Unofficial I hate Versus thread

[Anonymous]

Yeah well, In the short time since my post, I've been pm'd by a few people giving me the lowdown about you, so say hello to the ignore button lowlife.

Bye. I'll return the favor sweetie.

 

[Izoard]

The video/HD is great, and muting the volume and having eurosport on in the background (as I believe others have done) makes it pretty interesting. P&P drive me crazy, as does Bob. Although P&P did say something kinda ironic during the TTT ... "The more things change, the more they stay the same".

 

[slowoldman]

You know Versus does have alot of flaws, but I hesitate to criticize when I can remember the 5 minute recaps of the weeks action on Wide World of Sports on ABC. I can remember almost becoming a fan of John Tesch just because his music almost earned the Tour more airtime on ABC!!! (I snapped out of that pretty quickly though)

The one thing I can say I am not a fan of is the intro/reintro after commercials. What's with always showing the crashes (from this year and previous Tours/races)??? That's seems like bad karma to me and I would imagine to every other cyclist that has ever pinned on a number. I wince everytime.

 

[marinoni]

The Good Old Days?

You know Versus does have alot of flaws, but I hesitate to criticize when I can remember the 5 minute recaps of the weeks action on Wide World of Sports on ABC. I can remember almost becoming a fan of John Tesch just because his music almost earned the Tour more airtime on ABC!!! (I snapped out of that pretty quickly though)

Yeah, I've made that point a couple times. I remember during the 88 Tour coverage, they did an "up close and personal" bit with Andy Hampsten. That summer I was working for a video duplication firm and we had the contract to make Playboy Video tapes. The Hampsten piece looked just like them. Andy strolling across a dewy meadow. Andy sitting on a dock, staring pensively at the water. I thought he was going to start taking his clothes off for crissake!
BTW, did anyone else notice during stage 4 Phil referred to the Astana team as "fancy legs"? I was with a client today and thought of it and burst out laughing. Sigh, yet another person who thinks I'm insane.

 

[Izoard]

Fancy legs! Really! WTF? I am chuckling as I write ...

 

[Bala Verde]

Ah, I am using Sopcast today, with russian Eurosport... tough, but anything is better than Versus. I also found Rai Due, hopefully they'll start airing soon, so I can get to listen to Italian commentators with a passion for cycling in general

 

[hulkgogan]

Simply because TV advertisers don't pay big bucks to reach niche audiences. Versus is trying to make it with the NHL, a sport nobody watches on TV. Lances return has presented them with the chance to finally make some money. But, ratings means slanting the coverage and dumbing it down. So, we can either stop complaining and watch the coverage we have, or continue to gripe about something we can't change.

I agree advertisers don't pay big buck to reach niche audiences, hence the same 4 ads played 50 times each broadcast. I'm sure even with Lance, the viewing figures are laughable.

But even as a strategy to draw in new viewers I think the dumb down is totally flawed. I don't think you're ever gonna get a casual sports fan to tune into 3 hours of coverage. Any guy who's gonna invest that time can never be called casual by definition. Imagine tuning into a football game and they explain the offside rule 20 times every game. You'd go nuts! Additionally, you're never gonna tune into a sport cause they dumb it down. The value proposition is never the dumb down, it's the sport. The sport has to stand on it's own legs.

So, I like I said, anybody who is not a casual fan is not gonna like the dumb down, and a casual fan will never watch 3 hours of bike racing. So serve your audience.

There's probably decent strategies to try to get people to become bike racing fans, dumbing down the race isn't one of them. Over the long term, it makes the sport less compelling. What are they gonna do when Lance ain't there any more and they've made him the only reason to tune in?

 

[Bala Verde]

....

Exactly my thoughts...!

 

[colwildcat]

I agree advertisers don't pay big buck to reach niche audiences, hence the same 4 ads played 50 times each broadcast. I'm sure even with Lance, the viewing figures are laughable.

But even as a strategy to draw in new viewers I think the dumb down is totally flawed. I don't think you're ever gonna get a casual sports fan to tune into 3 hours of coverage. Any guy who's gonna invest that time can never be called casual by definition. Imagine tuning into a football game and they explain the offside rule 20 times every game. You'd go nuts! Additionally, you're never gonna tune into a sport cause they dumb it down. The value proposition is never the dumb down, it's the sport. The sport has to stand on it's own legs.

So, I like I said, anybody who is not a casual fan is not gonna like the dumb down, and a casual fan will never watch 3 hours of bike racing. So serve your audience.

There's probably decent strategies to try to get people to become bike racing fans, dumbing down the race isn't one of them. Over the long term, it makes the sport less compelling. What are they gonna do when Lance ain't there any more and they've made him the only reason to tune in?

All fair points. I never said I agreed with their strategy. I find it mildly infuriating, I just haven't seen a point in complaining about it as that is my only choice. The last 3 years have proven to them that there is zero audience if Lance isn't riding. My guess is that they were so ecstatic about this year that they're going to try to ring every dollar out of the golden goose that they can. I would think that their cycling coverage will end within 1-2 years of him re-retiring. Then, we're back to watching crappy internet feeds.

