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This sucks I wish another station had the coverage
No USA vs Germany doubles feed? :(
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Just in general this switching back and forth. ESPN or Tennis channel at least give you an option to watch one of 5 matches
When do they do that? You talking Espn3 streams? Tennis channel is only one channel.
NBC is streaming all matches on the courts that are televised. Just so happens the williams sisters aren't on one.
To be fair, they had no where else to put them. only five courts have TV feeds and you'd have to switch them pretty quickly cause matches started roughly at the same time. Logistics nightmare.
Not only that but Singles >doubles any day of the week.
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You would have to look long and hard to find another sport that kills its own golden goose the way tennis does.
First, yesterday they conceded the entire afternoon to the ATP, (losing millions of dollars in free TV advertising for their sport) by not having Venus on CC, where she should have been.
And then today, NBC must scramble again to fill airtime, because the Williams sisters are put on a court where TV crews can't even get their cameras.
One day there will be business college courses on how much money has been lost by the hierarchy of this sport, due to their loathing of the Williams Sisters.
First, yesterday they conceded the entire afternoon to the ATP, (losing millions of dollars in free TV advertising for their sport) by not having Venus on CC, where she should have been.
And then today, NBC must scramble again to fill airtime, because the Williams sisters are put on a court where TV crews can't even get their cameras.
One day there will be business college courses on how much money has been lost by the hierarchy of this sport, due to their loathing of the Williams Sisters.
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I know that's the party line. But that's not an excuse.
If Golf were in this situation, they would find a way to get Tiger Woods on TV.
If the NBA were in this situation, they would find a way to get Kobe Byrant and Lebron James on TV.
If the ATP were in this situation, they would find a way to get Federer and Nadal on TV.
The only time, literally in all of sports that this issue comes up, is with Tennis and the Williams Sisters.
Think about it.
Nobody in sports has a more difficult time with their top stars than they do. Its gone beyond sheer coincidence.
We have had lots of rain delays before. This isn't anything that new. When was the last time Federer or Nadal played an afternoon match on a court where TV hookup literally was not even available, during a highly televised tournament?
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Blame Tsonga Raonic
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In full fairness, you absolutely could be right. I am not sure who has the final call on court placement. But I can tell you that it is possible for management to persuade the ITF into making this a priority. I believe if the WTA wanted to emphasize certain court assignments for the benefits of fans and TV partners, this would not have happened.
Think about.
The number one business partner for the entire Olympics want the WIlliams sisters as often as possible (NBC Sports). They are the top draw and # 1 TV ratings generator for your spot. And this is the biggest platform the sport is going to have for the next 4 years to showcase our sport to the world.
And this is what happens?
The WTA can hide behind the ITF, who can hide behind this group, etc. etc. They are just passing the buck.
To put this in proper context, with the same rain delays and same tournament, the ATP has managed to get almost all of Roger Federer's events on TV. In fact yesterday, USA TV got the Roger Federer doubles match IN ITS ENTIRETY! In fact in the last 4 days as an American sports consumer, I've gotten more Joe Wilfred Tsongas on TV than anything else! Yes that's right. The ATP has nearly gotten as much commercial air time for Joe Wiflred Tsongas, as the WTA has for the much more accomplished Wililams Sisters. Watching the WTA run ths sport it has gotten to be downright comical.
With NBC Sports as your #1 business partner, how on earth, under any circumstances could the Williams sisters end up on a court .... WHERE TV COVERAGE WAS NOT POSSIBLE!
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I'll tell you what was interesting.
Did you guys notice that Tsongas/Raonic took presidence over the Sharpaova match on center court on USA TV?
I'll admit I was shocked. I thought they would go to Sharapova. But they didn't. And you could tell by the broadcast that there was legit indecision on behalf of NBC with regards to which way to go. I guess the overwhelming data showing that Sharapova doesn't add any additional TV viewers to her matches, led NBC to stay away. I don't know.
Yesterday, NBC completely avoided the Wozniacki match on center court. And today with Sharapova playing on center court, they opted for Tsongas. This really shows you the state of the WTA, and its not good. It also shows you the true value of the Williams sisters. Venus and Serena are the only two players on the WTA tour that can keep WTA olympic tennis on NBC.:lol:
Tsongas over Sharapova! Who would have thought that.
