Tell DirecTV that you want Universal Sports

[hbrown]

If you don’t want to miss races like the Giro de Italia, Vuelta a Espana, Road World Championships and more on Direct TV make sure to do something about it.
Visit http://www.universalsports.tv/I_want_Universal_Sports.html and Tell DirecTV that you want Universal Sports.
Don’t miss the 2010 cycling season.

 

[auscyclefan94]

They need some new commentators. Those american guys are hopeless, clueless and overly biased.

 

[Wolfpengap]

I am weeks away from switching from Directv to Dish after nearly 10 years. Without VS. Network there is no way to see the Tour, Paris Roubaix, Flanders, Etc... They really ticked me off about this dispute. When I called to ask what kind of price increase it would be to the consumer I was told .02 cents per customer per month! Ridiculous! Universal would be great, but no Tour or spring classics = no thanks.

 

[flipteez]

Only VS?

Is Versus the only channel that can present The Tour in the US?

ANY other options?

 

[Clemson Cycling]

Is Versus the only channel that can present The Tour in the US?

ANY other options?

More or less yes.

ESPN is too big to show the event every day and recaps at night
Fox Sports and the branches of it are based on local teams (especially during baseball season)
some off the wall network could carry it like Fit TV or something but that is highly unlikely.
I am just ready for the Versus DirecTV conflict to be over so I can watch the NHL playoffs

 

[lagartija]

More or less yes.

ESPN is too big to show the event every day and recaps at night
Fox Sports and the branches of it are based on local teams (especially during baseball season)
some off the wall network could carry it like Fit TV or something but that is highly unlikely.
I am just ready for the Versus DirecTV conflict to be over so I can watch the NHL playoffs

its actually not versus at all , its comcast that i believe own majority share, they tripled the price for other networks (direct tv)to broadcast there property. dtv felt the price hike was unfair and didnt want to pay, comcast basically said tough, and adios, we dont need you , you need our property, and thats where it stands, i heard there were some meetings but nothing was resolved, and i doubt it will be, dtv would have to pass the cost to its cutomers and i dont think they want to go down that road, at least at the moment...................

 

[Anonymous]

They need some new commentators. Those american guys are hopeless, clueless and overly biased.

+1. I'd rather watch on the computer, turn the sound down and listen to Eurosport...which isn't much better. However, I am betting that I that the Universal Sports commentators for the GIRO will fill us in every day between the 16th and 23rd on Lance Armstrong's chances to win the days stage of the ToC...

 

[Angliru]

+1. I'd rather watch on the computer, turn the sound down and listen to Eurosport...which isn't much better. However, I am betting that I that the Universal Sports commentators for the GIRO will fill us in every day between the 16th and 23rd on Lance Armstrong's chances to win the days stage of the ToC...

I'm quite certain that if the commentators were British (Wigans/Millar) or Australian (Evans, McEwen, Gerrans etc...) we would be getting the same "biased" commentary just with a different geographic slant. I thought their commentary was a vast improvement over the lap dog panting of Liggett/Sherwin/Roll. Plus I'm not going to complain considering they gave me coverage of so many races that I've never seen on TV (Tour of the Basque Country, Dauphine, etc...). I was just overjoyed that they decided to offer these races, long after many of them had actually taken place. It was like an early Christmas.

 

[Anonymous]

versus just blows and universal aint much better...spent a miserable hour on sunday watching versus "coverage" of the tour of oman...basically it was an infomercial on how great and superior the mighty kingdom of oman is...god forbid the same day they would have paid to cut into the kuurne brussels feed...probably would have cost em 5 grand or something...so they put out propoganda for oman who I am sure loved giving it to them for free...the worst thing now is that races cycling tv used to cover are geo restricted in the us thanks to both universal and versus...and if egostrong is showing up they will of course cover it...can't wait for the ******* to retire again so I can see some more actual races....

