RTE poor coverage of DCM

rom

The flyovers at the wrong time when stuff was happening. The lack of any spilt screens as there was more going on. The poor comentary of what was going on. Missed the mens break away. They could have like shown the elites in a split screen and then shown as they call it "fun runners" interviews etc. Very poor directing. pitty as I bet they had great footage. The flyovers where at the wrong times. Sonia was like "if I could actually see what happening etc"

Pisco Sour

Can't comment on the DCM as I didnt see it as I'm abroad, but in general RTE's coverage of athletics is shockingly poor.

Here's a recent comment by Mad Len which sums it up:

Were you disappointed that there were no Irish broadcasters in Daegu to cover the championships?

Ciaran: Yeah, it was fairly disappointing. At the end of the day it’s what I’ve come to expect. There are some quality journalists on athletics in this country. Ian O’Riordan and Brendan Mooney come to the front of my mind. They do a fantastic job and are always knowledgeable. But I did some interviews over the phone say with RTE and they haven’t really done any research at all. All it takes is a Google search to get some background info. I just don’t understand sometimes how people are in the jobs they are in. Then you have Jerry Kiernan on Newstalk being asked about my race and cracking on about the Munster Schools Cross Country and the fact I’ve no speed, 2 days after I close my prelim with the fastest 200 of anyone. It boggles the mind really. But at the end of the day I don’t do what I do in order to do interviews or be liked by anybody. I do it to beat people and be the best I can be in the sport I’ve grown to love again and that’s all that really matters.



Their presenters (Bill O'Herlihy, Peter Collins) havent a clue about athletics, the pundits are fine for the most part, but only for certain aspects of the sport. Having every pundit from a distance running background is stupid. They should be asking the likes of Susan Smith, Gary Ryan, Terry McHugh, Nick Sweeney etc to contribute to their coverage, instead of having Jerry Kiernan talk about the 100 metres. What the hell does he know about 100m sprinting, he was a marathon runner!!

Also the articles about athletics on RTE.ie are piss poor, and often are borrowed from other websites, and are usually late up on the website.

They really are an embarrassment as to how they cover the sport at times, and a major overhaul is needed with our "home Olympics" coming up next year, but I'm sure the coverage will be as brutal and as clueless as ever.

MrCreosote

At least you had some coverage. I couldn't get the online footage going at all.

Pity.

corny

The constant Americanisms did my head in the most. Sonia saying marathon and the main commentator saying territory to beat the band. I'm easily annoyed.

Pherekydes

Bad as RTE's coverage is, it could be even worse! You could have an arsehole sounding a klaxon in the studio every time someone mentions the word 'running'.

shels4ever

I thought they did a good job actually, first time in years that any coverage was on the TV. The could have just started with the elite field and finished after 2 hours 10 but the did extended coverage. Apart from some issues with the mens coverage during the race where they seemed to have technical problems.

TheRoadRunner

Watched it last night and I thought it was good. Ok not perfect but first time they've covered a marathon in years so they will only improve. Some of the helicopter shots of the city were superb.

misty floyd

Yeah I thought it was good too.

It was a lot better than the recent coverage of the berlin marathon on the bbc. Even the germans get things wrong.

I'd say it'll be better next year.

robinph

Didn't catch all of the coverage as work got in the way, but thought it was pretty good for a first attempt. They did have some issues with the camera bikes but that happens and not much they can do about it other than putting up an extra helicopter and having twice as many bikes on the road which is going to cost far more than it's worth. Apart from the later lack of footage of the mens race, they were doing their best to keep coverage of the actual lead groups as well as the leading Irish runners.

They did also have to squeeze into the coverage the "fun" runner section, in the likes of London Marathon coverage you'd not see any of that in the main program until after the 3hr finishers were done. RTE had a shorter overall time slot, and they had ads stealing their time too, but they still managed to fit in at least some of everything you'd expect to see.

Didn't like how they were nabbing some of the "fun" runners though, they needed to have a reporter, preferably hot looking , and a cameraman that could run backwards.

Dotcomdolly

robinph wrote: »

Didn't like how they were nabbing some of the "fun" runners though, they needed to have a reporter, preferably hot looking , and a cameraman that could run backwards.

That was just so stupid, I can't understand how people stopped for him. Wise 8 year old pointed out - cos they wanted to be on the telly Mam!!!
The woman that did Operation transformation would have been been well able to do run along interviews.

tunney

At the start "and these are the last of the runners, everyone else is just here for the t-shirt and will finish in over 3 hours"

I laughed.
The wife went nuts.

ThisRegard

Well I practically watched the full coverage and have no issues with it, there was picture breakup and total loss occasionally now and again, probably due to weather so not their fault.

