Commentary on TNT and other WB brands

[yaco]

Does Jose Been ever shut up? It's endless chatter.

She's an excellent commentator doing her role in providing historical information relevant to the stage and allowing Mcewen to offer his expert analysis.

 

[DJO]

She's an excellent commentator doing her role in providing historical information relevant to the stage and allowing Mcewen to offer his expert analysis.

I grew up listening to TMS in the UK, and one quote from a man who was one of crickets finest players and commentators always comes to mind; ".The key thing was to learn the value of economy with words and to never insult the viewer by telling them what they can already see." Mr Benaud was right then and is also right now. Sometimes a picture can tell it's own story.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

I grew up listening to TMS in the UK, and one quote from a man who was one of crickets finest players and commentators always comes to mind; ".The key thing was to learn the value of economy with words and to never insult the viewer by telling them what they can already see." Mr Benaud was right then and is also right now. Sometimes a picture can tell it's own story.

Absolutely, and there is a clip of another legend, Harry Carpenter, saying much the same thing. You don't need to rabbit endlessly - let the pictures tell the story, and just add bit of relevant info to help the viewers.

 

[Wyndbrook]

David Duffield used to suggest Sean Kelly was known to nod in response to questions.

 

[yaco]

I grew up listening to TMS in the UK, and one quote from a man who was one of crickets finest players and commentators always comes to mind; ".The key thing was to learn the value of economy with words and to never insult the viewer by telling them what they can already see." Mr Benaud was right then and is also right now. Sometimes a picture can tell it's own story.

Well we can't always be part of mensa. I don't know about the historical features of most buildings, fields, cities, fields etc of places that a race passes by. I'm glad to learn something new every day.

 

[RedheadDane]

I grew up listening to TMS in the UK, and one quote from a man who was one of crickets finest players and commentators always comes to mind; ".The key thing was to learn the value of economy with words and to never insult the viewer by telling them what they can already see." Mr Benaud was right then and is also right now. Sometimes a picture can tell it's own story.

There's a difference between telling people what they can see, like simply informing viewers that "There's a castle", and providing historical context "This castle was built in the 17th Century under orders of king [name], so he'd have somewhere to install his various mistresses."

 

[awavey]

Absolutely, and there is a clip of another legend, Harry Carpenter, saying much the same thing. You don't need to rabbit endlessly - let the pictures tell the story, and just add bit of relevant info to help the viewers.

think alot of the "old school" commentators felt the same way, thesedays theyre just rent-a-gobs and wont shut up, and believe commentary is simply how many stats or random facts you can quote to fill the air.

the thing with Been is she didnt used to be like this,she just started to do it, and has now became almost as insufferable as Hatch with language & pronounciation, even though she always uses Dutch versions of English names like Anna for instance.

the mute button always in use when I clock shes commentating a race

 

[yaco]

So that means you miss the commentary and wisdom of Mcewen who is just about the best commentator in the business.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

So that means you miss the commentary and wisdom of Mcewen who is just about the best commentator in the business.

Once he is freed from the studio idiocy of Chennaoui and Blythe, he is very good.

Been's English is generally excellent, but whoever taught her to speak English with such a marked glottal stop did her no favours.

 

[awavey]

So that means you miss the commentary and wisdom of Mcewen who is just about the best commentator in the business.

Im prepared to sacrifice that for my sanity...

 

[HashRouge]

I do think some of you let the commentary bother you too much. The only thing that ever annoys me is the way Hatch reacts to a crash (OH NO!!! NO NO NO NO NO!!!). Otherwise I very much enjoy his commentary and pretty much every one else's. I really love Carlton, I find he provides a nice backdrop when you've got a four hour flat sprint stage in the Tour.

 

[awavey]

I do think some of you let the commentary bother you too much. The only thing that ever annoys me is the way Hatch reacts to a crash (OH NO!!! NO NO NO NO NO!!!). Otherwise I very much enjoy his commentary and pretty much every one else's. I really love Carlton, I find he provides a nice backdrop when you've got a four hour flat sprint stage in the Tour.

I like Carlton, miss his commentary, it was entertaining, and I can cope with Hatch most of the time, except when he's doing cricket, he even did one of his crash reaction style OTT shouts in that, never want him near that sport again.

what I cant cope with is people, most often who actually arent great broadcasters to begin with, who get dumped in this role and because they dont have a natural commentary patter to describe what is happening for the viewer (or listener on radio because they pop up there too) they resort to stat attacks or start talking about stuff thats not relevant at all to whats happening in front of them.

literally just to fill the void, because they feel they have to say something all the time, so they say anything that pops into their head, thats not commentating, thats just verbal diarrhea.

