Universal Sports to Carry Live Giro Video
by Chris Fontecchio on May 7, 2009 4:22 PM EDT
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PrintLink here. H/t Phil for mentioning it. The announcement comes with no details as to time, announcers, etc., so some critical portions of this story need fleshing out. Also, anyone hoping to watch on Universal should test their computer on whatever is running live, to make sure you have the right plugins. I have some contacts there so maybe I can get answers.
Ultimately, though, this is probably good news. Almost certainly good news. Here's hoping they show the entire stages as they are happening!
UPDATE! I spoke with their marketing person, she is preparing details as we speak. All she said, besides wait a half hour when she'll know more, is that they literally just signed the deal, and it's for the next four years. It includes TV too, if you are fortunate enough to live in a market served by their cable channel.
Update 2: "All live online and just a slight delay on TV." I think the TV is on at noon, which I take to be eastern time. More details as they come.
Update 3: VN has a more detailed article on these developments, which suggest that the Giro caved on the price at the last minute. This sounds about right, though it's hard to judge a situation so cloaked and distant. Anyway, my favorite quote:
“This thing had been going on for months,” Michaels said, adding that the price RCS demanded was initially too steep. “Then I woke up this morning, and at 6:10 a.m. opened up my email. I just yelled out. My wife said, ‘you okay?’ I said, ‘the Giro’s back!’”
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Via Chris Brewer:
- the Giro on TV in USA: Universal Sports (NBC TV) Live every morning / replay noon ET & twice in prime time. Call cable co if not carried.
- the Giro on the Internet: ONLINE: http://www.Universalsports.com Live every morning without commentary. ON DEMAND thereafter.
is brewer confused... cause universal sports (nbc tv) is limited markets
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
check this link
for local availability on cable, etc.
http://www.universalsports.com/fls/23000/tv/where-to-find-on-tv.html
"The road is our agony, but also our daily bread; and at night, when it is deserted and the moon glistens on the asphalt, the ridiculous dreams of racers like us pass up and down it."
--Dino Buzzati
"cable" being the operative word....
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
wish they would put in on directv...
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
hint hint
check the link
"The road is our agony, but also our daily bread; and at night, when it is deserted and the moon glistens on the asphalt, the ridiculous dreams of racers like us pass up and down it."
--Dino Buzzati
no nbc universal sports affiliates in my area....
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
there is
a direct TV pull down on the menu.
"The road is our agony, but also our daily bread; and at night, when it is deserted and the moon glistens on the asphalt, the ridiculous dreams of racers like us pass up and down it."
--Dino Buzzati
Odd
I definitely get this channel from my cable provider, I watched the Hoogerhide cross races and the Tour of the Basque Country recently, but the availability link above says that my cable provider does not carry it. How Cycling TV like of them…
More Muur...
maybe you have a local tv channel
"The road is our agony, but also our daily bread; and at night, when it is deserted and the moon glistens on the asphalt, the ridiculous dreams of racers like us pass up and down it."
--Dino Buzzati
right, but
local cable usually picks up the local over the air channels. You are Bay Area, yes? The website says there is a local broadcast here. So maybe that’s why you get it.
"The road is our agony, but also our daily bread; and at night, when it is deserted and the moon glistens on the asphalt, the ridiculous dreams of racers like us pass up and down it."
--Dino Buzzati
yes, Bay Area
That might explain it. Need to take a closer look when I get home. I’m just glad that I get to watch the Giro live!
More Muur...
Waiiiiiiiiiiiiit a minute
You watched the Hoogerhide race? And you didn’t inform me at the time?
C’mon Donny, let’s go get us a lane.
"I didn't look for him and I didn't see him. If you base your race on another rider, most of the time you lose."
Tom Boonen
ah, so that's what lance was twittering about...
hopefully the announcers will be decent….
and as to live, we’ll have to wait and see
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
I will gladly trade in better commentary at CTV
for live TV coverage, with crappy commentating.
In Chauncey we trust!
if you're lucky and have a universal sports affiliate in your area...
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
We just discovered recently that we have it.
It just sort of appeared sometime in the past few months. Woo-freaking-HOO!
You need to do this race two or three times before you can win, despite what Cunego showed us last year: winning in his first try--Frank Schleck, on Amstel Gold
Yeah, same here
i was randomly flipping through the channels when I saw cycling in the TV Guide, and it said US on the side, so I pressed it and BOOM, there was Universal Sports…awesome!
In Chauncey we trust!
I just saw Indianapolis had it as well.