RTE bashing seems to be the cool thing these days.

Pisco Sour

tunney wrote: »

At the start "and these are the last of the runners, everyone else is just here for the t-shirt and will finish in over 3 hours"

I laughed.
The wife went nuts.

Haha, did somebody on RTE actually say that?

digger2d2

robinph wrote: »

Didn't like how they were nabbing some of the "fun" runners though

I thought someone was dressed up for Halloween until I realised it was Marty Morrissey, the head on him :eek:

Seres

it was really funny when they were covering the two break away women and one of the presenters said ' Well the two women look very comfortable at the moment , what do you think Gerry ' and Gerry said ' Well ya but its kinda hard to tell from an ariel view !'
The coverage was okay i thought however they were a bit light on the leading mens coverage towards the end , they stalled a bit to long with the womens race there , Sonia commented in a brief casual way on it . Great to see it getting coverage at last though and there looked to be great support out on the course
What was the story with Marty Morrisey stopping one of the runners to talk though !

Seres

tunney wrote: »

At the start "and these are the last of the runners, everyone else is just here for the t-shirt and will finish in over 3 hours"

I laughed.
The wife went nuts.

In Fairness Im fairly sure he said 6 hours , he did also mention that the last ones would be lookin to finish before dark

robinph

Seres wrote: »

In Fairness Im fairly sure he said 6 hours , he did also mention that the last ones would be lookin to finish before dark

I heard someone talking about 3hrs and fun runners, then you could over hear Sonia telling them off in the background as the other guy was doing the piece to camera before the start.

Pisco Sour

I hate the term "Fun runners". Running 26.2 miles is not "fun". It may be a great personal experience for sure, but it is hardly "fun".

My cousin did the marathon yesterday in 4 and a half hours. He certainly didn't have "fun", judging by how he felt in the closing stages and is feeling afterwards.

roco71

What was the story with Marty Morrisey stopping one of the runners to talk though ![/QUOTE]


Could you just imagine Marty walking onto the centre of Croke Park to talk to Henry Shefflin in the middle if the All-Ireland final?

For the runners yesterday, it was their All-Ireland Final.

rom

Saying that running it in X hours is just here for the t-shirt is very annoying. Basically saying that they are just doing it for bragging rights.

2.2% of the field yesterday finished under 3 hours. If only 1% of the population has finished a marathon then only 1/4000 people have done a marathon in under 3 hrs. No mean feat but to call them fun runners is mad. That would work out as 1000 people in ireland. all very approx, just stating that is a low number

Blathnaid piece was poor.

The interviews at the end were good tbh

When they joked that Jerry Kiernan time would be A standard for London it was ill-timed. Bascially this was the extent of thier knowledge http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin_Marathon

Bugsy2000

Seres wrote: »

In Fairness Im fairly sure he said 6 hours , he did also mention that the last ones would be lookin to finish before dark

Definitely said 3hrs, and on more than one occaision.

What struck me was every time one of the lead bunch dropped in behind, the commentators immediately wrote them off. 'she's struggling now, you can see the pain in her face, that's her race done, she won't make it back from there' . Each of the leading female group were wrote off at one stage or another, including the eventual winner. Sonia kept piping up explaining they're just taking a little rest etc

G-Money

I found their coverage alright. Although I guess we are spoiled by having BBC coverage of athletics too.

Pisco Sour

Bugsy2000 wrote: »

Definitely said 3hrs, and on more than one occaision.

What struck me was every time one of the lead bunch dropped in behind, the commentators immediately wrote them off. 'she's struggling now, you can see the pain in her face, that's her race done, she won't make it back from there' . Each of the leading female group were wrote off at one stage or another, including the eventual winner. Sonia kept piping up explaining they're just taking a little rest etc

It must be infuriating at times for Sonia and Eamonn to have to discuss athletics with people who don't have a notion about the sport.

rom

Bugsy2000 wrote: »

Definitely said 3hrs, and on more than one occaision.

What struck me was every time one of the lead bunch dropped in behind, the commentators immediately wrote them off. 'she's struggling now, you can see the pain in her face, that's her race done, she won't make it back from there' . Each of the leading female group were wrote off at one stage or another, including the eventual winner. Sonia kept piping up explaining they're just taking a little rest etc

Sonia is one of the most relaxed, well tempered person as evident of all the interviews through the years but she was getting totally pissed. it was like US commentary of soccer. I don't know much about the sport but a Jimmy Magee type of commetary would be way better with Sonia.When your man pulled away at the end would loved to hear "a different class, a different class" line .At least he would have done the research on stats etc instead of messing the names of the runners up or even confussing a female elite runner for a male runner as they did at one stage which was classic even. Like there was very few elite runners. They could really know their names like. Also at one point you see the lead man telling the moterbike that he is too close.

pmcd22

sonia did a well good job.. Some snippy comments coming out from the rest thinking they were funny.