The men showed that you can still have a great, if long, match that is best 2 out of 3. So...let's make it happen ITF.
Anyway, they needed to get the doubles in today, just to give Vee some rest
, so they moved it to a nontelevised court. Now why so many nontelevised courts for the Olympics, I don't understand, seemed like a mistake at the start.
I think NBC wanted to let people wrapped up in Tsonga-Raonic see the end. Little did they know that the last set would be three hours long.
Anyway, they needed to get the doubles in today, just to give Vee some rest
, so they moved it to a nontelevised court. Now why so many nontelevised courts for the Olympics, I don't understand, seemed like a mistake at the start.I think NBC wanted to let people wrapped up in Tsonga-Raonic see the end. Little did they know that the last set would be three hours long.
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The men showed that you can still have a great, if long, match that is best 2 out of 3. So...let's make it happen ITF.
Anyway, they needed to get the doubles in today, just to give Vee some rest
I think NBC wanted to let people wrapped up in Tsonga-Raonic see the end. Little did they know that the last set would be three hours long.
Good post.
I'll tell you that's a story coming out of these olympic games. Has anybody missed any guy playing 5-sets in this tournament? I know I sure haven't.
The Tsongas contest today was close, exciting, well played, long........................................... AND IT WAS A 3 SET MATCH!
I think the case is rapidly closing on that debate.
Apparently NBC agrees with our assessment. Because the Tsongas match pushed our girl Sharapova right off the air.:lol:
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The rain has severely messed up the original court assignments and broadcasting schedule. Venus was originally going to be second on court 1 on Sunday which would have been a fine court assignment. She was then rescheduled to 2nd on court 2 which I thought was wrong and could have been better decided, but the original intent was fine. Today she was on CC and she and Serena were originally scheduled to be 3rd on court 2, once again a fine assignment for doubles. Then you had a 2+ hour rain delay and a men's match that took 4 hours and backed up matches on that court and so the organizers most likely asked Venus and Serena did they want to be moved to a court that would be available quicker and they accepted. If Hewitt had lost the second set of his match the Sisters might still be out their now playing if the original court assignments and schedule had been kept.
The event can't afford to get any further behind so it was best that they got their match in no matter what court it was on. You have to remember they are trying to cram a GS size event into 9 days.
The comparisons you made with Basketball and Tiger Woods don't exactly work because Basketball isn't affected by weather as easily as tennis plus matchups are scheduled months in advance, making televising big games just a function of coordination. In golf there are usually 30 to 40 players out on the court at the same time and there are camera's set up at ever hole. If this had been Wimbledon (the GS) court 12 would have been televised, but since the networks whose studios (ESPN) are situated right behind court 12 aren't there the cameras weren't there either. Venus and Serena's doubles match not being televised was a byproduct of the weather, the heavy load of singles matches being played, the small number of courts that are televised for Olympic coverage and the limited option of courts to put them on. There really was no better place to put them in order for them to get their match completed. This rain has really hamstrung the event and they are doing the best they can to get matches in. Organizers sometimes just have to just throw players out on any old court so that the event can finish on time. It is true that a very select few are immune from this in Singles like Federer and Nadal, but Djokovic and even Murray have had to play on 2nd and 3rd courts when the weather forced it. I agree with you though that tennis often fails to capitalize and make the most of it's stars, but today's doubles match was not one of those instances. :shrug:
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We wont know cos we have choice of 24 Olympic Channels, 3 were tennis
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We wont know cos we have choice of 24 Olympic Channels, 3 were tennis
Wow! I am jealous! I wish I was there. In the USA we have one TV channel specifically for olympic tennis. And then a bunch of internet streams. And NBC doesn't even provide internet streams for every match.
The reason you didn't see much of Sharapova is because Tsonga's match went long...I think NBC wanted to go there.. they showed more points of her match then then they did Wozanaki's when I think they were showing Fed's doubles match..
I just think they made a buisness decision to stay with Tsonga because his match had turned into an epic. You can't just leave the longest olympic set ever in history.
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