This might be worth getting a TV for. I am just to cheap to pay for cable or satellite TV, but since Universal is over the air, it might be worth it.
podium cafe is 'the commentary'!
just need a solid video feed and the pod caf threads provide all the commentary we need!
"Race radios in Cat 4?"
Universal has had very poor commentary . . .
. . . on other sporting events, such as the World Cross Country Championships. It was truly pathetic. LEt’s see if they can reverse the trend.
Phil Ligget, Paul Sherwin, and Bob Roll just may be available . . . ?
Well it seems on Steephill TV's Twitter...
It seems that it is still up in the air about who will have live feed online…Cycling.Tv or Universal
here
For 4 years?
I wonder if it’s the same deal that Eurosport bought, which would include MSR, T-A, and Lombardia, I hope they are successful because we could see a lot more live cycling on TV if Universal Sports continues to grow. The 4 year deal also tells me they are dedicated to cycling, not just Lance.
In Chauncey we trust!
Or
they got a buy three get one free deal. i know I’m always a sucker for those.
"Never swing a small stick. " Andy Hampsten
Snow's falling Dude
How’s your season going?
"I didn't look for him and I didn't see him. If you base your race on another rider, most of the time you lose."
Tom Boonen
Donny, you're out of your element
It stopped snowing days ago.
After learning the rules of the road the hard way back in March, I managed a handful of top-20 places with a 5th at Yale being my best result (finishing at the top of East Rock for those who know the area). It’s amazing how you can all of a sudden just “get it”, and then racing becomes much much simpler. Next year I upgrade to the almost big-boy division.
"Never swing a small stick. " Andy Hampsten
Awesome - well done
So you’ll be riding for the Little Lebowski Over Achievers next season? Can’t wait to see the uni.
"I didn't look for him and I didn't see him. If you base your race on another rider, most of the time you lose."
Tom Boonen
Most awesome
I’ve missed cycling on Universal Sports this year, and didn’t like their three-month delayed replay of Hoogerhide recently (’cross is so winter . . .).
I’ll be watchin’.
Is this the
geo-restricted Universal Sports that streamed the olympics? If so, I’m going to have to start looking for a reeeeeeeally powerful wireless signal from New York or Vermont.
"Never swing a small stick. " Andy Hampsten
Not necessarily bad news
they may have signed for all the NA rights.
Ooh, maybe they did.
If not, that would be a shame.
You need to do this race two or three times before you can win, despite what Cunego showed us last year: winning in his first try--Frank Schleck, on Amstel Gold
Hey lawyer types
any of you know how to file a NAFTA appeal?
"Never swing a small stick. " Andy Hampsten
Universal will also be showing
the US Air Force Cycling Classic (local crit-ish race), the Philly Champ, Nature Valley, and Tour of Missouri. They also show the unexpected, sometimes – I just happened to catch the CX Worlds in HD, not too long ago.
The Little 500 . . .
. . . is always great fun to watch. And I have no Indiana connections whatsoever. The race is just neat concept and fun to watch.
free?
All of that fuss, and now universalsports.com gets it to us streaming live and on-demand for free?!?
And to think that I was ready to pay for it!
-Greg
Does anyone know...?
What’s the relationship between Universal and Cycling.TV? They’re both Jump.TV sites, but I’m not sure if that’s a common parent company or something less.
CQRanking.com, you complete me.
by Chris Fontecchio on May 7, 2009 5:04 PM EDT reply actions
are they affiliated
with NBC? Their logo has a certain peacock-y look to it.
"The road is our agony, but also our daily bread; and at night, when it is deserted and the moon glistens on the asphalt, the ridiculous dreams of racers like us pass up and down it."
--Dino Buzzati
Oh, Universal is definitely NBC
I think the relationship with JumpTV is for (and really, can this be right?) technical services.
sounds right
CQRanking.com, you complete me.
by Chris Fontecchio on May 7, 2009 5:08 PM EDT up reply actions
actually . . .
Sounds like Universal (nee WCSN) doing something more along the lines of a joint venture with Jump. The director of advertising operations for Universal? Also appears to be the director for advertising operations for JumpTV.
Ah, right
NBC. So if you touch the Jump.tv logo it says “powered by jump.tv”. Is this just a platform?
CQRanking.com, you complete me.
by Chris Fontecchio on May 7, 2009 5:07 PM EDT up reply actions
Universal Sports covered the US Figure Skating Championships
and they didn’t have any announcers – they just played the live feed so you could hear the arena broadcasters. It was actually really nice and they showed far more coverage than we ever got before.
Another question
Apparently Seattle gets it over the air, but it says:
“5.2 with a digital tv receiver.”
