mymediamusings

First Pirate Tennis, Now Pirate Tour de France

Lance Armstrong riding the prologue of the 200...

Although NBC decided, with what seems like very little fanfare, to put on the ladie’s Wimbledon finals on the internet Saturday. They did not, however, do the same for the men’s final which meant I went back to the pirate option. It appeared to be a feed from a local Utah NBC affiliate meaning I actually sat through all the commercials.

So, what did NBC gain by NOT officially putting the broadcast online? Well, they lost a lot of potential ad revenue but did not convince me to buy my friends a cable subscription so I could legally watch the game in their home in Vermont.

Now, the Versus network is making all the same mistakes with the Tour de France – that’s the race that used to be called the Lance Armstrong Race but now that he’s done American’s don’t really notice it.

According to SAI:

“It appears Versus has had a partial change of heart and is at least saying on its Web site it will carry parts of the first two stages live on the Web, prior to the beginning of each day’s TV broadcast. You can catch Stage 1 live from 6:30-8:30 a.m. today, and Stage 2 from 7:00-8:30 a.m. ET on Sunday.”

Yup, they’re putting on the two least important stages of the race on days when most people will be home and can just watch it on TV – Versus is now widely carried.

The real need comes when all the bike fans head off to work on Monday and want to check in on the race live. They won’t find any help from Versus. So, what do you think they’re going to do? I’m guessing someone out there sees the need and a chance to make a liitle ad revenue at the same time. Will they be breaking the law to do this? Sure. Would they bother if Versus simply offered the service themselve? Nope.