On 12/09/2021 12:53, SimonM wrote:

Politics: Apparently the Telegraph has a story
this morning that the government wants to sell off
C4, and that this might have been an attempt by C4
to show they can do major sport as well as the
BBC. They are also suggesting C4 paid >$1m for the
rights, and that Amazon Prime might be a C4
purchaser.

Some sources say Channel 4 paid £30 million for the right to show it.

I presume the Amazon Prime logo was a deliberate advert. At the end of
the match they went into a very long advert for Amazon Prime.

I left the sound off and listened to BBC 5 Live.

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Well it certainly wasn't comparable to the BBC at
Wimbledon!

I'll keep away from (most of) the politics until
the end, but I'm interested in the operational
aspects.

If anybody knows how this was _actually_ done, I'd
be very interested to hear, but this is what I'm
_guessing_:

1: There was a sports OB unit covering the event
for the US networks. Amazon had negotiated use of
their main feed, and they were possibly also
providing a commentator position and use of an
interview camera (with Tim Henman).

2: Amazon had a studio facility somewhere (might
have been at the OB site), originating their
streaming feed.

3: C4 took the Prime output for streaming
unaltered (complete with the Prime DOG!), but I
think via a direct link.

4: Comms from the Prime operation to C4 network
appear to have been sketchy at best, and possibly
not even a feed of open studio talkback.

We watched it from the start on C4. After the C4
bumper there was no sound for a guessed 6mins or
so - time for me to fire up the PC and open the
Prime streaming service. When this was eventually
fixed, there was (here & with my kit) a roughly
15" or 16" delay on the streaming service WRT C4.
Obviously this is highly variable. Good lipsync on
both sources as far as we could tell.

At one point, C4 tried to inject a commercial
break which was a failure, including crashing-out
back to Prime mid-commercial. I wasn't in the room
the whole time for the rest of the show, but as
far as I know they didn't attempt any more ads for
the duration.

Compared to the BBC at Wimbledon I'd describe the
actual match coverage as "minimalist" at best.
especially the sound, which was poor (being
polite). Several family arguments ensued over what
the umpire had actually said (unintelligible), and
if the sound of ball clipping net had been heard
or not.

There were also several points where the cameras
either couldn't get the shots or were being
misdirected, and I don't remember any slowmo (if
there was any it wasn't used much).

Politics: Apparently the Telegraph has a story
this morning that the government wants to sell off
C4, and that this might have been an attempt by C4
to show they can do major sport as well as the
BBC. They are also suggesting C4 paid >$1m for the
rights, and that Amazon Prime might be a C4
purchaser.

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On 12/09/2021 12:53, SimonM wrote:

2: Amazon had a studio facility somewhere (might have been at the OB
site), originating their streaming feed.

Amazon UK normally use IMG at Stockley Park for 'pres/playout' of their
UK based sports coverage

Compared to the BBC at Wimbledon....

The BBC ceased providing the main court feeds at Wimbledon in 2017. It's
now in house by the Lawn Tennis Association using NEP.
(I lot of ex Beeb production staff are employed by them though)

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