While Phil and Paul used to effectively be the "World Feed" English language commentators, that's no longer the case this year. The Australian combo of Matthew Keenan and Robbie McEwen are both commentators for SBS in Australia and the world feed. This seems to have been a decision made by the ASO. I don't know if Phil and Paul were too expensive or they just wanted a change. While I don't know much about Keenan (although I think he has done the early part of stages on the world feed previously, before handing over to Phil and Paul), I think McEwen is pretty decent, and he certainly had a lot to say on Twitter about the crash at the end of today's stage.
I *think* these are the two you're hearing, judging by some Twitter searches. McEwen was a sprinter of course, so he knows as well as anyone what's happening out there. I wonder if they have to be non-judgemental on the world feed though? I know views will differ, but I must confess that I think Phil and Paul are past it for live race duties. I'd been saying it before ITV in the UK ditched them last year, and I've said it here before too. Phil seems to be a bit slower identifying riders, and Paul isn't nearly as clued up on the current cycling scene as newer faces. And I say all that as someone who had been listening to Phil call bike races in the UK since the mid-eighties, and Paul very nearly as long. None of this really explains why NBC couldn't give you Phil and Paul since they're exclusively NBC commentators now. And if they're not doing the full race, then you could fall back to the world feed. Adam On Tue, Jul 4, 2017 at 9:57 PM, Kevin M. <drunkbastar...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > On Tue, Jul 4, 2017 at 1:44 PM, Adam Bowie <a...@adambowie.co.uk> wrote: > >> >> Of note is the fact that this year ASO (the organisers) and France >> Televisions (the host broadcaster) have chosen to televise every minute of >> every stage live. While fans of other sports might be surprised that this >> doesn't happen already, the complexities of covering a constantly moving >> event over 200km with motorbikes, helicopters, planes circling and >> satellites mean that this has rarely been done before - at least not for >> every stage of the race. >> >> What this means is that commentators who might have done 2-3 hours shifts >> are now needed for perhaps 5-6 hour stints. I'm guessing that there's no >> way Paul and Phil - the NBC commentators - are doing that. >> > > Yeah, as I said, in previous years they'd have relief commentators to > handle when Paul & Phil were either on a break or unavailable, but once the > primary announcing duo was available, people who paid money got NBC's > coverage. This year we are just getting crap... college level broadcasting > at best, drunken interns at worst. > > > >> >> >> A real shame that you're getting such a crappy service when you're happy >> to pay for the full thing. >> >> On Tue, Jul 4, 2017 at 9:26 PM, Kevin M. <drunkbastar...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >> >>> >>> Not being a sports fan, I hear stories about how broadcast and cable TV >>> has worked hard to make coverage of sports unbearable for actual fans. This >>> year, NBC Sports has gone out of its way to make the only sports event I >>> enjoy painful to watch. >>> >>> >> Oh but Kevin. You're paying for a sports app. You're definitely a sports >> fan! >> >> > That's the thing... I'm paying to watch the single event of a sport. > Acknowledging I'm not a traditional sports enthusiast, I will pay a premium > to watch the one thing I enjoy, but if I'm going to pay that premium -- and > if the service comes with a premium sounding name like Gold -- I'd better > get premium access. > > Just irritated. One of the most controversial decisions in the history of > Le Tour happened today, and I'd like to hear experts weigh in. I'd like > explanations of both the written and unwritten rules. Instead I get Heckle > and Jeckle who offer no insight or perspective beyond, "Oh look, the guy on > the bike fell down and went boom." > -- > Kevin M. (RPCV) > > -- > -- > TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "TV or Not TV" group. > To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
