Is the UCI TV Coverage Hate Unwarrented

Certainly beats staring at a live timing page. The free coverage of juniors has been great too.

Coverage has been fine. Eurosport have a decent stream, but they are a pain to figure out the language (basically a different page per language, but all pages have the same title).

I ended up watching the french commentary, Gracia and some other guy. Gracia was so much better than last year in English. He was excited, but actually making good observations. I wonder if the production team had briefed him to be the overhype guy last year to contrast to Rick.

The coverage itself, aside from the lead commentators brain numbing commentary, has been fantastic in 2024.

Things that must change though:

Scrap semis, or at the very least, stream it live for free on YT. Allow top 60 to compete in finals, highlights package for 30-60 riders before full live coverage of the final 30.

Increase the women's field to 20 riders and broadcast them all.

Had problems with the sound yesterday, commentary was delayed and often with some weird distortion. Was watching on discovery+. If it were the internet connection I would have expected the video to be affected also, so not sure what was going on. 

Consistency of footage from run to run was much better yesterday. In Fort William you didn't always see the same sections for each rider. Guess it's easier to do on a shorter track. 

10 women in the final isn't enough, in my opinion. Semis should be streamed. 

Otherwise it feels like they are getting better and the whole thing is watchable. 

Having Aaron in the booth has saved the commentary.If it was Ric and Cedric I would'nt watch at all. Ric has'nt got any better this season, he is just not very good in the booth. I mute any time they cut to Josh or the other person.
If 'official' means bland generic and corporate......then yes it's more official.
Blurry drone footage is pointless.
Feels like less track coverage than RB.
Not televising semis feels like a way to cut the field without cutting the field (a lot of teams/riders will pull out due to lack of coverage next year) and justify only having 30 qualifiers.

Reasons why Red Bull was better:

1) It was free and easy to view.

2) Because it was free more people watched it.

3) We saw more racing. Whilst the addition of Junior Finals coverage is a positive, the reduction to a 10 woman/30 man finals means we are now paying less race runs than ever before.

4) Red Bull's graphics were better. The virtual straight graphic was useful. The wiggly line graphic is pointless.

5) Some of the WBD camera position/type choices are terrible. The overhead drone shots at Ft William were like watching Google Maps.

6) Current coverage is a PITA to watch. The Junior finals live stream on YouTube was difficult to find. Those in the UK with a Discovery+ subscription through Amazon Prime were treated to the women's finals, followed by the British Superbikes at Donnington. I had to use a pirate site to watch the race I had paid for.

7) The current coverage is shite. Rob Warner is a brilliant commentator who really encapsulated the spirit of DH. It's impossible to think of some of the greatest runs in DH history without hearing Rob lose his shit. Ric is average at best. The Ft William commentary was particularly woeful and lacking in hype. Sport is ultimately entertainment, and if WBD genuinely want to grow the sport they have to make it appeal to the uninitiated. Boring commentary is a turn off.

DH is exciting because of it's unpredictability and accessibility. Privateers and less well supported riders often punch well above their weight and produce shock results. Lachie's run yesterday is a point in case. 

DH fans are genuinely concerned about the potential damage WBD will do to the sport in their quest to reduce the field to elite teams only. The whole corporate sports image is a poor fit for DH. It's not F1 or supercross (thankfully).

We're stuck with WDB until the next corporate merger, or the shareholders get greedy and they ditch the contract. I'll continue to enjoy the racing if I'm able to watch it. I hope the sport can survive the current ownership without getting neutered.

Maybe I'm just a crying nostalgia bro, but don't piss in a cup and tell me it's Red Bull.

Good list, and a few more (albeit minor):

- Not talking about the splits until 10-20 seconds after they are on-screen

- Show where we are in the running order (I saw it once, before the Dak's run "1 rider to go". Yeah, no sh*t).

- Stop showing run times in green 

I don't mind paying if the product is good but it needs to 1. be easy and 2. not come bundled w/ a bunch of other crap I have zero interest in.

