Golf TV Coverage must improve!!! - suggestions HERE ** including some sweet drone footage **

With all the discussion on social media regarding the quality of coverage of current golf broadcasts (lets skip over the discussions around announcers or the number of commercials) what are some major changes that we'd like to see when it comes to the telecast. I know these ideas have been bounced around within other threads, but not sure a broadcast improvement specific thread has been started.

As it is now, golf on tv has become nearly unwatchable between the lack of shots, non stop commercials, and networks stuck with the same camera angles used decades ago.

Fox seems to lead the way with the drone footage, and it was pretty impressive at Pebble for the US Open. Not sure if its money or logistics that prevents more use of drones, but check out this feed.... You can't tell me networks, if they actually cared about quality of coverage, couldn't incorporate drone useage more.

Titleist Genesis Numbers.pdf

Titleist Honda Classic Numbers.pdf

I saw these videos and they are awesome. I don't know how they could add them. These pros cry at the sound of an Iphone taking a picture. Could you imagine them with drones wizzing by their heads? It would be amazing though.

i don't think a constant buzz from an overhead drone would be a problem among pros, but i could be wrong. I realize that the video isn't an exact replica of what we'd want or expect on tv coverage, just pointing out the capabilities. We could absolutely have drone coverage on a par 3 where a drone follows a shot to the green or provide some great angles around the greens. Maybe its not feasible if trying to combine with live coverage. Maybe i'm in over my head. But at this point I'm just finding watching golf more of a chore with the lackluster coverage and non stop commercials.

Don't hold your breath. TV rights are increasing so production costs are being cut. For example, shot tracer is often used sparingly as its more expensive.

Peter Kostis provided some valuable insight in a recent podcast.

very cool drone shots

even if we couldn't fly a drone by a person this close in a live tourney, you could absolutely hover above the green high enough to show a long putt and drop in after the shot was struck . Not like its going to be louder than some of the arial coverage today.

would bring in a whole new kind of skill for the camera people producing the event but would add a lot IMO,

They already have drones that can auto follow a target (like a wakeboarder) I'm sure they could program the drone specific to a golf shot keeping in mind the apex height of a pga pro relative to the hole.

At the risk of sounding like a curmudgeon, my suggestion is that we stop complaining about golf coverage on TV.

It wasnt that long ago that golf TV consisted of basically the back nine of a tournament on a weekend for a couple of hours. Now, the golf viewer has a smorgasboard of viewing options. As long as you have Golf Channel, which most TV and satellite packages do, you get coverage of all 4 rounds of a golf tournament. For the majors, you get unprecedented coverage, many times virtually from first tee shot to final putt. Anyone with access to internet and a computer can get streaming service for the times coverage is not on TV, and for the majors its often at no additional cost. You get online shot-by-shot coverage with ShotLink to keep up with scoring, along with highlights online in case you missed anything. The viewing/media experience for the golf fan is so good that we've become spoiled into thinking anything less than on-demand coverage of every shot by every player with no commercials, ads, sponsor plugs, or announcer takes is inadequate.

Are there too many commercials? Yeah, I guess...but there are in all TV sports. Are the announcers bad at times? Sure....again just like all TV sports. But if you want golf on an over-the-air network, these are the things you have to live with. Especially considering that outside of the Masters and the US Open, golf ratings overall pretty much suck compared to other TV sports.

Instead of the constant bitching about the TV coverage, lets be glad of the coverage we get. And if the TV coverage bothers you that much, go out and play a round of golf instead of watching others do it for our entertainment.

/rant

Word, as the kids say. Or Words, lol.

I’m not aware social media is abuzz about much of anything useful other than it is constantly abuzz about something and overwhelmingly negative - meaning Tweeter in particular. Stay away!

Euro coverage on sky is very good. Very few interruptions , not spending too long on pre shot routines, lots of shot tracker(should be on every shot really)

the one one thing I’d change is having a contour map overlaid on and around the green. You can rarely see the elevations and borrows.

Get a chance to watch the feature group telecast. I forget where I was watching it but they use more handheld cameras and they stay with a group. So, you see all the interaction between the players and caddies. It's a lot more of "being there" feel to the broadcast.

I'll always choose playing over watching. More coverage doesn't equate to better coverage. And as far as commercials... Watch the f1 race this weekend and count the commercials. It's a two plus hour race commercial free

The Fox drone usage at PB was mostly from drones flown out over water shooting back to the course.

There is no way on god's green earth anyone would ok drones over a mass of spectators to get golf shots.

PGA Tour Live, in the beginning was the best I have seen, with the European Tour being second.

Unfortunately, it has gotten worse, and barely different than GC now, although still better than network coverage.

And I think we could all deal with commercials more easily, if the content was better during the coverage.

Yes to all, especially 5 and 6. I would rather hear the announcers talk about the shot coming up or the shot they just witnessed vs. the fluff. Euro Tour coverage seems to do this much better!

