VCR Alert

[IDLERACER]

Tomorrow (October 28th), Skate America (Women's Competition) will be on NBC from 4:00-600 PM if you live on the east coast and from 1:00-3:00 PM if you live on the west coast. :thumbsup: Those of you who are landlocked, check your local listings. ​

 

[Tonichelle]

noon to 2 if you're in Alaska (oh wait, I think that's just me lol)

 

[astimegoesby]

BTW, NBC is broadcasting this live so those of you who live in between the west and east coasts can just do the math.

 

[Tonichelle]

.... are you sure it's live for west coast? it doesn't say that on my TV (satellite)

 

[Mathman]

According to the schedule on the ISU site, the free dance starts at 2:00 PM Eeastern time, and the ladies free skate starts at 3:45 EST, which is 11:45 AM Alaska time. So I assume that they will show some of the dancing, men's and pairs on tape in the first hour of coverage, then the last flight of ladies live in the second hour.

 

[heyang]

Don't forget to check your VCR's in the morning!!! Many will think that it's time to set the time back by an hour and you'll miss some of the broadcast if you're relying on your VCR!

Tivo Users should be ok since a software patch was sent out last Spring when the changed dates went into effect.

 

[ladybug]

I wonder why it is only going to be televised for two hours. Skate Canada will be two and a half hours and all the others will be three and a half.

Seems like they are going to cram a lot into two hours or we are going to miss an awful lot of ice skating.

Ladybug

 

[Mathman]

The trade-off is that the Skate America coverage will be live (at least for the ladies finale), while the ESPN coverage of the other Grand Prix events will be shown a week after the fact.

I believe that this (live coverage) was part of the deal negotiated between USFS and NBC. Both parties wanted "to make figure skating more like a real sport" by giving the viewers the whole thrill of victory, agony of defeat thing.

Actually, I very much like the NBC approach. Last year I never bothered to watch the events on ESPN, because I already knew who won.

The downside is that we won't see much of men's, dance, and pairs, or of the short programs. (I bet they will try to trick the audience into believing that the free dance is being show live, instead of with an hour delay, LOL.)

 

[Dee4707]

Is todays coverage all we will see for Skate America??

Dee

 

[Tonichelle]

Dee- I think so...

hey! one thing about NBC's broadcast - no fluff!

 

[Grgranny]

Don't forget to check your VCR's in the morning!!! Many will think that it's time to set the time back by an hour and you'll miss some of the broadcast if you're relying on your VCR!

Tivo Users should be ok since a software patch was sent out last Spring when the changed dates went into effect.

I thought it was next week!

 

[Tonichelle]

Granny - it is, that's why heyang was saying the check VCRs, some older models will be confused as it's normally the last Sunday of Oct. that it changes over... (See the thread on time change in Le Cafe)

 

[feraina]

hey! one thing about NBC's broadcast - no fluff!

Yesterday's coverage was great! Not even that many commercials, especially toward the end (best part!), 'cause they had such a tight timetable. I could get used to this. I hope they cover more competitions like this, though at least a recap of pairs and ice dance would be very welcome!

 

[maggylyn]

Very much liked the absence of fluff but it's so disappointing to get a weekend's worth of competitive events crammed into just two hours.

Is this how all the GP events will be broadcast here in the US? No SP's? Not even a mention of Dance and Pairs?

 

[feraina]

No SP's? Not even a mention of Dance and Pairs?

I found it interesting that Takahashi's SP was the only one that was shown (even though after showing it, they had to admit that the gap was too big to make up *yawn*). Instead of, say, Kimmie's, which won the SP by a relatively small margin, and helped to propel her to a win.

I think it may be because they want to show the TV viewers that skating can be fun and exciting too.

 

[Mathman]

Is this how all the GP events will be broadcast here in the US? No SP's? Not even a mention of Dance and Pairs?

Only Skate America will be broadcast live like this. Skate America was part of the deal between USFS and NBC to try to work up interest in the U.S. leading up to the Olympics (also to be covered by NBC).

The old contract with ABC/ESPN included more hours of coverage and was spread out to include more short programs, pairs, and dance. But it was broadcast 1 to 2 weeks or more after the event, sometimes at strange hours of the night, and only on ESPN which not all viewers subscribe to.

This old ABC/ESPN contract is still in force for this year, for the other Grand Prix events, and also for Worlds. The ABC contract expires after ths year, so no one knows what will happen then. I would guess that NBC will try to pick up 2009 Worlds in Los Angeles, but will probably not be interested in the GP events outside the U.S.

BTW, the fact there there was not a peep out of the NBC announcers about the results of dance and pairs (until the very last minute of the broadcast, when there was the faintest of peeps about who won gold) -- this leads me to guess that NBC might be planning to sell some of their footage to another network, like Family, to be shown later on.

Does anyone know what the ratings were for Skate America? The lead-in here was a hot-rod pick-up truck race, which ought to have boosted ratings for all the people who were looking for something to watch besides NFL football. hwell:

 

[R.D.]

I think SA really is a secondary to what will be the big thing for NBC- the US Nationals. I would expect much more thorough coverage of that as well as more advertising. SA, really, was just some counterprogramming to football, something else to watch, and you could sense it in the way they covered it. Still, much preferred to ABC...the inclusion of HD coverage (and LIVE coverage) definitely cannot be overlooked.

 

[Tonichelle]

while Live is all well and good... and there weren't five million fluff pieces... that they ignored two portions of the event is just... wrong...

and I'm so sick of the NBC US bias...

 

[R.D.]

well, you pick and choose your thorns I suppose. No network is going to have perfect coverage...people will always find SOMETHING wrong with the coverage and pick it apart (in other words, the "perfect" broadcast to suit one individual is NOT the same as the "perfect" broadcast to suit another). I remember folks *****ing and moaning about ABC's coverage when they had the GP series. Oh, so-and-so was chacked, this fluff piece was pointless, blah blah. You're just not going to please everyone. So I expect the same thing to happen for NBC's coverage (and any other network that may do coverage in the future).

As for American bias, well, I expect some of that out of an AMERICAN TV network lol.

 

[Tonichelle]

it's understandable to have some American bias, I'm not knocking that... but the underhanded bias that NBC is known for annoys me to no end.

Miki makes a mistake and it's bad and unforgivable... Evan/Kimmie make same or bigger mistake and it's chalked up to the 'beggining of the season'. Apparently Japanese ladies are so much better than Americans or something that we get a pass to screw up for a while...

oh well at least they're not screaming like it's the end of the world when someone screws up ala Dick Button.

And yes NBC's coverage did have it's positive notes... especially the fact that they left off the fluff pieces (though I do like them, ABC over used them...)