Satellite TV

One of the things I've been enjoying "over here" is the satellite TV sports coverage. Watched a lot of olympic events without commercials, including sailing, rowing, weightlifting, triathlon, shotput et. al. Some were really compelling, like weightlifting, that has a drama and crescendo all it's own as the lifters try to get the highest weight in their three allowed tries. Some were just stupid, like team handball, which is the only sport to rival netball in stupidity.

This last week we've had hours and hours of US Open (tennis). Really fun. Only downside is the announcers, like Luke Jensen who should be relegated (with Bill Walton) to that great scrap heap in the sky. I mean how many times can you repeat the same thing? I enjoy watching Serena Williams. Besides being a great player, she's the only one who takes only the balls she needs when serving. Everybody else takes at least three and some take four. They look at them and then by some mysterious criteria bat the "bad" ones back to the ball person. I guess it's a form of meditation, but really, please just take a ball and hit it for goodness sake, they're all the same.

Also got to watch the European Grand Prix (Valencia) and the IRL league race from Sonoma. Not very exciting races per se, but each had it's moments. In Valencia it was Massa's amazing drive where he just ran away from everyone and then later when Kimi Raikkonen's pit guy got knocked down by the fuel hose that didn't detach properly. Raikkonen soon after retired with engine failure. In Sonoma it was Castroneves finally breaking out of finishing second.

One striking contrast was in the course signage. The F1 guys just do it so much better. Every place on the course where a TV camera was setup was decorated perfectly for the single sponsor. Considering the image above, despite the crash.net watermark, it's easy to see the one and only sponsor in the F1 picture. It was setup that way all around the course. The Sonoma coverage didn't have any coherent setup. There were seemingly random sponsor's signs placed randomly around the course. (sorry couldn't find the perfect picture). But you get the idea. I would suggest that the IRL guys take a lesson. Raise the fees to sponsors and deliver a more targeted image and raise your series image a notch or two.