Worst TV coverage of a marathon - scoring table

how many points for interviewing Donna Kastor?

I'm stupid but usually can surf running sites successfully is there a link to top 50 finishers of both sex posted anywhere? thanks

Poor graphics 15 points

slow graphics 10 points

I tweeted Tim Hutchings who replied that there were "immense technical problems" towards the end of the men's race t

Top 40 men:

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2014/11/wilson-kipsang-outkicks-lelisa-desisa-win-600000-2014-new-york-city-marathon/

Full pro women:

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2014/11/mary-keitany-outkicks-jemima-sumgong-win-new-york-city-marathon-22507/

To be fair, it was better than Chicago's coverage a few weeks ago. But that's not saying much.

Camera transmission failure 5 points

during critical race move 10 points

with no backup system in place 15 points

coverage was almost as bad as the 1980 Olympic marathon

suburbanxcore wrote:

To be fair, it was better than Chicago's coverage a few weeks ago. But that's not saying much.

Can we get a shout out for our Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon livestream broadcast on YouTube [first marathon livestreamed on YouTube] using Dejero boxes and Tim Hutchings, Krista DuChene, Michael Doyle commentary]??

YouTube enabled us to produce and control our own event!!

Failure to show quality shots of the women's lead pack...from the rear. 10pts

I want to see the lead men the entire race, a continuous clock, 5 km splits and the leaderboard. Pretty much like this -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GisU2uCLWik#t=68

Bummer about the technical problems; at least they tried to cover it. Interviewing Bernard King was lame. Show us the race. for God's sake.

But NOTHING! compares with the Chicago marathon for awful coverage. That was straight up torture for running fans.

Don't we, as runners, deserve better? I wonder how many pairs of running shoes I've gone through in 45 years? 90 plus? Can't these companies kick in some commercial money for decent coverage?

Granted, it was bad.

Therefore, everybody who was disappointed with the coverage should receive their money back.

Anybody who didn't pay was mooching and ought to be thankful that in this day and age it is possible to do this.

i second the comment about toronto being fine coverage. sadly the coverage

of almost all non US based marathons and track greatly exceeds all US broadcasts in quality. For myself, i usually log in to wyzwig.tv and try to pick up a foreign broadcast in english for ALL track and field. Even if there is not english broadcast, the on screen text and camera work is worth it. For US marathons, even the foreign broadcasts use our poor output. The problems range from announcers, commercials, technology competence, timing of major race events, ... The solutions are obvious : follow ANYONE else.

ron

This has the potential to become a great drinking game

The coverage was pretty bad. I do not recall any coverage of the final portion of the men's race. Meb passes Mutai in the final two miles and we see none of it. Horrible.

Can you imagine during the world series switching to a softball game being played outside the stadium? That's what marathon coverage does when it covers "interesting" other runners. It's just not taking seriously as a sport.

A major US Network is incapable of producing TV coverage that is tailored for the marathon or track fan/nerd. Watch the European feeds, next time. . US coverage will always suck. Even without technical glitches, the commercials, irrelevant interviews, lack of constant split screen, the knowledgeable fan will be ignored.

Bobby1 wrote:

Can you imagine during the world series switching to a softball game being played outside the stadium? That's what marathon coverage does when it covers "interesting" other runners. It's just not taking seriously as a sport.

I know. I could not agree more.

After all, is it only running...it is not as if these sissy marathoners have to tax their bodies and minds in some physically demanding manner--and in any find of weather--as in when one swings at a ball or runs 90 feet down the first base line.

I meant: "in any kind of weather."

The BBC focuses on the race 95% until the elites finish and only then covers the human interest stories and celebrity runners. Plus there are no commercials.

Eurosport purely focuses on the race because their budget is about 10 cents.

The ideal solution would be for the primary channel to go for the ratings, with an alternative channel or live streaming focusing solely on the race.

Apparently the Nick Wallender tightrope bs on Discovery last night had alternative coverage streaming online.