If you don't recall the full history of Universal Sports' predecessor, WCSN, it went like this. In 2005 there were no American takers on televising the World Championships, and a website popped up to allow US fans to see it. (I passed, as my cable provider carries a Canadian channel.) It was such a hit they added the remaining Golden League meets and the World Athletics Final. The next year they expanded their coverage to include more meets, and in '07 they brought on more sports. By '08 they had a TV channel and did so well that NBC bought them out.
One of the things you worry about when a bigger company buys up a smaller one is whether they will change the thing you loved. I didn't love everything about WCSN--they often promised more than they delivered--but you knew they wanted to bring you as much track as they possibly could.
I've been keeping an eye on the Universal Sports website so that I won't miss out on any indoor meets they might bring us from Europe. WCSN always loaded up on these.
Today I spied on the T&FN website a link to Universal Sports' preview of the 2009 marathon season. I checked their scheduled coverage for marathons, and they've already put down Rotterdam, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, New York, and the World Half Marathon championships. The track & field schedule? Still nothing listed. I fear there may be little to nothing coming to us from across the pond until June or later.
In case you didn't know, the real owner of Universal is NBC, who has shelled out big bucks for Olympic coverage. They don't give a rat's ass about track (you know this if you've ever seen them do a meet) and I'm sure they see the next two years of the website/cable channel as nothing more than a vehicle to drum up interest in the 2010 winter games. They, of course, could go out and spend some time and money bringing us a few European indoor meets--but I bet they wouldn't see that as a plus, rather they'd probably see it as a minus.
Showing posts with label WCSN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WCSN. Show all posts
Friday, January 16, 2009
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
We're Not Suffering Alone
Today NBC announced its new cable HD offering, our old friend Universal Sports (formerly WCSN). While celebrating the likely event that my cable provider picks it up, I suddenly had a sobering thought: All Carol Lewis, all the time.
But as Slate reminds us, track isn't alone in being saddled with complete idiots behind the microphone.
And why are we in the same boat as the national pastime?
But as Slate reminds us, track isn't alone in being saddled with complete idiots behind the microphone.
Last week, Kruk's SportsCenter segment on the Tampa Bay Rays concluded with the meaningful observation that they are "a special team that can do special things." This would all be more shocking if Kruk wasn't on a baseball broadcast, where such statements are the coin of the realm. While ESPN is the most egregious offender, the pre- and post-game shows on TBS and Fox aren't much better. TBS's cacophonously uninformative production features former pros Dennis Eckersley, Harold Reynolds, and Cal Ripken Jr. yelling excitedly at one another for a half hour, like a better-natured but equally unintelligible version of Crossfire.
And why are we in the same boat as the national pastime?
[W]ith so many fans, football shows can afford to devote screen time to relatively esoteric subjects that will appeal to the die-hards. With baseball's playoff games routinely rated lower than regular-season football, producers have obviously decided to appeal to the dreaded "casual fan."Which is, of course, self-defeating. Treat a viewer like you don't expect him to come back, and he won't let you down.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
London Marathon
SPOILER ALERT!
WCSN on-demand video will be located here.
Let's Run's live thread is here.
Or you can scroll down to see what happened.
Results
London Times story
Less Than Our Best live beer blog
In the men's race, a lead group of nine, including Ryan Hall, went through the half in 1:02:13. By 30k four of them, again including Ryan Hall, were dropped. On the drive in to the finish it was between Martin Lel, Samuel Wanjiru and Abderrahim Goumri, with Lel getting the win by nine seconds in 2:05:15, a course record. Hall was in sixth when dropped, but hung on extremely well, came back up to fifth and damn near got fourth (nipped by two seconds). His time was 2:06:17, the best fifth-place time ever and 16th on the all-time world list (and the idiots will argue is an American Record).
On the women's side, the times weren't quite as spectacular but the race was at least as interesting. Pre-race favorite Gete Wami fell hard at about 30k but made a strong recovery to get back with the leaders. She and Svetlana Zhakarova were dropped at 24 miles by Irina Mikitenko, a Kazakh-born German who was running her second marathon ever.
What do these results mean in the larger picture? If you're cheering for Ryan Hall, you'd have to say he's among the favorites for an Olympic medal but by no means the favorite to win. However, I think an Olympic race plays to his strengths. An extremely fast pace simply doesn't happen without rabbits, and his demonstrated late-race staying power is a tremendous tool for either running down a breakaway runner, or being the breakaway himself. As far as the conditions specific to Beijing (heat, humidity, pollution), I cannot say, except that the Americans have a plan.
