20-01-2023, 12:18 PM
(17-01-2023, 04:33 AM)RhysJR Wrote:I do feel across the board Eurosports coverage has gone downhill since the takeover by Discovery and subsequent focus on Discovery+. I was quite happy to subscribe to the Eurosport Player a few years ago but just feel like as the price has risen since being bundled in with Discovery+ the quality of their sports coverage has gone down too.(16-01-2023, 02:02 AM)dvboy Wrote: Australian Open coverage on Eurosport and Discovery+, early observations...What's the AO Extra channel for? I haven't checked it out yet, I've been mainly sticking to individual court streams when watching.
Eurosport 2 UK doing their own thing covering Raducanu vs Korpatsch to begin (graphics with times in GMT rather than CET).
No world feed commentary anywhere on Discovery+. Eurosport's own commentators across four matches (world feed is available on six courts so that's two without commentary that could have).
Discovery+ AO Extra channel also with its own separate commentary.
World feed commentary still not deployed on matches where Eurosport are not providing their own commentary today. I think Eurosport's approach to commentary on feeds changes every grand slam for some random reason, IIRC two years ago the world feed was available on every court specific stream, then last year it was available away from the main two courts.
Not the biggest of issues with streaming and the time of day, but Britain's Dan Evans' match on neither linear channel at midnight. The unflexability of Eurosport's coverage is a regular complaint though, and sadly doubt it will change.
A wider observation outside of the tennis coverage with Eurosport is how messy the branding is. The channels are called Eurosport, with constant references to Discovery+, and presenters and pundits often wearing clothing branded Warner Bros. Discovery Sport. And if/when BT Sport gets merged in with Eurosport UK, there's potential for more variance/brands to be added, and it just comes across as a bit messy.
A classic case of a relatively small company doing an outstanding job for many years not being so outstanding once taken over by a bigger company, and then merged with an even bigger company.
Also felt their coverage had far greater value when it was somewhat in addition to what was being offered FTA rather than trying to replace it. I was happy to subscribe to watch the courts not covered on the BBC or ITV coverage of the Aussie/French Open a decade or so ago, but not so inclined now they have everything. If I'm not watching any coverage I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything, so have no need to subsxribe.