Olympic Marathon Trials Will Not Be Streamed Online Live

video killed the radio star wrote:

How can the ~US 20K or the US 10 miler be streamed online, but the OLYMPIC TRIALS can't?!! Somebody please pay Flotrack or Runnerspace. This is just another example of how USATFs silly little rules hurts sponsorship involvement and thus the money for media coverage (and money for the sport in general).

This isn't about someone paying Flotrack or Runnerspace to stream this. LetsRun.com would gradually pay NBC to stream this. If anyone is going to be paying, they're going to be paying NBC.

This isn't USATF rules. It's NBC and perhaps USATF focusing on the big picture. If you're a sponsor which would you rather have, a live stream not that many people watch or a 2 hour tv broadcast probably a million plus watch?

However, having said that I think it's a mistake by not also having a live stream in addition to the tv broadcast. You can even charge for it. It's a win, win. Hardcore fans get what they want, the sport still gets the needed tv exposure.

What the sport doesn't need is just online streaming on its own with no tv as it withers away with no one but the hardest core fans watching it. So the TV here is a good step but the lack of live streaming seems an oversight that can be corrected.

Will the Houston Marathon website at least have quality runner tracking available? NYC and London marathon websites have nicely set up real-time tracking, it would be a small consolation. Somehow they had every split for every runner at the last Trials.

This is NBC's decision, and it shows.

network television has not changed their formatting in 40 years, and thay have not had to, because they keep seeing increased profits. So you have dinosaurs who think The Donny & Marie Show is what people want, and they produce programs like that.

Until there is a big shakeup in the television broadcasting industry, thing like this will be common.

Maybe tape delay is safer - it gives USATF time to edit/blur out any "illegal" sponsor tattoos that an athlete may want to wear. Nike first, athletes second.

wejo wrote:

Steven Karpas of the Houston Marathon/Trials confirmed their won't be live coverage of the race. Only 2 hours tape delay on NBC. See:

http://www.letsrun.com/2011/trials-nostream-1201.php

The problem is NBC.

wejo wrote:

2 hour national tv coverage is great and better than in 2007 but the lack of live streaming is a shock. Hopefully NBC can be talked into changing its mind.

Huh? The problem is NBC. The solution is to not give the coverage to them!

wejo wrote:

Our sport needs to be treated as a sport. That means live coverage.

I'm a huge proponent of getting the sport on TV

Wejo, you are getting what you want. NBC has control.

You win, NBC wins, runners everywhere lose. Are you sure that's what you want????

The solution is not NBC. I don't care if every brain dead couch potato in American sees running events, they don't care anyway, and I certainly don't want NBC.

The solution is to get rid of NBC, and go back to our own private personal streaming to hard core fans. This is what's always worked best. Let's not screw it up by making the internet as bad as tv ever was.

wejo wrote:

LetsRun.com would gradually pay NBC to stream this.

Well, offer them a lump sum instead.

So if I understand this correctly, Flotrack, RunnerSpace, etc. don't have permission to stream this because of NBC's contract with the race(s), meaning that they control the entirety of the video coverage and can delay it and frig it up to whatever extent they please. Is this correct?

rojo wrote:

wejo wrote:

I'm a huge proponent of getting the sport on TV and before as many people as possible. Streaming the sport just to its hard core fans is not a solution to the sports problems. This however just sucks for the real fan of the sport who can't make it to Houston.

Let me be Devil's advocate.

1) A real hard-core fan or parent will be there or can wait.

2) If you were NBC, why would you devote the resources/time to stream it for a few thousand and zero revenue when they are preparing to get it right for a few million?

3) I think actually having to wait until the show would create anticipation and be fun - if only the internet didn't exist. Few hard core people will be able to resist.

Think on the bright side, the letsrun traffic will explode.

let me be the Devil's advocate to the Devil's advocate.

