Channel 7 has been put out of its misery with the end of the Beijing Games. As the world now awaits London 2012, the Olympic coverage flag is passed to Channel 9, who has many lessons to learn from the much maligned Seven.
Yes, covering such a complex event with a web of interwoven sports on at the same time is difficult, if not impossible, but many of the wounds were self-inflicted.
Whether it was the delayed coverage of important events, the constant interruptions, or the odd telecast choices, the triviality of the coverage went against everything the Games should be about.
Seven, who are not alone in this, continue to fail to understand the importance of live TV, failing to comprehend the fact live coverage, commentary and text is only a click away in the broadband era.
When events conflicted, Seven failed to use its partner SBS to compliment its coverage.
What of the insufferable cross promotions for supermodel shows and the like?
Money spoke louder than the desire to showcase the best of the Games.
Where was the deep analysis, the stories behind the performances, the sense of occasion lacking from Sevens studio? It was all condensed into a five minute Neal Kearney package on the final night.
Issues such as doping, inconsistent judging, athletes changing citizenship, the impact the Games will have on China, the powerhouse battle between China and USA in the medal tally and whether the giant nation’s global reputation will now change were hardly featured.
Why were lifestyle and reality TV hosts part of the coverage?
The less said about Yum Cha the better. Such inanity hallmarked Seven’s coverage.
Seven also coped criticism over its decision to continue its AFL coverage.
The AFL shouldn’t be ignored, it is our national game, but what is the point of having broadcast partners? While Seven cut from Beijing to the AFL on Sunday, fellow AFL broadcaster Channel 10 was showing British trash Weighing In.
Could a deal not have been worked out for Ten to pick up the AFL coverage during the Games?
While there has been no adequate explanation for why this didn’t happen, it isn’t difficult to predict money was the issue, Seven wanting its cake and to eat it too.
Perhaps most disappointing was the inability of Seven to act on the criticism, continuing with the same format throughout despite the protests.
And another gripe regarding the media, I know they are owned by the one organisation but was it necessary for the websites of Fox Sports, The Australian and the various state affiliations of News Corp to run mirror image Beijing sites, stories, pictures etc.
Could they not have given its readers more depth, perspective and range to an event deserving of such coverage?
It is symbolic of a media lacking analysis and depth, more concerned with dollars, where celebrity puff commands the same space as political analysis, when coverage between channels mirrors one another.
Could you spot the difference between Sevens Beijing Heroes show and 60 Minutes’ chat with the Olympians?
With twenty plus members of the team together what questions would you ask? Who are the best and worst singers? Give us a break!
The palette of sporting fans has dramatically expanded with the rise of Fox Sports and the Internet.
Sports fans should not have to put up with such mundane coverage.
It is why sites such as The Roar are so important, and why I’m happy to be part of it.
Photo by Elizabeth Chapman
albatross
Roar Pro
Youse all should have done what we did at our house. Not one second of either Ch7 or SBS coverage was watched barring 35 minutes of the Olyroos very forgettable first game Iwhich was before the opening sarahmoaney. Face up to it the Olympics taken as a whole are boring. And this one was about the most boring of all. It is clear that the majority of Chinese were pretty indifferent about it all judging by the stills shots I have seen of half empty stands - a stark contrast to the way the Sydney Olympics for example or even the World Cup where there were full houses even for games like Ireland \v Namibia on a wet evening.
Adrian Musolino
Expert
mtngry, I believe Nine will be in partnership with Fox Sports for 2012 and in the next four years there will be significant advances in how the networks use their HD channels. I think the fact HD is still very new and has not really taken off with Australians meant Seven didn't want to rely on its extra channels for Beijing.
mtngry
Guest
Totally ignoring the rugby was a disgrace. It was a major game. I hope Channel 9 is not hosting it alone, or at least, using their extra digital channels as well. There is at least 3 channels worth of games to be covered and I can't wait to watch sports like wrestling without having to resort to you tube.
Mark Levy
Guest
Whilst the 7 TV coverage might have dismal, hats off (once again) to the ABC radio coverage - as usual, live, spontaneous and thoroughly enjoyable, especially Peter Walsh's basketball calls. Just love the "around-the-grounds" format. Read somewhere that viewers in the UK saw Steve Hooker's pole vault gold before we did. What a joke ! We were watching diving preliminaries and promos. PS. Raelene Boyle was the co-commentator with Bruce McAvaney at the Track & Field - Jane Flemming did radio.
Adrian Musolino
Expert
Spiro the new favourite post event interview question seemed to be - "How do you think your mates are celebrating back home?" Brilliant.
Spiro Zavos
Expert
What I don't understand is why there is no narrative attached to the coverage of the specific events. During one of the Olympics, I think it was Sydney, the broadcasters employed writers like Peter FitzSimons. Perhaps this the bleating of an old hack but why weren't real journalists hired to write material for the television and news coverage. Instead, on all the channels, we got the most banal summaries of what had happeed from someone in Beijing, who could have been in Melbourne or Sydney or anywhere for all the colour and information was delivered to watchers. I also don't understand why say all the athletics events, women and men, aren 't put into a post-Olympic package so that we can see all the finals, if we want to. I watched a lot of the Olympics but did not get to see the men's 800m and 1500m. The same thing can be done for the swimming: the finals of the diving: rowing: kayaks etc Endlessly repeated 'interviews' with medal winners asked 'how does it feel?' becomes boring even after one hearing, and increasingly painful with each repetition.
paddon
Roar Rookie
I'm furious with Channel 7. Once every 4 years the Olympics happen, but instead of celebrating we had to endure that! I was watching (for the umpteenth time) one of those stupid slow mo montages when it occurred to me that Ch 7 hadn't actually showed the vast majority of these images in their real coverage. Now, in retaliation, I'm going to flex my consumer muscle (for what it's worth). I can't hurt 7, but I can promise that I won't go near a Panasonic, Holden, Macca's or that stupid computer that (our golden Girl!) Libby Trickett drops pool side. Sure, like the water spilt on said computer, this might be just a drop in the ocean, but making the broadcast sponsors will pay for an insufferable broadcast is my only way of venting.