Thats wonderful. They have a sponsor that is willing to buy up the commercial time, and there's about 20 F1 races in a calendar year. Im sure the PGA Tour and the networks would be over the moon if some company would buy up 48 minutes of commercial time over a 3 hour broadcast at about a $100K per 30 seconds (which is what the average 30-second spot costs on national broadcast TV), but I doubt no one is gonna fork over $10 million per day to cover a 3-hour round of PGA Tour golf on a weekend day - unless its a major, which is why events like the US Open or the Masters can run with fewer commercials....the more eyeballs watching it makes it worth it.

My point is that on this board, we hear/see nothing but endless bitching about the coverage. Too many commercials, too much fluff, announcers suck, etc. My point is that we've all become spoiled rotten, especially considering there is absolutely NO way the networks are making a bunch of money covering golf tournaments on TV, unless its a major. Right now, networks are paying for golf with the hopes that Tiger Woods plays while they're covering it. Thats it. That's truly it. Once Tiger is gone from the PGA Tour, the correction that will be needed in professional golf - everything from purse structure to TV rights fees to network coverage - is going to be massive. Want to know why Tiger gets every shot covered even if he's in last place? Its because he's the ONE guy the casual sports fan knows on the PGA Tour. We've already seen the contraction begin in some circles with the struggles of getting title sponsors for tournaments. Heck, NASCAR couldnt even get a title sponsor for its Cup Championship series this year....its simply too expensive for companies to see the return on investment for fringe sports that do not get watched in the mainstream. And golf is a fringe TV sport.

Be thankful for what we have, Im telling you. In a decade once Tiger is gone and Golf Channel is probably eliminated from TV altogether or becomes a full-fledged PPV type of viewing, we'll be longing for the days of seeing annoying announcers and sponsorship plugs when TV golf retracts to a couple of hours each weekend day, or when some tournaments don't get covered on TV altogether.

The PGA Tour is at fault here. As rights increase in cost, networks have to do what they can to cut costs. At first, this translates to more $ for the Tour. But the TW era is (mostly) over, and there is no one like that on the horizon. They are overplaying their hand, costing themselves viewership in the long run.

I don't begrudge the horrible CEO interviews - gotta give the sponsor a little time to do their thing and BS us about how much they care about social crap. Hey, they paid for it and without them there'd be no tournament.

If the Tour cared enough about their product (and it is THEIR product, not the networks') they'd work with them to reduce costs so they could improve the production and reduce the commercials. But it's all about the $.

They'll wring every last $ out while they can at the expense of their own potential future viewers.

Exactly. The day I give a shat what is buzzing on Twitter will be the day I jump off a cliff. Twitter and Zuckerburg Should be axed completely for the sake of man kind. Golf Coverage is great as is if they could ditch commercials and play through nonsense. Or offer it as a streaming service with no commercials, it would be 100 %

I'm with Ja mon!

I think they're doing the best they can with what is a very slow sport compared to the rest of the sporting events on television. Throw in the fact that most guys play like emotionless robots much of the time and you're asking a lot for these broadcasts to improve and become more engaging. Someone pounds a drive and we get to watch it land and then the drama begins as the camera zooms in as the ball rolls the last few seconds to it's final resting spot...oooh just missed coming to rest in a divot! Another 'perfect position' in the fairway!

I only consider the majors to be a live event must watch so for all the other tourneys it's record and fast forward through the unwatchable muck.

https://media.giphy.com/media/jShr8wkP38XTO/giphy.gifGolf is lucky that there are all these streaming services and networks that need content right now. So the day of reckoning has been postponed for a while.

What will be interesting is to see if any other tournaments can strike a deal to get Masters tv coverage or Fox/ US Open coverage. I could see the Tour Championship and Players Championship possibly doing deals for less commercials.

I can’t address streaming issues people may have with their devices, but I’m checking in on PGA Tour Live this morning from time to time and the coverage and commentary are just fine and every so often there is a break for ads I don’t have to see. Lucky to have it available, IMO.

And wisely using RDD at Bay Hill.

It’s time for another episode of Post Breakdown, By Ferg

With all the discussion on social media regarding the quality of coverage of current golf broadcasts (lets skip over the discussions around announcers or the number of commercials) what are some major changes that we'd like to see when it comes to the telecast. I know these ideas have been bounced around within other threads, but not sure a broadcast improvement specific thread has been started.Who is “we’d”?  Don’t group people into rants. There have been multiple threads on this topic.

As it is now, golf on tv has become nearly unwatchable between the lack of shots, non stop commercials, and networks stuck with the same camera angles used decades ago.Nearly Unwatchable, what is your definition of completely unwatchable?

Fox seems to lead the way with the drone footage, and it was pretty impressive at Pebble for the US Open. Not sure if its money or logistics that prevents more use of drones, but check out this feed.... You can't tell me networks, if they actually cared about quality of coverage, couldn't incorporate drone useage more. Drones do not add significant quality to a tournament's coverage.  They add a fresh perspective, that’s all.

