America's Cup coverage

[fjweaver]

Don't know about others but I'm finding the coverage on BT sports tv pretty poor (all started off by Robbie Savage [ffs!!] being sent out to interview Ben Ainslie ......)

I accept there may be limitations on the live feed provided by the AC committee - but apart from the odd 20 second interview on the water with the winning skipper there's a big lack of info. There's no coverage of any press conferences, pre-race info, walking around the 'pits' - even what work was done on the BAR overnight after the collision.

It's annoying that you have to pay extra for these things but can't help feeling that Sky sports would have done it a lot better.

(and if we were winning I may be less grumpy and be thinking more kindly.... ! )

 

[Resolution]

Given that we are a small minority audience sport, airtime is bound to be limited. Would you rather that time was spent watching actual races or chatting to competitors? Who will be as informative as a porcupine in a pickle.

 

[thecommander]

Are we watching the same thing cause the commentary is excellent and the visuals are stunning! The Olympics should take note!

 

[blenkinsop]

It did not seem to be well publicized that coveragefor the first phase is available on the BT Freeview channel 115 at 1800 each day.

 

[fjweaver]

I wasn't particularly commenting on the actual race feed - I think that's fine. But yes I would like to see more comment from competitors/teams and their explanations on why they do things a certain way, difficulty with foiling/tactics/behind the scenes etc. And they probably do know bit more about it than a porcupine !

 

[flaming]

I wasn't particularly commenting on the actual race feed - I think that's fine. But yes I would like to see more comment from competitors/teams and their explanations on why they do things a certain way, difficulty with foiling/tactics/behind the scenes etc. And they probably do know bit more about it than a porcupine !

To be honest, with any equipment sport the mainstream media are not the place to go for in depth analysis of what's going on. And with a fairly niche sport they are also not the place to go for the in depth interviews.
With the Cup, there are a number of places who are putting out that sort of info, and I hate to say this but you'll probably need to engage with some sort of social media to get the best of it. BAR put out their own pre and post race "inside track" pieces, which are pretty good if obviously a little slanted.
This girl though is great! https://www.facebook.com/sailorgirlHQ/?hc_ref=SEARCH
She has a track history of getting the interviews, and not dodging the questions. Plus she's a very good sailor in her own right, so the sailors have a lot of time for her and I think open up in a way that they don't to mainstream media.

And then you could head over to the bear pit that is sailing Anarchy, but take everything you read there with a massive bucketload of salt...

 

[fjweaver]

Thanks Flaming - will look at it later when I can turn the sound on!

 

[Sandy]

I heard it on good authority that the races are so short in order tha they can be "squeezed between the adverts"! It is a strange world.

 

[st599]

I heard it on good authority that the races are so short in order tha they can be "squeezed between the adverts"! It is a strange world.

The guy who they brought on board to do the broadcasting make over said at a technical conference that some US stations were asking for a TV time out like they have in NFL.

 

[FistralG]

It did not seem to be well publicized that coveragefor the first phase is available on the BT Freeview channel 115 at 1800 each day.

Unfortunately not all transmitters broadcast channel 115...ours doesn't!

 

[FistralG]

There's a lot of analysis and in depth interviews on the Facebook pages for BAR https://www.facebook.com/LandRoverBAR/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED&fref=nf and Americas Cup https://www.facebook.com/americascup/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED

 

[PeterR]

Unfortunately not all transmitters broadcast channel 115...ours doesn't!

Neither does ours. It used to be on 59 but that just says it has moved to 115 which does not exist in our region - neither does BBC4 HD.

 

[agurney]

deleted

 

[Woodlouse]

I heard it on good authority that the races are so short in order tha they can be "squeezed between the adverts"! It is a strange world.

Pffft. They stick the adverts in during the early prestart and the first upwind leg for the US tv.

God knows how they managed to make such a mess of the TV rights this time after doing it right for the first time ever in San Francisco.