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LuckySpikes · 16-01-20, 14:16

INDOOR MEETINGS - 52 total

6 of the 6 World Indoor Tour meetings
12 of the 16 European Indoor Permit meetings - missing Ghent, Linz, Istanbul & All Star Perche (I later saw that Istanbul had been streamed)

Regular one-day meetings (28)

France 8 (5 were half-hour highlights), Germany 4, USA 2, Poland 2, Latvia 1, Sweden 1, Spain 1, Czech Republic 1, Ireland 1, Great Britain 1, Serbia 1, Belarus 1, Italy 1, Norway 1, Slovakia 1, Iceland 1

Specialist indoor (8)

3 High Jump
2 Combined Events
2 Pole Vault
1 Vertical jumps

Czech Republic 3, Great Britain 1, Sweden 1, Germany 1, Estonia 1, Poland 1

Indoor Championships (16)

2 Regional/Continental (European + Balkan)
9 National
5 collegiate/ US High School

LuckySpikes · 16-01-20, 14:20

CROSS COUNTRY - 32 total

IAAF Permit Meetings

7 of the 9:

Campaccio (ITA)
Elgoibar (ESP)
Cross de Italica (ESP)
Cinque Mulini (ITA)
Almond Blossom (POR)
Burgos (ESP)
Alcobendas (ESP)

Missing Antrim and Soria which didn't materialise. There were also problems with the Soria meeting in 2018 with a different stream provider.

European Permit Meetings

3 of the 8:

Great Stirling (GBR)
Cross della Vallagarina (ITA)
Lidingöloppet (SWE)

Missed one after the fact - Aranda de Duero (ESP)

Others (4)

Zornotza (Amorebieta) (ESP)
San Sebastian (ESP)
Valmusone - Italian Euro Trials (ITA)
Venta de Baños (ESP)

Championships (18)

World
European
European Champion Clubs Cup
Scottish
Australian
6 x NCAA D1 Conference
2 x NCAA D3 Conference
1 x NCAA D2 Regional
2 x NCAA D3 Regional
2 x US High School National

LuckySpikes · 16-01-20, 14:31

ROAD RACES - 126 total
not including Marathons at major athletics championships

Marathons (55)

44 of the 85 IAAF Label marathons including all 6 of the World Marathon Majors

Japan 8, USA 5, Germany 5, Spain 4, China 4, Netherlands 3, UAE 2, Austria 2, Poland 2, Canada 2, Australia 2, Mexico 2, Portugal 2, Italy 2, India 1, Turkey 1, France 1, Great Britain 1, Czech Republic 1, Denmark 1, South Africa 1, Slovakia 1, Ireland 1, Slovenia 1

Half Marathons (26)

15 of the 29 IAAF Label half marathons

Czech Republic 5, Great Britain 4, USA 2, Italy 2, Netherlands 2, Portugal 2, Poland 2, Germany 1, Sweden 1, Belarus 1, Deenmark 1, Spain 1, Thailand 1

10km (14)

5 of the 13 IAAF Label 10km races

USA 4, Great Britain 2, Spain 2, France 2, Canada 1, Italy 1, South Africa 1, Czech Republic 1

Mile (6)

Spain 3, Great Britain 1, USA 1, Australia 1

An odd quirk of athletics - Spain are really into their road miles with probably around 12-15 such meetings being held there over the course of the year.

Ekidens (2)

Japan 2

Already we've had 3 Ekidens streamed in 2020 and expect several more this year - one this coming weekend and then several more from October onwards.

Other distances (23)

6 of the 9 IAAF Label races at other distances

USA 7, Netherlands 4, Italy 3, Switzerland 3, France 2, Spain 1, Australia 1, Great Britain 1, Brazil 1

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Overall, I expect our % coverage for road races (especially the IAAF/WA Label races) to increase fairly significantly in 2020 because:

I have recently found an English language TV guide for CCTV-5 on which many of the Chinese marathons are broadcast. CCTV-5 is easy to watch with a VPN or the Hola browser extension.
(For the time being?) it is now possible to watch TDP in Spain and Rai Sport in Italy directly using a VPN or Hola. For much of 2019 broadcasts on these channels were difficult/impossible to stream after the loss of a couple of good 'unofficial' streaming providers.
Road race websites can be frustratingly bad at providing streaming/broadcast info and several times I've found out after the fact that a race was streamed live. Presuming the same platforms/channels are used in 2020, those races will be added to our roster.

There should be a fair few more Japanese road races too. I've got to grips with this a bit more recently, partly with the help of the Japanese Federation website which is very good at providing TV broadcast information in a timely manner.
The quality of the 'unofficial' Japanese streams also seems to have improved greatly of late. It used to be very hit and miss regarding how much lagging/buffering you would get but I've experienced very little of that over the last few months.

