By Spiro Zavos
August 13th 2008 @ 12:56am
Not the full picture on Olympic television coverage
Channel 7 marked Libby Trickett’s gold medal in the women’s 100m butterfly by showing a clip of the Australian Olympic swim team singing a trite song composed for the occasion, “Live it, dream it”, with cuts of Trickett and Stephanie Rice winning their medals.
How very twee.
I watched this item while reading John Huxley’s compelling story about how Trickett felt like vomiting before her event, with her vicious attack of nerves only staunched when she told herself she had prepared well, and all she really had to do was perform well and the elusive gold medal was hers.
There was also the melodramatic troubles that her teammate Jessicah Schipper had with trying to zip up her full body Speedo suit.
Another suit had to be used in the end, and Schipper still looked traumatised by this malfunction, even after she had finished third in the event.
I’m still waiting for Channel 7 reporters to give us this intriguing back-story. But story-telling doesn’t seem to be part of their coverage.
We have the over-hyped, cliched commentaries, the inane questioning after the events, and the very short, bland little pieces of filler that give us no idea of what is really happening at these ‘Glum Games,’ a term coined by The Australian’s Caroline Overington.
We hear a lot about world record times in the Water Cube swimming stadium.
But nowhere have we seen the detailed analysis provided, once again by the Sydney Morning Herald, on why the advances in pool construction and swimsuit technology will provide “life in the fast lane.”
One example of the detail about why the Beijing pool is fast is that, although the required depth of a pool is 2 metres, the Beijing pool is 3 metres: “a deep pool is a fast pool … Swimmers are further away from the base of the pool reducing wave reverb.”
Too many times the expert commentators are asked questions like, “What would Michael Phelps be feeling like now?”
Memo to the producers: if you want to know, or think viewers should know, what Michael Phelps is thinking, ask him. It’s called reporting.
Watching American television I discovered that there are fears about cheating by a particular judge (an Argentinian) in the gymnastics events; that the crowd went quiet at the opening ceremony when Putin’s photo went up on the big screen; and that this was before the real impact of the invasion of Georgia was known.
That the Iranian team was booed when it came into the stadium.
That ordinary people living in Beijing are having a tough time with cars being on a two-day cycle and prices for vegetables going up by 100 per cent.
The Glum Games indeed.
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(18)
sportym said | August 13th 2008 @ 1:33am | Report comment
Also it seems all the cycling road race spectator tickets were sold to the police force, they were by far the most common spectator…..about every 30 metres…
I am actually watching the coverage on BBC here in the UK, i am not sure what you guys get back in Oz, but one thing i have noticed is that there is very little coverage of the crowd, in most events you really cannot see them, it really feels like a automated olympics, with the fun stripped out.
Longy said | August 13th 2008 @ 7:42am | Report comment
Spiro,
Last night we saw a mountain of ads with hardly any live action except of course for some heat swimming.
I am sure anyone keen on Rowing or Equestrian would be very upset - they seem hell bent on interviewing themselves behind a fancy desk and for what? Endless patting one’s own backs and replays.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that it was not the Olympic Games but the Liesl games. If I see her sing the national anthem or swim the 100 one more time - I will throw up.
Good onya Leisl but I am sure even she would want to see as many sporting events as possible.
Rabbitz said | August 13th 2008 @ 8:02am | Report comment
Clearly the producers and directors have no idea that the punters want to see all the athletes in action. Frankly if it was a ‘clip show’ of events that had no ‘MC’ and no introduction it would be an improvement.
The SBS coverage has been relatively good, and as a bonus I have seen some sports other than swimming (or AFL).
Although I am not surprised, I didn’t expect the Seven Network to be up to the task, and clearly they are not.
Con Stamocostas said | August 13th 2008 @ 9:19am | Report comment
Mr Zavos,
No doubt China and the IOC will crown these games the best ever but Channel 7 will be forever known as the worst broadcaster of the (some Roman Numerals) Olympiad. On there website where you post comments they have been hammered. Especially when you consider what the other countries broadcasters are doing with there various channels and internet coverage. I have a feeling that because this is Channel 7 last games before they go to 9 that they are doing this half arsed I also reckon that because 7 has had high ratings with Sunrise, dancing with the stars etc they thought they could use that standard of lower common denominator production values and talent and that we would all be eating it up like birthday cake.
What about Liesel Jones dancing clip before her gold medal race?
Channel 7 gives the word kitsch new meaning.
True Tah said | August 13th 2008 @ 9:25am | Report comment
Con
I dont believe Channel 7 have done a great job…unfortunately for us, the claim was that 8 million people watched the opening ceremony, and if thats right, Channel 7 will have their chests pumped out.
The sooner Channel 7 loses the rights to all of its sport the better.
Harry said | August 13th 2008 @ 9:31am | Report comment
last night on Seven was dreadfull we kept on seeing clips of Leyton being thrashed by Nadal - FFS! We can see the little Aussie batteler copping this 4 times every year. I tuned in to watch decent coverage of:
1) the Diving silver medal
2) the bloke in the canoe down the rapids - sounds like a terrific effort from him to win a bronze
3) Yes, happy to see a full replay of Leisel’s swim.
