On Saturday, CNBC won't have a game. Four out of five will require Gold. The last game will be on NBCSN, not NBC, because NBC will show the Paralympics. The time difference changes, so Sunday's games will be at 9:30 A.M. and 12:00 P.M. and Monday's game will be at 4:00 P.M.
For a rare time, Derek Rae will broadcast. He will be with Danny Higginbotham for Chelsea vs. Crystal Palace at 12:30 P.M. Danny will broadcast the Monday game with Martin Tyler and will be the only broadcaster to do two games this matchday.
Arlo White made a mistake during the Manchester derby. When talking about Man City's two late goals to beat Queens Park Rangers in 2012 and win the title, he incorrectly said that Queens Park Rangers got relegated. Queens Park Rangers survived. Bolton, who would have survived with a win and a Queens Park Rangers loss, ended with a draw. Queens Park Rangers finished last the next season in 2012-2013.
Is it just me or did NBC show absolutely no non-Manchester highlights yesterday other than Rooney's strop at being substituted?
Hmm. Maybe he just can't get enough? Or he's really smart about keeping his irons in the fires with potential employers?
Apparently Arlo will be part of the BBC's commentary team for the upcoming World Cup. He will be based in Salford, calling the games via monitor.
[REALLY-LONG-RANT] This weekend, as I was hoping to watch NBC’s MOTD show which my DVR diligently recorded at 6am Sat, I was surely disappointed to see that it was actually MOTW with only one match, the Mancs derby, which I didn’t need to see because I watched the whole thing the day before. No problem, I thought, I’ll just catch the MOTD II show that tends to air late Sunday early Monday. That show usually has a “Saturday Mixer” section which is nowhere near as good as MOTD, but better than nothing. BUT alas no such luck... no MOTD II show this week. OK, I’ll just go back to the Goal Zone show from Saturday, which I record every week, and catch it there. They usually have a highlights wrap-up of (nearly) all the goals, from all the Sat matches. Thus the name “Goal Zone”. BUT NOPE... not this week... just interviews & analysis regarding that single match. No worries, the Sunday Goal Zone show usually has the “Saturday Mixer”. Guess what? NOT this week! I can’t say this is the first time that NBC has disappointed like this... in their lack of consistency (and commitment even) towards their review/highlights shows. And it caused me to reflect on the evolution/decline in EPL highlights shows. This is from memory so apologies if the exact timeline is slightly off, but the trend is the key: FOX years: - IMG PL Rvw Show – every week like clockwork, typically Sunday 10pm (and I think re-aired once or twice) - FOX Soccer News/Report – every night at the same time IIRC NBC years 1-2: - IMG PL Rvw Show – Year 1: essentially every week, typically Tues 2am; Year 2: sporadic then gone - NBC MOTD & II – every week AFAIK, at fairly consistent times late Sat & Sun nights - NBC GoalZone – every match day directly after play (Sat, Sun & midweek) NBC years 3-4: - NBC MOTD – Year 3: every week at fairly consistent times; Year 4: more sporadic airings - NBC MOTD II – Year 3: most weeks, but not reliably; Year 4: rare, often missing - NBC GoalZone – Year 3: nearly every matchday; Year 4: most weekend matchdays but rare midweek days In some cases, some missing airings may have shown up online (NBC regular or Gold) but I’m pretty sure that not all of them did. Maybe others can speak to whether NBC has shown more “consistency & commitment” to airing these type of shows ONLINE? But I can say for sure that there’s been a pretty steep decline in this regard, on the BROADCAST platform. And it tells me that they are pulling back from the initially excellent job they did in TV programming of these type of shows. Whether that’s because they’re trying to save budget, or make more space for alternate ads/shows they want to air, or there were just poor ratings for the above shows... I dunno. But I for one have been disappointed. You may recall that I previously lamented their shelving the excellent IMG PL Rvw Show in favor of their own NBC MOTD shows. Many of you said “just watch NBC’s shows instead”. I basically did that, even though they’re not as good IMHO, definitely not as time efficient. But I always assumed NBC would be super consistent with their MOTD shows, just like the BBC, which is their model, I guess. But NBC seems to have lost their drive for this, as this weekend is a good example of. But certainly not the only example! As we get to the business end of the season, the matches tend to get more vital, and in some cases more riveting. This last round had at least 3 interesting matches, which I only know because I watched those 3 largely in their entirety. But the other 7 matches, I only have a rough idea about, as there were no review shows/segments on TV. (and I’m not really inclined to bother to find/watch them on my computer) NBC, if you are listening... PLEASE don’t forsake those review shows on TV. [/REALLY-LONG-RANT]
Premier League Review (4/8/18) is available on NBC Sports Gold right now. https://www.nbcsports.com/gold#full-event-replays
This. Their initial attempts for making MOTD a big deal (partnering with the BBC, consistent as possible time, all the highlights, panel of analysts) has gone by the wayside because no one was watching. So they don't want to keep Lowe and the rest of the crew longer than is needed for another show. They ditched the original production last season and it's just been a quick intro by Lowe when it airs now. Why they stressed City-United and nothing else this week... don't know. Highlight shows are going by the wayside all over the US sports landscape. Younger people watch goals, clips, whatever else on their phones and don't make time for consolidated highlights much later on. Media companies are putting more effort in getting the goals on to your phone as fast as possible than any sort of old school MOTD/Sportscenter shows now. The future of over-the-air sports tv is looking more and more like 4-8 hours of live content per day and 16-20 hours of filler that takes as little effort as possible.
