ABC's "coverage"

[peternut]

A bit from my perspective here in the middle east. We watched the race with a large group of expats from both the America and Canada, some Turks plus some Dutch young people.

First of all it was funny to see that the Turks knew more about Indycar and Barrichello's arrival than the Americans knew about their own sport (calling it that for Ernest's sake).

The race started, we had our beers and bbq ready and my laptop was streaming the ABC feed online on the big screen. I had another one on my lap with live T&S. When the cars got out on the straight I was on my feet yelling GO GO GO to the screen. The ABC feed as far as I could see was silent. When you should have people calling the first passes or even the possibility of a crash, there was utter silence. After the first corner a monotone voice came on and it kind of stuck to monotone through out the race.

While I was keeping my eyes on the live T&S, the tv really didn't add to our race experience. Throughout the race it was a battle with the audience for me to keep the channel on, while the Americans wanted to watch Tiger....

It's a shame that the race was called like a figure skating event at the Olympics. As an commentator your job is to rally the audience. I'll give the example of the Tour the France, we had a radio commentator in Holland who made the event sound so exciting, but when you turned on the tv you'd just see 2 guys cycling together.

Maybe we fans should teach them and make some youtube video's with our comments? Just like the drawing competition or other competitions on here.

[redmist]

The lack of understanding of just basic business principles is astounding.

Coverage would be better if the whole thing were a profitable undertaking.

More viewers=more money for commercials=more investment in the coverage.



There is no "entitlement" for complainers for ABC to lose money covering this racing. It's not a requirement, either, that the crew work for nothing or close to it, either.

Unless a network somewhere actually owns a sports franchise, there can be no expectation that it's the network's responsibility to "promote" a sport out of its own pocket.

i don't see how that would preclude abc from replacing reid and goodyear with announcers that don't suck.

[Baulz]

i don't see how that would preclude abc from replacing reid and goodyear with announcers that don't suck.

Maybe Goodyear is a "ride-buyer" of announcers. He pays ABC to let him do the job.

[redfalconf35]

I started out listening to IMS radio network and watching Will Power's onboard (Verizon app), and when i got to a TV, i flipped on ABC and immediately found my interest in the race waning. The commentators were awful, the camera shots were mis-timed, you had no clue where the drivers were, or where the excitement was.

Here's a few suggestions that i make, being completely aware that none of them will be heard/taken:

-Scott Goodyear needs to be an on-the-ground reporter, talking about the struggles the drivers are going through. "Hinchcliffe is telling his crew that he's got an oversteer on high speed turns. This means that ..." His whole color commentating gig needs to be over.

-Marty Reid needs some caffeine or a defibrillator or something, because i felt like i was watching chess or the race was in a library.

-When they get back from a green flag commercial break, they need to do a "situation reset". They need to do a 4-feed split screen, with the leader in one corner, and the three most exciting battles in the other three corners. Then, they need to visit each of those feeds and explain the situation and what to watch for.

-More in-car camera shots, and for longer durations! Will Power's onboard was rather exciting to watch, even when he was out in front with a front facing camera angle! The angles from the rear wing and facing the driver are the best of all of them, so we should spend a lot of time seeing that! If there's a battle going on, show the feed of the two cars with a picture in picture of each of the drivers manhandling the cars.

-You don't need to have the camera on the person you're talking about the entire time. If you're talking about how Takuma Sato's pit strategy is playing out, you can cut to that on-track pass happening behind him.

-Since the yellows are so long, use that time to do your fluff pieces. You have a 2 minute monologue on the ECU? Do it now! You followed JR Hildebrand's sister to the grocery store? Please don't talk about that during green flag racing!

[redmist]

Maybe Goodyear is a "ride-buyer" of announcers. He pays ABC to let him do the job.

that theory does seem to make the most sense, come to think of it.

[Indy Soup]

Jeez, where's Larry Nuber when you need him?