What’s channel 5.2 and what’s a digital receiver? I have a DirecTV DVR, but I have a feeling that’s not the same thing.
CQRanking.com, you complete me.
by Chris Fontecchio on May 7, 2009 5:07 PM EDT reply actions
Are these the same guys that carried the Olympics?
I don’t think my operating system allowed me to watch online then…I take it that’s the case now too?
by plinytheelder on May 7, 2009 5:10 PM EDT up reply actions
oh I don't know why that posted in response to Chris
But re: Chris’s question: with digital TV all the networks have several channels, I assume 5.2 in Seattle is like “NBC-2” if that makes sense…
by plinytheelder on May 7, 2009 5:11 PM EDT up reply actions
Ah, right
5 is NBC broadcast. Just gotta figure out the hardware thing then…
CQRanking.com, you complete me.
by Chris Fontecchio on May 7, 2009 5:12 PM EDT up reply actions
Sorta...
NBC/Olympics streaming required the moronic new Silverlight plugin, and the sleazy dirtbags actually ran an OS check (not that I’m harboring bitterness).
My Ubuntu Linux systems still can’t stream Universal Sports video it requires the Windows Media 11 player (Macs have some other option). Fortunately, I keep a Vista partition for just these emergencies…
"Age and treachery will overcome youth and skill"
-- Fausto Coppi
You just made the FCC cry
A digital receiver is just that – a tuner that will let you get digital broadcast channels. The US Gov’t is handing out cheese $50 vouchers to subsidizing the purchase of these things. Each broadcaster who previously had a single channel (in the analog scheme) now has enough bandwidth to broadcast several channels worth of programming. Thus, your old Channel 4 broadcaster now broadcasts not only Channel 4, but Channel 4.1, 4.2, etc. In this case, I imagine that most major metro NBC affiliates are broadcasting Universal Sports (another NBC property) on one of their subchannels.
As a cheese recipient
I can verify that Philly and NY NBC affilliates carry Universal Sports as one of their digital channels. Whether you can get reception is another matter though.
what you want is a ATSC tunner
Any TV sold in the past couple of years that had an HD over the air tuner or a stand along box.
Well I think you DirectTV box may have an over the air tuner….if it is hooked up to antenna. I have Dish and their HD DVR has an ATSC tunner built in.
I am imaging that right this minute US cycling fans all over the country
are scrambling to figure out just how they are going to get Universal Sports Channel on their television. Makes me smile.
You can imagine
how the Universal Sports people feel. The marketing person I spoke to was in a state of total bliss.
CQRanking.com, you complete me.
by Chris Fontecchio on May 7, 2009 5:37 PM EDT up reply actions
I still have my plug ins from the Olympics (which worked flawlessly), so
I’m pretty happy. I’ll be away this weekend but I’m still happy.
"I didn't look for him and I didn't see him. If you base your race on another rider, most of the time you lose."
Tom Boonen
Cycling.tv
Now, I am not inviting a bash-fest here. I just want to ask, this must be a huge blow to them, no? A free service, taking over the second-biggest rights package in the sport? [And the biggest — Vesus/Le Tour — is already on boradcast in the States.] The US market just got far, far harder for them to reach, outside the spring classics anyway.
CQRanking.com, you complete me.
by Chris Fontecchio on May 7, 2009 5:39 PM EDT reply actions
They will have to get rid of their Giro package
but the stuff they offer on the premium is still no were else to be had in the US. This is also a blow for Versus, Universal sports isn’t huge but neither is Versus, and now Universal is showing cycling outside the Tour, and gasp, they are actually showing it LIVE, plus they could afford something Versus couldn’t.
In Chauncey we trust!
Plus
there’s the Peacock looming in the background. Not sure if/when they want to get really into the sport, but that’s a HUGE pile of resources. Hell, to them the Giro rights are a rounding error.
CQRanking.com, you complete me.
by Chris Fontecchio on May 7, 2009 6:05 PM EDT up reply actions
universal's commentators
sucked for the tour of basque country. Ctv is still my choice. Id still pay 99 for all the tweener races.
+2
I know and have felt the problems the past year but I will still pay for great commentary. While at work I can’t “watch” but I can listen and when there is no commentary, that rules me out.
I love C, not because he rocks as a cyclist, but because deep down he's a band geek! LOL!
yep
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
The bell tolls for CTV in North America
Now CTV is going to have to refund a lot of money for making false promises (or face potential class-action litigation) and will probably lose a lot renewals. Can CTV survive in NA now?
If not, maybe Universal TV will pickup the one-day classics next year.
ctv is still way way better than universal sports....
