Joined
·
1,939 Posts
SNOne will have a half-hour of highlights from the Tour of Oman beginning Wednesday.
The scenery in Oman sure is spectacular, and that climb up to the dam in Stage 2 certainly looked like a leg-buster. It's too bad we're only getting a half hour of highlights a day as Oman is a lot more interesting than Qatar.Too bad they decided to show highlights of the Tour of Oman
I'm glad you posted this b/c I've been recording it and I thought my kids deleted it by mistake. I noticed the hightlights were more than a day delayed, by the time they were on the next stage was already finished.Dear Sportsnet:
It's awesome that you are stepping up the inclusion of cycling in your schedule. It's been a treat to watch the Tour Down Under, the Tour of Qatar and the Tour of Oman. However, the Tour of Oman is a SIX stage race and there is no sign of the final stage anywhere on your schedule! While it hasn't been too difficult to stay out of the loop to spoil the results of your delayed highlight packages from Oman, it isn't much fun to be left hanging like this!
BTW, it's great to see commentator Anthony McCrossan get an honest gig after being affiliated with those flimflam artists at cycling.tv...
Sincerely,
Nels
PS, please keep bringing us cycling. We're only weeks away from Classics season, and it would be awesome to see those live on my 50-inch plasma, even though it means getting up at 5 a.m. PST.
It is on right now on SN1. I haven't seen it show up before now.However, the Tour of Oman is a SIX stage race and there is no sign of the final stage anywhere on your schedule!
A week late is pretty weak. I've moved on; watched this weekend's Flanders' Classics live on the internet, and picked up a little Dutch along the way.It is on right now on SN1. I haven't seen it show up before now.
I couldn't agree more with you, I can't believe the thought process behind this. They tease at the beginning of the year with coverage of the TDU and Tour of Qatar and then they stop and don't even show highlights of the classics.NBC Sports Network viewers in the U.S. got to watch this morning's Tour of Flanders live, just as they'll get to see next Sunday's Paris-Roubaix live. We get bupkuss. Instead SN1 shows us preview shows for each of the Major League baseball teams. Yawn.
We have four national sports channels and not one of them can find the time, or see the advertising value in running cycling programming at an hour that is usually devoid of live events anyway. Cyclists represent a lucrative demographic with money to spend (that is, when we haven't already spent it on our bikes), and there were two Canadians in today's Tour of Flanders and a Canadian will lead his team at this spring's Giro d'Italia. Seems to me those channels are missing the boat.
I suspect it's mostly about money. SN probably got the TDU, Qatar and Oman for nothing or next to nothing, particularly the latter two as those were highlights packaged by the organizers themselves - essentially infomercials. The Classics and Grand Tour organizers probably command a decent penny for their broadcast rights, and SN likely doesn't want to take much of a financial risk. Still, packaged properly and with a built-in loyal and growing audience of cycling enthusiasts STARVING for coverage of pro racing from Europe, it would probably be a slam dunk sell to the proper advertisers (ones looking for the quality of their audience, not necessarily the quantity of it).I can't believe the thought process behind this.