dcmurf

I have a very bad feeling about the future of pro cycling coverage on American tv. Sure, we'll still get the TdF, but will NBC really keep coverage of the spring classics? The golden age of cycling coverage in the states (and if the past 10 years of Versus are the golden age, well, enough said) may be over!

DXchulo

Universal is part of NBC and they have much better coverage of cycling than VS. It would make sense for them to move the TDF from VS to Universal Sports. I think they have bigger and better plans for VS, which has always been sort of a POS channel. Changing it from OLN to VS really didn't work and they need to totally rebrand it again. As long as Universal Sports keeps its current format of Olympic sports, cycling should always have a nice home there.

Even if cycling disappears from TV in the US, what would it really matter? You can watch just about any race on the internet and the feeds have become much better quality in recent years.

kleinboogie

I don't see how going from High Def to Low Def makes sense. NBC Sports still has a cycling section and the TOC is coming up, in HD, so I'm optimistic. Cheers.

Dubbayoo

Precisely. The Tour in HD absolutely rocks. I can stream stuff via Netflix that's twice the clarity of Universal, which is by far the worst video quality I get on Cox. Universal looks like 480p at best on my tv.

thenomad

The problem I have with online streaming is that a lot of it is live, and then only 2 min blurbs are archived. I typically tivo all my shows and I can flip through to the good stuff on my own time in HD. While "available" online it is far from my cup of tea and that ends up ruining it for me a lot of the time.

There must be some big changes coming up.

I'll still have to buy VS coverage online of the TDF as that was actually nice to have and this year I don't get VS. But paying for some online pass to every random event I want to watch is not going to happen, especially if I already pay for the TV service.

collegeskier

I usually buy them even though I get coverage at home. My wife thinks it is worth the money so she does not have to watch every stage. With the online pass you get the replays too. Plus it is all Paul and Phil.