Webcasts bring European track to the USA
I’m tied down stateside dependent on the infamously mediocre-to-bad American TV broadcasts of Golden League, Grand Prix meet, World Championships, and Olympics.
But wait, suddenly, a few weeks before Oslo’s Bislett Games, a ray of hope appeared. The solution that Internet-savvy track and field fans had longed for, a webcast of the meets live and uncut, was promised by an entity known as the World Championship Sports Network (www.wcsn.com).
The trial run would come with Bislett, WCSN promised, and the World Championships were to be presented in fabulous depth: 58 hours worth, and all for just $4.95, albeit only to viewers in the United States and its territories. Fingers all around America were crossed - t&f fans have known disappointment before - in hopes that this seeming fantasy would be delivered.
It was. In spades.
Perhaps it isn’t good journalism to sound almost like an advertisement for them, but WCSN really was every hardcore track fan’s dream come true.
Every lap of the 10,000, with no commercial interruption. Expert announcers (Peter Matthews, Steve Ovett and Shaun Pickering)…And best of all, field events! Almost every throw and jump, with all the attendant drama that comes as the event twists and turns and the lead gets passed around.
And about halfway through the Worlds, WCSN announced that for another $9.95, the rest of the GL and the IAAF’s World Athletics Final could be seen - Live, or later, at the viewer’s leisure, in an archived version.
If WCSN wasn’t perfect, then it came as close as could be expected for a first-time venture.
Will losing even this little TV exposure cause us to slip even further into minor-sport status (in the USA)?
A cause for concern perhaps, but worrying about it won’t do much good - the market generally rewards those who deliver the better product - and this summer, a lot of us gleefully ponied up the five bucks for an outstanding one. And unless WCSN goes under we’ll continue clicking our mouse instead of the remote.
Lee Nichols for the IAAF
This abbreviated version of Lee Nichols' article is reproduced by kind permission of Track and Field News. It was published in the October edition 2005 of the magazine.