Marty getting a woman (from england) as she was running to stop. she said no but the power of Marty's persuasion got her to come back and perform another fly-by the camera and stop to chat to Marty. She was in the horse costume.

I enjoyed watching the elite but i do be interested in watching other runners out there especially doing it for charities. I just missed the start of the race but it was fairly aimed focusing at the elite. Good idea someone said above was the spit-screen.

the finish was focused on the winners. The reporters were located just after the finish line and talking about the Olympics and something about 'B' standard.
That talk could have being left on another day and should be more focused on the people crissing the line.

rom

04072511 wrote: »

It must be infuriating at times for Sonia and Eamonn to have to discuss athletics with people who don't have a notion about the sport.

Like Pat Spillane hosting the sunday game for years. One night he glossed over an excellent championship hurling game and then went back to talk about some junior football club game result from the day with the lines I will never forget "and now back to the real game". It looks like it was only people looking for overtime on RTE. They treated it like saint patricks day parade and it was shot and delivered in almost the same format except we hardly got to see any of the crowds of people who turned out to watch.

Pisco Sour

Who were the commentators and who was the presenter?

Podge83

RTE's coverage in my opinion was shambolic.

OK so its the first time in yonks that they covered it but, please do a bit of research with the BBC or some other organisation with experience.

The constant breaking up of the cameras i will reluctantly forgive but better back up would have been a help.

The poor camera work was a big problem, particularly the selection of what race to follow at various stages. The most important aspects of the men's race were completely missed. Did they not have a Director (who understood) watching each race in the studio??.

Then there was the split times (or absence of any info). Whether the winner was going to get the record or not was anyone's guess - when he got to the "green carpet" they had an idea that he would get it.

Also Linda Byrne getting the Olympic Qualification time was a major milestone and this they didn't really know if it was on or not, again until they got to the Green Carpet.

Surely, if the results can be published with split times and indeed be followed live on the web why couldn't they use and channel this information and use it - the stuff of amateurs.

I reckon that Sonia and Gerry were embarrassed and you could tell that they themselves were getting frustrated with the coverage, again mainly the poor shot selection.

The commentary generally (by RTE's people, not the guests) was ignorant to say the least. The constant description of anyone who wasn't obviously foreign and very fast as fun runners was an insult to club runners. These men and women train a lot harder than GAA stars or prima donna household names in the overpaid world of soccer.

Finally Peter Collin's "final insult" to Gerry Kiernan questioning his winning time from 1992 stating that it wouldn't have qualified him for the Olympics - he was almost 40 - Jesus that was a huge achievement (by the way Peter, Gerry won DCM in 1992 in 2:13:45 (I think)). This was an insult to a great Irish Athlete and Olympian (remember his 2:12:20 run in 1984) - 9th place behind JT's silver medal on the greatest day ever for Irish Marathon running!!.

Peter Collins - Eejit.

Slogger Jogger

Repeating some of the earlier opinions here.

I had it recorded and watched it yesterday evening. I thought it was good, for a first year. Some of the aerial footage was super. Great to see the city like that and get the extent of everyone's journey around the course.

Some of the commentary was ill thought out. Lots of mentions of fun runners etc when the person making the remark probably hadn't run a 10k in their lives never mind a marathon. I can take some comments from experienced runners but not from tv types that have never even donned running shoes.

And whats with the stopping people to talk to them. Ridiculous.

The commentator did give great credit to the pacers though. Much deserved.

nerraw1111

I watched it twice (once again with my Dad) and I thought the coverage was good.

They had issues with the cameras for the men’s race which could not have been
helped.

As it was, they still managed to catch the decisive break of the men’s race.

They also caught the decisive break of the women’s.

They also caught Sean Connolly in the last mile who was going for the Olympic qualifying time.

They also caught Linda Byrne in the last mile qualifying for the Olympic standard and followed her for the last 5 minutes where it was touch and go.

They also caught the last of the sub 3 hours throwing themselves across the line. They also interviewed the winners, wheelchair winner and the two national champions.

They even managed to catch kite surfers in Dublin bay.

Not sure what more you could want? The commentary was a bit cringe at times but they had 4 hours of live coverage to fill.