Give them credit, its been a lot better than last year. Namely due to the inclusion of Arron and Myrian on the commentating. Moving semis has made a big difference. They really could do with a Nascar/F1 type side bar showing current placing and upcoming riders. Maybe even show where they slot in, at splits. 

The coverage is only part of the issues with UCI/WBD

Enduro is being sidelined, geographic spread of events is shocking, rider numbers are being cut, privateers being priced out of racing, etc..

I'm in Scotland and ESO bought out our national series then canned it without explanation, and have ignored any questions about it. The Tweed Valley EWS round had a five year contract in place with landowners and they canned that after two years. They also screwed local riders by halting a major trail development to run the XC World Champs on the site, then bulldozed what they'd built leaving a huge scar on the hill.

F them

I think one thing that has worked against them is that they have made a lot of noise and claims about how they are improving things and growing the sport. They have then fallen short on promises made on numerous occasions.

From what I remember RB never got into the habit of blowing their own trumpet, instead they just got on with providing great coverage of WC events, alongside bringing ground breaking events such as Rampage and Hardline.

Don't talk the talk if you can't (or won't) walk the walk.

I actually got a MAX sub yesterday to watch the race and I was talking to a buddy who's a non-rider about the difference between Redbull and Discovery. 

Here's my take based on year 2 of Discovery for those that care. 

1. Cameras are good and improving

2. Commentating is improving, especially with Gwin, although I'm not a Rich fan. He'd be great if he dialed a back on the quips. 

3. Race format needs refined more, either get rid of Semi's or broadcast them. Listen to the riders and do that then communicate to the fan base and say you listened to the riders and made whatever change. Would build some goodwill with our weird little community. 

4. I'd personally don't like that they cut down the number of riders. I feel like they're missing out on some amazing story telling. Our sport has built careers on a single race run from relatively unknown riders who smashed that one lap. Love Bruni but I was rooting for anyone to beat him in Poland. Same winner over and over gets stale. Could you imagine if Lachlan held it together and smashed his run? What a story for him and the Union. I'd guess that more riders in the final would increase the odds of that underdog feel good story. Maybe I'm wrong but don't people in and out of our sport love that stuff? 

5. Longer finals would mean more viewing, at least from me. I live on the West Coast of the USA and get my ass up super early for the European, I mean World Cup races so I can watch all categories and race runs. I love sitting there with coffee and watching the sport that's so rarely broadcast that hanging for 3+ hours is great. 

6. I wish the Finals were free but they're not and frankly it's been super challenging to figure out the options we had to watch it. I only got MAX because the spots add on is included in the sub for the time being. Otherwise as someone who doesn't like watching television in general, this is too expensive. 

7. I think Discovery would get more view if they actively pursued more new tracks. Fort Bill, yawn, Poland, interesting.  Could be a solid marketing tactic to improve viewership. 

8. I'd like to see more YouTube content pre-race. Fill the gap where Dialed left, meaning get the inside media in there. More rider and mechanic interviews, course walk etc etc 

9. Figure out something for Enduro, I was keen to follow the Poland Enduro race and then saw the winner all the sudden, had no clue the race was Friday. Moi Moi TV had a great race recap. Pay riders to film and then get editors to crank out a similar recap soon after. I also saw a take some maybe Jordi, where he recommended they have a DH style final stage that's broadcast, even if it's somewhat limited. Their enduro times are so close these days that a final broadcast stage could be pretty exciting. 

10. That's all my feedback but figured round it out with 10. 

The coverage itself is okay. However, I do have issue with the subscription cost when you consider the quality and quantity of the coverage compared to other forms of racing. To continue your comparison to supercross and motocross, DH is 2-3 times more expensive to watch and they race 8 times (including world champs) compared to 17 supercross rounds, 11 pro motocross rounds, and 3 SMX rounds.
I think I’m in a similar situation to a lot of other people in their mid-to-late twenties right now, where it’s really difficult to find stable work and stay afloat financially (even as an engineer). I can’t justify the cost for the DH broadcast right now and honestly things like Vital Raw, highlights videos, and the B Practice Podcast are enough to not feel like I’m missing anything since I’m not going to skip sleep to watch the races live anyway. 

