Woohoo SBS!

"Parbs" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

SBS announced on their sport show a 5 year deal to show all staged of the
Tour de France live.

Or was I dreaming?

There's an article in today's paper here in ADelaide that they've signed a
5-year deal with the intention of showing all stages live....
Which to me says they'll think about showing all stages live not that they
necessarily will!
If they are going to how them all live I will be well and truly nocternal
after three weeks!
Cheers
Gemma

"Gemma Kernich" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

"Parbs" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

SBS announced on their sport show a 5 year deal to show all staged of the
Tour de France live.

Or was I dreaming?

There's an article in today's paper here in ADelaide that they've signed a
5-year deal with the intention of showing all stages live....
Which to me says they'll think about showing all stages live not that they
necessarily will!
If they are going to how them all live I will be well and truly nocternal
after three weeks!
Cheers
Gemma

My (optimistic) take on their announcement is that they'll broadcast
the final two or so hours of each stage, much as they do now for their
live stages. Thet's enough for me; I'll happily take it!

This is ace from SBS - Everytime I've seen that they're crossing live
to, say, the under 19s women's soccer my blood has boiled that we get
bugger all cycling coverage. Who knows? Maybe one day we'll be tuning
into Paris-Roubaix live...

From: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2004/dec04/dec01news

Aussies get Tour live
By John Stevenson

Australian broadcaster SBS has announced that starting in 2005 it plans to broadcast the Tour de France live in its entirety, making it the only free-to-air broadcaster in the English-speaking world to do so.

Since 1991 SBS has screened the Tour de France as a daily edited highlights package; a few years ago it started screening two or three live stages each year, an event that was an excuse for some lengthy beer and pizza evenings among Australian cycling fans.

SBS head of sport Les Murray explained to Cyclingnews that the broadcaster has decided to ramp up its coverage for a number of reasons. The popularity of the show was one of them, but more significant was the quality of Australian cyclists in the Tour for the last several years. "The high quality presence of the [Australian] cyclists drove us to decide that we have to do more than what we have been doing," said Murray. "Half hour highlights per day, two or three live stages per year simply didn't do justice to the event.

"It became clear that because Australia was the most represented country among successful riders in the Tour de France - which is quite remarkable given that cycling is supposed to be a minority sport in this country - we had to do more than what we'd been doing. It was not right that French television, Italian television, German television, Spanish television was doing this blanket coverage when their riders were inferior, in terms of success, to our riders."

Another factor was the desire of Tour organizer ASO for SBS to do more with the Tour. It's no coincidence that this initiative comes alongside the news that SBS has renewed for five years its contract with ASO to screen the Tour. "Yes, there was pressure from ASO [to do more]" said Murray. "ASO is always keen for us to do more than we were doing. ASO is very keen on promoting the event globally, it's very keen on gaining exposure for the event globally on free to air TV. We always had a very willing partner in ASO if we wanted to take this event up one notch."

That said, Murray told Cyclingnews the decision was, "primarily driven by saying 'we have exposed this event for 13 years, lets see if we can capitalize on that and get some reward for our investment.'"

ASO also organizes several other major races, including Paris-Roubaix and Paris-Nice, and the deal includes the rights to screen those races live too. However, at the moment SBS intends to show those events on a delayed basis. "Live access is available if we want to do it," said Murray. "It depends on the programmers, my colleagues at SBS who sit in judgment of program scheduling. If they want to schedule it live we can do that."

The 2005 Tour de France starts in Vendée with a 19km individual time trial from Fromentine to Ile de Noirmoutier on Saturday July 2. Time zone differences mean this stage will screen on SBS in the very early morning of Sunday July 3.

patch70 said:

The 2005 Tour de France starts in Vendée with a 19km individual time trial from Fromentine to Ile de Noirmoutier on Saturday July 2. Time zone differences mean this stage will screen on SBS in the very early morning of Sunday July 3.

maybe the BR50(?) could be a ITT to commemorate this? 😄

"blah" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

.. Who knows? Maybe one day we'll be tuning

Quoted message said:

into Paris-Roubaix live...

If everybody who reads this group were to write to SBS personally and ask
for Paris Roubaix live coverage I'm sure that they would seriously consider
it. If you are going to do this please also ask for live coverage of The
Tour Of Flanders, my favourite bike race, as well.

Peter

Daniel S said:

> If everybody who reads this group were to write to SBS personally and ask

Quoted message said:

for Paris Roubaix live coverage I'm sure that they would seriously

consider

Quoted message said:

it. If you are going to do this please also ask for live coverage of The
Tour Of Flanders, my favourite bike race, as well.

I emailed them earlier to ask for Paris-Roubaix coverage.

I'd just as soon see it delayed, I'm going to lose enough sleep as it is.

Daniel S said:

So go write to them: [email hidden]

Thanks for the email address. Have just sent a thanks & a request for them to show P-R and RVV.

Quoted message said:

If everybody who reads this group were to write to SBS personally and ask
for Paris Roubaix live coverage I'm sure that they would seriously

consider

Quoted message said:

it. If you are going to do this please also ask for live coverage of The
Tour Of Flanders, my favourite bike race, as well.

I emailed them earlier to ask for Paris-Roubaix coverage.

I remember being told once that only 1 in 10,000 people will contact a
television station with a complaint or request. Consequently television
stations will treat, say, 10 requests as 100,000 potential viewers! Probably
not exactly true.... but you get the gist.

So go write to them: [email hidden]

-- Daniel S