Television Coverage of US Running Events Continues to Suck
500 channels and no live coverage
This year, for the first time in US history, the Olympic Trials Marathon, for both men and women, will be held at the same time and at the same venue. This is a terrific opportunity to showcase our sport!
Sadly, Unless you’ve got a ticket to Houston, or are unlucky enough to live there, the only television coverage you’ll get to see of the Olympic Trials marathon will be a two-hour, tape delayed version at 3:00 PM Eastern Time on NBC.
Take out the 30 minutes of commercials, and that leaves about 90-minutes to cover a nearly three hour event. Take out the required 20-minutes of athlete interviews and jibber-jabber, and that leaves maybe 70-minutes of actual running.
And, of course, unless you’re in an isolation tank all day, you’ll have heard who won the race hours before you can watch it.
And no, it won’t be streamed live on the web, even in low-definition.
What I want to know is: Who do we punish so this doesn’t happen in 2016?
John, I hear Flo Track is streaming the trials live on its website. http://www.flotrack.org
1Sam, there will be coverage on Flotrack, but it won’t be live streaming.
2Sam, John is correct. I am quite annoyed by this and would love to see someone write about it. I may be incorrect, but it seems like the reason it won’t be streamed live is because NBC is doing a 2 hour “broadcast” later in the day. Given that the NFL playoff game starts half an hour after their broadcast, I am not sure how many non-runners will be tuning in to watch. In the meantime, they seem to have annoyed many in the running community by refusing to let anyone show it live.
Additionally, I am anticipating that of the 120 minutes of their show, the amount of time devoted to actual running will be minimal. Between the intro package, commercials, and the requisite interviews, I will expect to see no more than 60 minutes of actual running.
Maybe I am a running geek, but I got up early 4 years ago and watched the men’s and women’s trials over the internet. I enjoyed watching the whole race play out.
It strikes me as a little odd that throughout the course of the year I can log on to the internet and see the London Marathon, the Chicago Marathon, New York, Boston, Berlin, and Frankfurt, all live and in their entirety. But I won’t even be able to watch the whole marathon on tape delay. The only option is the 2 hour thing NBC is doing.
3If only someone knew someone who worked at NBC!
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