We absolutely need more handheld cameras to eliminate the generic top down views from towers to greens. Give me more views as if I'm watching from the sidelines rather than a tower. No more tracking ball through the air which gives us ball in sky look.There you go, trying to speak for the masses.  Be your own voice.

We must show off the course elevation. Current tv camera angles not only eliminate elevation and undulations, but eliminate hole layout, sense of distance to pin, etc and many shots are so generic the viewer wouldn't be able to tell if it was footage from any other course in the world...example...exvery top down zoomed in view of a player putting on green.

Stop zooming in on putts rolling towards the hole - which only eliminate player, caddy, fans reactions to a miss/make

I'm ok with recorded footage. Show more shots. Show fewer tap in putts.

And of course.... eliminate the fluff...showing the announcers, showing a fedex cup leaderboard in February, we can have ceo interview audio while watching golf...we don't need visual, etc

Do you realize the cost, time, effort and the logistical nightmare of producing a golf tournament? Hundreds of people and cameras, production cost, food, beverage, weather, towers, miles of cables, truck to ground coordination…………I think not.  

Here are two, similar, just struck chips from similar camera angles

Now, you could put a pro-tracer, drone view, in 10k HD on the second one. And put the first one in grainy, B&W, on a 13 inch Zenith from 1982.

But, it wouldn't matter as far as how exciting either would end up. It's the action on the field that drives how compelling an event is ; )

If you have this (below) going on, the screen resolution and a few commercials don't make a difference.

An no offence to KN, actually always root for him ; )

Really great responses in here so far. I'll summarize my thoughts since they have mostly been covered.

1) Drone coverage - not happening. Drones large enough to carry HD cameras are NOT quiet. And the noise is also not constant as claimed - any time they move or even account for wind they change pitch quite a lot. It's one thing if you can drown it out by being over the ocean, but players would hate this IMO. The cost-benefit ratio is just not there compared to things like ShotLink and ShotTracer.

2) CEO interviews - Eh, give them their 15 minutes for the money their companies are paying.

3) Shots covered - I completely agree with showing more shots and less putts. I don't watch to see the best players in the world tap in 2 footers - I do that enough myself. Overall it just needs to be a higher shot-to-putt ratio.

Overall, we have so much to be thankful for with golf coverage. ShotTracer and ShotLink have revolutionized how we watch golf, and I think that has a lot more room to grow. PGA Tour Live allows people to get the extra golf-coverage they want for a reasonable cost. And if you subscribe through Amazon Prime, no commercials to boot! Best $65 I've ever spent (I'm watching at work right now!)

Bonus Gripe: I know we said no ragging on announcers, but give us more stories or opinions instead of generic comments. They're around these players all day! I would honestly rather hear about the pastrami on rye Rory had for lunch instead of 'OMG he hits it sooooooo far!' on every, single, tee shot.

I see the Players is trying something with regards to having every shot on every hole for every player available for subscribers. To do this, I read they need 120 cameras available. Its insane. I can't imagine the production, manpower, and simple technology bandwith needed to make that work. I assume its a test run for future tournaments have that sort of coverage. I personally think it will be a colossal failure, but I could be wrong.

If people truly think that kind of coverage is sustainable in golf they're out of their minds.

Money and the politics of the hierarchy of TV drive quality to the back of the line.

The only power that viewers have is with the remote and social media - turn the damn golf tournament off, go play golf or do something else and read the internet at night to see who one.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for golf fan people to dissolve the bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature, the Rule of Golf and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation from the pimple-faced network ninnies ruining our lives by feeding us crap coverage of golf.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all golfers are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are good television, good announcers who know when to shut the hell up and the pursuit of beer during rare commercials.

The filming aspects of coverage is fine. It is the lack or shots and announcers that are the issue. You are probably one of the heathens that like NFL games when they switch to the view of from behind the play on the sky cam...

If they start putting pro-tracer on pitches around the green, I'm out.

It's a very cool enhancement, but should be reserved for only when it's really needed (full shots).

Remember the fad of showing the putting line all the time? Eventually wore off and thank goodness.

Tracer is okay, I like it in the little box off to the side.

"Demanding" having every tee shot and iron shot traced isn't necessary at all, and plenty of them get shown. Still enjoy watching golf and not a video game like the NFL has become.

I don't think the coverage is bad, I think some of the players have become downright unwatchable. More camera angles or drones would be cool but I find myself unable to watch certian guys play anymore. One is DEChambaeu. I can't stand watching him look at that dam book every 2 seconds.

Last time he was in contention, I actually turned it off.

Matter of fact, I enjoy watching the Champions Tour now better. Lanny Watkins does a great job and the players are just old school. They get there yardage and go. No B.S. no looking at those stupid books every two seconds. A lot less idiots in the gallery, screaming Dumb Shit.

It is just a more pleasent experience overall.