There is live snooker scheduled this weekend, ahead of a lot of the "scheduled" live figure skating coverage.
Those who live in the UK will know what that means. But for everyone else:
The scheduled amount of time for the live snooker is about 1.5 hours each day.
That's a bad joke, because in snooker, nothing happens in just 1.5 hours:
A match will be in two sessions. Each session is 8 games (for it is a game, not a sport).
Each game consists mostly of contemplation, strolling around the table, peeping at balls from all angles, chalking cues, and "safety" shots. Eventually, one player will make a mistake on a safety shot, allowing the other to pot a ball - or several if we are lucky (But we are rarely lucky). Each game therefore takes an age, and there will also be a 15 minute break after 4 games.
Scheduling just 1.5 hours for a session of live snooker is an insult to our intelligence. Because we all know by now, that it will overrun by several hours - steamrolling all other coverage that was scheduled after it.
And they like to schedule skating right after the live snooker, presumably because they think nobody will mind - why else would they repeat the same 30 minute "ski pass" program 5 times or more last weekend (while only scheduling 15 minutes for each showing)... when they could have been showing more of Skate Canada than they did?
I imagine a fair proportion of their viewing figures for snooker, are in fact skating fans who are screaming obsenities at their TVs. Their best ever, was a live snooker match on Eurosport2 last year, overunning and crushing all other scheduled programs as usual (ie. skating). The match ended but they continued to broadcast basically nothing.... random people milling about... while they waited for the award ceremony. (I note they rarely show medal cermonies for skating!). Meanwhile, over on Eurosport1 they were showing the exact same snooker match, time-shifted by about an hour - steamrolling other scheduled programming on that channel as well! All this for a game that is so "big", its major international championships are held in a corner of a school gymnasium
So yeah. This is the kind of thing we have in store for our live coverage of Cup of China this weekend, on British Eurosport. Once again, we will likely only see highlights rather than live coverage - and these will only be the top three scorers from each discipline. We will be denied all other performances, along with great swathes of the often-priceless commentary from the Simon Reed Gang.
Even better, Eurosport loves to change the schedules constantly, sometimes just seconds before a program starts. If you are not constantly keeping an eye on Eurosport all day, every day... you may miss what coverage they eventually do show. And setting your recorder is largely futile.
BAH!
Even some of our skating highlights are at risk, due to live tennis. Eurosport typically only schedules enough time for a straight-sets dominating winner. It therefore frequently overruns... and because everything from "pub darts" to "provincial cow-pat tossing" takes precedance over skating on British Eurosport... any skating coverage that was scheduled after it, will be cancelled.
I note they didn't even show the gala from Skate America, even though it seems that Eurosport viewers in Russia got that.
Those who live in the UK will know what that means. But for everyone else:
The scheduled amount of time for the live snooker is about 1.5 hours each day.
That's a bad joke, because in snooker, nothing happens in just 1.5 hours:
A match will be in two sessions. Each session is 8 games (for it is a game, not a sport).
Each game consists mostly of contemplation, strolling around the table, peeping at balls from all angles, chalking cues, and "safety" shots. Eventually, one player will make a mistake on a safety shot, allowing the other to pot a ball - or several if we are lucky (But we are rarely lucky). Each game therefore takes an age, and there will also be a 15 minute break after 4 games.
Scheduling just 1.5 hours for a session of live snooker is an insult to our intelligence. Because we all know by now, that it will overrun by several hours - steamrolling all other coverage that was scheduled after it.
And they like to schedule skating right after the live snooker, presumably because they think nobody will mind - why else would they repeat the same 30 minute "ski pass" program 5 times or more last weekend (while only scheduling 15 minutes for each showing)... when they could have been showing more of Skate Canada than they did?
I imagine a fair proportion of their viewing figures for snooker, are in fact skating fans who are screaming obsenities at their TVs. Their best ever, was a live snooker match on Eurosport2 last year, overunning and crushing all other scheduled programs as usual (ie. skating). The match ended but they continued to broadcast basically nothing.... random people milling about... while they waited for the award ceremony. (I note they rarely show medal cermonies for skating!). Meanwhile, over on Eurosport1 they were showing the exact same snooker match, time-shifted by about an hour - steamrolling other scheduled programming on that channel as well! All this for a game that is so "big", its major international championships are held in a corner of a school gymnasium
So yeah. This is the kind of thing we have in store for our live coverage of Cup of China this weekend, on British Eurosport. Once again, we will likely only see highlights rather than live coverage - and these will only be the top three scorers from each discipline. We will be denied all other performances, along with great swathes of the often-priceless commentary from the Simon Reed Gang.
Even better, Eurosport loves to change the schedules constantly, sometimes just seconds before a program starts. If you are not constantly keeping an eye on Eurosport all day, every day... you may miss what coverage they eventually do show. And setting your recorder is largely futile.
BAH!
Even some of our skating highlights are at risk, due to live tennis. Eurosport typically only schedules enough time for a straight-sets dominating winner. It therefore frequently overruns... and because everything from "pub darts" to "provincial cow-pat tossing" takes precedance over skating on British Eurosport... any skating coverage that was scheduled after it, will be cancelled.
I note they didn't even show the gala from Skate America, even though it seems that Eurosport viewers in Russia got that.