EPL Officially to NBC

What qualifications do you have to make this statement? What is your professional soccer experience?

 

I never played in the Premier League, but I'm a good speaker and my wife is totally out of my league. That makes me more than qualified.

 

I wish I were as optimistic as you. I've been watching sports on TV for 50 years, and I can't count the number of dreadful announcers that have been allowed to keep their jobs seemingly forever.

 

I don't understand this mentality that you have to have played at a high level or played within a certain league in order to comment on it. Univision and Telemundo have commentators that I don't even believe played High School soccer yet they are still entertaining and informative.

 

Am I the only one who thinks that a current active player like Howard should NOT be a game commentator for his peers? There are a lot of things (e.g., criticism on certain players) that he cannot or should not say. Yes, he can provide insights about certain plays, including the positioning of the keeper and the wall on set pieces. I'd rather have him comment on things like that at half time.

 

Good points. I am not all that thrilled about a current player commenting on a match either but it is innovative and new. I will give them that.

By the way I rather listen to Martino than Howard too.

 

I think having an EPL analyst who is a former player is regularly too much to ask. Most of the former players are truly awful broadcasters. The ones that can provide quality analysis are few and far between. Also, NBA analysts are regularly former coaches/journalists who never played in the NBA either so that is not a good example.

 

^ Yeah I'm fairly sure Doris Burke,Mike Wilbon and Bill Simmons never played in the NBA

 

Nail meet hammer.

 

He is not easy to listen to regarding his voice, but he explains Xs and Os extremely well which we need more of. I don't need my analyst to say that it was a good shot or great pass. I can see that. I need them to talk about positioning, tactics, and the little things I don't see. I heard him being critical of players.

 

So, I was unable to watch my team live last Saturday so I tried to watch it via NBC's streaming app/site.

On the Live Extra app (iPhone): If I paused the play and walked away, when I came back my phone had gone to lock screen and when I reopened the app I was thrown back to the beginning... had to watch the ad and then guess at where I'd left off and try to locate that spot, with very touchy slider bar. This happened to me over and over until I just gave up.

Is that just the state of their app, or was my experience some sort of anomaly?

On the website (streams.nbcsports.com): I switched from the app to this. I tried really hard to avoid the spoilers but they make that nearly impossible. Directly to the right of the section which has the "Replays" button is a prominent "Latest Headlines" pane, which of course on Saturday had a big headline giving away my result. The app seems to be sensitive to that, but the website does not. A bit inconsistent on their part if you ask me.

Is there no way to stream a "replay" from NBC website while avoiding the spoilers? Maybe there's some other URL that takes me directly to replays, without the spoiler headlines?

 

I honestly really enjoy all of the people that NBC has on air for their match coverage, with the exception of Neil Ashton. Martino is very well spoken and makes well thought out arguments. I don't care if someone was one of the best players of all time in the sport if they are not intelligent analysts. Magic Johnson for the NBA is brutal. I'd take smart and entertaining over league experience every time. Their core 4 of Kyle, the 2 Robbies, and Rebecca are still refreshing to me and it's practically April. Great job by NBC with their talent selection.

Where I think they could still improve are their computer streaming of live games and some tinkering with MOTD. My computer may just suck, but their ads end up making my stream choppy and that's not an issue with other streaming services like WatchESPN, sopcast, or Ace. Works a treat on my tablet, though. MOTD is solid, but they are still making bizarre decisions in editing. For instance, when they showed the last 45 seconds of a game where nothing happened or an entire minute of a guy getting injury treatment this past Saturday. Just seems a little odd and makes me think they have too much of a time window to fill or are low on man power to churn it out on time.

 

This.

 

The NBC studio show honestly isn't that bad. I would rank it as the best soccer studio show in the US currently. Could it be better, sure, I don't think I have heard an original thought coming from anyone's mouth this season but it could be a lot worse, and is on other networks, looking at you BeIn sports.

 

MOTD is a weak link imo. Not just because of the editing, but the fact that they only have studio discussion on a couple of games each week. I'd rather see better edited highlights and more studio time.

 

Agreed. That's a good way to look at it.

My main complaint is 'shouting guy' who seems to be doing play-by-play for all the big matches, unfortunately. Why?

 

Who is "shouting guy"?

 

Premier League: How NBC Sports Got Soccer Fans Out of Bed
Hollywood Reporter

 

I'm not sure if this has been covered but what happened to NBC's broadcast on NBC channel of one game per week at 12.30 eastern, 9.30 pacific?

http://nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com/2...-first-three-months-of-premier-league-season/

Apart from a couple of weekends in the first 3 months there was a game every Saturday, in the last couple of months it's been pre-empted by other sporting events but I think I can recall a couple of tape-delayed games.

This weekend the broadcast schedule is kids tv repeat show at 9.30, then paid programming till 11 pacific, then action sports.

I gave up cable a couple years ago and was pretty happy watching the one live game a week. Were the ratings poor, or was it just some promo to hook viewers and drive them to their cable coverage? I watched the original press-conference where they dragged Scudamore over and I could have sworn they were planning on more games on broadcast NBC than this.

 

The plan was always to have 20 games on NBC, not a full 38 week season.

http://nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com/2...ups-2013-14-premier-league-programming-plans/

Why that is, I don't know, other then them wanting more content on NBCSN.

 

thanks for that ... I wonder how many games have already aired? of course it says 20 subject to change.

 

Ugh this iphone app is kind of infuriating. You check your email or something and when you come back to the nbc live extra app you have to start all over again? With opening commercials etc? Wtf. I don't recall Espn & fox doing this... right?

Edit: and then i get a blank screen half the time during streaming. I guess it's time for good old reliable but less convenient cable tv.

 

On android I just press pause, take the call and then press play without much problems.
I have not tried it today though so I will see if it works soon....

 

Not to make this an android vs. iphone debate but it works properly for me on android today.
That said, there is a green line problem on the bottom of the screen that has not been resolved yet though.

 

To specify...
... I have a special app called Clean Master on my android. It allows me to pause the soccer game and drag down the screen to the settings/options menu. There I press the "recent apps" button that is a part of the Clean Master selection screen. I checked my email, then after that dragged down the menu screen and pressed "recent apps" again.
Brought up the paused soccer game and went from there.

Maybe Itunes has something similar?