1) many real hard core fans have lives outside of running -- work, family, etc. Also many hard core runners, don't want to see a "wrap-up" but the whole race to see how it plays out and the strategy, etc. A wrap-up is a disservice.

Also many hard-core fans will probably find out the results anyway thus ruining the wrap-up

2) Simple. NBC has to film the whole race anyway, it's not like the wrap-up is not going to show the race. Any sports journalist worth their salt knows that they would have to watch the whole race in case something newsworthy to happen... the extra resources are minimal. AND THEY COULD CHARGE A NOMINAL FEE for the online webcast.

3) Watch a Olympic trials marathon live creates much of the anticipation. this isn't a 100m dash. Plus with the internet the winners will be known to like 99% of the hard core people thus ruining any "anticipation" and "fun" factor. If I know the winner...I'm much less likely to watch.

Yes, this sucks. But, it is not the end of the world.

First, get real. The trials cost a lot of money to put on. From athlete housing to police monitoring intersections to EMTs to prize money to traffic control equipment, the trials costs money. USATF and the Houston Marathon are obligated to maximize every source of revenue in order to pay the bills. If you take out NBC and put coverage on some runner dork website, you will make it impossible to put on the trials in a major metropolis with world class prize money awarded to the top finishers. The trials will not be able to be run as a stand alone event and will end up back at a podunk marathon like Birmingham or Columbus.

Second, this isn't that bad. Sure, NBC is going to do a crappy job with the coverage. But, so would any other US media outfit, including the runner dork websites and especially not not not ready for primetime letsrun. At least NBC is going to do two hours of coverage, which will mean a substantial portion of the race. And if you really must know what is happening, there will be a battallion of lrc fans on the ground with their iphones giving status updates from the race. Just sleep in on that Saturday and stay away from the web and the NBC broadcast will be as good as any live feed.

Let me then oppose your adversarial stance toward the rejection of the original thesis!

What does having a life outside running have to do with this? That you can watch live at 7 a.m. Central but not in the afternoon? I bet if it was LIVE in the afternoon, you suddenly wouldn't have as many family and work obligations...and who works a serious job on a Saturday? As far as your "will find out the results anyway" problem, is someone standing over you with a a whip screaming "LOG ON TO LETSRUN! LOG ON TO LETSRUN!" all the time? This is only a problem to the extant you make it one.

The downside to NBC is considerable! By streaming the thing live, they would lose a number of viewers of the highlights broadcast, since most who plan to tune into that are running fans anyway...and even if this is not true, I'm sure NBC THINKS it is. And no, the extra resources are not minimal. They don't have to have commentators jabbering for three straight hours for a highlights compendium. If you have ever been involved with TV sports production your take on this would be different.

This is just a restatement of your argument in 1) about being powerless over the media's reach into your head on race day. Now hear this, I would love to have the thing streamed live but it's not going to happen unless some enterprising person somehow manages to do it from a PDA on the press truck

What annoys me about this is that they are already taping the race so that they can show it edited later in the day. So if they're already going to have the cameras out there and a commentator or two are putting their day towards it, whey not offer a paid stream on Universal? We aren't talking about introducing a whole bunch of new overhead to something that wasn't going to have cameras; we're just asking to see the feed they would already be recording, plus have a commentator live for a couple of hours instead of canned in the studio.

It does make me wonder what aponsors are willing to pay for track and field. I wish NBC would tell us how lucrative running is compared to their other sports.

NBC, please offer a live stream of the race for a fee. I think that is the best compromise.

Shoebacca wrote:

What annoys me about this is that they are already taping the race so that they can show it edited later in the day. So if they're already going to have the cameras out there and a commentator or two are putting their day towards it, whey not offer a paid stream on Universal? We aren't talking about introducing a whole bunch of new overhead to something that wasn't going to have cameras; we're just asking to see the feed they would already be recording, plus have a commentator live for a couple of hours instead of canned in the studio.