Seriously, criticism should first be pointed toward the broadcast director for choosing what gets shown when. So many people comment that road and street courses are pretty much "follow the leader," but that is mainly because the camera follows the leader. For sure, Ried and Goodyear are boring as hell, and while that will not affect my excitement and enthusiasm for the race, it will do nothing for the casual viewer or to attract new fans. ABC needs only to take a lesson (or several) from their own archives and broadcast history. Paul Page would peg the excitement meter even before the command to start engines. Now, I'm not talking about going back to the good ol' days of CART, but moving forward by keeping what has worked in the past to enhance the present. For me, Page always seemed like a super fan of IndyCar who was plucked from the GA grandstand and given a microphone. Now, the disconnect between the two (the fans in the stands and the suits in the booth) seems pretty wide.

[ttturner68]

Listening H3lio's description of the spirted battle between he and Dixon kind of makes me wish I would have watching the race. Oh wait I was, pittiful. How many laps did they follow WP around by himself at the beginning of the race. They cannot even pic up the leader as the finish there pit sequence when anyone with half a lick of experience would want to see which order they came out in.

Simply bad production.... there is no getting around it.

[bblocker68]

I felt like I watched a completely different race than what was broadcasted. They missed just about anything that could have been considered as interesting.

They broadcast to the layman. Why? Because I don't think they are capable of doing anything more than that.

[redfalconf35]

I felt like I watched a completely different race than what was broadcasted. They missed just about anything that could have been considered as interesting.

So true! I seriously thought about going back to the radio broadcast because i was missing so much by watching the ABC show. It would be like a football game where they primarily pointed the cameras at the offensive line and watched the blocking the whole time, with the passing mention of the touchdown that was just scored. Nevermind that touchdown, the left guard just pulled and got a decent block on the right end!!!

[Mr. Bean]

My friend who I took for the Vegas race, watched his first Indycar race on TV yesterday just sent me a This is a first timer who watches pretty much watches every sport in the book:

"I'm watching spring training baseball and the commentator is way more interesting than those guys from yesterday. Spring.Training.Baseball commentary." lol.

There you have it. A person that knows. Irtually nothing about Indycar racing was almost put to sleep.

[Racing Truth]

Nor does it cost extra to have a director use the cameras he has to follow the action and not the lead cars the whole time.

Yep, and that's the main issue here. I always get the feeling the ABC director doesn't understand racing well enough to ANTICIPATE important developments. It's particularly a problem on r/s courses, but let's be honest, their 500 broadcasts have been atrocities too. Not sure if the director is more in tune w/ NASCAR or just doesn't get racing at all.

Reid had one moment of poignance in Oct. That's it. At least Cheever seems to give a damn about it ("Alex Taliani" aside), unlike Scooter.

[Muskie4041]

We're going to get ESPN's worst of the worst until the ratings go up.

[Racing Truth]

What I wouldn't do to have Uncle Bobby and Sam argue through a broadcast again.

H=ll, at least it would be entertaining, though. And having Posey, ala SPEED F1 do intros wouldn't hurt.

[Racing Truth]

We're going to get ESPN's worst of the worst until the ratings go up.

Vicious cycle, though. Ratings will stagnate if people watch awful coverage.

[jcmark611]

Yep, and that's the main issue here. I always get the feeling the ABC director doesn't understand racing well enough to ANTICIPATE important developments. It's particularly a problem on r/s courses, but let's be honest, their 500 broadcasts have been atrocities too. Not sure if the director is more in tune w/ NASCAR or just doesn't get racing at all.

Reid had one moment of poignance in Oct. That's it. At least Cheever seems to give a damn about it ("Alex Taliani" aside), unlike Scooter.

A director cannot anticipate without being told whats going on. My guess is that they have very few, if any, on track spotters saying "10 setting up 8 for a pass in 4."

[PenelopePitstop]

A director cannot anticipate without being told whats going on. My guess is that they have very few, if any, on track spotters saying "10 setting up 8 for a pass in 4."