I generally agree with everyone's comments here. Few more random points to add to the mix:

1. Ric doesn't need to cut off whoever is talking to say the split time right away. This happens almost every time someone else is talking and has on multiple occasions interrupted a good point a guest commentator was making.

2. I did like the addition of parenthetical reference to split time positions. ...or what I assume is the split time position since it is not explained to the viewer? If you add new features to the user's viewing experience, explain them. If you explained it in the preshow, show a little callout within the first couple of riders for those that only watch the race. Also liked the addition of the split time summary at the end of the show that shows the "perfect run" time. 

3. As far as user experience on the screen, the most frustrating thing to me is not showing the upcoming rider list or current positions more often, only because it is very easy, and you'd have to understand that some people are watching specifically for certain riders and would like to see how soon they will be riding or where they stand outside the top 3.

4. Add injury/DNF/DSQ commentary. Would it be possible to dedicate one person to chasing down mechanicals, injury status, whether someone went off track where we can't see, etc.? That person could then report that up to the commentary booth for a quick snippet Ric can mention in between runs. This year and last there have been multiple question marks for me around something that could easily be investigated and reported to the viewer.

5. Provide press releases or information preshow about big changes. Why are we at the end of the second race and WBD has no formal or informal explanation as to why they aren't broadcasting semis?

Lastly, curious to get other's take on this - a lot of these changes by WBD seem to be driven by the desire to "expand the sport". In my experience, sharing downhill racing with friends and family that don't ride bikes does not yield any investment by them to watch the sport. If you don't ride mountain bikes or like other more extreme sports, are you really going to watch? Seems like people get more invested in sports that they have tried, and far less people have tried riding a mountain bike than have thrown a baseball, shot a basketball, or caught a football. Point being, if my observation is consistent with others, why try to boil down the sport for the common citizen if the core followers and other mountain bikers are going to hate that the spirit of the sport is being lost? Part of that spirit is the people that represent it (the TV personalities that are the voice of it), and I would hypothesize that if Rob Warner and Eliot Jackson were still commentating, we would all be less frustrated with WBD. 

At the end of the day, the riders should help dictate the future of the sport. Every other sport with a large following has some organized group that negotiates with the governing bodies, and I hope the riders and managers will end up establishing something that gives them a bit more say in the sport. 

I thought Poland was pretty good coverage aside from the commentary. The color commentary by Gwin is exceptional, but Ric's play by play is atrocious.

From the commentary tone at Fort Bill you'd have thought we were watching folks chip onto the green at the tenth hole of a golf tournament, not watching people risk life or limb doing some of the gnarliest shit on Earth.

Combined with the wide field of view, distant camera angles they managed to make one of the most exciting racing sports on Earth look fairly dull, at least to a lay audience that might be channel surfing. They need to get the cameras in tight to the action, panny zoomy tried and true, and get someone with a real personality like Warner to do the play by play.

I think 30 for finals is appropriate. Maybe a different way to get to the 30 is warranted though. Last chance qualifier or something. And get cameras on that so sponsors down the ranks get more media. If pressure is on in those heats I think people will watch. 

As far as the actual coverage goes, besides the commentary it seems just as good if not better than Redbull. I think people are looking at the past with rose colored glasses, Redbull would have weird camera angles and mess ups all the time as well. 

Im a big fan and even with the reduced number of men and women in finals it makes for a long broadcast its about 3 and a half hours long and to be honest when a guy has a big mistake or is obviously behind the pace and its not a bigger name you kind of have a few minutes where you are kind of disinterested. 

I agree the amount of just annoying comments on every single post complaining is getting old. Everyone says they are a die hard fan but will not watch or pay to watch, if thats the case you are a casual fan you are not a die hard fan, and probably didnt watch when it was on RedBull either.  

