2023 NYC Marathon Broadcast Feedback Thread

wejo wrote:

NIke$ wrote:

The coverage was absolutely horrible and boring. Way too much blah, blah, and human interest stories. The first hour of the race was hardly covered. I kept switching channels because it was painful to watch. They really only covered the last 10 miles of each race. They need to do a much better job of reporting elapsed time, mile splits, etc. No follow up on any of the runners out of the lead pack. Showing top 10 results versus top 5 would be more helpful. When they finally got the technical glitches fixed and could talk to Rupp, he was good. Under utilized for sure. Barrios doesn't speak English well enough to commentate on an English language broadcast. He came across as knowledgeable but couldn't articulate it in English.

The first half of the race, they're going to spend a lot of time on the wheelchairs which personally I wish they wouldn't do, but that is a battle I'm going to lose and a lot of people don't like mentioning as they come across as jerks.

Not a ton happens in the first half of a marathon but in NY there are interesting stories they can tell with the course. The big story lines (men going for course record and women going really slow) can be told.

I wish they would talk a little more about difficult portions of the course. "This upcoming mile is very hard," etc.

NIke$ wrote:

wejo wrote:

The first half of the race, they're going to spend a lot of time on the wheelchairs which personally I wish they wouldn't do, but that is a battle I'm going to lose and a lot of people don't like mentioning as they come across as jerks.

Not a ton happens in the first half of a marathon but in NY there are interesting stories they can tell with the course. The big story lines (men going for course record and women going really slow) can be told.

I wish they would talk a little more about difficult portions of the course. "This upcoming mile is very hard," etc.

I am not a fan of the wheelchair racing either. Great for the athletes but I have zero interest in watching so I changed the channel. As for the first half well, they hyped up Cam Levins and had the profile on Reed Fisher's wife's breast cancer, yet when the two dropped off the lead pack, they weren't mentioned again. Some follow up would have been nice. I agree more about how difficult the race is, besides the Ethnic neighborhood profiles would be appreciated.

runn wrote:

wejo wrote:

I know the powers that be read this site and people associated with the broadcast were asking for my feedback yesterday, so let's give it here. Maybe we can write-up more formal suggestions for them on the broadcast, but if you saw the ESPN2/ABC7 broadcast please give your thoughts below.

(If you saw the international broadcast feel free to give feedback but denote you are giving feedback on that not ESPN2)

I'm not the best person to kick this off as I was watching in the media room and while they have the ESPN2 broadcast on the screen at all time, they also have 5 other screens up and will switch to the international feed or in-room announcing if they go to commercial or human interest.

My feedback.

Positives:

1) I thought they did a better job with the split screen than I remembered. There were feeds of all the races in the room but often when I looked at ABC7 screen I saw a split screen.

2) More Galen Rupp. Gave good insight and delivered it well. A pleasant surprise.

Room for improvement:

1) Juan Luis Barrios should not be on an English broadcast. Apparently, he has been on some international broadcasts before and done well so use him for those. His knowledge of the sport did not come out and he difficult to understand. The process that put him on broadcast needs to be examined because he was not up to the task and never should have been on it. You should not be a lead analyst on ESPN2 without passing some sort of previous test or certainty you are up to task.

2) Try and put human interest/TCS interviews earlier in the broadcast. They were interviewing the TCS guy when the break in the men's race happened. If there is is a break in the race when a sponsor interview is taking place still cover the break in the race.

A lot of good comments except for the jerk who thinks people don't have the right to not want to watch wheelchair racers.

There was some reporter standing at the 20 mile mark talking about the 20 mile mark when the leader ran by behind him and he didn't even acknowledge him.

I understand the human interest stories but they have to time them better- in the beginning like one person suggested. And try to keep them short and succinct- some of the reporters just want to hear themselves talk.

I agree with the Barios thing- I felt sorry for him- it was just a poor choice.

I wish the powers that be would listen to us.