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TNT's "Wide Open Coverage" for NASCAR


KKyuubi

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Tonight, TNT is broadcasting the Pepsi 400 in "wide open coverage". Basically, they've wedged a very large static status bar with the running order attached to it on the SD feed and this HUGE void in it filled up with pretty much nothing and a large sponsor spot. The top of the screen has a scaled version of the HD feed on it, so it's supposed to be "wider".

 

Once in awhile, they fill up the "void" with stats and all that (like "Drivers with the most wins at Daytona" for example) and all other lower-thirds. But, once in awhile, the entire bottom turns into an animated sponsor logo (preceded by a 3D NASCAR on TNT logo tag) that then transitions into the new sponsor on the side. The strip above it still has the running order still on it.

 

And, they are "supposed" to be airing only "3 local sponsor breaks" (programmed by the host broadcaster if simlucasting or by the cable company) every hour. A maximum of 5 minutes of ads per hour. But then TSN (right in the middle of the first caution, and they wern't even going to commercials) just suddenly went to a commercial break until right before the green

 

But even worse: THEY AREN'T FOLLOWING TILE SAFE ZONES WITH SOME OF THEIR GRAPHICS! Okay, this is generally a problem with TNT's NASCAR coverage in general: their L3's are positioned a bit too low. They are not following 4:3 tile safe zones. Even worse, on their static bar when they did a pit stop, their "race off pit road" graphic at 8 slots on it, but my TV only fully showed the first 6! TNT fails again...

 

So, what do you think?

 

p.s. TVNewsTalk needs a dedicated Sports section.

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I think this "limited commercial breaks" is a rip-off. They are still taking 3 commercial breaks an hour and commercials in the L3 area during the race (look at the last two caps). TNT still sucks. In the "wide-open coverage", parts of the picture are cut off in SD. It fails.

 

Caps...

tntwideopen1.jpg tntwideopen2.jpg

tntwideopen3.jpg tntwideopen4.jpg

tntwideopen5.jpg tntwideopen6.jpg

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4m0ds05.jpg

 

If I were in charge, here's how I would have arranged "wide open coverage". You'd still get the vingettes when the sponsors come in, but on the top letter box. On the HD feed, the bar would still be at the bottom, but you'd get a modified version of the top bar that only stretches across the "4:3 zone". I know, the cap is not from the Pepsi 400 (it's actually from a Busch Series race from earlier this year I found on AVS Forum, I just needed a HD cap with no graphics, notice how I sloppily erased the ABC HD bug...

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Even worse:

 

The image was just a shifted up version of the HD feed...no resizing:

 

AND...TSN did the best they could to cover up the "branded content" that defeated the purpose for everyone outside the US! TNT fails again.

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