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
Get the TOC announcers for the Giro
Frankie and the other guy would be good last minute stand-ins.
Not the other guy, please
Ok he knew what he was talking about on the cancer stuff, but he wasn’t so hot on the cycling. “Now remind us again, Frankie, what’s the wheel on the front for.” And this month’s good cause is earthquakes, anyway.
hell, I can call the last 500k of a sprint on universalsports:
“HERE COME THE RIDERS! HERE COME THE RIDERS! HERE COME THE RIDERS! And a man from Rabobank first over the line!!!!!!!”
-Greg
as long as I get to see it
they can be talking about Perez Hilton for all I care.
"I get paid to hurt other people. How good is that? How good is that?
I get paid to make other people suffer on my wheel, that's good." Jens!
but even he
is no match for the mute button.
"I get paid to hurt other people. How good is that? How good is that?
I get paid to make other people suffer on my wheel, that's good." Jens!
That
was unforgettable. To put it gently.
CQRanking.com, you complete me.
by Chris Fontecchio on May 7, 2009 6:26 PM EDT up reply actions
oh, puhleeze, spare me...
but, then again, since i don’t get universal sports on tv here…. and if universal sports online just has the video, i ain’t interested and won’t be watching them…
i’ll stick with the rai streaming coverage, thank you
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
links at various links
http://www.myp2p.eu/competition.php?competitionid=&part=sports&discipline=cycling
http://www.steephill.tv/giro-d-italia/#live
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
Italian overnight?
Any tips on learning Italian by Saturday?
what not to do:
a few years ago I visited a friend who was studying Italian in Rome. His language school was right beside a café, and every morning during break all the students would go there for coffee. So the place would be filled, about half Italians and half foreigners…and then, like clockwork, in would walk this American student, an older guy (in his 50s), singing “Volare” at the top of his lungs! All the Italians would say, in Italian, “who the fuck is this dude”; all the Americans would close their eyes and groan. After a few “come estai paisano”s he would take his place at the bar and order a cappucino; in the meantime everyone else would leave. So, if you find yourself in Rome trying to learn Italian for the Giro broadcast…just try to fit in, man, just try to fit in.
by plinytheelder on May 8, 2009 3:13 PM EDT up reply actions
Rent Cinema Paradiso
CQRanking.com, you complete me.
by Chris Fontecchio on May 8, 2009 6:10 PM EDT up reply actions
You can get a free Pimsleur lesson
here. Otherwise just read Kirsten’s post and go for the right sort of alcohol.
yeah - I get universal yippee! so the next question is
how can I synchronize the RAI audio with the universal video?
mmmm got to have Auro, Davide, Alessandra et all for the Giro
two machines?
CQRanking.com, you complete me.
by Chris Fontecchio on May 7, 2009 6:05 PM EDT up reply actions
VLC's good for stuff like that
if nothing else works, you can have two copies running, one recording it and one tapping into the recorded file and playing it back a bit behind.
The best news about this is
I can now sleep in for the sprint stages(except for the Milano race) and watch as-live on TV. I’m sleeping until 12 on Monday after waking up at 6 for F1 Sunday, and then live mountain stages…..oh this works great.
In Chauncey we trust!
Did you hear
There’s talk of reviving the Coors Classic?
"I get paid to hurt other people. How good is that? How good is that?
I get paid to make other people suffer on my wheel, that's good." Jens!
just saw a story about it
"I get paid to hurt other people. How good is that? How good is that?
I get paid to make other people suffer on my wheel, that's good." Jens!
If this happens I will love Lance for ever
good for him, plus we can tough out the weather in Colorado unlike those silly Californians :) Put it in February! On other thought that might not be such a bright idea.
Btw. Lance also twittered today the Levi will probably do the Leadville 100, I have got to check that out this year.
In Chauncey we trust!
Me too
but this story sounds horribly premature.
CQRanking.com, you complete me.
by Chris Fontecchio on May 7, 2009 11:34 PM EDT up reply actions
Almost like two guys had a conversation
and agreed it was a good idea, so they shared it with the press?
now they’ll see what the public reaction is before they decide their next step.
"I get paid to hurt other people. How good is that? How good is that?
I get paid to make other people suffer on my wheel, that's good." Jens!
Well the two guys happen to be the biggest name in cycling and the governor
of Colorado. But it is too early to start preparing plans for going to the Coors Classic. Yet I’m hopeful cause Colorado is still a active cycling state.
In Chauncey we trust!
