One problem was their equipment was not up to the job. It went completely black, I think, because the filter they used for the partial phase was too heavy to allow the much dimmer light of the corona to pass thru.
In other cases that I saw, the light at "diamond ring" (second and third contacts) overwhelmed the digital equipment. In other cases, instead of aiming the camera at the sky at totality, to see the black disc with streamers around it - a magnificent sight - they aimed the cameras at the talking heads or the crowd. In other instances of failure, hand-held cameras were used, badly .
The commentary was also extremely amateurish and poorly informed. NASA TV never loaded for me. I am lucky that I have seen a total eclipse and still carry it around in my memory, and so didn't need the TV coverage, but for those who've never seen one, I would urge you to plan to see the next one in person if possible. TV didn't even come close to doing what TV could theoretically do, let alone capture the awesomeness of seeing the entire sky overhead at totality.
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