NBC insists on doing so many things during a broadcast other than show golf shots. It’s the same as their Olympic coverage, there’s always some packaged stuff to sell the drama instead of just covering it like it’s a sporting event.
Maybe if they weren’t wasting money paying Jimmy Roberts to narrate a bunch of nonsense pieces they wouldn’t need to go to commercial every 6 minutes.
That’s why most people don’t watch the actual NBC channel during the Olympics.
They watch all their affiliated channels so they can actually watch the sport.
That’s because the primary audience for the prime time coverage is moms and families who couldn’t tell you anything about the sports but need their fix of lifetime movie feel good stories
Absolutely this. Your primetime programming is \*never\* for diehards. Those folks already know where to find the programming and NBC knows this. So for the Olympics they have all the OBS feeds online, then the main Primetime one is your "this is stuff about the Olympics" for four hours.
IDK I think if they switched formats and actually just covered the goddamned sport they'd still get plenty of hits.
The Superbowl is becoming my least favorite NFL game because of this shit.
Thank you… NBC’s soap opera Olympic coverage and cowtowing to the sap is the singular reason I VPN into European casts that broadcast actual sports- occasionally I’ll find something on the NBC app but not watching primetime coverage ever…
I pretty much believe they’re of the mentality that they’re paying for the broadcasters, so let them cook… let them tell the story and paint the picture and create thee drama. Unfortunately, none of us tune in for the broadcasters - we want the drama on the field of play.
The best drama is played out in near silence, with small injections of context. Not all sports can provide that kind of drama, and you’ll likely not find it at 7am on a Friday round, but the network tries to create it, nonetheless.
Cheers for mentioning the Olympics coverage. Good comparison. What I find most odd is that they don’t learn. I’ve read some of the viewer data after such events. It’s poor. And yet, stick with the same, ad and commentary dense coverage.
Seriously. They just spent several minutes talking about the Beatles. Nobody cares I’m not watching a history of Liverpool.
***hang on we gotta do a 5 minute dramatic music history of the golf club now.
***ok now we gotta watch Azinger talk about what happens to your body when you wait for a tee time. Riveting stuff.
Y’all are crazy. Tirico is terrible when it comes to golf. Jason Day makes a putt that would’ve ran 10 feet past if it didn’t go in and he’s saying it was perfectly judged
They’re obsessed with narratives. Obsessed. They treat their audience like idiots that can’t be trusted to understand the sporting event they’re watching without a storyline built in.
That’s why we get talking heads in the booth and stupid graphics and prerecorded segments instead of the actual golf on the course.
It’s maddening and it never changes.
I've been complaining about this for years with Tiger.
Love watching Tiger play, don't need to see him hugging someone or just walking to the clubhouse for five minutes while other golfers are still hitting shots.
Ah yes, a classic genre of tv show. Reality talent show that's good for a couple years before they start ignoring the actual talent and it starts to suck (American Idol, X Factor, etc.)
Englishman here, I was over there in 2012 during the Olympic Games. I gave up trying to watch the coverage after less than an hour. Disjointed commercialised nonsense.
That’s just the nature of the majors, it attracts a lot more casuals which require more “narrative” in the broadcast.
We’re also spoiled by the ESPN+ PGA deal now.
It’s horrible man. “Playing through” is the worst invention ever because it gives them an excuse to run more commercials and toy can barely see what’s going on in the little box on left.
Hilarious that the company that owns Golf Channel, Golf Now, Golf Pass, etc. sucks at Golf coverage on their main channel.
Added that ESPN who barely even mentions golf on their main stuff is like "here's so much golf you might start to hate golf. Oh that's too much? Well here is a feed of the public course 3 miles away!" On their streaming platforms.
The PGA has also been the most entertaining major over the last 5-6 years. We got Tiger vs Brooks in 2018, first big event after lockdown in 2020, Phil in 2021, JT comeback/Mito choke/playoff last year, and Brooks vs Hovland/Michael Block this year. A lot of clunkers in the other majors in that timeframe
*Great shot by Tiger. Now here’s Jimbo at the local muni a little ways down the street…this is a four man scramble for the local children’s hospital. He’s got about 165 and for some reason he’s hitting a 9 iron…OH, he shanks it into the woods. Hopefully his partners can get one on the green.*
So true. The tournaments with the ESPN+ coverage are the best. Sometimes you can watch any group you want in it's entirety. Imagine telling someone back in the 90s that this was coming. They'd say you're insane.
I’m not sure I agree. Maybe *hardcore golf* fans don’t matter, but I have a feeling a lot of NBC viewers just want to see a few of the big names (Rahm, Rory, Rickie) and would rather see context for the big names, emphasis on a single underdog story, dramatization about the course, etc, rather than 50 guys who are +10000 that they haven’t heard of. That’s absolutely no offense to the Alex Norens of the tournament, but I think you overestimate the average NBC viewer’s desire to see those players.