You don't record the F1 races?
no way i am getting up that early and missing a ride. I enjoy them in the afternoon without fear of the local sports shmucks ruining the outcome for me.
by australopithecine on May 7, 2009 7:04 PM EDT up reply actions
No, there are only like 18 races, watch em all live, no matter what time
especially now with Vettel becoming a force, I got into the trend of waking up early during the Schumi days and now I’m used to it.
In Chauncey we trust!
being in Canada, I'm hoping
that the Velonews article is accurate and not just another example of someone assuming USA = North America:
Fans in North America will be able to watch complete daily coverage live online at universalsports.com and a taped, same-day show on cable, if Universal’s station is available in their region.
(no Universal affiliates available here on cable anywhere, probably because some of their stuff would interfere with Canadian channels such as TSN/Sportsnet, the so-called “international” sports channels such as Fox Sports World that get picked up seem to carry mostly cricket and soccer…)
Does TLN in Toronto still exist?
if you could somehow get that on cable, I bet they’ll be showing Giro all day, every day. Well slight exaggeration but they’ll definitely have something.
by plinytheelder on May 7, 2009 8:24 PM EDT up reply actions
you mean TSN?
“The Sports Network” (but often referred to by those outside of Toronto as the “Toronto Sports network” for their bias)? – they never cover cycling, they used to own part of the Canadian OLN that shows the Versus coverage of the TdF only, but Canadian OLN is actually now owned by the Rogers group (ie Sportsnet, the rival sports network in Canada). But yeah, they’re available everywhere in Canada on basic cable. If only they’d show cycling …
no,
TLN – when I lived in Toronto they had very good European cycling coverage, it’s part Italian so I thought they might be interested in the centenary Giro
by plinytheelder on May 7, 2009 9:12 PM EDT up reply actions
that should say "European soccer coverage," especially Italian league
by plinytheelder on May 7, 2009 9:12 PM EDT up reply actions
No it should say European Football coverage
no such thing a soccer in Europe. As in that was a great football match between chelsea and Barca yesterday.
In Chauncey we trust!
ah come on,
I’ve always liked the word “soccer,” and anyways the word “football” in U.S./Canada doesn’t come out of nowhere, doesn’t it come from the term “rugby football”? That’s my understanding anyways. Also, we’re not the only ones who do it, the Italians call it “Calcio,” whatever that means!
by plinytheelder on May 7, 2009 9:28 PM EDT up reply actions
Oh you take my comments too seriously
although I do believe American Football just stole the name from “soccer” because they didn’t know what to call the egg thing they play with. It’s just stupid because in American Football, you hardly use the foot and those players who do are the most clumsy, disrespected players in the game. And there are no words that resemble foot and ball in Italian, unlike German were it is Fußball for instance.
In Chauncey we trust!
Hey Phil!
The term “football” was originally used to distinguished sports that were played on foot as opposed to on horse, i.e. polo.
Soccer stands for “Association football” which is an English term used to distinguish soccer from rugby back when the split occurred between the two sports. It’s an historically acceptable term for that game. In English speaking countries where the dominant type of football is not what it is in England, the term soccer is used.
Oh you with your historical analysis
meh, blah blah blah….rugby-football split…blah blah blah…..acceptable term…blah blah blah.
In Chauncey we trust!
well in other Latin languages
they don’t have words that resemble foot and ball, but it doesn’t stop them from calling it “Football,” “Fútbol” and “Futebol!”
By the way not taking your comments seriously, just kidding around myself ;)
by plinytheelder on May 7, 2009 10:46 PM EDT up reply actions
In Italy it's Calcio
same as the word for a kick. In Greek it’s podosfero, the greek words for foot and ball stuck together. But oddly, the Italians in Macerata went from the greek Sfero when they wanted to name a building that they had built for their special, old-Italian version of football, pallone, and called it the Sferistirio. You can find clips of pallone being played on You Tube. Albertina might understand some of them.
yah see my post above
wondering why it’s “calcio,” didn’t know it meant “kick,” thanks! That is interesting about the “Sferistirio,” aren’t there still a bunch of Italian islands where they speak Greek, an antiquated form of it anyways?
by plinytheelder on May 8, 2009 9:11 AM EDT up reply actions
oh, Telelatino
sorry, didn’t know the abbreviation. I’d looked a couple of years ago at their schedule and didn’t see any/much cycling – think since RAI-International started being picked up in Canada a few years ago and was covering some of the cycling stuff they wouldn’t have been able to cover the same things.
(and just checked now – can’t find any cycling or Giro on their schedule)
Woo Hoo!
both steephill and cyclingfans have tweeted that the Universal online coverage will be available in Canada as well! They’d better be right about this, not good to get the hopes up of a pregnant woman who’s starting to get really antsy at home waiting for baby to arrive ;-).
doing well, thanks
just under 3 weeks to go until my due date, some minor issues may mean baby arrives earlier than that though … we’ll see.
a... a...