I had no problem with Marty stopping runners as it was their decision to stop running.

rom

04072511 wrote: »

Who were the commentators and who was the presenter?

s_gr

Any one know if RTE will be putting it online on the rte player as missed it as i was running in it. Wanted to have a quick look through it..

ecoli

Podge83 wrote: »

RTE's coverage in my opinion was shambolic.

OK so its the first time in yonks that they covered it but, please do a bit of research with the BBC or some other organisation with experience.

The constant breaking up of the cameras i will reluctantly forgive but better back up would have been a help.

The poor camera work was a big problem, particularly the selection of what race to follow at various stages. The most important aspects of the men's race were completely missed. Did they not have a Director (who understood) watching each race in the studio??.

Then there was the split times (or absence of any info). Whether the winner was going to get the record or not was anyone's guess - when he got to the "green carpet" they had an idea that he would get it.

Also Linda Byrne getting the Olympic Qualification time was a major milestone and this they didn't really know if it was on or not, again until they got to the Green Carpet.

Surely, if the results can be published with split times and indeed be followed live on the web why couldn't they use and channel this information and use it - the stuff of amateurs.

Finally Peter Collin's "final insult" to Gerry Kiernan questioning his winning time from 1992 stating that it wouldn't have qualified him for the Olympics - he was almost 40 - Jesus that was a huge achievement (by the way Peter, Gerry won DCM in 1992 in 2:13:45 (I think)). This was an insult to a great Irish Athlete and Olympian (remember his 2:12:20 run in 1984) - 9th place behind JT's silver medal on the greatest day ever for Irish Marathon running!!.

Peter Collins - Eejit.

Gerry Kiernan never won DCM however Jerry Kiernan please do a bit of research before posting:D

I only saw the coverage last night as was out on the course but seemed alright to me.

In terms of the splits they are not the be all and end all split times and current running pace are different and as such hard to judge simply because they were so close (less than 30 secs for the CR and 40 for Linda) someone can be on for the time yet be decellerating to a point where they miss it and this can be hard to judge as all I saw were 5m splits. Admittedly a more mile to mile update might have been more handy however this may not have been possible depending on the chip timing company used. Not the fault of RTE

People are giving out stink but what do they expect? This is the same studio who thought it was not worth the expenditure to send correspondents to major championships (Beijing IIRC) despite having already paid for the rights.

Personally I think it was just good to get the coverage back on tele and hopefully can build from there the more athletics we can get on RTE the more demand for specific pundits who know what they are talking about

robinph

The lack of split times is something that will only come in future years once they are able to get speedy Kenyans getting good times and more sponsorship and then timing mats at every 5km and the half way point. They do have more timing than previous years though.

rom

ecoli wrote: »

Gerry Kiernan never won DCM however Jerry Kiernan please do a bit of research before posting:D

I only saw the coverage last night as was out on the course but seemed alright to me.

In terms of the splits they are not the be all and end all split times and current running pace are different and as such hard to judge simply because they were so close (less than 30 secs for the CR and 40 for Linda) someone can be on for the time yet be decellerating to a point where they miss it and this can be hard to judge as all I saw were 5m splits. Admittedly a more mile to mile update might have been more handy however this may not have been possible depending on the chip timing company used. Not the fault of RTE

People are giving out stink but what do they expect? This is the same studio who thought it was not worth the expenditure to send correspondents to major championships (Beijing IIRC) despite having already paid for the rights.

Personally I think it was just good to get the coverage back on tele and hopefully can build from there the more athletics we can get on RTE the more demand for specific pundits who know what they are talking about

Charlie Bird needed to go to the North Pole ?

Sprocket77

Podge83 wrote: »

Also Linda Byrne getting the Olympic Qualification time was a major milestone and this they didn't really know if it was on or not, again until they got to the Green Carpet.

They followed Linda Byrne for her last 5 minutes or so and the entire time they were discussing her going under the Olympic qualifying time. They're coverage wasn't great, but in fairness to them it wasn't that bad.

Podge83

Sprocket,

My point was that they didn't know whether the time was on or not. They were hoping it was but couldnt say until she was 100m from the finish. If it wasnt for Jerry (not Gerry) Kiernan's knowledge and mental arithmetic they probably wouldn't even have followed her and gone over to Marty to try to stop someone else!.

Great point posted above regarding Henry Shefflin in an AI Final.

Podge83

Robinph

This is 2011, not 1981.

The splits are basic info for events such as this and should have been available.

Seres

Bugsy2000 wrote: »

Definitely said 3hrs, and on more than one occaision.