It does make me wonder what aponsors are willing to pay for track and field. I wish NBC would tell us how lucrative running is compared to their other sports.

I would suspect that NBC ended up having to cover the Trials as part of the deal that lets them cover the Track trials...and the Olympics. As in, they get to show the cool events that people'll watch (i.e. the 100) but they also have to cover the other stuff to make USATF happy.

Someone told me unconfirmed numbers for how many people watched the stream in 2007 and was shocked how low it was. If the number was true I see why NBC didn't worry about it.

Doesn't mean the decision can't get changed.

2 hours of National TV is good. Looks like it won't be up against NFL playoff football except for the last half hour. NFL games started at 4:30pm eastern last year:

http://blogs.nfl.com/2011/01/02/wild-card-and-divisional-playoff-schedule/

I think there will be an NHL Game leading into the broadcast so people can watch NFL pregame or the Trials.

Precious Roy wrote:

At least NBC is going to do two hours of coverage, which will mean a substantial portion of the race.

Just sleep in on that Saturday and stay away from the web and the NBC broadcast will be as good as any live feed.

I would be any amount of money that they show less than a third of each race. There's absolutely no way they show a "substantial portion." Did you watch the two hour recap of NYC Marathon? They gave less than 15 minutes to each race. The rest was spent with introductory fluff, human interest stories, commercials, and other interviews. No was that is "as good as any live feed."

I'd like to think that most people that really care would pony up a few bucks to stream it. Of course, that's a crap shoot too since Universal's streaming is often junk, but it'd be worth a shot. This still allows the casual fan (do they exist) to watch the recap show, while the rest of us can stream.

haha YO wrote:

NBC, please offer a live stream of the race for a fee. I think that is the best compromise.

Don't be foolish.

NBC has stolen the free coverage, prevents others from providing the coverage, then you want to pay them to see?

If someone stole your car, would you pay them for a ride in it?

Come on, think. The solution is to get NBC the heck out of the mix, and to keep our right to have free coverage in our free internet, any time and all the time that we wish.

It is only the thieves at NBC and similar that are trying to prevent this from happening.

1) NBC has rights to all olympic-related events, including track meets. Get used to it, they aren't giving them up anytime soon.

2) There were only ~5000 viewers on the live stream at Stanford this year, and that was when Solinsky and Rupp were both supposed to run. Dropped to about 3,000 when Solinsky dropped out. I would not be surprised if the OTs had fewer than 5,000 viewers (remember that often an entire team will gather around one computer to watch, so more than 5,000 PEOPLE are viewing the feed). In 2007 I remember getting up before 6am to go for a run and then watch the trials and make breakfast with the team. Not for the faint-hearted.

USATF bringing on BP as a sponsor. If memory serves me correct, usatf doesnt shoulder the cost of putting on the mens and womens marathon trials. The host city does. Wasnt this a key issue with NYRC and BAA last time. USATF denied them any chance to offset cost using sponsorship deals. supposedly to not conflict with any USOC sponsors.

yet here we have BP signing on a month beforehand at event coupled with the chevron houston marathon. yea there're seperate events from the trials. but from chevron perspective how happy can they be to fork up money and not only have to remove any signage and promotions during the trials races (as i believe they have to) and further see a compeiter sponsorship that same weekend.

Its great to see a big sponsor $ finding it way to our sport but once again it appears USATF taken care of itself and sticking it to the club/host cities and everyone else putting in hard work and $ to make the trials happen.

Do I got it wrong here?

fasdfasd wrote:

1) NBC has rights to all olympic-related events, including track meets. Get used to it, they aren't giving them up anytime soon.

No they don't.

I never gave them any rights - did you?

They don't have any rights.

They only have the rights that they gave to themselves.

fasdfasd wrote:

1) NBC has rights to all olympic-related events, including track meets. Get used to it, they aren't giving them up anytime soon.

We can make an agreement, between ourselves, that we have all the rights.

And NBC doesn't have any rights.