 

[grimpeur]

Give hardcore North American viewers an option, and I don't mean the Versus crew without ads.

 

[grimpeur]

What are they gonna do when Lance ain't there any more and they've made him the only reason to tune in?

Pretty much what OLN-Versus did last time-abandoned the fans of cycling.

 

[Bala Verde]

Today I am going to compare Versus to RAI due...

first impression, 8:30 RAI due cycling - 8:00-8:39 VS pre fluff show and Lance images from Tour 2001 etc.

VS is 9-10K behind. RAI just showed them cross the Porte del Comte while VS is still at Serra Seca. Interesting, why would they do that?

 

[Anonymous]

Today I am going to compare Versus to RAI due...

first impression, 8:30 RAI due cycling - 8:00-8:39 VS pre fluff show and Lance images from Tour 2001 etc.

VS is 9-10K behind. RAI just showed them cross the Porte del Comte while VS is still at Serra Seca. Interesting, why would they do that?

So they can work up a jack-a-thon if LA takes yellow.

 

[Anonymous]

Seriously, Versus sucks the brown ring.

 

[BroDeal]

Seriously, Versus sucks the brown ring.

They seem to be intent on infuriating the most die hard fans, the same fans who will still be here after The Lance retires.

 

[Anonymous]

They seem to be intent on infuriating the most die hard fans, the same fans who will still be here after The Lance retires.

They have always shown that they couldn't care less about people who actually know something about cycling.

 

[grimpeur]

Versus has a commercial free banner on the screen sponsored by Nature Valley. What's commercial free about that? D-bags

 

[sgroll]

He's only a 7 time winner...

My guess is that if any former 7-time winner was to come back to the tour, he would be the focus of the coverage...even more so if he was in the top 5 after the first week. All of the whining about the Lance coverage is remarkable. If he was any other nationality, the story would be just as compelling. Let's just enjoy the race!

Let's bash VS. for CHARGING us in the USA for online coverage! They have a golden opportunity to expand the sport, but choose to install even more roadblocks to hinder this goal. Give it to us free online and I'll even let them insert commercials!

I've always enjoyed Phil & Paul even if they aren't always 100% on the mark and they aren't even Americans...;-) Craig Hummer and Bobke are harmless and don't really get in teh way of the program. I'm just happy that we actually have the opportunity to see the tour live everyday. Well, on the DVR when I get home from work.

Just try to enjoy the tour whichever way you choose to watch. We're quite lucky to have so many options...at least those of you OUTSIDE of us in the USA.

 

[grimpeur]

Let's bash VS. for CHARGING us in the USA for online coverage!

No, let's bash them for the sh!tty dumbed down coverage.

 

[BroDeal]

Why cannot Versus just stick with kilometers? I don't need to also know the miles.

 

[Bala Verde]

Why cannot Versus just stick with kilometers? I don't need to also know the miles.

Today's stage was even the 'equivalent of Philly-DC' or something... So that people have an impression of the the distance

 

[El Imbatido]

I live in Australia so we also have Phil and Paul. But whats irritating though is like every few minutes you here Phils voice in the background (can't really make out what he is saying) but by my guesstimation it is him to voice overs for commercial intros and exits. Can someone confirm or deny it?


Sorry if it was already asked by i ain't re-reading this whole thread?

 

[DavidT]

Jersey icons

Versus has 5 jersey icons on the ticker at the bottom of the screen to indicate where indiviuals are in the field. Lance has his own Jersey, yellow, green, polka-dot and white. Today was the first real test for the jersey icons with the field split. Unfortunately the jersey icons badly malfunctioned showing Cavendish in the Schleck group for the final climb of the Arcalis.
And as another poster mentioned, 10% of my HD screen was taken up with a Nature Valley Commercial Free banner that frequently obscured the riders.

 

[richwagmn]

They seem to be intent on infuriating the most die hard fans, the same fans who will still be here after The Lance retires.

I wanna punch my TV whenever Roll speaks. Instead I just hit the commercial skip button and voila', no more Roll.

The guy positively has wood for LA. It's embarrasing.

I subscribed to cycling.tv this year to watch the early season stuff. No idea who the commentators are, but they're heads and shoulders above Ligget/Sherwin. They even talk about the race without making things up.

 

[BroDeal]

I wanna punch my TV whenever Roll speaks. Instead I just hit the commercial skip button and voila', no more Roll.

The guy positively has wood for LA. It's embarrasing.

I subscribed to cycling.tv this year to watch the early season stuff. No idea who the commentators are, but they're heads and shoulders above Ligget/Sherwin. They even talk about the race without making things up.

I have been muting versus and listening to Eurosport audio. Only problem is that the audio is about thirty seconds behind the Versus video.

From now on I will try to find a video feed to complement the Versus video. There are so many commercials and stupid features on Versus that their is precious little actual racing. They used to reserve most of these stupid features for the expanded coverage. Grrr.