Main areas of difficulty regarding road race streams:

Streaming of the 4 or 5 IAAF Label races in India is now problematic. Most of these races used to be streamed directly on the race websites but now they're broadcast by Star Sports for which there isn't currently a way of reliable streaming. A shame because these are usually very high quality races.
Far East countries such as Korea (South & North) and Taipei where there are several IAAF Label races. I need to employ more detective work here!
There's a few African IAAF Label races (Morocco, Nigeria, Gabon) that are difficult to find streams/broadcasts for.

LuckySpikes · 16-01-20, 14:37

OUTDOOR TRACK & FIELD MEETINGS - 208 total

14 of the 14 Diamond League meetings (obvs!)

7 of the 9 IAAF World Challenge meetings - not Kingston (pay-per-view) or Nanjing

3 of the 3 European Premium Permit meetings

2 of the 2 European Special Premium meetings (Filothei & Athens Street PV)

25 of the 27 European Classic Permit meetings - not the Clean Air Games in Oslo (behind a paywall) or the Irene Szewinska Memorial in Lublin (somehow I missed that one!) There was due to be 29 Classic meetings but 2 were cancelled - Guadalajara & Tubingen. The latter experienced heaving flooding in the area on the day of the meeting.

19 of the 24 European Area Permit meetings - not Montenegro or Tblisi (difficult to find out; don't know if they're streamed/broadcast), Wroclaw (deliberately omitted due to poor fields), CITIUS Bern (behind a paywall) or Schifflange, LUX (not streamed; a shame because this is a good little meeting)

Regular one-day* meetings (103)
* a few take place over 2 days

43 of the Top 50 one-day meetings as per https://www.worldathletics.org/recor...y=score&page=1
64 of the Top 100 one-day meetings

All but 10 of the 102 One-Day meetings were during the traditional "European season" period, May to September.

The top 2 one-day meetings not covered in 2019 were the Nanjing World Challenge and the Racers Grand Prix in Kingston.
The other 5 we're missing from the Top 50 are all in the USA and all are either behind paywalls or on channels inaccessible to us such as ESPN+.

Italy 10, Finland 8, Australia 8, Japan 7, France 7 (2 were highlights), Great Britain 8, Sweden 6, Poland 5, Switzerland 5, Germany 4, USA 3, Spain 3, Belgium 3, China 2, Czech Republic 2, Greece 2, Hungary 2, Ireland 2, Grenada 1, Brazil 1, Qatar 1, Austria 1, Latvia 1, Romania 1, Netherlands 1, Norway 1, Slovakia 1, Morocco 1, Denmark 1, Portugal 1, Monaco 1, Croatia 1, Belarus 1, Turkey 1

Jumps meetings (8)

5 Pole Vault
2 Combination of events
1 High Jump

Germany 2, Poland 2, Austria 1, Greece 1, Italy 1, Switzerland 1

Throws meetings (10)

4 General Throws
3 Javelin
2 Shot Put
1 Hammer

Germany 4, Poland 2, Finland 2, Slovakia 1, Croatia 1

Combined Events meetings (5 standalone CE meetings plus CE as part of other events)

7 of the 9 IAAF Combined Events Challenge meetings - not Multistars (Lana, ITA) or the USA Championships (except a few minutes highlights)

The 5 standalone events streamed were:
Gotzis (AUT)
Arona (ESP)
Decastar (FRA)
Ratingen (GER)
European Combined Events Team Championships Super League (UKR)

Sprints meetings (5)

Germany 2, Italy 1, USA 1, Japan 1

Mid/Long Distance meetings (23)

Great Britain 7, Japan 6, USA 5, Australia 2, Italy 1, Germany 1, Canada 1

National Championships (19)

15 Senior & 4 Age Group

World/Continental/Regional Championships (22)

Asian Championships
CARIFTA Games
IAAF World Relays
South American Championships
European Champion Clubs Cup Seniors Group A
Baltic Team Championships
European Games
Oceania Championships
Balkan U20 Championships
European Combined Events Team Championships Super League
Universiade
European U23 Championships
European U20 Championships
European Youth Olympic Festival
Pan American Games
European Team Championships Super League
European Team Championships 1st League
European Team Championships 2nd League
African Games (highlights)
World Championships
Military World Games
Southeast Asian Games

US collegiate/High School (14)

2 NCAA national championships (D1 & D2)
7 NCAA conference championships
2 NCAA invitational meetings
1 High School national championship
2 High School invitational meetings

LuckySpikes · 16-01-20, 14:46

RACE WALKING - 8 standalone RW events total*
* plus race walks as part of other events

