SBS Australia Coverage of the 2009 TDF vote here Good or Bad?

[mickkk]

I think it has been excellent, but fee ripped off because it is not shown in HD, just on a HD channel. Liar liar pants on fire.

Vote early and often, you can select as many options as you like.

 

[El Imbatido]

Ok ill go now, there is a few things that get to me about the SBS coverage.

1. Get rid of Phil and Paul. They definetely need better commentators. Phil and Paul can't go three minutes without mentioning Lance. It's like they have it written into their contract. And it is really getting to me all this lance love. They are also getting a bit long in the tooth and really have trouble actually commentating on what is happening and when they do the fcuk it up. Could we possibly get a tap into Eurosport coverage with Dave Harmon & Shaun Kelly. Evan Matt Keenan(?) who provides the early coverage before Phil and paul come on is good. You can actually tell he loves the sport, he just seems full of knowledge and keen to be there. (im also assuming he fills in cos Phil and Paul are doing all that Versus pre-race shat with Craig Hummer and Bob Roll)

2. For some reason Tomilaris just seems like a weirdo to me. Him and the other guy who do the pre & post race stuff seem to believe Cadel Evans has some sort of god-like TT ability and will get 1.5 - 2minutes back in the TT. They also make alot of mistakes like Phil and Paul.

3. Although i think it is on a bit late, that is hardly SBS's fault. It's not as though SBS can move the continent of Australia abit closer to france so we are in a better time zone.

4. The fact that it has been moved to SBS Two is a problem for some(not for me tho). Some people are blowing up because they need a set top box to watch it. But eventually all our tv's will be digital anyway, so they will have to upgrade eventually anyway.

Although overall this year it does seem like SBS has put alot of time and energy into bringing us good coverage of the Tdf and i just wish they would do this for the Giro and Vuelta as well.

Edit: I read the poll and realised that it must be mckensize that is the other pre/post race commentator. Also who is gate?

 

[hughmoore]

I think the coverage is excellent, especially starting early last night and tonight.

I had the split screen with the cricket, so had the best of both worlds. First time ever used the split screen.

1st Test finishes tonight so back to HD tommorrow for a little while anyway.

Be good if they could isolate Phils background commentry when he is talking on other networks, thats getting a little annoying hearing him in the background.

Be good if could have heard the argument between the Cadel and Canc etc on the road but cant have everything. Im not interested in the taste of the tour myself, maybe some tech stuff/more interviews with riders/managers/personalities.

Regards

Hugh
South Australia.
Newbie Cycling Fan

 

[hughmoore]

Edit: I read the poll and realised that it must be mckensize that is the other pre/post race commentator. Also who is gate?

I like Mckensie, gate is "Gabriel Gaaartey" (Pronounciation) the french guy doing the Taste of the Tour.

Regards


Hugh

 

[msjett]

I can cope with the commentary, even though all sets of lips have been firmly planted on Armstrongs a r s e for the last week, I can cope with the ads but Gabriel is giving me the s h i t s.

 

[mickkk]

I have a soft spot for Garbell Gate. To hear him swear like an Aussie is a crack up. I swear you would wet your pants. I like the smug look on his face, and his now forced french accent. He has the look of a man on `olidays at the taxpayers expense thats for sure!

 

[unsheath]

My disdain for the P&P LA **** holding show is now only eclipsed for my hatred to Tomalaris. For Gods sake, SBS need to cut these inept presenters (I refer to the bumbling Les Murray) loose. These stalwarts are stale and boring.

Tomalaris (aka Capt Obvious) has a habit of really dumbing down the commentary and comes off like he knows sweet FA about the sport. Unfortunately for those who may know a bit about cycling, it's just un-watchable.

On the flip side, I quite like both Keenan & McKenzie as they are far more knowledgeable and offer genuine insight given their racing pedigree.

 

[The Falcon]

The Bad

1. Tomalaris is a goose. Has been "following" the tour for what, 10 years now?? and has learned FARK ALL about Cycling. Might be fine for those new to the sport but if you have half a clue you will want to shirt front him. Needs to consider what he is going to say BEFORE he starts rabbiting on.

2. Gabriel Gate and his **** Gendarme brother.

3. McKenzie. dead ordinary. no potential. bin him.

3. The Muppets, much has been said here on these two on this forum. Great for the Livestrong once a year fan crew, bad you if are a cycling fan and have a memory of greater than 6 minutes. Aging like Milk.

The Good

1. Vision. great feed from the frogs.......no complaints.

2. Matt Keenan. Adds value. Knows what he is talking about. Does more than just verbalise what he is seeing at the given moment. Much improved from last year.

