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Thanks, Universal Sports

on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 13:17

The Grand Tours - the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France, etc. - are the big dogs in cycling, and I'm sure TV rights are hard-fought.  And while the Tour will always get good TV coverage, the Giro nearly didn't get <em>any</em> coverage in the US this year because <a href="http://versus.com">Versus</a> network (who broadcasts most of the cycling we get to see here in the US) didn't agree to the Giro's deal terms.

But in stepped Universal Sports, and at the last minute rescued coverage for us here.

And boy, what a rescue.  They're showing good quality in-browser video of the full stages of each race, with pretty-good commentary - commercial free (except for a pre-roll ad at the beginning).  (Yes, I miss Phil Ligget, Paul Sherwen & Bob Roll.  But....)  It's been a blast to simply put a browser window on a 2nd screen on my desktop, and let it play all day - audio muted - until something interesting looks like it's happening.  There's even an enhanced version (for $19.95 for the entire Giro) that provides broadcast-quality video, live GPS tracking, real time text play-by-play, interactive maps, hill profiles, and live viewer chat.  This was used in the Tour of California for the last several years (no cost to users), and I loved it. (Not quite enough to pay $20; maybe $10.  Ok, I'm cheap.)

This has been wonderful.  A massive, huge, big shout out of thanks to Universal Sports for pulling this together.  I love it.  And if you're reading, I'd even put up with some flyover ads (e.g. across the bottom like YouTube does it.)  As long as you don't obsure important stuff.   ;-)  You've won my heart, and my viewership, for as many races as you want to pick up.  Go head-to-head with Versus; we fans will switch if you do it well.  (Make that enhanced version available for all races you cover in the season, and I'll pay $100/year.)

I'm an unabashed fan of Professional Cycling.  The big European races thrill me to no end.  I love talking about them, participating as a full-fledged tifosi from the US.

It's hard for us here in the US to truly get "full race" coverage in video.  We either have to buy a subscription to cycling.tv (not cheap), which in my experience has been about as painful to use as tearing a bandage off 8-hour-old road rash.  This year's Giro d'Italia was nearly a casualty of cycling not being a big-enough sport here in the US to get us good coverage.  Nearly.

 

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