, perfectly capable of going at least twice that pace. What they are doing is following the peloton rather than mowing through it, causing massive carnage."

 

[Rob5091]

Right... does anyone know what is going on with ES this last fortnight? Two stages races with the commentator doing it alone (Cox & Kirby), and also a few one dayers as well with Been. Have they lost some co-commentators?

The Sun in the UK reported that a "sports presenter" was detained and questioned by the Police a couple of weeks ago. No names mentioned (because of legal reasons), so we await to hear more info.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

The Sun in the UK reported that a "sports presenter" was detained and questioned by the Police a couple of weeks ago. No names mentioned (because of legal reasons), so we await to hear more info.

Perhaps they really did arrest the wrong Carlton Kirby a few years back.

 

[Wyndbrook]

The Sun in the UK reported that a "sports presenter" was detained and questioned by the Police a couple of weeks ago. No names mentioned (because of legal reasons), so we await to hear more info.

If it was for 'hideous crimes against commentary' I would suggest they were named either Cox, Been or Kirby.

 

[argyllflyer]

The Sun in the UK reported that a "sports presenter" was detained and questioned by the Police a couple of weeks ago. No names mentioned (because of legal reasons), so we await to hear more info.

Looking at last year, the missing co commentary partner varies (so often the same pairings) and the people missing from last year have still done races this last month or so. It seems like cost cutting and it to me anyway makes the viewing a bit more monotonous.

 

[ashhutch1997]

If it was for 'hideous crimes against commentary' I would suggest they were named either Cox, Been or Kirby.

At this rate put Rob Hatch on there, just as annoying these days.

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

At this rate put Rob Hatch on there, just as annoying these days.

Hatch would be totally lost if he had to do it on his own.
I of course meant commentating.