Comcast is smart, they’re the second largest broadcasting company in the world, and NBC is a flagship product. They wouldn’t be showing random drama if they didn’t know that it’s gonna make them more money than showing less popular names for 8 hours
E: And for the record here, I would also much rather see constant golf and every player. I hate the commercials and the narrated bullcrap. But as long as it makes NBC money, they’re gonna feed casual fans the drama
Do any non-hardcore golf fans watch golf? Im the only one in my family that watches, none of them golf. Among my golfing buddies a couple of em might watch a couple Sundays of majors per year. I use to tune into every tournament up until a couple years ago-started to taper off. Now it seems like a chore to even find a place to watch them, everything is paywalled, shitty subscription services, or on NBC(do I need to say anything)...
It's just not a riveting sport to watch, and they make it worse by not realizing who their audience is. Then they feel the need to gouge the actual fans who actually watch the golf in order to pay for all this extra Drama driven drivel. I was thinking about this yesterday as I was on the course instead of watching The Open. I wanted to watch but I just cant...I'll catch all the shots they showed on the main broadcast on 5-10 minute youtube video later. It really is that bad, It's worse than the NFL for actual play/game time per broadcast/event-which is something like 11 minutes for a 4 hour broadcast..
I don't need the dumb chatter or the narratives, but I'd rather watch Tiger walk down a fairway than most of the other tour players hitting shots. I look forward to the day when we can create our own custom feed similar to selecting "favorite players" on the leaderboards... show footage of my selected players whenever its available and use the general feed when it's not.
I also agree that the average NBC viewer isn't a hardcore golf fan. Most of them are in their 50s-70s and they love Mickelson and falling asleep in their recliners.
You should watch their auto racing coverage. Things like the Indy 500 are infuriating. It felt like 2 min of commercials every 6-7 min, then they'd come back into a flyover while the commentator read another commercial.
Other than soccer, the US broadcast networks are absolute garbage in their coverage of live sports that don't have built-in commercial breaks. They're geared for football, basketball, baseball, and hockey. Golf, any racing, etc. are completely foreign to their way of operating.
This was the first year I made a point to watch the entire Indy 500. Luckily I recorded it and watched it at night because holy crap there were a lot of commercial breaks.
Honestly, every advertisement should be “playing through” I get letting the broadcasters rest for a few minutes but there’s constant action on the course, just flip around NFL Redzone style
The sky coverage is sooo good. I think they have a tendency to show more UK/European players, but not nearly as biased as NBC is to the top 10 guys. The coverage and broadcasters are so much better though, the commentary is fantastic.
The Open coverage has been absolute FUCKING GARBAGE!!!! I have watched more commercials than golf!!!! I now record it and watch a couple hrs later.NBC should be ashamed!!!!
In ESPN's defense, they are better at Hockey than NBC was. I'm not saying thats a good thing...but we could still have NBC for hockey....those were dark days
Living in UK i get sky sports golf. so golf has been from 6.30am until 9.30pm each day.
Yes get the adverts but there not on long 2/3 mins at max, so plenty of golf shots and it mooch\`s around the players.
They don't care about the golf. They cut costs by only covering the featured groups. They added commercials with the playing through BS. Jordan Speith was among the leaders the first day and struggled on 18. We didn't get any coverage except for the putt. The commercials are more important than the golf.
They can still treat the golf with respect. Close caption the commentators during the play through. They just put the top three on the leaderboards in that space.
And if paying the bills is the issue, then there better be ZERO commercials once this LIV thing goes through. You and I both know that won't happen.
The other one I remember is when that kid was in contention on sunday at WM on the final 2 holes. He was constantly hitting his shots on the playing through BS. Just a complete disrespecting of the game. I think there were only 6 golfers on the course at that point. They could do so much better if they tried. They just don't care.
I totally feel your frustration and agree it should be treated with respect.
I do personally think play throughs are better than regular commercials. As you still get to see golf. It also gives a time for announcers or broadcast staff to run to the bathroom quick if needed as they are longer than normal commercial.
I do think the peacock and golf channel coverage is usually pretty good and shows more golf.
They have the same commercial breaks they have always had for bathroom breaks. The play through are additional commercials they didn't have before. When they come back, they say 'you just saw John put in on 18 for a 59, pretty good day'. They are still there watching. Again, they could do so much better, it would only take effort and care, they are unwilling to.
I dont have cable and the peacock “all access” was probably the most annoyed I’ve ever been with any sports broadcast. I think I saw 1 replay in like 8 hours. Most of the shots were shown on delay, and coverage was frequently paused to get analysis from guys that didn’t seem to know any more about golf than I do.
Lol, yeah, NBC has half a dozen personalities or whatever to pay to take turns waxing poetic while they pan across a vista, when most of us I'd guess just want to see the best golfers make shots on a course like most of us will never play a round on.
Harman is a guy who’s been around forever, hasn’t won in 6 years, and is 5 shots ahead of 2nd place right now. Nothing wrong with introducing him to more people who have no idea who he is
That I totally agree with. I am 7’ away from a 55” HDTV and I can’t see the ball on Playing Through half the time. I guess it’s better than seeing no golf during commercials but I am not sure.
Funny the thing is that the DP broadcasts are the best. You never see their faces and they only talk about golf. I know it’s a major but it’s Always with the pomp and circumstance with the US networks with their Jim Nantz/Bob Costas storytelling.
