Comments on how to improve NBC's coverage.

[GF2445]

i would love them to broadcast maybe top3 pair's SP and top 5 ice dance SD.
Additionally, maybe the last 2 ice dance groups for the free dance.

 

[noskates]

Lest you forget.....Dick Button was the biggest downer ever to broadcast. A skater would fall or mess up and that would be over in his mind. He was VERY critical of just about everything and was still maintaining that a beautiful spiral was better than a triple. At least Johnny and Tara explain why someone fell or talk about their transitions and edges. Every commentator has said "so and so needs (fill in the blank)" That is not new to Tara and Johnny. I think everyone is being unduly harsh on these two given who we've had to deal with in the past. Peter Carruthers. OMG. Awful. And as far as telegraphing - boy howdy, if you can't see that happening then I don't know what you're watching. Polina is better this year but she covers half the rink setting up a jump. That disrupts the program for me.

And count me as one who will stop watching figure skating if the only way I can see it is on a computer screen. And that's saying a lot since I've been watching it since many of you were even born!

 

[russianbratz]

Really? You want to pay to see it on a computer screen? (Unless ice has a Roku app) Because I know I don't. I enjoyed the coverage immensely, especially the live parts where you got a sense of the competition. I won't pay for Ice Network.

I do hope Terry or someone told Tanith not to step on the good stuff because while I like her, she talked over the best part of the Shibs free dance.

I wish we'd gotten some on Universal HD.

I would rather access the competition without going through my cable provider, get the entire competition live, including scoring and performances of "less important skaters," than watch commercial breaks and put up with patronizing commentary that dumbs down the experience.

 

[sheskates]

I think that they need to comment more as to why skaters are receiving the scores they did, areas where they gain or lose a lot of points. There was little mention of both Chen and Bell zayaking. I saw zero points on the score tracking and figured it out, but the only mention was when Bell's scores came up and it was brushed over.

 

[Culturevulture73]

I would rather access the competition without going through my cable provider, get the entire competition live, including scoring and performances of "less important skaters," than watch commercial breaks and put up with patronizing commentary that dumbs down the experience.

To each his/her own. I don't find the commentary patronizing and I don't want to pay extra to watch on my computer (on top of my huge cable bill - I swear if Bernie Sanders was running on breaking up Big Cable, he would win in a walk). But that's me.

Also I read lots of tweets complaining about the lousy signal.

 

[merrywidow]

For those of you who receive UHD channel 569 (formerly Universal Sports) the Ladies US Nationals are being broadcast right now. Began at 1 pm MST & will continue until 4 pm. MST. There will be more on tomorrow afternoon.

 

[sc8]

Well, Max doesn't really generate speed from the edge so not that high in skating skills.

I think his years of hockey playing are part of the problem as the hockey blade doesn't have the blade edge...it is also likely to blame for his rounded shoulders and back pumping that are used to generate his speed. It's surprising to me that he gets the scores he does for skating skills, so I assume it's his speed because he lacks so much in the components in general. He doesn't have the refinement necessary to be at the very elite level, in my opinion, so I hope Jason and Josh come back strong next season. I predict it will be the last worlds for Max and for Adam as I see a healthy Nathan, Josh, and Jason becoming the US elite men in the run up to the Olympics.

 

[gammarae]

I had trouble too with the yellow/white contrast. Like the scoring thing, but the dots just didn't change enough. Count this fan as hoping for orange next time.

 

[heyang]

While ' needing a clean skate' is a given in a tight competition, Tara et al could've mentioned that Gracie has seldom skated 2 clean performances in a competition and she needs to prove that she's a fighter and consistent.

So, yes, for die hard skating fans, the commentating can seem overdone, but it's not there for you, it's there for the casual fans who don't know much about the sport.
There's so much emphasis on the jumps, I wish they would comment more upon the spins and other in-betweens when they are showing segments while waiting for the scores to highlight their importance. While 'jumps' make skating a sport, it's pretty boring to watch basic skating between jump passes.

Note: while watching the exhibitions, I did get annoyed by Tara speaking during a replay of the Shibutani's free dance. During replays post competition or exhibitions, it's just time to sit and enjoy - not talk.

 

[heyang]

NBC seemed to do ok, and looks like Johnny and Tara are bringing in some younger viewers--still not huge numbers, but at least some improvement

"NBC Sports’ primetime coverage of the “U.S. Figure Skating Championships” (0.6/2 in 18-49, 3.7 million viewers overall from 8-11 p.m. ET) increased by +20% or 0.1 of a point versus the year-ago coverage in 18-49 (0.6 vs. 0.5) and was up +11% in total viewers (3.701 million vs. 3.334 million). These are the top “U.S. Figure Skating Championship” primetime ratings in a non-Winter Olympic year since 2012 (0.6/2 in 18-49, 3.711 million viewers overall). In 18-49, the 0.6 equals the event’s highest rating in a non-Olympic year since 2009 (0.8/2)." (https://www.nbcumv.com/news/nbc-results-primetime-ratings-week-jan-18-24)

Part of the ratings bump might have been related to the blizzard in the NJ/NY/PA area. People who might've been away from home on a Saturday afternoon and night were stuck at home searching for something to do. Many of my co-workers are very casual viewers - mostly watching only during the Olympics. Many of them watched the evening broadcast because they were stuck at home and there wasn't anything else of interest to them on air.

 

[Raomina]

There's so much emphasis on the jumps, I wish they would comment more upon the spins and other in-betweens when they are showing segments while waiting for the scores to highlight their importance. While 'jumps' make skating a sport, it's pretty boring to watch basic skating between jump passes.

