fbd insurances ras

sportbilly2008

why is there no tv coverage whatsoever of this fabulous bike event throughout the length and breadth of this country.i went to see a bit of it near mallow yesterday and i was the only one who seemed to be aware of its existence.apart from the finishes, there seems to be no public interest in it, which is a pity cos its got a good quality field.also is there no county teams allowd enter any more?

blorg

There are county teams, yes, check out the website at www.fbdinsuranceras.com. Cyclopath (poster here) mentioned in the other thread that organisers had to pay RTE €300k for coverage of the Tour of Ireland.

cyclopath2001

blorg wrote: »

There are county teams, yes, check out the website at www.fbdinsuranceras.com. Cyclopath (poster here) mentioned in the other thread that organisers had to pay RTE €300k for coverage of the Tour of Ireland.

Err, not quite accurate. My source said that was the total cost, most of which would have gone to hire contractors, advisors, cameramen, satellite uplink, mobile production unit, moto-pilots, commentators, helipcopters etc. No idea if RTE had to be paid or if it's just a matter of providing them with a programme. But, that was for just 5 days....

TV coverage is expensive.

Ras will have a low-budget 30 minute program and has had regular TV-news spots.

Chips Lovell

sportbilly2008 wrote: »

why is there no tv coverage whatsoever of this fabulous bike event throughout the length and breadth of this country.i went to see a bit of it near mallow yesterday and i was the only one who seemed to be aware of its existence.apart from the finishes, there seems to be no public interest in it, which is a pity cos its got a good quality field.also is there no county teams allowd enter any more?

I think you answered your own question.

cyclopath2001

It's an exaggeration to say there's no public interest. It would be more correct to say that this 50-year old event has a minority/cult/niche following but the ratings will never match those of football/rugby/golf.

It's a chicken & egg situation, to get a bigger budget takes needs more public interest, and to get that needs a bigger budget.

That said, big budgets, TV scheduling demands and commercialism can disrupt the essence of good sport and drive out the true amateurs.

E@gle.

RTE are a joke in all fairness yesterday there was the RAS, the Heineken cup final, and an Irish Soccer International and you would think RTE woulde show at least one of them live

sportbilly2008

tnag are showing daily coverage of the french tennis open with no irish players within an asses roar, yet they ignore or not bother with an internationally recognised tough amateur cycle race,.where is the sense in that?

blorg

In fairness to TnaG they would be showing an already existing programme with the French Open; as cyclopath says the cost to produce a programme on the Rás could be prohibitive.

Well done to Stephen Gallagher on bringing home an Irish win.

trek climber

Does anyone know if there is a highlights programme been shown this week on any of the main stations ?

SACH Central

There is a half hour highlights programme on RTE/NET2 tonight (Monday) at 7pm. I think myself, it's just a half hour version of the footage shown on the sports bulletins after the news. 9 days of racing 'condensed' into 30 minutes

Zorba

SACH Central wrote: »

There is a half hour highlights programme on RTE/NET2 tonight (Monday) at 7pm. I think myself, it's just a half hour version of the footage shown on the sports bulletins after the news. 9 days of racing 'condensed' into 30 minutes

Thanks very much Sach, would've missed it only for i checked here to see if anyone knew when it was on, tis set to record !;)

cyclopath2001

SACH Central wrote: »

There is a half hour highlights programme on RTE/NET2 tonight (Monday) at 7pm. I think myself, it's just a half hour version of the footage shown on the sports bulletins after the news. 9 days of racing 'condensed' into 30 minutes

No, it's a distinct program made by a separate crew.

Snapper1

Just watching this now and they showed footage of the aftermath of Cassidy's crash, that looked like NASTY road rash...

Tackleberry

That highlights programme is as good as it gets at the minute, and yeah its a totally separate TV crew from Telegael that produce it. I thought it was a good show, bit too chopped up and erratic but apparently its not only very expensive to produce but Rte charge a fortune to air it, so fair play to the sponsors FBD for footing the bill.

I think the value to sponsors in cycling isn't necessarily in media exposure, but in "on the road" exposure, literally stopping traffic so people haven't a choice but to pay attention! I've been on loads of stages and the crowds in the stage end towns can be monstrous, thats where FBD sees a return on its investment.

Altho I do get very annoyed at the lack of enthusiasm for these events in Rte, you'll see live coverage of some ****ing womens hockey final but you'll never see any such coverage for what I think is the best bike race there is, the Tour of Ireland is a glorious advert but it gets blanket coverage for fairly monotonous racing, the Ras is ****ing epic from start to finish and they don't give a ****!