Martin Lel has proved himself the best marathoner in the world. Yes, Gebrselassie has all those fast times. But he has run against weak to nonexistent fields, while Lel has a three-marathon winning streak in deep races, two with rabbits and one without.
This Irina Mikitenko character is towards the end of her athletic career (she will be days away from her 36th birthday at the start of the Beijing marathon) but at the beginning of her marathon career. The second fact is far more important than the first, and with that career on an upswing (debuted with second in Berlin '07, then won today) she is my favorite to win the Olympic title.
WCSN on-demand video will be located here.
Let's Run's live thread is here.
Or you can scroll down to see what happened.
Results
London Times story
Less Than Our Best live beer blog
In the men's race, a lead group of nine, including Ryan Hall, went through the half in 1:02:13. By 30k four of them, again including Ryan Hall, were dropped. On the drive in to the finish it was between Martin Lel, Samuel Wanjiru and Abderrahim Goumri, with Lel getting the win by nine seconds in 2:05:15, a course record. Hall was in sixth when dropped, but hung on extremely well, came back up to fifth and damn near got fourth (nipped by two seconds). His time was 2:06:17, the best fifth-place time ever and 16th on the all-time world list (and the idiots will argue is an American Record).
On the women's side, the times weren't quite as spectacular but the race was at least as interesting. Pre-race favorite Gete Wami fell hard at about 30k but made a strong recovery to get back with the leaders. She and Svetlana Zhakarova were dropped at 24 miles by Irina Mikitenko, a Kazakh-born German who was running her second marathon ever.
What do these results mean in the larger picture? If you're cheering for Ryan Hall, you'd have to say he's among the favorites for an Olympic medal but by no means the favorite to win. However, I think an Olympic race plays to his strengths. An extremely fast pace simply doesn't happen without rabbits, and his demonstrated late-race staying power is a tremendous tool for either running down a breakaway runner, or being the breakaway himself. As far as the conditions specific to Beijing (heat, humidity, pollution), I cannot say, except that the Americans have a plan.
Martin Lel has proved himself the best marathoner in the world. Yes, Gebrselassie has all those fast times. But he has run against weak to nonexistent fields, while Lel has a three-marathon winning streak in deep races, two with rabbits and one without.
This Irina Mikitenko character is towards the end of her athletic career (she will be days away from her 36th birthday at the start of the Beijing marathon) but at the beginning of her marathon career. The second fact is far more important than the first, and with that career on an upswing (debuted with second in Berlin '07, then won today) she is my favorite to win the Olympic title.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
World Cross Country Recap
Meet Website
Results
Runnerspace videos
AP wirestory
Let's Run live thread
Ethiopia sweeps all four individual titles, with (Kenenisa) Bekele and (Turinesh) Dibaba taking the open titles. Hardly a surprise there. The surprise was Kenya pulling off victories in both junior and senior men's races. Considering the rough patch the Rift Valley has gone through as of late, this has to be one of the most meaningful victories in the 45-year history of the nation.
My personal dark horse pick in the women's race, Gelete Burka, went out too fast and lost a medal in the last 200 meters. Bigmouth Buster Mottram not only didn't win, he didn't even beat Jorge Torres.
On the domestic front, there will be the usual amount of self-flagellation for middling American results. Save that vitriol and direct it at WCSN, who promised to show the meet to their $50-a-year subscribers but crapped out. As one T&FN board member wrote, "I hate WCSN! I feel raped. Did i mention they suck?"
Results
Runnerspace videos
AP wirestory
Let's Run live thread
Ethiopia sweeps all four individual titles, with (Kenenisa) Bekele and (Turinesh) Dibaba taking the open titles. Hardly a surprise there. The surprise was Kenya pulling off victories in both junior and senior men's races. Considering the rough patch the Rift Valley has gone through as of late, this has to be one of the most meaningful victories in the 45-year history of the nation.
My personal dark horse pick in the women's race, Gelete Burka, went out too fast and lost a medal in the last 200 meters. Bigmouth Buster Mottram not only didn't win, he didn't even beat Jorge Torres.
On the domestic front, there will be the usual amount of self-flagellation for middling American results. Save that vitriol and direct it at WCSN, who promised to show the meet to their $50-a-year subscribers but crapped out. As one T&FN board member wrote, "I hate WCSN! I feel raped. Did i mention they suck?"