That seems to be true for many English language commentators for some reason. They only say what jumps are coming up/done and how well it was performed but mention nothing about the spins and step sequences. As a casual follower, it took me a while to notice the change of edge in the camel spin, for example, because it just looked like they become wobblier for no reason. They don't differentiate between skaters with better spins by talking about speed, flexibility and positions etc., and it feels like everything else are just in-betweens for jumps. This then overemphasizes the jumps over any other element.

Watching commentaries from other languages like the Chinese one (ELTA), they actually mention the change of edge, levels in spins and step sequences and why they should be those levels by mentioning the features like change of positions and body movement and that that gives more points. It's layman and very clear.

The results would probably be clearer to the viewers if the positives of the other elements were emphasized more.

Note: while watching the exhibitions, I did get annoyed by Tara speaking during a replay of the Shibutani's free dance. During replays post competition or exhibitions, it's just time to sit and enjoy - not talk.

And yea Tara and Terry for NBC in particular always seem to talk over the quieter parts of the skate where it could be more emotional and where you can feel the tension from the skater. It's like step sequence and spins = time to talk about the history of the skater! That makes those elements seem even more like fillers. Why not do it before the skate or after? It really takes away from the skate when they chitchat during it.

 

[NaVi]

I feel like they do a little bit better job knowing when to talk and not to talk when they're doing live commentary rather than prerecorded.

 

[Matilda]

While ' needing a clean skate' is a given in a tight competition, Tara et al could've mentioned that Gracie has seldom skated 2 clean performances in a competition and she needs to prove that she's a fighter and consistent.

So, yes, for die hard skating fans, the commentating can seem overdone, but it's not there for you, it's there for the casual fans who don't know much about the sport.
There's so much emphasis on the jumps, I wish they would comment more upon the spins and other in-betweens when they are showing segments while waiting for the scores to highlight their importance. While 'jumps' make skating a sport, it's pretty boring to watch basic skating between jump passes.

Note: while watching the exhibitions, I did get annoyed by Tara speaking during a replay of the Shibutani's free dance. During replays post competition or exhibitions, it's just time to sit and enjoy - not talk.

I agree that Tara and Terry sometimes talk at inappropriate times. Both of them generally talk a lot more during the skates than Johnny, who is usually the one who provides technical info about levels, GOE, or how a skater has improved from a previous season (ex. his explanation of Tarah Kayne's raised arm adding difficulty to the lift in an effort to reach level 4, and the improvements in Danny's skating). Sometimes he provides analysis during the program, sometimes during the replays. Johnny seems to be particularly quiet during exceptionally good skates, which suggests to me that he is more sensitive to letting the audience enjoy the skate. The team's job is to provide commentary, however, so they cannot be as quiet as we sometimes wish they'd be during a skate.

 

[Matilda]

Part of the ratings bump might have been related to the blizzard in the NJ/NY/PA area. People who might've been away from home on a Saturday afternoon and night were stuck at home searching for something to do. Many of my co-workers are very casual viewers - mostly watching only during the Olympics. Many of them watched the evening broadcast because they were stuck at home and there wasn't anything else of interest to them on air.

I'm not so sure about that, as in many places NBC chose to scrap the entire broadcast to talk about weather instead. Many of my friends very really frustrated about that.

 

[ice coverage]

... Note: while watching the exhibitions, I did get annoyed by Tara speaking during a replay of the Shibutani's free dance. During replays post competition or exhibitions, it's just time to sit and enjoy - not talk.

Huh? AFAIK, the free programs with the real-time commentary from the competition were replayed during the NBC gala telecast.

It's not as if Tara were at the gala watching a commentary-free replay of the FD and adding commentary then.

In fact, it was Tanith who gave the original real-time commentary of the FD.

And it was Tanith whose voice was heard during the FD replay during the gala telecast.

 

[NaVi]

They're currently showing Kovtun's LP... I actually like Kovtun, but I think they could just show highlights of this and then show something from Trankov/Voloszhar or Cizeron/Papadakis.

----

Edit... it looks like they will show something from Trankov/Voloszhar... hopefully it's a full program and not highlights.
Edit2... and it looks like they're showing Ice dance too... good.

 

[Mathman]

I thought the telecast of Europeans this afternoon was great. They showed the top few from each of the four disciplines. Tanith replaced Terry as the main announcer, so it was Tanith, Tara and Johnny. Johnny especially was very insightful, IMHO. Tanith did fine.

Cizeron & Papadakis. No one else need bother to show up at Worlds.

 

[ManyCairns]

I agree that Tara and Terry sometimes talk at inappropriate times. Both of them generally talk a lot more during the skates than Johnny, who is usually the one who provides technical info about levels, GOE, or how a skater has improved from a previous season (ex. his explanation of Tarah Kayne's raised arm adding difficulty to the lift in an effort to reach level 4, and the improvements in Danny's skating). Sometimes he provides analysis during the program, sometimes during the replays. Johnny seems to be particularly quiet during exceptionally good skates, which suggests to me that he is more sensitive to letting the audience enjoy the skate. The team's job is to provide commentary, however, so they cannot be as quiet as we sometimes wish they'd be during a skate.

Sometimes I get the feeling Johnny is trying to model "good" [in this case, QUIET] behavior for the other two at these moments ... he will actually pause quite a while -- even if, say, Terry has directly asked him a question -- before he answers, seemingly to let the performance flow on a bit before he talks.

 

[heyang]

I'm not so sure about that, as in many places NBC chose to scrap the entire broadcast to talk about weather instead. Many of my friends very really frustrated about that.

In my area, the afternoon broadcast was pre-empted. I ended up watching the afternoon broadcast online. Primetime coverage was not pre-empted.

I wonder if TPTB considered the online viewers, especially given the pre-emptions on the east coast.