 

[Anonymous]

I'm quite certain that if the commentators were British (Wigans/Millar) or Australian (Evans, McEwen, Gerrans etc...) we would be getting the same "biased" commentary just with a different geographic slant. I thought their commentary was a vast improvement over the lap dog panting of Liggett/Sherwin/Roll. Plus I'm not going to complain considering they gave me coverage of so many races that I've never seen on TV (Tour of the Basque Country, Dauphine, etc...). I was just overjoyed that they decided to offer these races, long after many of them had actually taken place. It was like an early Christmas.

Actually, Ive always found the Brits of Duffield, Harmon etc, extremely unbiased, in fact they often go out of their way to avoid discussing certain riders. When stephen roche is in the studio they avoid even mentioning Nicolas for fear of Jinxing him. Sean Kelly sometimes gets airtime to talk about his team etc, but not often. Harmon does sometimes get a bit excited, almost too excited if theres a brit in the breakaway and it looks like they might stay away, but thats more as a supporter, he doesnt rave about them.

Bear in mind the two biggest cycling commentators are brits, and do nothing but talk about Lance Armstrong all day. The Aussie commentators at the TDU did nothing but talk about "lance armstrongs radio shack", "teammate of lance armstrong"..

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

They need some new commentators. Those american guys are hopeless, clueless and overly biased.

Actually, Todd Gogulski is excellent with the commentary. I could do without Steve Schlanger. But still, these guys are light years better to listen to than what P&P have become. Phil can still call a sprint with aplomb, but that's about it.

Once you get used to Sean's accent, he's excellent.

Agree on the Duffers. He was my favorite. Vault of historical info, and he would be wacky and sometimes miss info, but while proudly British - mostly cheering on Chris Boardman - he was pretty fair about giving credit to others who did well. And he was excellent at calling finishes too. Really got you excited.

 

[usedtobefast]

i remember no tv coverage of anything. then you had cbs, then espn did some stuff. be glad you get versus and universal. sports announcers are always blasted, in any sport.you should hear my dad talk about baseball.

 

[usedtobefast]

universal is rerunning last years races today. the giro, MSR among others. good stuff.

 

[Potomac]

Do you need directv? If you want Universal, now that local stations have changed to digital signals, your local NBC affiliate is probably spouting it.

 

[analo69]

In Denmark the commentators are also pretty biased towards Team Saxo Bank and Danish riders in general. But I like it that way. In some races Rolf Sørensen(90ties pro, won LBL and RvV) is commenting and he is the best commentator you can think of. He knows every cobble in Paris-Roubaix and every corner on the road in Le Tour(He usually rides the last 50km of every tour stage before going commentating every day, and has ridden every classic 10+ times). He is scaringly good at telling the audience when they can expect an attack in the front group for instance. I remember a tour stage a couple of years ago where KA Arvesen won. 10 km before a specific corner with a small hill afterwards he said that Arvesen would attack at that specific point. And he did. It is ridicoulus how well he reads the race. He still has a lot of friends among the riders and DS's so he will also have some inside knowledge every day.

We have two different television channels in Denmark showing cycling. TV2 and Eurosport and they broadcast pretty much every race worth watching + some not worth watching - last year Eurosport even showed Tour of Turkey, but no Ghent-Wevelgem on any of them.

Good luck with finding a television channel in the US. I am glad I live in Denmark with plenty of cycling in TV. Are those american TV channels expensive? In Denmark we pay approx 40 dollars a month for 45 channels with mostly junk, but also some nice ones like the ones showing cycling.

 

[ak-zaaf]

Good luck with finding a television channel in the US. I am glad I live in Denmark with plenty of cycling in TV. Are those american TV channels expensive? In Denmark we pay approx 40 dollars a month for 45 channels with mostly junk, but also some nice ones like the ones showing cycling.

In Holland it's pretty strange. Belgian public channels 1 & 2 (sporza) come with basic cable (30 channels total) and broadcast every semi important race. For about 40 dollars (10 extra) we get about 100 channels, but not the Belgium channels 2BE, VT4 or RTBF2 (broadcasting Samyn right now). But it gives you Eurosport 2 and that's worth the extra money