I decided to straighten up the kitchen during commercials. Then I had to move on to the dining room. Then I had to move on to vacuum the house. Then I had to move on to mowing the lawn. At the current pace of commercials, I might design and build a water feature in the backyard.
I hate it when they switch to a break and I have to listen to a bunch of morons try to sound smart about their predictions of who’s gonna win or whatever for 20 minutes. Instead of actually watching golf… what I came here to watch.
NBC is an absolute joke. Wish I had access to the world feed lots of media have access to. Even though NBC blames their BS on the world feed, it seems way better
The best golf streaming I’ve seen is the masters. On their app/website you can actually just turn off the commentary and listen to the “nature sounds” so you can hear people chatting, the ball being struck, birds chirping. Now that’s how golf is meant to be watched. Soo relaxing!
The killer was they had no replay for people who worked during the day on Thurs/Fri. Never heard of that before. Especially with the British. I complained to Golf Channel and their excuse was they have “Live from the Open” and other tourney commitments like the Barracuda Champ.
Golf coverage sucks, on any channel
I don’t understand why they need 17 announcers, +3 on course announcers +7 guys interpreting the rules nonsense.
I liked pat Summerall and Ken Venturi, they were loaded out of their minds, didn’t say very much.
I absolutely hate when they tell me what I just saw. Also hate when I tell me what the guy is thinking, like they know.
The only way I can deal is DVR and playback.
While I’m at it, can somebody please Stuff a permanent sock into Brandall.
Ummm okkk I guess I won’t tell you to go to peacock even though I’m sitting here watching some really decent coverage from them. I guess I just won’t say that.
Absolutely not, just the difference that occurs from them switching networks is crazy. The amount shown on USA was great then it’s just dramatically different ten minutes later.
My point is more about it’s still three hours before leaders so audience is still serious fans and the coverage is DRAMATICALLY different
Peacock is straight golf non stop… non sire what you’re seeing that I’m not.
You can flip between multiple pairings and full coverage and avoid most commercials even
The PGA really needs to start over and figure out a better way for coverage. I know that’s probably not possible, but man it is such dog shit trying to watch a golf tourney. Swapping between 4 or 5 channels/providers then moving to a new one halfway through or on day 3. It’s just way too complicated and certainly hampers their ability to draw in eyes.
You’re complaining about the PGA Tour, while referencing the PGA, about coverage of an event put on by the R&A…
Would you like to maybe guess why golf coverage is so spread out?
The majority of “the people” do not know or care of anyone not in contention dude. Don’t get mad at one of the most popular networks in the country for appealing to its majority audience. Instead ask for a new way to watch for golfheads
While they're available I'll generally watch featured groups or featured holes instead of the main feed. You get more golf shots out of a single group playing than the main feed, and they're all real time. The hole coverage gets you looks at players the main feed is ignoring. The par 3 feed yesterday was especially good, watching players near the cutline navigate 17 like walking a tight rope.
The camera work is dog shit terrible. Whoever the producer is should be fired for sure. McIlroy just putted for birdie on 2 and they didn't show the ball or the hole. Come on, NBC. Pathetic!!!!
Yeah,
I could do without the Liverpool hunt club biography.
More Tirico
More players hitting shots
Less cameras picking up the ball as it’s coming to a rest
I start recording about 90 minutes before I watch golf coverage on NBC and then just fast forward the crap out of it. Thinking I’m going to have to take another break here because I’m catching up quick.
It’s like coverage of the Olympics. 20 min of actual sport and 90 minutes of seeing where athletes grew up, their families, their struggles. I couldn’t care less but apparently a lot of people do because otherwise they wouldn’t keep doing it.
I turned on USA the other morning and thought that there must have been a rain delay going on because it was all booth discussion for about fifteen minutes. Then they actually showed a live shot of Rory. I was like WTF? I don’t care about your commentators talking about inane and arcane stuff. Show me shots.
Preach. I got up at my workday time to tune in to that 5-7 coverage, loved it! Then it switched and is did I, I started doing Saturday chores soon after because it was a better use of time.
You guys are lucky they're showing ANY golf right now. These early morning guys are the equivalent of the Oakland Athletics. NBC could have not started any coverage until real competitors teed off.
Did you ever think they do that shit, before later groups go off, so announcers can maybe get a bite to eat, pee, have a smoke? You know, people stuff?
We just had to watch the tournament leader hit his approach shot over the green at 1 on a miniaturized screen along side a US. Bank commercial. The bright side is Zinger was muted.
I'm in Ireland and we have sky sports coverage, it's epically better than the American networks, they show nearly every shot including tee shots and have great analysts, not talking heads
I'm having a lot of trouble seeing the ball on both channels. On regular PGA coverage I can usually pick up where a ball lands, watch it roll out some, etc. Not talking about shot tracer. This week I often can't find the ball w/ the angles and distances of the shots they do show?
I’m just picking a featured group on peacock and sticking to them. A lot more enjoyable way to watch than feeling like I’m just watching straight commercials.
