Phil Huang

NBC’s Coverage of 2008 French Open Men’s Semifinal Was Awful

NBC, you suck. Your coverage of this year’s French Open Men’s Semifinal matches was AWFUL. You grab the rights to broadcast but you do an absolutely horrible job, making it thoroughly un-enjoyable. Instead of airing at 7 AM to cover Nadal v. Djokovic live, NBC obviously aired their stupid morning show. They started airing the French Open at 10 AM and decide to air the tape of an already completed match (Nadal v. Djokovic). Not only that, over 3 hours they couldn’t even air the complete match because literally half of the 3 hour period was filled with commercials. Maybe more! Seriously, I’d walk away when a commercial came on, come back, watch tennis for 30 seconds, and another commercial break would start.

They skipped almost the entire second set. Commercials aired every few minutes. It was so unbearably annoying. I understand TV networks need to make money but it was just so obvious NBC cared nothing about covering the French Open but instead just wanted to fill a weak spot in their schedule to sell ad slots.

While airing an already completed match pumped full of damn commercials, the Federer v. Monfils is going on live and they decide not to air that. NBC’s tennis coverage ended at 1 PM so they opted not to air Federer v. Monfils at all. NBC, have you ever heard of a player named Federer? He’s this guy that’s ranked #1 in the world with 12 grand slam titles. I think people want to see a grand slam semifinal match featuring Federer.

If I were NBC, I would’ve aired highlights from Nadal v. Djokovic and went straight to the Federer match. Or at least if you’re going to do such a half-assed job you should’ve just let ESPN2 air it like the rest of the tournament you greedy asses. Instead you air a tape of a completed match so you can sell a whole bunch commercials. NBC, you suck so bad. Seriously, god damn it NBC, you fail.

This is why TV today sucks. This is why people like DVR and the ability to skip commercials. This is why TV programs get pirated and downloaded. This is why I rarely watch a show through my television anymore.

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Comments

6 responses to “NBC’s Coverage of 2008 French Open Men’s Semifinal Was Awful”

  1. Dennis

    Philip:
    You are right on. NBC sucks not only in the French Open coverage, but they will suck even bigger when it comes to the Olympics. The whole thing will be gymnastics and other stupid crap no one other than women want to watch. As for the French, people who are tennis fans should somehow unite to pressure NBC to give up the rights to covering the tournament. If a network is going to make money off of it like they do, they should be held to a certain standard of coverage. The fact that the Federer match was not aired at all pisses me off beyond belief. Then the tennis channel didn’t have it due to NBC having the rights. NBC, you suck, and the Jay Leno issue proves along with everything else you do that you suck, suck, suck…..

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  2. Luke

    This hits the nail right on the head. I got up at 7 o’clock for nothing. Once I’m up, there’s no way I’m getting back to sleep, so I had to wait around for 3 hours to watch a match that was already over! Not only that, but they showed ads not only after odd games (when the players change ends-that is when it is appropriate to show commercials) but after even ones as well. The players would get ready to serve and BAM! A commercial.

    Now, don’t get me wrong, I think Ted Robinson and John McEnroe are phenomenal commentators, but the rest of NBC’s coverage is TERRIBLE. Not just in tennis, but other sports as well. Notre Dame football blows, the NHL on NBC needs improvements (maybe they should try not showing the Detroit Dead Wings EVERY GOD DAMN WEEKEND), even Sunday Night Football has gone downhill (minus Keith Olbermann-he’s great) due to the lack of variation in their teams (once again, we have the Dallas Cowboys!). I dare not even mention the Olympics.

    Truth is, NBC needs to just give up on tennis. The coverage is horrible, the time allotment is too short, and they’re doing it for the wrong reason (to make tons of money off of ads).

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  3. Karl

    If you think they tennis coverage sucks watch their coverage of the Olympics. I wish I were in Albania instead of the USA. I might be able to see something except all those talking heads saying nothing and maybe competitors from countries other than China and the USA and more than two sports. I’m so mad I could kick that Costas guy butt, Really really hard.

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  4. Paul Neale

    Hey it’s 2011 and nothing has changed the story remains the same!

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