I think it was last year or maybe year before, Been would often in comms go off on a tangent about dinosaur bones, now that maybe an interesting topic in its own right, but its not about cycling, and its not about the race happening in front of us, whilst we diving off into paleontology where are the race leaders, what are some of the key points in the race coming up, what tactics might some teams use to try and attack or defend.

I always go back to the TdY when Lizzie Deignan was pregnant so not racing and only supposed to do about a 10mins interview for ITV, and she stayed for best part of an hour because she was just sitting there explaining the race as it unfolded perfectly, how it was evolving, where riders would attack, and they did, how the teams would react to it, and they did too, and she hadnt prepped any of it, or spent days writing out book loads of stats to fall back on, or topics to cover to fill the gaps, she was just describing the race and using her knowledge and experience as a racer to describe it and the emotions and feelings of the riders.

thats all I want from the commentators, tell me whats happening in the race.

 

[yaco]

You must dislike jez cox.

 

[awavey]

TNT sports streaming will "move" to HBO Max in the UK when it launches from March 26th

At least the price isnt going up

https://www.tntsports.co.uk/all-spo...ng-home-of-tnt-sports_sto23264114/story.shtml

 

[Wyndbrook]

Just recieved an email from disco how to log in etc.
Highlights all the 'amazing benefits' I will get, with the last bulletpoint being contains ads.

 

[Rob5091]

March 26 and things won't get any cheaper -
https://www.cyclingnews.com/cycling...ireland-in-third-platform-shakeup-since-2023/

Any cycling fans hoping for a price drop will be disappointed, however, as the HBO Max with TNT Sports plan remains at £30.99 per month. ...How long this new streaming set-up lasts, however, is not certain, as Warner Bros. Discovery is currently involved in a bidding war between two other streaming giants.

 

[CyclistAbi]

So if i understand correctly HBO Max currently has 0 subscribers in the UK and not only will you need to select in between 4 tiers of HBO Max you will on top of that need to pay TNT Sports streaming subscription extra? So around £35 per month minimum or no cycling? Eurosport subscription meanwhile was £7?

How much do you reckon would cycling coverage cost you on Sky Sports and i assume a lot of households are already paying some subscription for Sky Sports?

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

EE sell TNT and Disco+ as an add-on to their broadband package. I rang them to check about the implications of this. The sales team didn't seem to have heard of it.

 

[Wyndbrook]

So if i understand correctly HBO Max currently has 0 subscribers in the UK and not only will you need to select in between 4 tiers of HBO Max you will on top of that need to pay TNT Sports streaming subscription extra? So around £35 per month minimum or no cycling? Eurosport subscription meanwhile was £7?

How much do you reckon would cycling coverage cost you on Sky Sports and i assume a lot of households are already paying some subscription for Sky Sports?

As Armchair says some UK broadband suppliers, I am aware of EE + BT(same parent companies), are offering TNT sport for around 4 or 5 pounds less than a direct sub. Sky sports offer is similar, but maybe cheaper if the customer has an older BT sport contract. Sky sports subscription depends on what package you have including maybe broadband or glass, how old any existing contract is, how good you are at negotiating, oh and also what day of the week it is.
With full sky sports and films easily over £100 a month.

 

[CyclistAbi]

With full sky sports and films easily over £100 a month.

Do most households in UK subscribe to that, though? In that case it might be justified, otherwise it's not suitable place for a race such as Tour de France. It was not always like that but in Slovenia we have Tour de France on national TV plus Eurosport plus some cycling races, although usually less important, broadcasted on some "private" Slovenian channels. Both national TV almost everybody pays a monthly fee and Eurosport won't be available if you don't have some sort of "cable" TV scheme that again is not free. But as most households do that it's not problematic to access Tour de France in Slovenia.

So IMHO something similar would need to be available in UK too, to at least keep Tour de France in general availability. Otherwise i fear that the long term situation will deteriorate and cycling and ski jumping to share the same fait in the UK.

Although, maybe not:

Most popular sports in the Winter Olympics UK 2021| Statista

During a survey in the United Kingdom (UK) from December 2021, ski jumping was the most followed Winter Olympic sport for fans of the Games, with 31 percent of respondents interested in the sport.

www.statista.com

Eddie the Eagle likely playing a role. Anyway. Fingers crossed that during the years general availability will improve in the UK, especially Tour de France. Current situation likely being untenable anyway.

