Poor coverage by NBCSN in US

[theblackangus]

I have to ask was anyone else pretty unhappy with the NBCSN US coverage?
I was counting and there were breaks every 4 laps for 2 laps quite a lot. Granted the last 10-15 laps had commercial free coverage, but the frequency of the breaks from the begging to then were too much.
That presenters did a great job, but the commercials were almost unbearable.
I watched MLS just before and the commercials there were far less.
Also if they are going to do split screen commercials and race, it would be nice to make them equal size so people can see it with a magnifying glass - And do it through out the race and don't make some commercials full screen.
Sorry had to rant and hope other people felt the same. This seems like a step down from SPEED for sure.

[hollus]

Look before you rant! http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewto ... =1&t=13598

Did you really have 7 commercial breaks in the race? Standard "every 6 minutes of action", I guess?

[theblackangus]

I did look and read the whole thread before posting, however that subject is about speed dropping coverage, not about the poor coverage of NBCSN specifically. I would say that is different enough to warrant a specific topic more visible to eyes from NBCSN.
There were 3 consecutive spats of 4 laps, break etc. I wasn't really paying attention for the 1st bit of the race it only started to become apparent later after I had seen the same 3 or 4 commercials many times.

[Pup]

Seemed the same as Speed to me. Plus they're showing the ads in split screen, and their production is a bit better. I don't see any cause to whine.

[joeyg02]

I must say that I was highly skeptical and a little worried when I heard that SPEED had lost the bidding war to broadcast Formula 1 in the United States. After watching the coverage this weekend on NBC Sports I was blown away by their dedication to making it entertaining. I wouldn't be scared to say they did a better job than SPEED. One thing I don't like is the amount of commercials. I've never seen that amount of commercials during a sporting event. The "Side-By-Side" coverage during most of the commercials didn't really impress me.

What are your thoughts on the network switch/coverage?

[flyboy2160]

unscientifically, it seemed like the ads were more frequent and longer than speed's. the split screen coverage was only for some of the ads - I watched online during the full screen ads and listened to the entire race on sky. brundle and ant are just much better than the nbc crew. I've already ranted about that crew and can't stand them, so I just listen to the sky commentary and watch nbc high def.

I did start to take notice of which advertisers allowed the split screen and which didn't. no way i'm buying anything from a full screen advertiser, so nbc take note!! (ha ha as if they'll even pay attention to this site........)

[rssh]

I think you are still lucky ,here in India we had 6 breaks of 4 minutes each (lost almost 3 laps in them) ESPN / Star Sports has had Steve Slater and Gary Anderson in previous year but now they have the Sky team which does majority of commentary from this season with Alex Yong and Karun Chandok commenting . We don't even get the grid walk of Sky Sports and there are no re-runs (I mean never) . Its really Frustrating we pay to watch F1 and still we get so many commericals (The MERC-PETRONAS Commercial is there everytime and I have hence decided never to use PETRONAS oil ever in my car ).

I would pay 3 time for the dedicated Sky Sport F1 HD channel .

I nowadays do online streaming with TV simultaneously and unmute the Laptop when commercial start on TV to follow the race on lappy in the breaks .

PS - We don't even have split screen here in breaks

[tbaker474]

I wasn't totally impressed by it either. Yeah, they're showing some of the commercial breaks in split screen (there were still plenty of full on commercial breaks) but the frequency of them was ridiculous. It was literally 2 laps of commercials after every 3 laps for the first 1/2 of the race.

The pre-race coverage wasn't much better. No real grid walk, just some pre-recorded interviews and time shifted shots of the grid. They couldn't even give a real track analysis, you'd get 5 seconds of onboard footage interspersed with static shots of the track map. Lame.

The production values in some areas are a lot better than Speed, but the overall flow of the broadcast left a lot to be desired. I'm hopeful they'll get on top of things. It was their first try at it after all.

[theblackangus]

Seemed the same as Speed to me. Plus they're showing the ads in split screen, and their production is a bit better. I don't see any cause to whine.

Sadly the split screen is not evenly sized and very hard to make out any detail. I would be happier if it was 50/50, but after watching a 2nd time with the wife.. There were commercials every 4-5 laps from the beginning to nearly the end. That is far to much interruption for me even with the split screen ads.

Strangely even qualifying seemed to have less commercials.

12 hours of Sebring aired on Speed on Saturday and had no where near this many interruptions.

[pgfpro]

I was just happy I could watch it. I didn't think it was that bad.

The only thing that bugged me was some of the on boards didn't sync with the correct car.
But I'm sure the will have that fixed on the next race?

[wesley123]

Blame Bernie for asking ridiculous prices for such license.

[DM0407]

I thought it was loads better than Speed Channel. They spend most of the day replaying all the Practices, there was no delay, true HD coverage. The first ten laps or so was commercial free which was great while all the action was happening, Speed used to cut to commercial within the first 3-4 laps.

The play by play guy is much more exciting to listen to and the on boards were much more frequent. I think they may actually have some control over the o nboard footage.

[grouch]

Put me down in the "loads better than Speed" category. My only complaint is they kept talking about Kimi with very little footage to accompany the talk. All in all though I enjoyed the higher production values, it just looked better on my TV.

[theblackangus]

I thought it was loads better than Speed Channel. They spend most of the day replaying all the Practices, there was no delay, true HD coverage. The first ten laps or so was commercial free which was great while all the action was happening, Speed used to cut to commercial within the first 3-4 laps.

The play by play guy is much more exciting to listen to and the on boards were much more frequent. I think they may actually have some control over the o nboard footage.

The 1st commercial started lap 6 and it was a solid every 4-5 laps after that.
Speed's coverage looked just as good and was HD. (All feeds come from FOM).
And since the presenters are the same as speed ... Im not sure how it could have been more exciting? (Other LD who I like, but not as much as Bob "the hair" Varsha.)

[PlatinumZealot]

Its the same speed commentators though. I think the same parent company too.

Coverage was OK.. except for commercials.

I got so turned off, I literally turned off and went to a Sky stream.