IAAF Race Walking Challenge events

6 of the 12:

Asian 20km Championships (JPN)
Lazaro Cardenas (MEX)
European RW Cup (LTU)
La Coruna (ESP)
Oceania 10,000m Championships (AUS)
World Championships (QAT)

European Permit & European Cup

3 of the 3:

Dudinska (SVK)
Podebrady (CZE)
European RW Cup (LTU)

Others (2)

Spanish 20km Championships
All Japan 50km

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As well as standalone race walking meets we had broadcasts/streams from the World Championships, South American Championships, Universiade and European U23s and U20s although it was disappointing that the race walks were not streamed at the Pan American Games, especially since South & Central America are rising forces in RW.

Of all the athletics disciplines race walking is the one where the quality of the coverage varies the most.
Outside of the major championships the best coverage this year was the European Cup and the always very good Podebrady stream.
Meanwhile, the streams of the Lazaro Cardenas and Dudinska events were very, very poor - pretty much just finish-line cameras and not watchable.
The others are somewhere in the middle - OK coverage made easier to follow if you know some of the leading athletes or have startlists with bib-numbers to hand.

For 2020 I'm going to try harder with Rio Maior (one of the RW Challenge legs) and also we might get some RW broadcasts from China now that I've figured out the Chinese streaming situation a bit more. That would be welcome since they are such a powerhouse in RW.

LuckySpikes · 16-01-20, 14:47

MOUNTAIN RUNNING - 2 total

WMRA World Championships
European Championships

Both broadcasts were very poor. The European one was pretty much just a finish-line camera and the World one in Argentina was a complete shambles (the torrential rain there probably didn't help with transmission signals etc).

A shame because I have seen footage on YouTube showing mountain running being covered pretty well.

LuckySpikes · 16-01-20, 14:53

The Good and the bad of Live Streaming athletics

THUMBS UP!

Japan - The Japanese Federation really have stepped it up this year, streaming many of their best track & field meetings on their YouTube channel. However, a bit of a gripe - they don't have an on-screen clock, although they do show results boards or graphics after races. Also, they have a load of road races broadcast on TV (and a few more aren't accessible to us because they're on regional channels without an internet stream.) The Japanese really know how to cover road racing on TV - graphics with splits (often km splits not just 5km splits), time and distance gaps, plentiful athlete info and also a good balance of camera time on different parts of the field. The rest of the world's broadcasters really should watch and learn from them.
Italy - the Italian Federation (via their YouTube channel) and RaiSport both continue to do a terrific job of streaming/broadcasting loads of their international & major domestic meetings, road races and cross country.
Finland - The national broadcaster YLE do a great job of showing their 8 or 9 top outdoor meetings every year (including a couple of throws meetings). Excellent broadcasts too.

There are many other countries who do a very good job of streaming/broadcasting their major events - e.g., Sweden, Switzerland, Poland & Australia - but I think the three countries above are particularly noteworthy for both the extent and the quality of their coverage.

THUMBS DOWN!

Belgium - outside of the Brussels DL and the Liege & Heusden-Zolder meetings there appears to be no streams/broadcasts for the 8 or 9 outdoor meetings that go under the Flanders Cup banner. A shame because 4 or 5 of them such as Kortrijk, Oordegem & Ninove attract good international fields.
USA - too many of their meetings & races are on subscription channels/websites not available to stream for free.
Norway - outside of the Oslo DL they've started putting their 2 other 'big' meetings - the Clean Air Games & the Trond Mohn Games - on a subscription TV channel. Boo to that!
Any track & field meeting stream that doesn't show an on-screen clock during races. I mean, how difficult is it to put on screen a little inset of the stadium clock like Vinco do?
Two things about many road race websites ... 1) Failing to provide elite startlists. I get that they probably see their main job as making money from the "hobby-joggers" and that info about the elites is of niche interest, but it's still part of the race. Also, 2) making you jump through hoops to find out what time the race actually starts! That's key information, surely?

So, that's it! Any comments are welcome. Also, if you have any questions such as, "what was the German long/mid distance meeting that was streamed?", then do ask away (I still have the file of the info I compiled these stats from.)

Finally, if you have any suggestions about how I can improve the streaming links/details or make them easier to read/navigate then please let me know here.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will already have seen that this year I have added info about what number edition of the meeting/race it is. Just interesting information sometimes, I thought.

sprintdude · 29-01-20, 09:42

LuckySpikes - Thank you for doing this , It really is a helpful listing to find things that I would want to watch.

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Summary of live streamed/broadcast athletics in 2019

Summary of live streamed/broadcast athletics in 2019

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