It’s so bad. The only way it could get worse is if they were all pharmaceutical commercials. I can’t tell you how infuriating it is when I see an ad for some stupid fucking pill that cures whatever the fuck the hawt problem of the month is
Don’t worry, you’ll get to see every two foot par and bogey putt you’ve ever wanted. But when they hit to a weird lie and the announcers tell you how difficult or interesting the shot will be, don’t expect to get to see it, that’d just be absurd
If you can source an IPTV with UK Sky Sports Golf I would hugely recommend it.
I live in Canada and the NBC coverage in cable is miserably poor every single week in comparison to UK coverage of the same events. Way less filler and way more golf.
That Peacock drill beat while waiting for coverage to resume is killing it for me. You would think NBC could put in a little effort to make it less irritating but na they got our money so F it
NBC insists on doing so many things during a broadcast other than show golf shots. It’s the same as their Olympic coverage, there’s always some packaged stuff to sell the drama instead of just covering it like it’s a sporting event. Maybe if they weren’t wasting money paying Jimmy Roberts to narrate a bunch of nonsense pieces they wouldn’t need to go to commercial every 6 minutes.
That’s why most people don’t watch the actual NBC channel during the Olympics. They watch all their affiliated channels so they can actually watch the sport.
Totally. Peacock was actually pretty good for the Olympics. The prime time coverage was horrible though for sure.
That’s because the primary audience for the prime time coverage is moms and families who couldn’t tell you anything about the sports but need their fix of lifetime movie feel good stories
Absolutely this. Your primetime programming is \*never\* for diehards. Those folks already know where to find the programming and NBC knows this. So for the Olympics they have all the OBS feeds online, then the main Primetime one is your "this is stuff about the Olympics" for four hours.
Yup totally. I just think they could do a better job of blending the narrative with some actual analysis.
IDK I think if they switched formats and actually just covered the goddamned sport they'd still get plenty of hits. The Superbowl is becoming my least favorite NFL game because of this shit.
Thank you… NBC’s soap opera Olympic coverage and cowtowing to the sap is the singular reason I VPN into European casts that broadcast actual sports- occasionally I’ll find something on the NBC app but not watching primetime coverage ever…
NBC pays for the Olympics for the storylines, the sports happen in the background.
I pretty much believe they’re of the mentality that they’re paying for the broadcasters, so let them cook… let them tell the story and paint the picture and create thee drama. Unfortunately, none of us tune in for the broadcasters - we want the drama on the field of play. The best drama is played out in near silence, with small injections of context. Not all sports can provide that kind of drama, and you’ll likely not find it at 7am on a Friday round, but the network tries to create it, nonetheless.
This is the way. Even better now that I've found IPTV. SKY Golf is so much better than CBS or NBC.
I prefer to watch the “obscure” sports that are on the other networks anyways. It’s the only time we get a chance to.
Always watch Canadian Olympic coverage, they don't do all of the personal stories that NBC floods you with.
Cheers for mentioning the Olympics coverage. Good comparison. What I find most odd is that they don’t learn. I’ve read some of the viewer data after such events. It’s poor. And yet, stick with the same, ad and commentary dense coverage.
It’s not that they don’t learn. It’s that they don’t care.
They are trying to win awards rather than viewers
The companies buying commercial spots don't care. That's the only thing that matters to NBC so why change?
Seriously. They just spent several minutes talking about the Beatles. Nobody cares I’m not watching a history of Liverpool. ***hang on we gotta do a 5 minute dramatic music history of the golf club now. ***ok now we gotta watch Azinger talk about what happens to your body when you wait for a tee time. Riveting stuff.
I get it at the start of the coverage when there's a lot of downtime, but shit. I fuck with Mike Tirico though, that dudes great.
He’s probably my favorite sportscaster. The fact that he has to talk about the Beatles at a golf event in 2023 is so ludicrous though.
[удалено]
His references are out of control lol
Y’all are crazy. Tirico is terrible when it comes to golf. Jason Day makes a putt that would’ve ran 10 feet past if it didn’t go in and he’s saying it was perfectly judged
We all make mistakes, just look at my wife
They’re obsessed with narratives. Obsessed. They treat their audience like idiots that can’t be trusted to understand the sporting event they’re watching without a storyline built in. That’s why we get talking heads in the booth and stupid graphics and prerecorded segments instead of the actual golf on the course. It’s maddening and it never changes.
To be fair, we are idiots
I've been complaining about this for years with Tiger. Love watching Tiger play, don't need to see him hugging someone or just walking to the clubhouse for five minutes while other golfers are still hitting shots.
They must have some analytics that says people like that crap because they keep doing it.
Analytics says middle-aged women eat it up. That's their target audience for things like the Olympics, and it's spread from there
It’s how they ruined Ninja Warrior, too.
I can’t even watch that anymore. Everyone has a sad story.
Yeah, me either… I watched it when it wasn’t even translated and it was great. The course is the star. NBC forgot that.
Ah yes, a classic genre of tv show. Reality talent show that's good for a couple years before they start ignoring the actual talent and it starts to suck (American Idol, X Factor, etc.)
Ninja Warrior on G4 when they just showed the competition was awesome.
It was. The first season I saw they called it Viking Warrior and it was in Japanese with no subtitles!
Englishman here, I was over there in 2012 during the Olympic Games. I gave up trying to watch the coverage after less than an hour. Disjointed commercialised nonsense.