Saturday, February 16, 2008
A Disturbing Trend
I couldn't wait two days to find out what happened at the Tyson Invitational and peeked online. This will make tomorrow's TV viewing somewhat less interesting.
Come to think of it, there hasn't been any live coverage this year save one hour of the Millrose Games. The USATF Indoor Championships will be live, and probably the Penn Relays as well. But I don't expect any other live broadcasts apart from the Olympic Trials and the Olympic Games. Maybe the Prefontaine Classic if we're lucky.
But there's an even worse trend as of this year. Really, the best invitational meets and international championships were never on US TV anyway. A couple of years ago WCSN came online to fill that hole and they did a pretty darn good job. This year's promised meet coverage is as long as your arm.
In the past, most if not all of these meets were streamed live. Not this year, at least through the indoor season. Today's Birmingham (UK) meet is a prime example--the meet is already over, but won't be available to view until tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. EST.
And then there's the question of whether it will be on at all. The Valencia meet never did get shown, and six days later the "Stay tuned for on-demand video" sign is still there. Wednesday's Athens meet is still waiting to be put online as well.
I understand that WCSN is a small-time operation and might not be able to do a lot. But the surest way to ruin a reputation is to make promises you can't keep. So far this year they've shown no reason why a fan should part with their hard-earned dollars. And once you've broken promises...well, why would anyone believe they really will get to see the World Indoor or World XC championships?
Full disclosure: WCSN approached me with an offer of a complimentary 2008 subscription and I wasn't about to turn it down. As you can see, this does not affect my willingness to speak my mind.
Come to think of it, there hasn't been any live coverage this year save one hour of the Millrose Games. The USATF Indoor Championships will be live, and probably the Penn Relays as well. But I don't expect any other live broadcasts apart from the Olympic Trials and the Olympic Games. Maybe the Prefontaine Classic if we're lucky.
But there's an even worse trend as of this year. Really, the best invitational meets and international championships were never on US TV anyway. A couple of years ago WCSN came online to fill that hole and they did a pretty darn good job. This year's promised meet coverage is as long as your arm.
In the past, most if not all of these meets were streamed live. Not this year, at least through the indoor season. Today's Birmingham (UK) meet is a prime example--the meet is already over, but won't be available to view until tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. EST.
And then there's the question of whether it will be on at all. The Valencia meet never did get shown, and six days later the "Stay tuned for on-demand video" sign is still there. Wednesday's Athens meet is still waiting to be put online as well.
I understand that WCSN is a small-time operation and might not be able to do a lot. But the surest way to ruin a reputation is to make promises you can't keep. So far this year they've shown no reason why a fan should part with their hard-earned dollars. And once you've broken promises...well, why would anyone believe they really will get to see the World Indoor or World XC championships?
Full disclosure: WCSN approached me with an offer of a complimentary 2008 subscription and I wasn't about to turn it down. As you can see, this does not affect my willingness to speak my mind.
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Day 8 Summary
Startlists/results
IAAF live blog
IAAF Review
USATF Recap
USA Today notebook
My cross-country team's meet today is a local one and in the afternoon, so when I woke up early I decided to actually use the WCSN account I've already paid for.
The only morning-session events were the 50k walk, semis of the women's 4x100, and the decathlon.
In the first event (results - report - story - discuss), favorite Denis Nizhegorodov and WR holder Nathan Deakes were co-leaders at halfway. Deakes pulled away over the second half for a convincing win while Nizhegorodov faded to fourth.
In the women's relay (results - report - discuss), your three fastest qualifiers were the USA, Jamaica and the UK. My fantasy league pick, France, didn't make it to the final. Rats!
In the decathlon (results - discuss) Jamaica's Maurice Smith led after the first day over Dmitri Karpov. T&FN's premeet formchart had him for seventh, so even though two top athletes have dropped out injured it's still a bit of an unexpected development. Smith won both the hurdles and the discus to extend his lead. Karpov set a PR in the pole vault and regained 61 points on Smith but the Jamaican still leads by 121.
Now I'm watching the live feed, which is a bit more like actually being in the stadium. That means there are dead spots but you still have to take the effort to pay attention, and there are a whole lot of medals ceremonies. Speaking of which, is it weird that that I stopped, listened, and had a great feeling of pride welling up in me when I heard the national anthem...of Canada? I'm not Canadian, I'm an American. I've always lived close to the border and watched/listened to Canadian TV/radio. If I had to describe my heritage, I'd have to call myself "Canadian-American" although it's many generations back. Why do I take pride in a nation with which I have little real connection? It's just one of those strange things, I guess.
