Channel 9′s Olympic Games blackout
Roar Rookie By Adam Brett, 13 Aug 2012 Adam Brett is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- 2012 London Olympics, Channel 9, Olympics
Fourth quarter, 1:53 minutes to go, two points split the Boomers and Russia and the ball gets in-bounded… That’s where the story stops.
I am not sure what happened after this as Channel 9 cut to an ad break and then came back to the swimming!
Now let me just say upfront that there have been many memorable moments from Sally Pearson etching her name in the history books of Australian athletics to Steve Solomon proving his selection was warranted, the gold medal haul in the sailing and watching a childhood friend in Brendan Cole fulfill a lifelong dream of running in the 400m hurdles. The last one will stay with me forever. But I digress.
We had the usual in media fights about funding for sport, Kobe and Rice supposedly doing the pants dance, sourpuss athletes after they lose. But, once again, I digress.
By far the most annoying, disgraceful and pathetic showing at this Olympics has been the telecast of the self-proclaimed “leader of sports TV” Channel 9. Hang your heads in shame! What a farce their telecast has been.
While I understand that the Olympics are a very hard event to cover, especially with the time zone conflict, you have made my Olympic games the most frustrating experience ever.
I saw the signs early; Eddie McGuire, Karl Drunkonovic, Kenny Sutcliffe and Cameron Williams alerted me to the fact that you were heading down the wrong path, then Gyngell topped it off with inserting his wife Leila McKinnon into the fold and I realised that these Olympics were destined for network disaster.
The first week was nothing more than shambolic, with the continued cutting from sport to sport, commentators having very little idea of what they were calling and, my personal favourite, the Grant Hackett poolside interviews which were more cringeworthy than listening to Tony Abbott talk about economic policy.
But I am a forgiving man and thought, “It’s just first week nerves, week two will be much better.”
Week two. The hits just kept on coming. I am a simple man with simple needs, tell me what is on and when so I can plan my remote control fight with my wife and watch.
By the way, Channel 9, do you realise you have three channels that you can show the games on? You could have – wait for it, this idea is going to be mind-blowing for you guys – you could have shown different sports on different channels so you didn’t have to embarrass yourselves and cut from sport to sport so much.
Hey, I am no TV network exec, but I think I just solved a problem here.
Anyway, for me this Olympics has been special, as I watched a good friend take to the big stage and run his heart out for his country. He made me and many others proud of his efforts. It was this effort that makes the Olympics a special event.
Unfortunately Channel 9 couldn’t get the job done and why they spent all that money on the rights to broadcast if they were only intending to give a sub-par showing is beyond me.
Let’s just hope that in Rio 2016 they either learn their lesson or I will be buying Foxtel so I can see sports outside of swimming, equestrian and gymnastics.
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The Crowd Says (7) | Page 1 of Comments
Have Your Say
- Explore:
- 2012 London Olympics, Channel 9, Olympics
August 13th 2012 @ 2:57pm
Matt F said | August 13th 2012 @ 2:57pm | Report comment
Apparently they weren’t allowed to show different events on the digital channels due to the anti-siphoning laws.
“Let’s just hope that in Rio 2016 they either learn their lesson or I will be buying Foxtel so I can see sports outside of swimming, equestrian and gymnastics.”
I take it from this statement that you can afford Foxtel but choose not to pay for it? If thats’ the case (and I’m aware that many can’t afford Foxtel to whom this comment doesn’t apply) then it’s your own fault really. If you’ve seen any other Olympics in history then you would have known long before time that the FTA coverage would be inadequate.
August 13th 2012 @ 8:47pm
Football United said | August 13th 2012 @ 8:47pm | Report comment
This. People say they are sports fans and can afford to pay for fox sports but won’t are just contradicting themselves. Unless you are very handy with the live streams, there is only one way to get your fix and thats live and uninterrupted sporting nirvana.
August 13th 2012 @ 4:04pm
Cpaaa said | August 13th 2012 @ 4:04pm | Report comment
This article is not comparing Ch9 with Foxtel but more so that the coverage on FTA 9 was simply at the opposite end of marvellous.
Who is going to sign up for Foxtel if you just want it for 2 weeks every 4 years ? …nobody.
i thought it was impossible to sink the standard even lower after 7 had a go, but i dont think anyone will beat Ch9.
9 out of 10 for the worst coverage ever. I gave them 1 point for giving it a go.
The shame is that i cant even comment as to whether it was the best or the worst olympics.
I just chose not to watch it at all.
Life was not meant to be that painful.
August 13th 2012 @ 8:42pm
Football United said | August 13th 2012 @ 8:42pm | Report comment
What is it about Australia commercial FTA channels and their desire to make sport broadcasts as bad as they can be? channel nein is where sport goes to die a slow painful death. Very happy i was back in the uk for the olympics with bbc’s multi channeled coverage showing every event that was also streamed online. It makes me think that i would actually pay for a TV licence (if such a thing existed here) in Australia if it meant that the ABC and SBS would be half as good as the BBC and could afford to cover such events.
August 13th 2012 @ 10:58pm
Bill malone said | August 13th 2012 @ 10:58pm | Report comment
I m now watching channel 9 ‘s Olympic closing ceremony ie, the repeat , your commentary is a disgrace, I want to hear silence from the commentary team and hear the ceremony and the music . instead it is eddie and the other
the other two ladies that keep talking why ?
Please never again , please, please , please – you have spoilt it for me big time. Very upset with 9.
August 14th 2012 @ 2:01pm
Kylie-Jane said | August 14th 2012 @ 2:01pm | Report comment
I don’t normIly write comments, but felt this was necessary. I understand that coverage for the Olympics may have been difficult due to the differences in time. But seriously, this has got to be the worst coverage of all. Swimming, rhythmic gymnastics and diving got the most coverage. But where on earth was the boxing? Jujitsu? Apparatus gymnastics? Those were the worst, where we saw a snippet either on coverage, or by the news. Yeah thanks a lot. Not all of us are keen on the swimmers (who dominated the viewing by far). Also pentathlon was a newish event, but do you think we saw much of it, NO! Perhaps someone other than channel 9 would be better?
August 14th 2012 @ 2:03pm
Dave said | August 14th 2012 @ 2:03pm | Report comment
They put on the Men’s Volleyball Final. Brazil leading 2-0 against Russia and with virtual match point. Russians fight back to win 29-27 in the third. Wow, everyone loves a fightback. Can they keep it up? I never found out. Switched to rhythmic gymnastics. I read this morning that Russia won in then greatest fightback in Olympic Volleyball history. But those gymnasts can sure catch a ball!