I got 1 out of 3 (Liesel of course). What a disgrace that the splendid acheivement of the low profile divers and the rapids bloke didn’t get more time form what is supposed to be our national broadcaster. I also wanted to see the shooting bloke. Thorougly frustrated I flicked over to SBS where they were showing a womens soccer match between Japan and Norway. AArrgghhh!
sam said | August 13th 2008 @ 9:32am | Report comment
Once again Channel 7 flips the bird to its viewers and relishes in self indulgent twaddle for two weeks…god help you if you wanted to see our waterpolo girls score against the Greeks the other night. The morons at central progamming chose to go to the coverage half way through the third quarter, with our girls up 8-3. At full time the score was 8-4. Good onya 7.
Chris Beck said | August 13th 2008 @ 10:04am | Report comment
Spiro -
It’s interesting to hear your comments about American TV coverage of the Olympics.
I gave up on NBC years ago. Lucky for me I get CBC because I’m only two hours south of the Canadian border.
While the few bits of coverage that I’ve seen seem better than in previous years, NBC still irritates me with their tape-delay of any significant event for prime-time viewing, so as to maximize advertising revenue, while simultaneously pulling stunts like covering badminton “from studios in New York” in an effort to expend as few dollars as possible.
It’s not how I’d cover the Olympics. But I’m no broadcasting executive, so I must not, by definition, understand.
kenikenipat said | August 13th 2008 @ 11:23am | Report comment
Wait til Fox Sports get hold of it for London. They did a brilliant job with the Commonwealth Games, had 6 or 7 chanels dedicated to it. 7 are knuckle heads. They butcher the rugby coverage as well.
Suchy said | August 13th 2008 @ 11:40am | Report comment
has fox sports had rights to any previous olympics? I may possible recall them almost having a channel for each sport
ash said | August 13th 2008 @ 12:00pm | Report comment
Asinine interviews and endless adds, Take your revenge by switching to ABC radio( go Roy and HG) and noting all the advertisers “never to use again.”
Jamie said | August 13th 2008 @ 12:17pm | Report comment
Spiro
All good stuff as usual. I regard the coverage as garbage and heavily biased. There are brilliant stories and results beyond just Australia and AUstralians. I believe they need to stop being so Australian centric.
Regarding the crowds - i was sure large parts of the grandstand at the swimming were empty when Libby T won her gold medal. They say it is “sold out’ but i dont think this is anywhere near the truth
cosmos forever said | August 13th 2008 @ 2:15pm | Report comment
Chris Near Canada - the big advantage of NBC over our 7 is their internet coverage.
NBC continues to supply the prime time drivel that draws in the big numbers, but unlike 7, they have four continuous windows of non-prime time sports running continually on their site.
It absolutely astounds me that in this age of varying types of broadcast we continue to receive the equivelant coverage of the 1950’s. The ABC only has one medium - the radio but they manage to cross from ground to ground to cover events live. 7 seem incapable of managing this schedule…
the technology is there, the skills and care for the consumer aren’t.
cosmos forever said | August 13th 2008 @ 2:21pm | Report comment
PS - I timed it the other night and 7 spent more on-air time covering Leisel’s walk around the pool deck than they did the actual bronze medal performance of Rob Bell in the Kayaking!
Nothing against Leisel, but…
And I just looked it up - you don;t even get extra coverage with Telstra - just 7’s already poor coverage…
matta said | August 13th 2008 @ 7:29pm | Report comment
Question by Channel 7 muppet to diver “um so like, why do you always take showers after you dive”
Diver “well its Chlorinated Water….”
you fing idiot!
MikeM said | August 13th 2008 @ 7:48pm | Report comment
Memory deceives and the past always seems a golden age, but this is how I remember TV coverage of the Rome Olympics in 1960, as a 10 year old Australian boy living in England. BBC, black and white, no ads. You saw just about every round live, heats, quarter finals, semis, finals - I’m thinking here of the athletics. In those days people ran flat out in the qualifying rounds, no vain coasting. By the final you knew all the competitors well, who was favourite, who an outside chance, who an unexpected national hero qualifying from a ‘minor country’. It was engrossing, it was sport, not a pastiche of entertainment disconnected from real time and the world outside. Consequently I remember the races vividly, e.g. the fantastic 400m final between Otis Davis and Carl Kaufmann (and who cares now what countries they represented), the stars - Armin Hary surviving a break in the 100m, Livio Berutti running in sunglasses in the 200m, Herb Elliott taking off in the 3rd lap of the 1500m. Will today’s young TV watchers remember these Channel 7 games?
Sluggy said | August 13th 2008 @ 11:45pm | Report comment
There is always SBS to fall back on.
Sam Taulelei said | August 14th 2008 @ 12:00am | Report comment
I’d be interested to know how affected channel 7’s ratings are for the first week of the Olympics, following the switch to morning finals for the swimming which is broadcast during the middle of the day local time. What would have been expected to be a ratings bonanza in the evening, especially with the favourable time difference with Beijing, may not have rated as highly as predicted if it’s only featuring the swimming heats and semifinals.
Channel 7’s committment to AFL football is also going to add pressure to it’s “live” broadcast of the games when we move into the final week featuring track and field events. Perhaps a case of biting off more than they can chew trying to satisfy two passionate audiences and this would have strongly supported channel 7’s argument to the federal government to bring forward the ability to multi-channel so that they can have dedicated coverage for both the Olympics and the AFL.