During any pole vault or high jump competition, it's hard for me to see the importance of any individual attempt unless I keep the chart. When I went to Edmonton's Worlds, I took a notebook to the stadium specifically to do just that, and everyone in the stands around me wanted to see it when the competitions approached their climaxes. I'm keeping the chart for the men's pole vault right now. The IAAF's screen graphics only give us each individual athlete's progression, but never puts several of them together. This is a simple graphic that could make viewing the event so much more meaningful. Why don't we ever get it?
The first group of the decathlon javelin is now done. This is not a strong event for Karpov, and his first two throws really stunk. On his third attempt he got out a good (for him) throw, just half a meter off his career best. Smith is a wildly inconsistent javelin thrower while Sebrle is quite good. Karpov is likely to fall back to third after this event is over; the gold will almost certainly be decided here.
UPDATE: Sebrle just threw a new personal record in the jav and took the overall lead.
UPDATE 2: Smith cannot catch Sebrle in the 1500m. It's over. Believe it or not, this will be super-vet Sebrle's first world championship.
Women's 5k (results - report - discuss) just completed. Prohibitive favorite Meseret Defar won as expected, with three Kenyans in her wake. Shalane Flanagan was seventh for most of the last lap, then Rhines just nipped her at the finish. Most observers would say Flanagan just doesn't have the wheels to stay with the Ethiopians/Kenyans when the real kick comes, and that's probably true. I saw another problem, though. A few years back someone did a detailed computer video analysis of Olympic distance races and found that the winners were almost always the athletes who ran the shortest distance--in other words, the ones who stayed on the rail as much as possible. Defar spent most of the race today in second place, right on the rail. Now, that's easier said than done; if you're just struggling to keep up you can't always choose where you go. Flanagan, who had no trouble keeping up, spent the first eight laps in the outside of lane 1 and sometimes in lane 2. This doesn't sound like much extra running, but take a one-turn stagger, multiply it by eight, and that's how much further she ran than Rhines did. No wonder Flanagan couldn't hold her off.
Men's pole vault (results - discuss) went to favorite Brad Walker. I thought he'd been a bit inconsistent, but if he was on he couldn't be beat. Well he was on today.
All the sprints so far have been USA vs Jamaica. The sprint relays were the same again, with USA first and Jamaica second in both.
Men's results - report - discussion
Women's results - report - discussion
IAAF live blog
IAAF Review
USATF Recap
USA Today notebook
My cross-country team's meet today is a local one and in the afternoon, so when I woke up early I decided to actually use the WCSN account I've already paid for.
The only morning-session events were the 50k walk, semis of the women's 4x100, and the decathlon.
In the first event (results - report - story - discuss), favorite Denis Nizhegorodov and WR holder Nathan Deakes were co-leaders at halfway. Deakes pulled away over the second half for a convincing win while Nizhegorodov faded to fourth.
In the women's relay (results - report - discuss), your three fastest qualifiers were the USA, Jamaica and the UK. My fantasy league pick, France, didn't make it to the final. Rats!
In the decathlon (results - discuss) Jamaica's Maurice Smith led after the first day over Dmitri Karpov. T&FN's premeet formchart had him for seventh, so even though two top athletes have dropped out injured it's still a bit of an unexpected development. Smith won both the hurdles and the discus to extend his lead. Karpov set a PR in the pole vault and regained 61 points on Smith but the Jamaican still leads by 121.
Now I'm watching the live feed, which is a bit more like actually being in the stadium. That means there are dead spots but you still have to take the effort to pay attention, and there are a whole lot of medals ceremonies. Speaking of which, is it weird that that I stopped, listened, and had a great feeling of pride welling up in me when I heard the national anthem...of Canada? I'm not Canadian, I'm an American. I've always lived close to the border and watched/listened to Canadian TV/radio. If I had to describe my heritage, I'd have to call myself "Canadian-American" although it's many generations back. Why do I take pride in a nation with which I have little real connection? It's just one of those strange things, I guess.
During any pole vault or high jump competition, it's hard for me to see the importance of any individual attempt unless I keep the chart. When I went to Edmonton's Worlds, I took a notebook to the stadium specifically to do just that, and everyone in the stands around me wanted to see it when the competitions approached their climaxes. I'm keeping the chart for the men's pole vault right now. The IAAF's screen graphics only give us each individual athlete's progression, but never puts several of them together. This is a simple graphic that could make viewing the event so much more meaningful. Why don't we ever get it?