Isn't it the director's job to hire those people to feed him the necessary information? Or is it the producer's job? Whichever, they aren't performing worth a darn. Still.

[Muskie4041]

Vicious cycle, though. Ratings will stagnate if people watch awful coverage.

That was my point earlier in this thread. Still, the "bad" coverage ESPN provided and the 2 to 3 minutes we got on SportsCenter are far more valuable than the "good" coverage on NBCSN.

[Muskie4041]

Isn't it the director's job to hire those people to feed him the necessary information? Or is it the producer's job? Whichever, they aren't performing worth a darn. Still.

All these things cost money.

[PenelopePitstop]

All these things cost money.

So does the loss of 300,000 viewers.

[cpthornman]

All these things cost money.

Not if they actually hired competent people.

[Muskie4041]

So does the loss of 300,000 viewers.

That's going to effect INDYCAR way more than ESPN. ESPN is just going to adjust their coverage to the level of income generated by advertising, while INDYCAR and it's teams have to sell sponsorship on the new lower numbers.

I said it earlier in this thread, the solution is for INDYCAR themselves to throw money at the problem assuming ESPN would allow them. Pay for spotters, cameramen, and the best producers and announcers in the bussiness, so the coverage can be better.

[Muskie4041]

Not if they actually hired competent people.

ESPN has a financial number they need to meet. Their staffing of the races and the quality of the staffing are directly related to the bottom line.

[BSJracing]

Goodyear sounds like he's working a golf tournament.

Goodyear is too boring for televised golf...he might be ok for golf radio

[irlracingfan]

The race was fine. In fact, if a person listened to it on IMS radio instead of watching it on ABC, they would have know that there was a LOT of on-track action. Unfortunately, ABC's coverage was so pathetic, as it most often is, that the television audience saw very little of what actually happened on the track. IndyCar did not "fail to meet (the) hype of new season"; instead, the job done by "Always Bad Coverage" was where the shortcoming occurred.

[Baulz]

A director cannot anticipate without being told whats going on. My guess is that they have very few, if any, on track spotters saying "10 setting up 8 for a pass in 4."

A fan watching timing & scoring can tell when a pass is going to happen, I don't think you need spotters all over the track. I suppose the camera operators can judge what's going on as well.

[Fro]

A fan watching timing & scoring can tell when a pass is going to happen, I don't think you need spotters all over the track. I suppose the camera operators can judge what's going on as well.

Can't IMS radio and ABC share spotters? How do the radio guys know what is going on with much fewer resources?

I agree that the cameramen should be able to talk to the booth as well (or have a button they can push when something is happening if they can't talk for some reason).

[Teej]

IMO, it wasn't terrible and it wasn't great. I think the problem is that for street courses....the broadcast needs to anticipate when and where a pass happens and they missed on that today.

I didn't read through 7 pages of threads and if someone else already mentioned this I apologise for bringing it up again, but did anyone else hear Goodyear say that 'Mario was Marco's uncle' OR was I hearing things

[Moid]

I didn't read through 7 pages of threads and if someone else already mentioned this I apologise for bringing it up again, but did anyone else hear Goodyear say that 'Mario was Marco's uncle' OR was I hearing things

Yes, it was noticed. Or maybe it was BREAKING NEWS...Aldo had a fling with Michael's wife and he IS the father. Where is Maury???

[BizzyV]

I didn't read through 7 pages of threads and if someone else already mentioned this I apologise for bringing it up again, but did anyone else hear Goodyear say that 'Mario was Marco's uncle' OR was I hearing things

He's just... so bad at it. He's got to have something seriously incriminating on someone high up on ABC.

[DannyM]

Thankfully I didn't hear Scott mention "a football field a second" or "marbles", he's probably holding those in reserve for an oval race. I would have, however, appreciated an explanation and a picture of this "hand clutch". I am not familiar.