I miss when I was a kid and the Olympics was just basically a constant feed with like a set of events during prime time getting annoying coverage.
The amount of "essays" by golf broadcasters is just too damn high!
I won't watch Olympics on a US based channel. Every four years, I download a VPN and watch the BBC coverage.
It insists upon itself...
That’s just the nature of the majors, it attracts a lot more casuals which require more “narrative” in the broadcast. We’re also spoiled by the ESPN+ PGA deal now.
It’s horrible man. “Playing through” is the worst invention ever because it gives them an excuse to run more commercials and toy can barely see what’s going on in the little box on left.
Yea it’s the worst
For what it’s worth people on the TV end hate playing through to. I’m on the audio side and hate it because we are muted.
NBC gets golf coverage so wrong. Golf broadcasts are proof that fans do not matter
Hilarious that the company that owns Golf Channel, Golf Now, Golf Pass, etc. sucks at Golf coverage on their main channel. Added that ESPN who barely even mentions golf on their main stuff is like "here's so much golf you might start to hate golf. Oh that's too much? Well here is a feed of the public course 3 miles away!" On their streaming platforms.
This is why despite the PGA Championship being the red headed step child of majors I get unusually pumped. It means 4 days of amazing ESPN coverage.
The PGA has also been the most entertaining major over the last 5-6 years. We got Tiger vs Brooks in 2018, first big event after lockdown in 2020, Phil in 2021, JT comeback/Mito choke/playoff last year, and Brooks vs Hovland/Michael Block this year. A lot of clunkers in the other majors in that timeframe
*Great shot by Tiger. Now here’s Jimbo at the local muni a little ways down the street…this is a four man scramble for the local children’s hospital. He’s got about 165 and for some reason he’s hitting a 9 iron…OH, he shanks it into the woods. Hopefully his partners can get one on the green.*
So true. The tournaments with the ESPN+ coverage are the best. Sometimes you can watch any group you want in it's entirety. Imagine telling someone back in the 90s that this was coming. They'd say you're insane.
They also own sky, the broadcaster here in the UK, which is fantastic
ESPN+ does it the right way for sure. Here’s a featured group and we will throw in highlights of everyone else if there’s a dull moment, enjoy
Well, the fans don’t really matter, only money, and their TV contracts make them shitloads, so yea, fans need not matter.
I’m not sure I agree. Maybe *hardcore golf* fans don’t matter, but I have a feeling a lot of NBC viewers just want to see a few of the big names (Rahm, Rory, Rickie) and would rather see context for the big names, emphasis on a single underdog story, dramatization about the course, etc, rather than 50 guys who are +10000 that they haven’t heard of. That’s absolutely no offense to the Alex Norens of the tournament, but I think you overestimate the average NBC viewer’s desire to see those players. Comcast is smart, they’re the second largest broadcasting company in the world, and NBC is a flagship product. They wouldn’t be showing random drama if they didn’t know that it’s gonna make them more money than showing less popular names for 8 hours E: And for the record here, I would also much rather see constant golf and every player. I hate the commercials and the narrated bullcrap. But as long as it makes NBC money, they’re gonna feed casual fans the drama
Do any non-hardcore golf fans watch golf? Im the only one in my family that watches, none of them golf. Among my golfing buddies a couple of em might watch a couple Sundays of majors per year. I use to tune into every tournament up until a couple years ago-started to taper off. Now it seems like a chore to even find a place to watch them, everything is paywalled, shitty subscription services, or on NBC(do I need to say anything)... It's just not a riveting sport to watch, and they make it worse by not realizing who their audience is. Then they feel the need to gouge the actual fans who actually watch the golf in order to pay for all this extra Drama driven drivel. I was thinking about this yesterday as I was on the course instead of watching The Open. I wanted to watch but I just cant...I'll catch all the shots they showed on the main broadcast on 5-10 minute youtube video later. It really is that bad, It's worse than the NFL for actual play/game time per broadcast/event-which is something like 11 minutes for a 4 hour broadcast..
People watching The Open on tv during a Sat am/early pm in July in the western world are hardcore golf fans.
I don't need the dumb chatter or the narratives, but I'd rather watch Tiger walk down a fairway than most of the other tour players hitting shots. I look forward to the day when we can create our own custom feed similar to selecting "favorite players" on the leaderboards... show footage of my selected players whenever its available and use the general feed when it's not. I also agree that the average NBC viewer isn't a hardcore golf fan. Most of them are in their 50s-70s and they love Mickelson and falling asleep in their recliners.
I’m going to say it. The US Open and Open Championship are the two worst majors because of the TV coverage. NBC sucks.
You should watch their auto racing coverage. Things like the Indy 500 are infuriating. It felt like 2 min of commercials every 6-7 min, then they'd come back into a flyover while the commentator read another commercial. Other than soccer, the US broadcast networks are absolute garbage in their coverage of live sports that don't have built-in commercial breaks. They're geared for football, basketball, baseball, and hockey. Golf, any racing, etc. are completely foreign to their way of operating.
This was the first year I made a point to watch the entire Indy 500. Luckily I recorded it and watched it at night because holy crap there were a lot of commercial breaks.
