Can't see anyone really ever doing that - I think most people would be pretty bored watching it for more than 10 minutes. And tough to get advertisers on board with that. Maybe as a pay-per-view thing it'd work. It'd be cool if you could flip to views from different positions on the course, so you could see the AG's and not just the Pros.

The number of cameras and staff needed to do what would be an interesting tv live coverage would be huge and I think that would make it expensive. You could only really cover a few people and then, as mentioned earlier, for most people this would be pretty boring to watch. I wish it was on tv, but unless it was PPV, i don't think there is much chance of live coverage.

Brian

That's right Brian. It's all about the money.
NBC puts millions into the coverage now, I'm sure, and they can sell ad spots for a two-hour edited broadcast, but who would buy a TV ad for the 2nd half hour of the swim, or the first 3 hours of the bike?

Even ironmanlive.com did a taped athlete profile during the first hours of the bike, Stadler wasn't it?
They just managed to get it in before he dropped out of the race!

Geoff

See? That's what I'm saying, you'd rather watch football than a bunch of anonymous people splashing the water a half mile offshore. And you're a triathlete!

The local TV coverage in Hawaii is a treat, but since every resident of Kona is a volunteer and out on the course, I wonder who is really watching it?

PoC

I wouldn't hold my breath for live coverage of the Ironman. There's just no market for it. Bicycle stage races, like the Tour de France, and the Vuelta, and the Giro make more compelling TV than a triathlon. Yet, only the TDF gets any coverage. OLN does a one hour recap show of the Veulta. And in a post Lance Armstrong era, they may drop the TDF, or drastically cut back on coverage.

Geez, you would think the Hawaii IM once a year could pull in more viewers than a show about a building a motorcycle or a hundred other lame reality shows that are on every week. (although, I am a closet Survivor watcher).

All said, I'd bet a dollar that Kona gets all day coverage within 5 years if anyone wants to take that action.

plus the discovery channel .... Lances # 1 sponsor ... Well has anyone seen anything bike related on Discovery ?? I think they had the chasing lance show on but ..... that was it.

A major drawback to the audience appeal of IMs is that we don't know where the damned competitors are half the time!
We sit there watching, imagining, having seen them come out of the water and for half an hour we wonder where is Norman? Where is Peter Reid?
The timing chips are a great innovation over manual methods, but the next step in the technology has to be GPS - satellite tracking so we can know where EVERY major competitor is at any time.
My GPS unit is so good I can measure the buoy placement for sailing races at the local club, but it is the size of a cell phone and I would race with that strapped to my ankle.
The engineers have to get busy on the tracking technology so TV coverage can catch up with the racers.

Just think of the benefits: during races we can know where the rivals are and how they are doing - pace, cadence, and HRM as we saw in the TdF this year, can be relayed as well as position on the course. The computer can then project how long before Stadler catches the leader.
At track & field comps they have wind speed indicators, so we could have them out on the Queen K.

Welcome to the 21st Century.

Geoff

POC - I was thinking the same thing - GPS has to be the next innovation at races. What a help it'll be to the families of AG's knowing where participants are and when to get the signs ready to cheer on as they go by (without missing them!). Would be great for monitoring the Pro's on IMLive. Being able to see gaps open up or close would be great!

Yeah, bike cams!
And with nano-technology we can have cameras built into the swim goggles and catch the POV from the start, the splashing, slashing, kicking gouging, clubbing..

Helmet cams are already standard stuff in ski racing, NASCAR.

As a competitor I want a display screen hooked to my bike GPS that tells me where my age-group competitors are. The pros get split times, how about us?

and a search feature that let's me get data - name, PR, telephone number? - on that cute girl #1426, who just went by..

Geoff

they did have the wattage, cadence, and speed for two of the bike competitors this year. that was pretty cool to watch. The gps stuff is do-able and the technology available. Since the athletes wouldn't need a gps reciever, just a transmitter, the technology is a lot smaller. Plus there is now development in LPS (Local Positioning), so maybe we will see that in the future. Its a lot cheaper not having to use satellites.

I think their is the viewership out there to beat a lot of other crap on tv, the problem is the length. Its 17hrs, not 30 minutes like other reality tv crap. I think the best we can hope for is having NBC extend its recorded footage to about 3hrs, and to show it the next morning. Sunday morning, can't be too much else on tv, and I am sure lots of triathletes would get up to watch it.

Brian

Hmmm, true. Maybe they could do it Picture-in-Picture :rolleyes:

Brian

Now we need some investors!!! :D

Instead of a POV swimmer camera - the image would be too shakey b/c your head would go in and out of the water as you breathe on the swim... Use a camera mounted on a floating buoey that is dragged alongside the crowd or use a kayak-mounted cam. Also, a good overhead cam on a crow's nest on the mast of a boat would be nice.. For the transition area, use a direct overhead shot - Blimp cam style. For bike, use the standard Tour de France setups: backward riding motorcycle cameraman, car cams. For the run, pretty much same thing.