Thanks for the thought. Yes I know that show is available online. It just doesn't yet fit my way of life yet to watch it that way. As you know I'm really a traditional TV+DVR guy. And as long as the content is available that way, it's a fantastic system, with ultimate control over the the content, when you watch it, how long you keep it, whether you archive it to DVD, etc, etc. But the crux is the phrase "as long as the content is available that way". As the various TV-related threads on this forum all show, the networks are quickly pulling content off of broadcast and onto their digital/paywall platforms. As you can tell, I'm only very slowly coming to grips with that harsh reality.
I complained about this too. The only (legal) place I saw highlights all weekend on NBC was about 30 minutes into the Arsenal-Southamptom pre-game show on Premier League Live. Yup. They also used to run a lot of the Premier League TV programming like Premier League News, the preview shows, etc. Now that's all gone and the only thing I see pop-up now and again is Premier League World. They also used to have their own show called Premier League Download, that show with the F2 Youtubers called It's Called Football, and other stuff that's all disappeared. Even Men In Blazers' show is appearing less and less. And less "live." And with ESPN FC apparently going online only - it's only going to get worse for TV.
Back in the saddle again! pic.twitter.com/dZDtpDxhfE— Over Under Initiative (@OverUnderPlay) April 25, 2018 A CNBC 3pm/10am match this week. I guess because West Brom can go down Saturday.
So I was just reflecting on how I bought PremierLeague Pass for $40 I think at Xmas, and it's been a waste. I can only remember actually needing to use it once since then (maybe twice??). That's a poor return on investment. i.e. $20-40 per match?! Because we are in Europa this season our EPL matches have usually been on Sundays, which means that we've generally not had to compete for airtime in the main Saturday 3pm slot. I'm wondering if my experience was atypical? IOW, for those of you who get NBCSN on your TV lineup, but who purchased PLP so that you could watch 100% of your team's games, did you actually end up doing that much? I surely didn't. The other thing I'm wondering about PLP is whether they're going to shut your subscription access at the end of this season or the beginning of next season? And whether they'll leave historical content around in the summer, in case you get bored because your team didn't make it to Russia?!
Even if they weren’t in EL, how many times would Arsenal have played in the 16h00 CET timeslot without being covered by NBCSN or CNBC?
I think they said that every team would be on Gold at least three times. I think Spurs have been on Gold three times this season. Once at the beginning of the season (v Burnley?), one time midweek, and then a few weeks ago v Stoke.
It is a waste for fans of the Popular teams or neutrals like me who just want to see the top teams play on the weekends.
I don't know when the last time Man United was on Gold. I agree that if you don't want to watch 1 minute of a club other than Arsenal all season, it's not worth it. What I like about Gold is that I can look at scores and watch the end of a game that's interesting based on what happened before such as: Can Player X score a third goal? Can Team Y hold on to beat a better Team Q? Can Team Z hold on while down a man? Team A has no goals from 10 shots on target. Team B has 1 goal from 1 shot on target. Can Team B hold on? Gold also allows you to jump straight to goals and cards. Premier League Live at 12:00 P.M. shows highlights, but they may not show every goal of every 10:00 A.M. game. I like the announcers closing comments and the background music for the highlights that come on after games on Gold. For a player on each club they tell you statistics including what percent of the time he was running, and I don't know if that's available on TV or online anywhere else.
My DirecTV Guide says that NBCSN is showing the Manchester City-Brighton dead rubber on Wednesday, which sent me here to write an irate post. But I checked the the NBC Sports web site before posting, and it says that they are showing Chelsea-Huddersfield, crucial for Top 4 and relegation. The other important game, Spurs-Newcastle will be on Gold as will the other games.