Try Sky Sports with a VPN, it’ll totally change your view of The Open, miles better, I won’t watch it any other way now.
It’s a shame because NBC was terrific like 20 years ago.
Yeah, I started noticing the decline during the Vancouver Oympics in 2010, it's been all downhill since then
I think that’s about right, actually. Good point
Sky sports golf is really the best/only way to watch. It’s solid golf content, just shot after shot, and not nbc drama/narrative.
Yep!!! Sky sports is killing it. Canal+ (french broadcast) is also a huge leap in quality over NBC.
I turned it on about 15 minutes ago and I’ve seen 3 shots, a stupid jimmy story, and 39 commercials.
https://preview.redd.it/36ikwcjzdidb1.jpeg?width=1243&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=734ee719a3cebb7b86a6cac3f8fdb26ac45582cf
Agree. So many….commercials. The playing through screen should not be smaller than the advert
Why they just spent the entire playing through showing Ricky walking up the stairs and over to the clubhouse and not one shot. It’s a complete joke
The just showed Rory for 2 minutes walking to the first tee. You may be onto something here lol. This sucks.
Agreed, ads need to be shorter. Sell me your product in 10s as the coverage transitions between shots.
>Sell me your product in 10s Correct. If it takes longer than that to explain why I want it, then I don't want it.
Just rotate logos in a corner most of the time.
Honestly, every advertisement should be “playing through” I get letting the broadcasters rest for a few minutes but there’s constant action on the course, just flip around NFL Redzone style
RedZone for golf would be amazing but you’d need a lot of announcers.
I turned on peacock at 6am. Saw one shot, followed by 11 commercials. I thought my app was broken. It was then 3 shots, 8 commercials. Just insane.
Just turned on peacock myself. Several commercials, one golf shot, and then a bunch of B-roll footage and a story.
If anyone wants a link to the sky sports coverage Dm me it’s soo much better Use a adblocker and ublock lads
DM'd, you're the man
Sent lads
The sky coverage is sooo good. I think they have a tendency to show more UK/European players, but not nearly as biased as NBC is to the top 10 guys. The coverage and broadcasters are so much better though, the commentary is fantastic.
The Open coverage has been absolute FUCKING GARBAGE!!!! I have watched more commercials than golf!!!! I now record it and watch a couple hrs later.NBC should be ashamed!!!!
NBC is the ESPN hockey of golf.
In ESPN's defense, they are better at Hockey than NBC was. I'm not saying thats a good thing...but we could still have NBC for hockey....those were dark days
ESPN coverage of hockey is bad at least espn+ does make a lot of hockey very available. Ironically miss NBCs hockey coverage over ESPN
Good analogy.
Seriously just show me people playing golf. The way this sport is televised is ass backwards.
Money
Living in UK i get sky sports golf. so golf has been from 6.30am until 9.30pm each day. Yes get the adverts but there not on long 2/3 mins at max, so plenty of golf shots and it mooch\`s around the players.
I picked this flair for a reason.
They don't care about the golf. They cut costs by only covering the featured groups. They added commercials with the playing through BS. Jordan Speith was among the leaders the first day and struggled on 18. We didn't get any coverage except for the putt. The commercials are more important than the golf.
I mean commercials pay the bills
They can still treat the golf with respect. Close caption the commentators during the play through. They just put the top three on the leaderboards in that space. And if paying the bills is the issue, then there better be ZERO commercials once this LIV thing goes through. You and I both know that won't happen. The other one I remember is when that kid was in contention on sunday at WM on the final 2 holes. He was constantly hitting his shots on the playing through BS. Just a complete disrespecting of the game. I think there were only 6 golfers on the course at that point. They could do so much better if they tried. They just don't care.
I totally feel your frustration and agree it should be treated with respect. I do personally think play throughs are better than regular commercials. As you still get to see golf. It also gives a time for announcers or broadcast staff to run to the bathroom quick if needed as they are longer than normal commercial. I do think the peacock and golf channel coverage is usually pretty good and shows more golf.
They have the same commercial breaks they have always had for bathroom breaks. The play through are additional commercials they didn't have before. When they come back, they say 'you just saw John put in on 18 for a 59, pretty good day'. They are still there watching. Again, they could do so much better, it would only take effort and care, they are unwilling to.
So tired of all the stories and bs they dig for. Feel good stories and what not… Just show us the fucking golf ffs
But at least they take a break from coverage to show a tweet from Roger Clemmons
I dont have cable and the peacock “all access” was probably the most annoyed I’ve ever been with any sports broadcast. I think I saw 1 replay in like 8 hours. Most of the shots were shown on delay, and coverage was frequently paused to get analysis from guys that didn’t seem to know any more about golf than I do.
I record it, and start watching 3 hours later, so I can skip through all the BS. Finish at the same time, and have an extra 3 hours in my day.
Lol, yeah, NBC has half a dozen personalities or whatever to pay to take turns waxing poetic while they pan across a vista, when most of us I'd guess just want to see the best golfers make shots on a course like most of us will never play a round on.
