Just out of curiosity (not because I disagree, simply because I can’t think of any) - what other sports would have an 8-9 hour nonstop single sport non-Internet TV broadcast? Perhaps outside the US, just can’t think of any in the US for a single event (non-stop football on Sunday afternoon doesn’t really count).
Thanks for all the thoughts above and I appreciate that some of the reasons you’ve outlined (esp the TV network pressures) are very real but I still don’t buy it. There are so many stories, so many angles that could be used over and throughout a live coverage. Let me put it this way, I could have watched a live to air 12 hour endurance car race yesterday - and the coverage started the day before!. Moreover, I can watch live bullriding and lawn bowls, golf games that go all day and cricket which sometimes goes for 5 days… seriously the WTC needs to try harder. This is one of the worlds premier sporting events (written without irony) in an exotic location with a huge element of personal interest. If you can’t see that, you’re not looking closely.
Some good examples. I was surprised they showed many hours (from recall, they had like a few multi-hour blocks then cut away for an hour or so to another program and then back…I think they had a very long stint during the night) of Le Mans a few weeks a go on the Speed channel. However, test match (‘5 day’) cricket is loosing its fan base hence why they have come up with Twenty20 (basically about 3 hours long…same as baseball, except they actually hit the ball…a lot) - this is really popular now in the cricketing nations, especially India, cos it is TV friendly. I personally love test matches but you don’t sit there paying attention for 6 hours for 5 days, you read the paper, cruise the internet, etc, etc, and have it on in the background. This is fine in the UK as it is a big/popular/traditional sport but IM tri is not and there is even less action. I have watched the live feed for the last 3 years (from start to finish) but I doubt many do and I understand why. Even watching the ITU racing on Universal Sports can be a bit dull and I have countryman to cheer on in the Brownlees. The only way I see the WTC able to make it work is over a satellite station of their own which can be broadcast worldwide, but I would think it is easier and cheaper to just do what they do now and people can hook their computers up to their TVs if they want a bigger screen experience (they need to improve the quality in all aspects though for this) and still get money/exposure through NBC.
I swear it seemed like the Super Bowl coverage lasted twelve hours last time I paid attention. 
I swear it seemed like the Super Bowl coverage lasted twelve hours last time I paid attention.
Yeah, but they have good commercials. So they don’t count.
Appreciate most of the counter-arguments you guys have put forward and there is no doubt value in your experiences. Nevertheless, I’ll persist and point out the following;
When you already have the online coverage (ie images and commentary + data) such as IronmanLive, how much harder is it to pump it up for some sports network to carry? I’m no tech wizard and perhaps there are very real differences in the technology required for TV and net - but look, there is already an infrastructure and investment in place. TV would mean incremental, not material changes.
Lessons from the past are important but consider all the advances in live televised sports, even in just the past five years. The masses of data, stats, camera technology etc… It would be a very different telecast now (as IronmanLive shows) by comparison.
I don’t think there is enough audience to justify the cost, they might be able to do a PPV, but even then it might not be worth it.
I think the current streaming is fine, but would like to see the following improvements.
I would like them to break the screen up into 3 panes, the main screen showing either the men’s or women’s race, never the commentators.
The bottom pane would have nascar style scrolling information, giving splits/placing for the top 10 of each race. (It’s hard to tell what is going on watching 1 person, with no context to where they are.)
The third pane, on the left or right of the main pane would be an SRM style map that showed the dots on the road.
commentating, honestly I don’t think they need commentating for the entire race, you can tell they start to get tired and there really is so many times you can say the same thing over and over. I have no idea who the guy that started the day with welchy is, but I assume he is some sort of professional broadcaster to give the show a more professional feel to it. That is great, but most of the people watching are not newbies, so they don’t need to explain every finite detail of X that is going on.
they might be able to do a PPV, but even then it might not be worth it. <<
They tried that for their online coverage. Big fail.
It was televised in Germany. I am in Munich on business and much to my surprise it was on tv. I had the internet feed on too as the televison announcers were in German. Funny thing was thath the television was about 1 minute ahead of the Internet feed.
You need to consider why TV stations broadcast, which is to make money. They make money from advertising revenue. They get advertising revenue by providing a large audience that advertisers can put their products in front of. So if IM is not going to provide a large audience, then it will not be broadcast by the tv companies.