Giro baby!! Cool@
CQRanking.com, you complete me.
by Chris Fontecchio on May 8, 2009 6:11 PM EDT up reply actions
My favorite quote of the VN article is this one
I won something like nine Emmys on cycling events," Michaels said. "Now that I’m the executive producer of this little TV network, I’m trying to get cycling back. The first thing I did was convince everybody here that we needed to do the Tour of the Basque Country, which nobody had heard of
A guy like this running a network in the US is exactly what we US cycling fans need, awesome!
In Chauncey we trust!
he needs to get decent announcers....
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
He sounds
a little self-promoting, but that may be out of context. In which case, I’m thinking I will really like this guy.
CQRanking.com, you complete me.
by Chris Fontecchio on May 7, 2009 11:35 PM EDT up reply actions
From the VN article:
commentary from Todd Gogulski and Steve Schlanger. Scott Ogle will be on the ground for Universal in Italy.
-Greg
bleck
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
come on...are those real names?
“Gogulski, Schlanger and Ogle”? Sounds like a Will Farrel movie! No offence to those guys…but wow, think of the possibilities!
by plinytheelder on May 7, 2009 8:25 PM EDT up reply actions
Is there a connection between ToC moving to May and Giro price dropping?
I'm not Bob Dylan but I never miss a beat.
I ain't no philosopher, I dance in the street.
For the Canadians
according to steephill, Universal coverage is available for those in
United States, Canada and surrounding US territories
In Chauncey we trust!
Game On CDN!
I wasn’t getting excited before. Can I now?
Universal video using a linux machine question
I run a Firefox browser on a Linux OS (not PC/Windows or MAC). Has anyone with this setup been able to watch any video on the Universal Web site?
I went to their Web site and found only video help for PC or MAC:-( When I click on their videos, I get the Universal intro then….nothing. I am in the U.S.
Not feeling like part of the Giro Universe:-P
I struggled with Silverlight when I tried to watch their Olympic coverage. I could never get it to work. I emailed Universal, and I am waiting to hear back. I suspect that I am out of luck. Maybe I’ll try other coverage like RAI. Also, Universal Sports is not a tv option for me here.
it's wmp... not silverlight....
only way to know fer sure is bebop over and watch vods…
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
Maybe Silverlight, maybe Windows Media Player 11
I can’t stream Universal Sports video on my Ubuntu Linux boxes either, though I have Moonlight (the Novell opensource version of Silverlight) installed.
I think they require Windows Media Player 11 (or equivalent for Macs), which pretty much rules out the Linux folks.
I believe the new Linux port of Silverlight is about to be released (click here to see if you’re supported). I’m going to give it a try, but I plan on rebooting in Vista for the Giro.
I hope all of Italy appreciates my sacrifice.
"Age and treachery will overcome youth and skill"
-- Fausto Coppi
Not Silverlight...
I think they require Windows Media Player 11, which isn’t available for Linux.
I just installed the very latest version of Moonlight (Novell/microsoft’s Linux version of Silverlight), and still no joy.
I think I’m rebooting my laptop in Vista for the Giro.
"Age and treachery will overcome youth and skill"
-- Fausto Coppi
The Viewing Grows Weirder
Even after rebooting in Vista (with all the latest Windows media goodies installed), I can only watch the Doha track meet live in Internet Explorer, not Firefox.
NBC’s simply too tied into Microsoft for their own good; the Olympic’s Silverlight fiasco was only the start.
I have half a mind to call Hennie Kuiper down on their monopolistic asses.
"Age and treachery will overcome youth and skill"
-- Fausto Coppi
Not sure if this helps
But I couldn’t get it to work with Firefox, so I resigned myself to use IE (which I didn’t even have), so I downloaded the new IE and all the required plug-ins to get it working. Once I had it working on IE, I went back and found it worked on Firefox as well. I think it’s more a MS windows thing than a NBC thing.
"I get paid to hurt other people. How good is that? How good is that?
I get paid to make other people suffer on my wheel, that's good." Jens!
be careful of IE 8.0... it limits the number of windows/tabs that can be opened from the same underlying provider
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
Universal rules
They carried wire-to-wire coverage of the fall and spring major marathons. First time I had seen the London Flora course. Now available on-demand, which is what I need because I can’t watch Euro cycling live at work.
I love these people.
Props . . .
. . . Universal are due. The commentary may not be the greatest, but they do cover major world sporting events that no other North American media source will touch. And, they do live, for free, and have on-demand!