3. Live free to air coverage nightly...4 hours and sometimes more. How good is this......well done SBS.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Get lost...
1) Phil - too obsessed with Armstrong and has double standards with armstrong, makes many mistakes with names, doesn't get his facts right.
2) Mike - he makes very uneducated comments and takes anything that phil says that it must be right. The 'real' experts disagree with him a lot.
3)Gabriel- Nobody cares about the food of the region and we want to get on with the live pictures.

Keep...
1) Dave Macknezie - he talks common sense and doesn't make mistakes. He gives great analysis of the race.
2.)Paul - he corrects Phil and always get his facts right. Too obseesed with Armstrong.
3)Matt Keenan - (same as Dave Mackenzie)

 

[Seth Bullock]

First and foremost for me is being able to watch the race live without streaming it over the net. What did we have greater than 5 years ago? If I have to put up with Phil and Paul than that's okay with me. Personally I find their "mistakes", "Liggetisms" and "Sherwinisms" quite amusing. Matt Keenan is great (knowledge and obvious passion). Gabriel and Le Taste of Le Tour - personally I get nothing really out of it (although my partner..) and would much rather see something on Tour Tech, rider profiles etc. etc.

An so I think the SBS coverage is great - it would be awesome if the Giro, and the Vuelta were also televised and more classics (in addition to Roubaix). All bike racing coverage is great - bring it on.

 

[craig1985]

I like the amount of live coverage we get, it is impressive. Even outside of the Tour we get Paris-Rubaix live, although it took Stuart O'Grady to win the bloody thing for us to get coverage. I don't like the food or drink side, more behind the scenes and interviews etc. I can't stand Phil or Paul's constant factual errors (for the last time Egoi Martinez never rode alongside Lance Armstrong when Martinez was at Disocovery Channel and he certainly never rode for USPS FFS).

 

[edmundg]

cmon guys - the coverage is great. be glad its on sbs and not on fox or channel 7 - think how badly channel 7 cover the olympics. imagine if a commercial channel covered the tour - they would show highlights at 3 in the morning between reruns of 'the golden girls" and infomercials.

gabriel gate is good - france isnt all about the tour. the french love their food and live life around a meal. how good would it be to break for a couple of hours each day for lunch.

tomo isnt too bad - imagine if danny weidler or bruce mceveny covered the tour. perish the thought.

free to air tour on live - we dont know how good we have it.

 

[James Jordan]

I for one am really happy with the coverage, plus the 'special tracker' website is a great addition to the experience.

I do wish they had put the Ashes on the second channel and left the TDF on the primary where it belongs.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

I think SBS are doing a fantastic job. Ok they have some issues, but they show us every stage live, a 30min daily sum up show. and show some other races too... im thrilled that they have stuck with it despite the struggles cycling has had in the past few years (aka doping)

it would be nice if they showed a few more live coverage races though.
In particular the world champs and ardennes classics

 

[auscyclefan94]

The overall amount of coverage is great. For such a small tv team they do a great job.

 

[Martin318is]

The coverage is great. Brilliant live feed from the French host station. Phil and Paul's commentary is generally good and even with the Lance stuff, at least it is pleasant to listen too (lets face it, a lot of us could watch the race with no commentators at all and wouldn't lose much.)

As for the suggestion that we get the Eurosport feed instead - are you F..kidding? David is a blustering waste of space and Sean - whilst an awesome rider and knowledgable commentator - has an accent that is almost completely unintelligible.

At the end of the day, you are getting covereage that is as good as anyone in the world. Live and free to air. Stop complaining and just enjoy it!

 

[ProfTournesol]

Good
Matt Keenan - how about he does the whole commentary from France next year
Thanks to SBS for showing it including several whole stages
Gabriel Gate - I like the segment, a bit if cultural context enhances the coverage

Bad
Mike Tomalaris - he's enthusiastic but still knows nothing about cycling after 10 years
Phil and Paul - too many mistakes, uncritical adulation of Lance is irritating.
Supposedly broadcast in HD, we get 720p on SBS ONE and only 576 on SBS TWO

 

[karlboss]

Have to agree with everyone else here. Lucky to have so much coverage free to air, can't wait for it to extend to some of the other big races. Matt Keenan's commentry is excellent and he doesn't feel the need fill empty space witrh drivel and always seems to say something interesting. Same same Dave Mckenzie though does look a little interesting on camera. On that ever notice how close the commentators seem to stand to each other in the pre and post race chats? Don't mind the tourism features when they happen or talking about food, if i can't be bothered I tune in 30minutes later...easy. Could do without Lance commentry, that extends to cycling news also.