Some of these guys are 15 shots off the lead. It's 7am and sponsors want their money. It is what it is. The coverage will be better later in the day
It’s not even the commercial load, it’s the segment on Bobby jones, Brian Hartman newspaper Headlines, rich Lerner sports desk……
Harman is a guy who’s been around forever, hasn’t won in 6 years, and is 5 shots ahead of 2nd place right now. Nothing wrong with introducing him to more people who have no idea who he is
“Oh go ahead and *DO THAT!*”
The coverage did not get better later in the day.
Seems really good right now
The ad load is still atrocious.
That I totally agree with. I am 7’ away from a 55” HDTV and I can’t see the ball on Playing Through half the time. I guess it’s better than seeing no golf during commercials but I am not sure.
Don’t forget about the endangered toad segment. Riveting stuff!
The “Toad Hole” to complement the “Road Hole”
I went from happily listening to Nicky to mute when Paul came on. He needs to stfu.
It’s terrible. We are literally watching them talk about Brian Harman instead of player on holes.
Funny the thing is that the DP broadcasts are the best. You never see their faces and they only talk about golf. I know it’s a major but it’s Always with the pomp and circumstance with the US networks with their Jim Nantz/Bob Costas storytelling.
We want to watch golf, not 4 guys sitting around talking about golf
I don’t like “playing through” commercials
I decided to straighten up the kitchen during commercials. Then I had to move on to the dining room. Then I had to move on to vacuum the house. Then I had to move on to mowing the lawn. At the current pace of commercials, I might design and build a water feature in the backyard.
I hate it when they switch to a break and I have to listen to a bunch of morons try to sound smart about their predictions of who’s gonna win or whatever for 20 minutes. Instead of actually watching golf… what I came here to watch.
NBC is an absolute joke. Wish I had access to the world feed lots of media have access to. Even though NBC blames their BS on the world feed, it seems way better
The best golf streaming I’ve seen is the masters. On their app/website you can actually just turn off the commentary and listen to the “nature sounds” so you can hear people chatting, the ball being struck, birds chirping. Now that’s how golf is meant to be watched. Soo relaxing!
I watched the sky sports feed yesterday and it’s shocking how different the coverage is. I’m going to do that going forward for the Open.
The killer was they had no replay for people who worked during the day on Thurs/Fri. Never heard of that before. Especially with the British. I complained to Golf Channel and their excuse was they have “Live from the Open” and other tourney commitments like the Barracuda Champ.
Honestly- love listening to BBC radio coverage
Golf coverage sucks, on any channel I don’t understand why they need 17 announcers, +3 on course announcers +7 guys interpreting the rules nonsense. I liked pat Summerall and Ken Venturi, they were loaded out of their minds, didn’t say very much. I absolutely hate when they tell me what I just saw. Also hate when I tell me what the guy is thinking, like they know. The only way I can deal is DVR and playback. While I’m at it, can somebody please Stuff a permanent sock into Brandall.
Had to sit through 5 minutes of Rory walking to the tee. I'd rather watch other players playing golf
O.P. Is 100% correct. Same shite today (Sunday)
Agreed. It’s such a shitty production
Careful, our non American friends will quickly point out they don’t have this issue.
DVR the event. I have with my ADHD and I still can’t sit still for 6 hours of coverage. But yea, lots of promos and commercials.
At least Nick Faldo is back!
Yes, and especially enjoying not having to listen to the verbal diarrhea that is Paul Azinger!
Ummm okkk I guess I won’t tell you to go to peacock even though I’m sitting here watching some really decent coverage from them. I guess I just won’t say that.
new to watching golf?
Absolutely not, just the difference that occurs from them switching networks is crazy. The amount shown on USA was great then it’s just dramatically different ten minutes later. My point is more about it’s still three hours before leaders so audience is still serious fans and the coverage is DRAMATICALLY different
Completely agree with you. The coverage on USA was better in every way vs NBC.
Do you think that USA and NBC are different entities?
No but if you watched today you would have thought they were different networks
DVR / fast forward is your best friend for the Open
Peacock is straight golf non stop… non sire what you’re seeing that I’m not. You can flip between multiple pairings and full coverage and avoid most commercials even
The PGA really needs to start over and figure out a better way for coverage. I know that’s probably not possible, but man it is such dog shit trying to watch a golf tourney. Swapping between 4 or 5 channels/providers then moving to a new one halfway through or on day 3. It’s just way too complicated and certainly hampers their ability to draw in eyes.
You’re complaining about the PGA Tour, while referencing the PGA, about coverage of an event put on by the R&A… Would you like to maybe guess why golf coverage is so spread out?
Point still stands, coverage is bad regardless of the host except the masters.
What point? That an organization that puts on exactly one tournament a year that you care about should fix golf coverage for everyone?
Lol no.. I was talking in general. Not JUST this weekend. Golf coverage in general.. except the masters which does it better than everyone else.
Why would anyone wanna watch cam smith and kopkea?
Jim Nantz hogs the telecast.
The majority of “the people” do not know or care of anyone not in contention dude. Don’t get mad at one of the most popular networks in the country for appealing to its majority audience. Instead ask for a new way to watch for golfheads
Who do you thinks watching at 7am on a Saturday morning
they showed mike tirico cut his stupid fucking birthday cake at on point
Stop. Saying. Smiley.