Rick just needs to get drunk to bring out the passion that's missing from the commentating haha

Simple MBA bro logic.
100% of the 'core' fans is maybe a couple of hundred thousand if you are lucky......and they will watch regardless of how much you piss them off because they are already invested.
0.0001% of casual sports fans is multi millions of viewers.
It's obvious who you pitch to.
The vast majority of 'new' F1 fans have little deep routed interest in the sport beyond watching shiny rich people bitch about each other like an episode of Housewives of Somewhere......just look at the number of YT 'F1 explained like you have had major head trauma' vids out there every other week.

He passionate and knowledgeable,he's even quite good at interviews. He is just bad at live commentary, it's a skill.
If you watch Supercross you'll know how bad RC is. Same vibes from Ric.
 

I think the value proposition of a 30/10 rider final makes it less interesting. It makes for a shorter broadcast, so it feels less of an event. In the Redbull days I would post a sign on the shop door to not discuss the results, I would avoid all social media, and when I got home I'd plug the laptop into my TV to watch the women first followed by the men. I think a 50 men/15 women final is ideal. Ditch semi's and go back to the old quali format with points.

In contrast the highlight reel from Ft Bill that came out the next day was over 12 minutes, and gave a pretty thorough recap of the finals. It isn't just the top three runs, it actually tells you who was in the hot seat, who crashed, etc. Combine that with Bernard Kerr's LSD, Ed Bull Media, Moi Moi TV, and Vital Raw/Pit Bits, and you can piece together a pretty comprehensive package for the entire race weekend. Its free and its more detailed in the actual conditions of racing. Unless WBD can hire a commentator that gets me fired up to watch the PPV finals, and can add more prerace coverage/buildup, I won't be tuning in any time soon.

I thought Poland broadcast was pretty decent, the commentary with Aaron and Greg was great. There are still some WTF moments with inaudible audio or plain confusion. You would think WB would know better. I'm not a fan of Hosh and the other girls. They may want to explain things to a more casual audience and I have nothing against it but the quality is not here, they are just babbling some nonsense... They should get a guy like SethBikeHacks to write them some lines, he is doing a better job to connect with a casual audience...
Regardless, I still believe that a broadcaster dictates the sports organization. I think UCI with inputs from the participants and all stakeholders should set the rules and the schedule and the broadcaster should broadcast.
So far the great inventions from WB  like the semi-finals haven't been so successful... so much that they don't broadcast them anymore and it makes even less sense now!!

The UCI do not give a flying fig.....they basically sanctioned Lance's cheating for years as it was good for buisness.

I voted bad because the broadcast is not available in my country so I am stuck with highlights the next day…

ps. If I hear Rick comment that another rider is “opening their account for 2024” 🤦🏻‍♂️

Definitely a step up from last season. I feel like feedback is being listened to. Gwin adds a lot. I don't mind Rick. Shots and camera coverage seemed better at ft bill than Poland? Love the Juniors coverage. The 10 rider limit for Women's finals really, really has to go.

IMO the hate towards Warner Bros/ Discovery/ the UCI is completely warranted. They took a reasonable product from RedBull that was FREE, added a paywall, started dismantling and taking apart the sport we love and seem content to just throw out crappy coverage.

They are not following through with promises to grow the sport and cutting the numbers of riders is only going to reduce the prospects for future talent - would Ronan be winning this w/e if racing as a privateer back then (2021) was as difficult as it is now...?

I haven't watched since the first free semi final stream last year due to it being so bad. I was excited for the track in Poland so thought I'd try watching the Junior stream. Ric's commentary is appalling and just detracts from the riders and racing. The graphics are poor, the drone shots are unwatchable and the fact there are only 10 elite women in the final is a joke for a start. 

Add in the difficulty those who pay to subscribe have with accessing streams, the removal of the free semis stream this year, terrible communication from organisers, the quashing of enduro the list goes on...

Hate seeing "30" riders knowing full well a shake up from a guy in the top 60 ALWAYS happened in the past.

