After watching the debuts of Fox Sports 1’s and NBC Sports Group’s big day on Saturday, I have a few thoughts. They come in bullet form.
- NBC Sports Group could not have asked for a better debut with the English Premier League. NBCSN began with Premier League Live at 7 a.m. ET with host Rebecca Lowe and analysts Robbie Mustoe and Robbie Earle. All were very solid during the pregame show. NBCSN did not dumb down its coverage and provided viewers with some very intelligent television, a rarity in this day and age. The pregame gave us a Sunday NFL feel by showing the empty stadiums in anticipation of later matches and airing interviews with coaches.
I like the scores of other games in the upper right hand corner. Nice touch to keep fans updated and to steer them to the Extra Time overflow channels or the NBC Sports Live Extra App.
The NBC Sports Live Extra app was perfect with the streaming of all the games that were placed on Extra Time. Overall, the video quality was excellent and there were no problems with buffering.
If there was anything that took away from the day, it was some audio problems that had the commentary slightly ahead of the video. We heard announcers getting excited about scoring opportunities just before the play transpired on the screen. I’m sure NBC’s engineers will work on that for future games.
Arlo White was very good in NBC’s first game which was Swansea City vs. Manchester United.
Overall, a very solid debut for the English Premier League on NBC. The only thing I did not see was Match of the Day in late night. I will watch the Sunday edition. From what I saw on Saturday, soccer fans will have to feel good about the EPL on NBCUniversal. I give the coverage an A.
- Fox Sports 1 also kicked off on Saturday with a full day of programming including NASCAR, UFC and its nightly Fox Sports Live program. After a shaky start for FSL, the show began to hit it stride as it progressed for the first three hours of its run. Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole are very good. Their humor and irreverence showed as the program continued.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/CqfNREDvKIY&rel=0&w=560&h=315]
The panel is a weak link. While Charissa Thompson is good as moderator, having four athletes is too much. They’re fighting for air time and that’s not a good thing. I need a few more weeks to fully assess the show. But you can see the first-ever opening for the show with Charissa and the panel below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VViutPB-8eE&rel=0&w=560&h=315]I do like the bottom information bar which does not scroll, but has a line break so you can see game lines, scores, news and stats without having to wait for an entire sentence to finish while it moves at breakneck speed. The right side could be reduced a bit. This screengrab comes courtesy of @cjzero:
The video resolution is good, but the picture is squeezed a bit too much. the right hand part needs to be reduced, but it’s not too bad. This is similar to Sky Sports News which shows a lot of information on the graphics portion.
The grade for the first show is a B minus for the shaky start during the first hour where Fox was adjusting the size of its picture, but finally calmed down 40 minutes in. I’ll wait for a few more weeks to give a more concrete review of the show.
- I’ve enjoyed watching the IAAF World Track & Field Championships since last weekend, but let’s face it, there has to be a way to get this event on NBCSN. There has been a lot of great drama from Russia over the last 9 days, most of it has aired on Universal Sports, but not every cable and satellite provider carries it. When NBCSN was known as Versus, it showed the 2009 Championships from Berlin, however, the last two including this year’s Championships have been shown on Universal. NBC has had weekend coverage, but it’s a disservice to keep most of the country from seeing the meet during the week. This is a major global event, yet it’s not treated as such on American television. I’ve had to resort to watching it from the BBC through a friend in the UK.
- I’m hoping Fox Sports 2 will air the Australian Football League’s Grand Final later this year, but I have feeling it’s going to be seen on Fox Soccer Plus which will remain through all of the machinations behind Speed and Fox Sports 1.
- The Today Show and Good Morning America typify what is wrong with America. These two shows give us misplaced attention on celebrities, the Royal Family and missing persons cases as if they’re the most important issues in America. They are dumbing us down, yet they’re flagship shows for their networks. Surely America can do better than this.
And that concludes the thoughts for Sunday.
