Registered: Sep 2011
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Posts: 1064

I'm sitting here watching Water Polo on Universal Sports. (don't judge, I cut the cord and they offer a webstream and it's what was on...) Admittedly, the US is playing, but it's a preliminary match.

Earlier today, there was Synchronized Swimming...Team Synchronized Swimming...A) an event that isn't actually in the Olympics, and B) the US sucks at it.

It's obvious to me that the production of both events was being done by the International Federations, and UnivSports was just picking up that feed and putting their voices on it (possibly not even *from* Kazhan).

A couple of days ago they had the Fencing World Championships...another sport where the US is decent, but not a consistent World Threat.

During the Winter, I've seen more raw hours of bobsledding, luge, and downhill skiing than curling.

Checking the historic ratings, when curling is shown, it hugely outdraws all of those with the exception of skiing...and that's close.

Yet, these sports have basically wall to wall coverage of their Worlds. We got...umm...did we get anything?

It makes me wonder...what's the problem?

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Registered: Aug 2014
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The short answer is money. For non-mainstream sports, TV networks want the production costs covered by somebody else, and guaranteed sponsors. Getting good ratings is important, but it only matters if the good ratings can be turned into sponsors. And advertisers care about a lot more than just the top line ratings. They want to advertise on shows that fit their brand image, and have viewers who are likely to buy the product being sold. Curling is still a little too far outside the mainstream in the U.S. for it to attract top sponsors. But it is definitely in a way better position than it was a decade ago.

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Registered: Sep 2011
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Right and I get that...but...

We're at *least* as mainstream as Luge, Water Polo, Speedskating and Synchronized Swimming...yet those events National and World Championships are on NBC's sports networks, and curling's are not.

We're constantly told NBC owns the rights (hence the rules regarding webcasting), but we're not seeing the result of the product.

Are we stuck in a bad contract because USOC? Is the USCA ignoring opportunities? Is NBC just being dumb?

What's up here?

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Registered: Dec 2005
Location: Fairport, NY
Posts: 143

One of the great things about Curling and the thing that I think hurts us in terms of TV coverage is both the length of game play and the length of the championships themselves. The only things I think I can compare it to is swimming and the Tour de France.

In swimming, you can tune in for a minute and a half and see an entire final, even though the event is a week long (might be longer - can't remember).

In the Tour, there are millions of cyclists that sponsors can advertise to. If I saw one more Neil Patrick Harris money back guarantee ad, I might have flipped.

We, as curlers, like to see the strategy. So we complain when TV cuts off the lead stones. I think that is justified. But in swimming, I don't think the strategy goes beyond the new swim wear people get.

The strategy in the Tour is there, but even the primetime coverage (where much of the event is cut), there is time to explain what is going on.

The other events you mention are a lot easier to cut down to time, show just the runs they like (americans and top world athletes). They better fit to time and probably can be sold as a package to advertisers.

Curling is different for a lot of reasons. And I bet it is a hard sell to NBC to dedicate that amount of time to it, not knowing what kind of response it will get over the long haul. Not to mention other properties they probably already have (college basketball, college football, etc.) that they would need to work around.

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Joe Calabrese

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Registered: Feb 2006
Location: Chicago, IL (originally from Richmond, VA)
Posts: 85

quote:

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Originally posted by TakeItOut!
One of the great things about Curling and the thing that I think hurts us in terms of TV coverage is both the length of game play and the length of the championships themselves. The only things I think I can compare it to is swimming and the Tour de France.

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If you want to win a race run the 100m. If you want an experience run the marathon. - Emil Zatopek

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Registered: Feb 2013
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Posts: 812

quote:

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Originally posted by SargentIV


I can think of quite a few examples in sports where the whims of television have dictated how sports and their competition formats have evolved and changed, and usually not for the better.

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