Massive amount of alienation occurring with countries across the globe & teams who have no reason to come to or watch the same 3 French guys descend home turf.  Because that phase of the season is going to look awesome to some(the French), but it's gonna be garbage for the rest of the world w/ the top 30 format.  
Live narration/promotion/mental stimulation is at it's worst.
Dude literally VERBATIM would repeat any sentence Gwin got out of his mouth. So many times.
He has ZERO value added benefit to the race, entertainment value or educationally.
Gwin has technical knowledge but "free firty free" guy is NOT a DH color commentator...at ALL!!!  He's a very uncomfortable middle ground.  Perfect voice for a EWS recap video. That's it.
Had no clue what the start order was AS riders were coming out of the gate. 
Didn't state qualifying time and then Semi-Final time for a racer to let us know their progression in prior phases of the race.
Didn't even acknowledge in juniors when you saw rain blowing across the start gate.
Don't state who has an advantage in which split.
No virtual leader graphic
Caught FAKE audio AGAIN . Gwin thought it was a broken component  for one rider. They piped in fake "clink/clank/chunk" sounds this time instead of the fake shralping sounds.  When Gwin caught it mistakenly, the audio engineer dialed it back.  I went back and re-watched a few riders and it was noticeable.  
Women's finals feels like an afterthought thanks to the horrible treatment of such a small "final".

Something seems desperately quiet about finals this year.  Mentioned it before, but it's got to be all the teams & their entourages who pack up and disband after qualifying and semis and peel out.  Seems utterly sanitary.
Maybe because no one's allowed in the finish corral?  

 

I've said it before and I'm gonna keep saying it; mocking Ric's accent is a sh*tty thing to do.

He's got a lot of stuff he needs to improve but we can do better than schoolyard insults.

I don’t think the hate is unwarranted.  these guys have greatly decreased interest in enduro “making it more professional” and they are ruining dh “making it a better broadcast”.  There are going to be a lot of lost pro racers, mechanics, team managers, etc as the field continually gets cut.  and as great as monster pro, ixs, dhse series are I don’t see how they will offer sponsors the same eyeballs or prestige the World Cup does.

I think they have made really questionable choices in terms of broadcasting rights.  And while I’m not totally against pay to watch services I do think free on the redbull app/redbull bike youtube was infinitely more accessible for new and casual fans.  
 

now I really hope in 5 years and we are seeing more events, better paid athletes, more sponsors from outside the bike industry.    But so far it seems we are seeing a decrease in coverages, a decrease in teams who aren’t paying their own way, teams cutting back on rosters, and a decrease in events increasingly centralized in a few countries in Europe.

I hate how the hot seat is in some ivory tower now.

The redbull days had that dialed, a seat right at the bottom where the riders could salute each other.

The racing is on too late for me these days, I'm tired and wear an onion on my belt. I watch the replay on Tiz the next morning and don't look at my phone so no spoilers.

Your first paragraph sums it up perfectly!

I think it's worth pointing out a couple of things:

- The men that qualified 31st to 60th and the women that qualified 11th to 15th were never televised by Red Bull outside of a 30 second highlight reel.  This resulted in no real exposure for those riders unless they happened to be on the hot seat when the televised riders started.  It also meant that occasionally a non-televised rider won the race due to inclement weather (e.g. Lourdes 2017.)

- Considerably more of the top rider's runs is being shown by WBD.  For example, around 4 minutes of Bruni's winning run at Fort William were televised, including nearly 100% of the track despite the fact it's one of the longer tracks.  Meanwhile, only 3 minutes of Amaury Pierron's winning run in 2022 were covered by Red Bull (and only 2.5 minutes of his run from 2019). 

That being said, I think there are some real issues with semi-finals and the lack of coverage for riders further down the field.

I think both of these could be improved by switching to a (televised) last chance qualifier.  This would have two main advantages:

- Laying down one fast run is enough to advance to finals.  It sucks that riders can finish top 10 in qualifying and then flat/crash in semis and not make the show.  (e.g. Charlie Hatton at Fort Bill, Phil Atwill in Poland)

- Riders that didn't qualify outright would be placed front and centre for the LCQ giving better exposure to other riders and highlighting any exceptional performances by privateers etc.