 

[Strawberry_Jams]

EE sell TNT and Disco+ as an add-on to their broadband package. I rang them to check about the implications of this. The sales team didn't seem to have heard of it.

great stuff. I'm only holding onto my ee phone contract to watch the cycling on discovery. still haven't had an email telling me about it.

 

[wansteadimp]

Do most households in UK subscribe to that, though? In that case it might be justified, otherwise it's not suitable place for a race such as Tour de France. It was not always like that but in Slovenia we have Tour de France on national TV plus Eurosport plus some cycling races, although usually less important, broadcasted on some "private" Slovenian channels. Both national TV almost everybody pays a monthly fee and Eurosport won't be available if you don't have some sort of "cable" TV scheme that again is not free. But as most households do that it's not problematic to access Tour de France in Slovenia.

So IMHO something similar would need to be available in UK too, to at least keep Tour de France in general availability. Otherwise i fear that the long term situation will deteriorate and cycling and ski jumping to share the same fait in the UK.

Although, maybe not:

Most popular sports in the Winter Olympics UK 2021| Statista

During a survey in the United Kingdom (UK) from December 2021, ski jumping was the most followed Winter Olympic sport for fans of the Games, with 31 percent of respondents interested in the sport.

www.statista.com

Eddie the Eagle likely playing a role. Anyway. Fingers crossed that during the years general availability will improve in the UK, especially Tour de France. Current situation likely being untenable anyway.

No most people in the UK don't. There has been a substantial uptick in people sailing the high seas with non legal firesticks and the like.

 

[CyclistAbi]

No most people in the UK don't. There has been a substantial uptick in people sailing the high seas with non legal firesticks and the like.

I was afraid of that, anyway hopefully we can improve that in the future and to make pro peloton more accessible again in the UK, especially in regards to Tour de France.

It seems that HBO Max made some sort of deal with Sky and hence it might have access to 10 million households from the get go. Furthermore it seems that Netflix might buy the whole division from WBD in the future and hence that would cover a whole lot of households. Hopefully for cycling to be a part of it then and to be more accessible, hopefully lower price barrier.

We will know more after the next round of consolidations on the market finishes.

 

[awavey]

So if i understand correctly HBO Max currently has 0 subscribers in the UK and not only will you need to select in between 4 tiers of HBO Max you will on top of that need to pay TNT Sports streaming subscription extra? So around £35 per month minimum or no cycling? Eurosport subscription meanwhile was £7?

How much do you reckon would cycling coverage cost you on Sky Sports and i assume a lot of households are already paying some subscription for Sky Sports?

the TNT sports thing isnt really changing that much, its just HBO Max are going to "host" the streaming side instead of Discovery +. It will just mean you have to use another different app/website to watch it, maybe this one will be better app.

the rest of the HBO Max thing is just an entertainment content thing, and for years HBO have had a deal with Sky that their shows like Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon/Sopranos/Last of us etc etc were part of the Sky entertainment subs on their Sky Atlantic channel.

but HBO probably dont make as much money as theyd like from the setup, and theyre making this new Harry Potter series, which they knew they can totally cash in on, so Sky and HBO were at loggerheads for a while sorting out some kind of deal and this is the culmination of it, not sure what happens to Sky Atlantic yet, but Sky are bringing back Sky One as their main entertainment show channel.

and fwiw Sky subscribers (even those on the basic Essentials package) will get HBOs standard ad supported tier,at no additional cost, to begin with, whilst noting Sky price rises alwayas happen in April, so quoting prices now is probably a mistake. how that works for customers still with satellite, and not the streaming boxes, who knows as it doesnt sound like HBO are bagging a space on the EPG, but maybe they are.

as for Sky sports, unsurprisingly there ppm cost is very similar to TNT, ranging from 20 to 35 quid, like they charge 20 per month to watch F1.

cycling as I keep reminding people doesnt pull in vast audience numbers to the point its worth Sky bidding for rights for things, as theyd rather bid for rights for things the majority of their viewers want to watch, which is not cycling, Sky are football, darts, cricket,NFL, F1, rugby,golf,boxing probably in that order, with a bunch of kind of other sports to fill in the gaps.

I still think if WBD are going to be outbid for cycling content, it will come down to the likes of DAZN who are trying to break into the UK market and disrupt Sky/TNT, or Amazon who have kind of had a toe in the water with some premier league football rights, but dont appear to be looking to continue as a sports subscription content provider.