What struck me was every time one of the lead bunch dropped in behind, the commentators immediately wrote them off. 'she's struggling now, you can see the pain in her face, that's her race done, she won't make it back from there' . Each of the leading female group were wrote off at one stage or another, including the eventual winner. Sonia kept piping up explaining they're just taking a little rest etc

Fair enough , maybe it was later on when he mentioned the 6 hrs , i only started watchin bout 1hr 30 into it . If he did mention 3 hrs and finishing before dark in the same sentence then the hour change must have really messed with his head !:D

nerraw1111

Podge83 wrote: »

Sprocket,

My point was that they didn't know whether the time was on or not. They were hoping it was but couldnt say until she was 100m from the finish. If it wasnt for Jerry (not Gerry) Kiernan's knowledge and mental arithmetic they probably wouldn't even have followed her and gone over to Marty to try to stop someone else!.

Great point posted above regarding Henry Shefflin in an AI Final.

You've just contradicted yourself.

"My point was that they didn't know whether the time was on or not. They were hoping it was but couldnt say until she was 100m from the finish."

Then you say: "If it wasnt for Jerry (not Gerry) Kiernan's knowledge and mental arithmetic they probably wouldn't even have followed her."


So basically you're saying that RTE did follow her because Jerry made some calculations and said she was on for it.

They made reference to her loads of times that she was attempting to qualify and that it would be close. I was in doubt throughout the broadcast that she was on for the time.

They followed her in the last mile and she was going all out. Kiernan said she would make it when she passed Trinity, not when she was on the carpet. Sonia herself said it was difficult to predict her time as there was no "400 metres to go" signs in the closing stages.


Sometimes I think all it takes is to put RTE in front of a programme for it to be criticised.

robinph

Podge83 wrote: »

Robinph

This is 2011, not 1981.

The splits are basic info for events such as this and should have been available.

Absolutely, but the mile spilts that you'd get in London Marathon is a major step up in cost and organisation compared to 10km, half way, 30km that they did previous years in DCM. To get splits at every 5km marker even would put DCM up with some pretty major marathons in terms of the stats that they are producing, and they are not there yet.

Pisco Sour

nerraw1111 wrote: »

Sometimes I think all it takes is to put RTE in front of a programme for it to be criticised.

Well they dont exactly have a stellar track record (pardon the pun) when it comes to athletics.

Podge83

Nerah,

I haven't contradicted myself. RTE didn't Know if the time was on or not. They followed Linda hoping that was on. They should have Known.

My point regarding Jerry was that he was working it out in his head - RTE themselves didn't have a clue. And before you come back and say that's what he was there for, they shouldn't have had to depend on Jerry to give this info - even he couldn't be sure as he was basing his workings on landmarks such as Trinity College etc, not specific race distances.

RTE were prepared to throw plenty of presenters at the production - why not throw in a bit of basic technology!

Anyway it was only a small part of the overall poor standard of a program.

ecoli

04072511 wrote: »

Well they dont exactly have a stellar track record (pardon the pun) when it comes to athletics.

True but for once I would say that alot of the criticism is not justified I think it was a decent enough job from watching it last night and even the stuff on the player for the Mobile while out on the course was good and no problems with it there either.

Its a step in the right direction with TV coverage and some of our National athletes getting decent exposure (cut to the National Championship contenders a few times)

lway

s_gr wrote: »

Any one know if RTE will be putting it online on the rte player as missed it as i was running in it. Wanted to have a quick look through it..

Yeah, it's on RTE Player http://www.rte.ie/player/#!v=1119532

ecoli

Podge83 wrote: »

RTE were prepared to throw plenty of presenters at the production - why not throw in a bit of basic technology!

Anyway it was only a small part of the overall poor standard of a program.

Mile splits are not supplied by the TV broadcasters this is to do with chip timing and you can bet your ar$e that the average joe soap didnt want to pay a few extra euro so that we could pre-empt the qualifying time as this would have had to be implemented for every one of the competitors

SuperDude87

rom wrote: »

Jaysus Blathnaid's looking rough:eek:

Podge83

OK, its a step in the right direction, RTE better keep on Walking, or maybe Running.

Onthe3rdDay

For those of you that like athletics be grateful you even got that much coverage. Once the Olympics are over in 2012 they’ll drop any sign of the sport (unless there’s a major Irish success) Minority sports have a very poor record of coverage on RTE. This isn’t going to improve any time soon.

RacoonQueen

rom wrote: »

It wasn't any of these eejits that nabbed me at the finish line so it must have been setanta. Thank God I don't have that channel, I can pretend it's not realy.

robinph

RacoonQueen wrote: »

It wasn't any of these eejits that nabbed me at the finish line so it must have been setanta. Thank God I don't have that channel, I can pretend it's not realy.

Someone best have that footage recorded and stick it up on YouTube for us all to laugh at watch.