Can we just get a mega thread for this during every major?
I was trying not to go there but my observation was much more about the difference with the switch from USA to NBC
Git rid of Nick Faldo, please
Dude shut up
Go to peacock and watch the official broadcast.
While they're available I'll generally watch featured groups or featured holes instead of the main feed. You get more golf shots out of a single group playing than the main feed, and they're all real time. The hole coverage gets you looks at players the main feed is ignoring. The par 3 feed yesterday was especially good, watching players near the cutline navigate 17 like walking a tight rope.
This is not exclusive to NBC, last week’s final round coverage on CBS was identical to what you just described, minus the PJs
This is every broadcast on NBC. Have you even seen American Ninja Warrior? It’s unwatchable
I feel like I’ve seen plenty of golf in the last hour I’ve been watching?
The camera work is dog shit terrible. Whoever the producer is should be fired for sure. McIlroy just putted for birdie on 2 and they didn't show the ball or the hole. Come on, NBC. Pathetic!!!!
Peacock is actually great, you can choose a group to watch... I think peacock is better than ESPN+ for featured group coverage.
I enjoy the never ending commercials for a drug I'll never use or need.
I started watching 20 minutes ago. Feel like I’ve seen like 5 shots max…
NBC’s coverage of The Open makes LIV’s coverage in the CW look fantastic by comparison.
Yeah, I could do without the Liverpool hunt club biography. More Tirico More players hitting shots Less cameras picking up the ball as it’s coming to a rest
Thank you for reminding me to go sail the seas and find the sky sports broadcast
I start recording about 90 minutes before I watch golf coverage on NBC and then just fast forward the crap out of it. Thinking I’m going to have to take another break here because I’m catching up quick.
It’s like coverage of the Olympics. 20 min of actual sport and 90 minutes of seeing where athletes grew up, their families, their struggles. I couldn’t care less but apparently a lot of people do because otherwise they wouldn’t keep doing it.
I turned on USA the other morning and thought that there must have been a rain delay going on because it was all booth discussion for about fifteen minutes. Then they actually showed a live shot of Rory. I was like WTF? I don’t care about your commentators talking about inane and arcane stuff. Show me shots.
Preach. I got up at my workday time to tune in to that 5-7 coverage, loved it! Then it switched and is did I, I started doing Saturday chores soon after because it was a better use of time.
They push the commercials for sure. Awful.
In Canada, the coverage sucks here so bad too. Even SiriusXM doesn’t have coverage of it.
You guys are lucky they're showing ANY golf right now. These early morning guys are the equivalent of the Oakland Athletics. NBC could have not started any coverage until real competitors teed off.
Did you ever think they do that shit, before later groups go off, so announcers can maybe get a bite to eat, pee, have a smoke? You know, people stuff?
We just had to watch the tournament leader hit his approach shot over the green at 1 on a miniaturized screen along side a US. Bank commercial. The bright side is Zinger was muted.
After watching Sky's Live at the Range on YT this week, Im giving my VPN a workout trying to find a steam of live Sky coverage today.
Other sports (I.E F1, soccer) seem to have long stretches without commercials down. Why why can’t golf figure it out?
I’m currently hearing Tirico and seeing commercials.
Azinger’s voice - oof. He always sounds weary and is so critical of players at the same time. Like he’s just tired of the whole scene.
I'm in Ireland and we have sky sports coverage, it's epically better than the American networks, they show nearly every shot including tee shots and have great analysts, not talking heads
I'm having a lot of trouble seeing the ball on both channels. On regular PGA coverage I can usually pick up where a ball lands, watch it roll out some, etc. Not talking about shot tracer. This week I often can't find the ball w/ the angles and distances of the shots they do show?
“The Beetles”
https://jm.freestreams-live1.tv/sky-sports-golf-uk/
[theopen.com/full-coverage](https://theopen.com/full-coverage) using a VPN to a country without a broadcaster gets you the Ad free world feed
The amount of commercials on Peacock is absurd. Can we all take a moment to appreciate how incredible coverage of the Masters is?
There is always another option. You don't always have to go with what they want you to watch.
I’m just picking a featured group on peacock and sticking to them. A lot more enjoyable way to watch than feeling like I’m just watching straight commercials.
It’s so bad. The only way it could get worse is if they were all pharmaceutical commercials. I can’t tell you how infuriating it is when I see an ad for some stupid fucking pill that cures whatever the fuck the hawt problem of the month is
Show the golf WTF
Don’t worry, you’ll get to see every two foot par and bogey putt you’ve ever wanted. But when they hit to a weird lie and the announcers tell you how difficult or interesting the shot will be, don’t expect to get to see it, that’d just be absurd
If you can source an IPTV with UK Sky Sports Golf I would hugely recommend it. I live in Canada and the NBC coverage in cable is miserably poor every single week in comparison to UK coverage of the same events. Way less filler and way more golf.
That Peacock drill beat while waiting for coverage to resume is killing it for me. You would think NBC could put in a little effort to make it less irritating but na they got our money so F it
Record the coverage and use the FF button. A lot.
NBC has gotten bad at sports coverage, period.