Interested to see what the online coverage adds, maybe next stage. Is anyone hooked up to SRM or powertap streaming live somewhere? Would like to see tech or other cycling features, take the opportunity to educate those of us who don't race...I remember watching in 2005 and my house mate asked me, why doesn't lance just take off at the start of every day and solo to the end? My answer...I hope he tries.

Though not perfect, I'd have to say best ever.

 

[The Barb]

In New Zealand we get Matt Keenan leading into Phil and Paul each night, without any extraneous coverage. I could go on forever about how awful Paul and Phil have become (sadly they weren't always this bad) but instead I'll focus on the positive ...

I just wanted to add my voice to the chorus singing the praise of Matt Keenan, who is the shining light in the coverage. What he does is tremendously difficult because:

a) He is covering the early part of each stage, when there is often less going on;
b) He is doing it by himself with no one to react off.

It is difficult to overstate how difficult this is to do competently. Nonetheless I have never found myself bored when listening to him and learn something new every stage. I think he is incredibly good - one of the best sports broadcasters I've ever heard.

 

[The Falcon]

In New Zealand we get Matt Keenan leading into Phil and Paul each night, without any extraneous coverage. I could go on forever about how awful Paul and Phil have become (sadly they weren't always this bad) but instead I'll focus on the positive ...

I just wanted to add my voice to the chorus singing the praise of Matt Keenan, who is the shining light in the coverage. What he does is tremendously difficult because:

a) He is covering the early part of each stage, when there is often less going on;
b) He is doing it by himself with no one to react off.

It is difficult to overstate how difficult this is to do competently. Nonetheless I have never found myself bored when listening to him and learn something new every stage. I think he is incredibly good - one of the best sports broadcasters I've ever heard.

Yep, the muppets are aging like Milk........they are definately getting worse, my old man who has been listening to the Muppets since the 80's reckons Liggett in particular is slowly losing his marbles.

Keenan did another good job last night, even the Mrs commented he is good to listen to. He's got a big future in Cycling commentating ahead of him im sure.

 

[craig1985]

AFAIC SBS is the best channel in Australia. Got everything I want that the bigger TV stations are too stupid to not get coverage on. Would love half hour highlights of the Giro and Vuelta, 15 minutes is not enough.

 

[Grater]

Phil needs to go - he's been stale for a few years now. He is getting too old. Too many mistakes. We need new fresh Australian commentators there.

Matt Keenan - excellent. He knows his stuff. He needs more coverage.

SBS could show more whole stages live. Saturday and Sunday was good but they need more days where they can show the stage in it's entirety.

 

[mickkk]

Yes the bloke that does the warm up does a very good job. He picks out the good bits from reports and the other commentary and uses a bit of his own knowledge where appropriate.

The only thing killing full coverage is the Ashes Test series. With the 2 channels now, if they moved the ashes, wed be in clover.SBS is under heaps of pressure to keep a few non sports programs in the evening at this time of year. 10pm is the best we can hope for. We have had two full stages in the first week. I dont know if this is due to the mountains, the weekend or a trend that will give us a few more full stages plus the Champs, mabe 6 or 7 in all.

Im sure if there was no such beast as Cadel Evans, we wouldnt get as much coverage as we have lately. We owe him heaps for finally putting cycling on the map in Australia.

Very early on, before we crossed to the Ps, we used to get live race radio and the sound effects mic. That was a blast. They should bring that back.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Committ to Cycling SBS

If SBS are going to become serious about cycling, they need to give priority to the Cycling and not the AShes. SBS shows the tdf every year but every 4 years they seem to let the cricket take priority. Let Ch 9 have the cricket as they usuallly do and let sbs have the cycling. SBS gets a high percentage of viewers from cycling so they should support the viewers who support them by watching their programs (cycling)

 

[The Falcon]

If SBS are going to become serious about cycling, they need to give priority to the Cycling and not the AShes. SBS shows the tdf every year but every 4 years they seem to let the cricket take priority. Let Ch 9 have the cricket as they usuallly do and let sbs have the cycling. SBS gets a high percentage of viewers from cycling so they should support the viewers who support them by watching their programs (cycling)

cmon kid, this is OZ.

Cricket is the No.1 summer sport in the country and so it will remain.

SBS is still showing full TDF coverage on SBS2. I dont see how broadcasting the Ashes has made them any less serious about cycling. Lets not get too carried away.