"live" cycling? seldom... and w/o good commentators, it's useless
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
I totally disagree here.
I really enjoyed watching Pais Vasco on Universal without commentary. The video was just about perfect and it was entirely free. Good commentary is a wonderful thing to have, but I don’t find it absolutely necessary. Most of the races I watch online have commentary in languages I don’t understand anyway.
I’m also willing to give Universal a break as far as commentators go for the Giro—they secured an event on Thursday that starts on Saturday. Now, if they don’t go a good job then I would expect that they’d find better for the next three years, but good for them for finding anybody to do it on this kind of notice.
You need to do this race two or three times before you can win, despite what Cunego showed us last year: winning in his first try--Frank Schleck, on Amstel Gold
the operative word there being "watching"....
i don’t “watch” cycling, i listen to it. and even if it’s in a language other than english, i can get the general gist, with a quick look at the screen on the other laptop every once in a while…
good commentators are essential, if the voices grate on my ears, it’s not useful to me….
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
I sure hope the Universal announcers are different that the ones they had at Pais Vasco
Those guys were awful. I might just take those awful English guys on the Eurosport audio feed instead.
Same guys, actually it is probably better that there is no commentary for the live cov.
and if there is one race were no commentary is still dramatic, it would be the Giro, I have no problem having the Tifosi at the side of the road yell what’s going on.
In Chauncey we trust!
Good
about the no commentary for the live.
I do wonder where this nine time Emmy award winner for his cycling coverage got these guys.
So… just to be clear.. definitely no CTV?
unfortunately, no ctv
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
They still have TBC on the skedj, but I believe it is all but official
I can’t imagine two different stream sights in NA, now they better have the Vuelta though.
In Chauncey we trust!
oh man, I dont now if we could keep track of it all. I think he considers
it a huge success if he even ids the the right rider. Im thinking of going the mute with itunes route.
This was posted on CTV an hour ago
on their Giro status thread
“As you may have seen, Universal Sports have acquired the rights to the Giro d’Italia 2009. Cycling TV has been in final negotiations with the rights owners for the last few weeks, and believed we were the last party still in talks with RAI / RCS Sport. Obviously we are extremely disappointed with the result but are now in talks with Universal Sports to try and develop a partnership around the Giro. We are hopeful we can provide some value around the Giro, and enhance the overall experience of the Giro for North American cycling fans.
We are striving to find the best solution for our customers under the circumstances, and provide appropriate compensation.
We will keep you informed of developments and can only reiterate our sincere disappointment at not being able to secure the Giro rights again this year.
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Cycling TV”
I am sorry CTV is not carrying it. I would have enjoyed the commentary. Instead we will have steve schlanger The Giro is why I subscribed to CTV and the service has been working really well for me this year with the upgrades they have made. This is not a good situation for them.
The ideal partnership would be
Ctv lending Brian and Anthony to Universal Sports for 3 weeks, and staying the hell out of the way otherwise.
"I didn't look for him and I didn't see him. If you base your race on another rider, most of the time you lose."
Tom Boonen
could be ... from twitter
cyclingfans Giro on Universal: Current plan is “raw live video,” no commentary. CTV trying to cut deal to provide commentary. Hope it happens.28 minutes ago from web
I'm encouraged
"I didn't look for him and I didn't see him. If you base your race on another rider, most of the time you lose."
Tom Boonen
that would kick ass
give CTV some highlights package for each stage and therefore have Brian and Anthony do the commentary. Hopefully that would mean no Schlanger and Gulgoskvich or whatever for the TV coverage, those guys can do ski jumping.
In Chauncey we trust!
Here’s a link to the Universal Sports “contact us” page
In case people want to let the channel know that they appreciate the coverage.
So here is my understanding then
Universal will broadcast the Giro live everyday online without commentary.
Then it will broadcast each stage on its CABLE channel at noon EST with commentary from Todd Gogulski and Steve Schlanger. Scott Ogle will be on the ground for Universal in Italy. The TV coverage will then repeat from 9-11 p.m. and 11 p.m.-1 a.m. EST.
So only one live WEB cast without commentary and the other broadcasts are only on the TV and with commentary if you get that channel.
yep.... tho, you can watch the vod of the vid only supposedly...
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
The Universal coverage starts at 8:30am eastern each day
which is even earlier than RAI and Eurosport go live, good stuff.
