Thought I'd just put a post together since Sunday nights coverage sent my phones battery into meltdown with twitter mentions. These comments are observations with a bit of knowledge of the industry, not fact or comment from BT Sport / ESPN UK. That and 140 characters is easily lost in the timeline.
The UK race coverage was due to end at 22:30, NCAA basketball was due to take over at this point. Due to the (very) high number of caution periods early in the race, the race over ran by approximately part of 30 minutes.
At this point, whenever the US went to commercial break, instead of taking the breaks here, ESPN UK cut to the basketball game they were due to cover. These are 'Live Look Ins'. So for the most part, in the last 20 laps we didn't actually miss much that we wouldn't have seen anyway. It wasn't perfect or seamless, but this happens more than you realise if you have the US stream on at the same time, they are late back from UK breaks, it is an unfortunate pitfall of taking international feeds.
The feed ESPN UK take is a direct feed of ABC, so when they go 'side by side', we have to go to adverts as they can't broadcast US commercials over here. Occasionally this slips, you may have seen adverts for pancakes, I think, and the ABC Indy 500 coverage.
As for the post race, it was on network TV in the US so traditionally very little, and the main race had finished, I'd expect that to be cut to go to the next live sporting event.
I would say from my personal opinion, they could have done with a small ticker or on screen graphic saying 'Indycar will return shortly' or something to that effect just to inform viewers that they hadn't abandoned the race, which they haven't done since switching over from Sky Sports in 2013.
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190 days gone, 20 to go, yes the wait is nearly over! As with every season, it brings new fans to the series, be the friends, family, chanel hoppers, etc. so part of the build up to the first race in St Petersburg I would like to collect and share your memeories of your first Indycar race in person (in any of the various series guises!). Which race was it, who did you go with, who did you meet, what stood out for you, what made the day memorable for you, do you have a picture from that race? These are just a few of the themes I am looking to share with fellow fans. If I could also draw your attention to another reason to share memories and understand what they mean and can do, please visit Sporting Memories Network and the Alzheimers Society. |
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May 2017
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