In Europe, where cycling is big, Eurosport will often cut the cycling coverage if tennis overruns. The reason being that tennis provides bigger viewing figures and so is better for the TV station.
A slight aside; in the USA, are any other IM races shown on TV apart from Kona? In Europe, IM Germany and Konas are shown live on German TV. In the UK, we get packaged highlights of lthe local ones. It is also noticeable that the emphasis is on the PRO race and not human interest stories.
I think it was live on german television. It was probably way better than welch and jones, even if you don’t speak german. I think it could be televised in a few countries. But WTC probably does not want it. I think they are very interested in keeping a bit of a monopoly position with their live stream. K-swiss must have paid a few bucks for constantly showing k-swiss athletes even at moments that something interesting was happening elsewhere! WTC could make the race much bigger, at least in europe and australia. But it might be that they make more money by keeping it a fringe sport that they totally control. The media in europe would for example not ignore the race results and world records from Roth and call that race an ironman. And they would show the real race regardless what sponsor is on the kit. Calling Marino the world record holder, not mentioning 7:41 and 8:18 can only happen if you broadcast the race yourself. Matt Lieto was sometimes an exception but I noticed that he broke a few sentences short because he wanted to say something about other non Mdot races. The commentators can never be really critical towards the race and the qualification procedures. The live stream is one big WTC commercial, and that could very well be a smart marketing decision and bad for the sport at the same time.
My rant is the fat ass’ed cameraman in the way when Crowie is getting interviewed sitting on the ground just having won the race and broken the course record
.
I think because poker on espn has got such edge of your seat action that they didn’t want to break the excitement at all.
You would think they could do something like a 3 or 4 hour block, say 6 or 7PM - 10PM EDT and do a re-cap of the day. Show the background and the mystique. Then show how the swim and the bike went down. Showing the highlights.
Then bring everyone up to speed of the current conditions of the male and female races. You’d then get to watch the end. See the males come in, interview the winner. Then see the females come in and interview them. Done.
I don’t see this being on a major network, or even a major cable network. But, I would think it could be on NBC’s Universal Sports channel, or VS. (what’s the new name of this channel?) Get Paul and Phil and we’d be set! For advertising, you at least have K*Swiss, Ford, etc… already lined up.
Thing with poker is that a lot of people play it and people often watch to see and learn the strategies the pros use to help them with their own skills. Although the ‘action’ is limited the strategy/mental aspect is actually quite interesting…that’s why I tune in, but now that I don’t play for money on line anymore (too much hassle with the restriction on US bank accounts and takes up a lot of time) I don’t watch it anywhere near as much (barely at all). It’s gonna come down to money and I don’t think a live Kona is gonna make any station much money in the US and not more than some other show, which is why it would probably only work if the WTC got their own cable/satellite station and didn’t care so much about the monetary side (unlikely seeing how everything they do is for the money).
Because it’s like watching the paint dry.
The ratings will be dismal.
Because it’s like watching the paint dry.
The ratings will be dismal.
yet there are channels that replay baseball games from years past … rather watch paint dry
in 8.5 hours you could have two football games on…
Because it’s like watching the paint dry.
The ratings will be dismal.
yet there are channels that replay baseball games from years past … rather watch paint dry
Get back to me when triathlon ever gets out of “niche” sport and comes as 1/10th close to America’s pastime (although baseball is falling to 2nd behind football now).
I think - long term - here is your answer.
The multi-day cricket matches are a good corollary - would you be willing to do pay per view to watch full length coverage of Kona?
I watched the internet coverage and thought that it had improved significantly over last year.
But I watched, went for run, watched, did a couple errands, watched, etc…
I thought that Universal might consider full-day coverage, but they aren’t a charity and clearly have the numbers that prove whatever counter-programming they ran was a better sell than Kona.
If enough people demand on a PPV basis, someone will figure out how to deliver.
In the meantime, you have live streaming that is miles ahead of where it used to be.
I love racing Ironman races & triathlons, but hate watching them. BOoooooring. It’s a participant sport not a spectator sport. Even Kona…zzzzzzzzz (watched that in '95 in person–zzzzzz!)