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  • Raducanu's championship win on C4

    From MB@21:1/5 to SimonM on Sun Sep 12 13:10:37 2021
    On 12/09/2021 12:53, SimonM wrote:
    Politics: Apparently the Telegraph has a story
    this morning that the government wants to sell off
    C4, and that this might have been an attempt by C4
    to show they can do major sport as well as the
    BBC. They are also suggesting C4 paid >$1m for the
    rights, and that Amazon Prime might be a C4
    purchaser.

    Some sources say Channel 4 paid £30 million for the right to show it.

    I presume the Amazon Prime logo was a deliberate advert. At the end of
    the match they went into a very long advert for Amazon Prime.

    I left the sound off and listened to BBC 5 Live.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From SimonM@21:1/5 to All on Sun Sep 12 12:53:48 2021
    Well it certainly wasn't comparable to the BBC at
    Wimbledon!

    I'll keep away from (most of) the politics until
    the end, but I'm interested in the operational
    aspects.

    If anybody knows how this was _actually_ done, I'd
    be very interested to hear, but this is what I'm
    _guessing_:

    1: There was a sports OB unit covering the event
    for the US networks. Amazon had negotiated use of
    their main feed, and they were possibly also
    providing a commentator position and use of an
    interview camera (with Tim Henman).

    2: Amazon had a studio facility somewhere (might
    have been at the OB site), originating their
    streaming feed.

    3: C4 took the Prime output for streaming
    unaltered (complete with the Prime DOG!), but I
    think via a direct link.

    4: Comms from the Prime operation to C4 network
    appear to have been sketchy at best, and possibly
    not even a feed of open studio talkback.

    We watched it from the start on C4. After the C4
    bumper there was no sound for a guessed 6mins or
    so - time for me to fire up the PC and open the
    Prime streaming service. When this was eventually
    fixed, there was (here & with my kit) a roughly
    15" or 16" delay on the streaming service WRT C4.
    Obviously this is highly variable. Good lipsync on
    both sources as far as we could tell.

    At one point, C4 tried to inject a commercial
    break which was a failure, including crashing-out
    back to Prime mid-commercial. I wasn't in the room
    the whole time for the rest of the show, but as
    far as I know they didn't attempt any more ads for
    the duration.

    Compared to the BBC at Wimbledon I'd describe the
    actual match coverage as "minimalist" at best.
    especially the sound, which was poor (being
    polite). Several family arguments ensued over what
    the umpire had actually said (unintelligible), and
    if the sound of ball clipping net had been heard
    or not.

    There were also several points where the cameras
    either couldn't get the shots or were being
    misdirected, and I don't remember any slowmo (if
    there was any it wasn't used much).

    Politics: Apparently the Telegraph has a story
    this morning that the government wants to sell off
    C4, and that this might have been an attempt by C4
    to show they can do major sport as well as the
    BBC. They are also suggesting C4 paid >$1m for the
    rights, and that Amazon Prime might be a C4
    purchaser.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mark Carver@21:1/5 to SimonM on Sun Sep 12 13:02:40 2021
    On 12/09/2021 12:53, SimonM wrote:

    2: Amazon had a studio facility somewhere (might have been at the OB
    site), originating their streaming feed.

    Amazon UK normally use IMG at Stockley Park for 'pres/playout' of their
    UK based sports coverage

    Compared to the BBC at Wimbledon....

    The BBC ceased providing the main court feeds at Wimbledon in 2017. It's
    now in house by the Lawn Tennis Association using NEP.
    (I lot of ex Beeb production staff are employed by them though)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)