In Chauncey we trust!
not sure what they'll be showing at 8:30 am Eastern on Saturday
as according to various TTT startlists, the first team (Columbia) doesn’t ride until 1535h CEST (which should be 7:35am MDT or 9:35 am EDT). perhaps some sort of preview first? except, if the live online coverage has no commentary, that makes it a bit difficult to have a preview…
Right it's a bit confusing
I know Rai sport has a pre race show at around that time, maybe they will show that? For the other stages they can go straight to live video but we will see what they do tomorrow. Also the video goes until noon eastern each day, so they must have some sort of post race as well.
In Chauncey we trust!
would be nice
if they showed some of the pre and post-race stuff even if it’s in Italian, I always liked watching the post-race stuff in previous years.
saturday's stage one schedule for RAISport Piu (all times local to italy)
11.30 si gira
12.00 giro speciale
13.00 2008 recap(?)
14.00 “aspettando il giro” (waiting for the giro) part 1
14.45 “aspettando il giro” part 2
16.20 LIVE stage 1 coverage
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
is it jsut me?
I can’t watch any video on universal’s site. I’ve tried to go back and watch the on demand or highlights of previous races and all I get is the opening Universal sports screen which repeats every time I press play…but no races. I tried with other videos they have, and none of them work either.
Could this just be an issue of georestricting of earlier races? Did anyone watch Pais vasco from outside the US borders?
"Never swing a small stick. " Andy Hampsten
i'll check and report back what happens from here in Edmonton
I seem to recall previously there were some things I could watch and some I couldn’t, hopefully it’s related to georestricting of previous races and that it won’t be a problem for Canadians for the Giro.
seems ok here for Pais Vasco
well, the first “highlight” clip I checked wouldn’t play (similar to how you describe), I was trying Firefox so I then tried it in IE and it worked fine. Then I went to a different highlight clip which worked in both Firefox and IE, retried the original one which then worked in Firefox as well. I was also able to watch the video on-demand (tried stage 6) in both FF and IE. (running Vista)
tried some other stuff too, currently live supposedly is the IAAF Grand Prix from Qatar but the video came up with a header saying “US only” and sure enough, I got a video message “not available in your region”. I thought for sure they’d have the IIHF World Champs geo-restricted, but I was able to start watching yesterday’s quarter-final between Sweden and the Czechs … either TSN doesn’t know about this or doesn’t care, now I’m curious to see in 20 minutes or so whether the live semi-final between Canada and Sweden is blocked to Canada or not.
You can open up the video page for the Giro, the page were live video will be played
and it says for US and Canada, so you guys shouldn’t have to worry, seems like you’ll get it.
In Chauncey we trust!
I've had the same trouble with Universal Sports in Firefox
Not all the time, but some of the time. Did okay with most stages of Pais Vasco, but had to watch the New York Marathon in IE.
If you're not laughing, you're crying in the Giro. Every team leaves [for the start] hours before the race starts, because you never know. Maybe they decided to strike on the road today. Maybe somebody decided not to come to work that day. Maybe the signs to the race are backwards.--Christian Vande Velde
You got a Mac?
I do and I can’t do the live footage in Firefox. I need Safari- which does work. Right now the world track championships are on live so it would be good for folks to check and see it now.
No, a PC. No clue why sometimes it works in Firefox and sometimes it doesn't.
If you're not laughing, you're crying in the Giro. Every team leaves [for the start] hours before the race starts, because you never know. Maybe they decided to strike on the road today. Maybe somebody decided not to come to work that day. Maybe the signs to the race are backwards.--Christian Vande Velde
According to steephill Rai International will also carry the Giro starting with stage 2
on a 1 hour delay I think
In Chauncey we trust!
yes, just saw that!
yay! I’m not doing so good getting up super-early these days, so I was really hoping RAI-I would come through (can record and watch whenever I wake up and not have to wait for the “on demand” stuff to show up, if Universal is actually having on-demand video online later anyway).
computer question:
I have a Mac, and when I try to watch live at the universal sports site, I get a message saying “additional software is required,” but it doesn’t specify which; then I’m directed to the apple “quicktime components” page, where I can supposedly download any of several things (CC, DivX, Xvid, streambox, etc.). Um…does anyone know what I need? And whether my computer is in any danger of exploding as a result of downloading any of this stuff? Thanks.
So have they confirmed that start time for the TV coverage?
no schedule on their website, online tv schedules are not updated. I need to set the tivo!
not asking for much are you
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
They updated the schedule for tomorrow, not yet for other days but they should be the same
the Giro airs at noon eastern and then again at 9 and 11pm eastern. Two hours each time.
In Chauncey we trust!
the beach volleyball looks good... lucky you
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
here
http://www.universalsports.com/EPG/tv.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=23000&SPID=13408
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
bookmark it
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
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