The first group of the decathlon javelin is now done. This is not a strong event for Karpov, and his first two throws really stunk. On his third attempt he got out a good (for him) throw, just half a meter off his career best. Smith is a wildly inconsistent javelin thrower while Sebrle is quite good. Karpov is likely to fall back to third after this event is over; the gold will almost certainly be decided here.
UPDATE: Sebrle just threw a new personal record in the jav and took the overall lead.
UPDATE 2: Smith cannot catch Sebrle in the 1500m. It's over. Believe it or not, this will be super-vet Sebrle's first world championship.
Women's 5k (results - report - discuss) just completed. Prohibitive favorite Meseret Defar won as expected, with three Kenyans in her wake. Shalane Flanagan was seventh for most of the last lap, then Rhines just nipped her at the finish. Most observers would say Flanagan just doesn't have the wheels to stay with the Ethiopians/Kenyans when the real kick comes, and that's probably true. I saw another problem, though. A few years back someone did a detailed computer video analysis of Olympic distance races and found that the winners were almost always the athletes who ran the shortest distance--in other words, the ones who stayed on the rail as much as possible. Defar spent most of the race today in second place, right on the rail. Now, that's easier said than done; if you're just struggling to keep up you can't always choose where you go. Flanagan, who had no trouble keeping up, spent the first eight laps in the outside of lane 1 and sometimes in lane 2. This doesn't sound like much extra running, but take a one-turn stagger, multiply it by eight, and that's how much further she ran than Rhines did. No wonder Flanagan couldn't hold her off.
Men's pole vault (results - discuss) went to favorite Brad Walker. I thought he'd been a bit inconsistent, but if he was on he couldn't be beat. Well he was on today.
All the sprints so far have been USA vs Jamaica. The sprint relays were the same again, with USA first and Jamaica second in both.
Men's results - report - discussion
Women's results - report - discussion
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
WCSN info
Are you a WCSN fan? (And if you're not, and reading this blog, why the heck not?) I think it's awesome that I can get ALL the major track action via the internet.
Over at the Track & Field News message board, a young intern from the company has been giving us some inside info. Most exciting is their plans for a 24-hour TV channel! You can see a sample TV schedule for this week here--they are already broadcasting via satellite, but do not yet have any distribution deals with cable or satellite TV companies. But I don't think it's crazy to hope they'll have one by summer.
Over at the Track & Field News message board, a young intern from the company has been giving us some inside info. Most exciting is their plans for a 24-hour TV channel! You can see a sample TV schedule for this week here--they are already broadcasting via satellite, but do not yet have any distribution deals with cable or satellite TV companies. But I don't think it's crazy to hope they'll have one by summer.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
WCSN
I just signed up for the WCSN athletics season pass. All I can say is "wow". The Superfan just got super-er.
A heads-up for those not in the know: last year the World Championships Sports Network was launched in order to bring the IAAF World Championships in Athletics to American viewers, as it was not going to be broadcast on any widely available US television channel. Since then it has morphed into a site offering pretty much the entire elite overseas season in a multitude of sports. For a measly $50 I got the Athletics Season Pass, which provides me with the entirety of their track and field coverage, 29 meets in all.
The video is whatever "host feed" the event provided, usually with BBC announcers. The picture quality is not great, but that's my only complaint. For comparison's sake, it cost me just over $50 to get into the USATF meet for its final two days, whereas WCSN's coverage will total well in excess of two days. And by that I mean there's more than 48 hours of video!
A popular "what-if" game is wondering what an all-track-and-field cable channel would look like. This is the closest thing we'll ever get and that's fine with me. The internet is the future of cable television.
A heads-up for those not in the know: last year the World Championships Sports Network was launched in order to bring the IAAF World Championships in Athletics to American viewers, as it was not going to be broadcast on any widely available US television channel. Since then it has morphed into a site offering pretty much the entire elite overseas season in a multitude of sports. For a measly $50 I got the Athletics Season Pass, which provides me with the entirety of their track and field coverage, 29 meets in all.
The video is whatever "host feed" the event provided, usually with BBC announcers. The picture quality is not great, but that's my only complaint. For comparison's sake, it cost me just over $50 to get into the USATF meet for its final two days, whereas WCSN's coverage will total well in excess of two days. And by that I mean there's more than 48 hours of video!
A popular "what-if" game is wondering what an all-track-and-field cable channel would look like. This is the closest thing we'll ever get and that's fine with me. The internet is the future of cable television.
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