Justin
Guest
How come 7 didnt make use of their digital channels? In reality they had 4 channels to use for their coverage (I think it is 4 anyway).
Adrian Musolino
Expert
There is another point I should make re: the AFL coverage. During the Games Seven showed Friday night games live so they could get back to Beijing for the night session. This week Seven reverts back to the 8:30pm slot for AFL, an hour plus delayed. Ironically it took the conflicting Games to force Seven to give AFL fans what they wanted. They gave the public a taste of live AFL and now it's back to the same old. There were still some people who thought Seven showed Friday night games live. Now they know the truth about the delayed coverage.
megan
Guest
i agree with all you boys about overemphasis on swimming, airhead commentators, yum cha, delayed results, truncated coverage, and commentators with no expert knowledge of the sport e.g. simon marshall for equestrian when we were all hanging out for the peerless commentary of lucinda green. bruce mcaveny was off- key in the swimming, when he called a couple of winners wrongly when correct result had already flashed on screen, but he did come good at track and field. a big bugbear was that sports allocated to sbs for coverage, especially the road bike races and basketball, were duplicated when channel 7 decided belatedly it wanted to cover cadel or the opals. another big whinge is that we never knew what was coming up or exactly when so we had to endure endless shots of little chinese girls balancing on bars or whipping their bodies with ribbons. not only did i have better , i had more important things to do than to sit and watch it all, albeit with sound off, waiting for the events i wanted, like the rowing, canoeing, pole vault etc. then having heard results on radio, you had to ask yourself why bother? however the final 2 pole vaults of hooker, and the winning dive of mitcham did bear constant repeating...
Hoy
Guest
When you watch the Cricket on channel 9 these days, even the commentators throw to ads for new programs. Diabolical. The last thing I want to hear when watching the cricket (or any sport) is Slats telling me to watch "Our House" on Sunday or whatever, because it will be a bumper episode. Channel 9 are calling out sponsors during the football games now, with "Brut Big Hits" being said more times than I care to remember in watching a league game. I don't think it will get better next time.
Adrian Musolino
Expert
Onside, I agree. I don't expect a dramatic improvement by Nine. There will be the same attempt to use the Olympics as a plugging vehicle for Nines shows and personalities. It is the sad reality of commercial networks.
onside
Guest
As already indicated I share the above frustrations. But do people believe another commercial station would present an 'noncommercial' package.
Benjamin Conkey
Editor
I heard somewhere that Foxtel will be in partnership with Nine in 2012. This will mean similar coverage to the Commonwealth games, using the active button to watch mulitple events at the same time and of course it will be live, that magical word Seven forgot about over the last 17 days!
Harry
Guest
Hoy Stephanie Rice is a looker no doubt about that, but she also "walked the walk ". Won 3 gold medals and, whats more, broke the world record every time in doing so (part of a relay for the 3rd). That, to paraphrase Bruce, is special and I thought the best performance by an Australian at these games. 100% agree with all the comments abusing 7 above. Their coverage was truly a disgrace. Surely the crass sponsorship plugs, lack of narrative, dumbed-down commentary, facile presentation, internatl cross-marketing and overly repetitive ads were counter-productive? I am no expert on this but by the end of it I harboured active negative views of all the sponsors/advertisers, and have vowed not to watch 7 if there is the slightest choice.
onside
Guest
Notwithstanding my agreeing with the general thrust, I thought Channel 7 did a pretty good job. I have my' picky' moments, but it must be a broadcasters nightmare putting the Olympics together. SBS provided terrific backup vision.The problem is we take so much for granted. All sports coverage is of a very high standard. In colour, instant, larger than life. Just turn on the switch. Not so many Olympics ago,the vision was in black and white.You had to stand up to change the channel on the TV set.Race results were timed with stop watches. Plastic had not been invented so if the familiy wanted a bit of Chinese takeaway while they watched an event,they took their own pots to the Chinese cafe to pick up the food. The interpretation of excellence can be subjective. London 2012. No matter how good it is, GMT is ten hours out of whack with EST. Limited viewing for those with jobs. But I cant wait for the synchronised bungy jumping off Tower Bridge.
sam
Guest
For some reason channel seven were totally incapable of showing a game from start to finish without interrupting it time and time again for pathetic interviews or montages of - and i'm sorry if anyone is offended - our swimmers. Yes, they are good. Yes, they won some medals, But when the swimming is over, we move on to the rest of the programme. What about our women's waterpolo semi final, shown delayed and stretched over a few hours so that we could all get Stephanie Rice and Libby Trickett's thoughts on seeing themselves swim. Absurd!
Hoy
Guest
Sorry, having a whinge a bit off topic.
Hoy
Guest
Is it me, or is Australia just a sucker for a pretty girl. Yeah Rice did well to win three golds. Hooker did better to be the first Australian male to win a field event in how long? 60 years? Why didn't he get the chance to carry the flag? Or the diver who scored the best dive in Olympic history with 112.10 out of a possible 114 for his dive to overtake the rampaging Chinese diver and take Gold on his last dive?
Jamie
Guest
Thanks Adrian, I agree with all your comments about the missing elements of the games. I love the Olympics but thanks to Channel 7 i was praying for it to end. I watched the coverage on Friday night with the goal to absorb so serious olympics before it ended. In the end i had to go to bed because the advertisements were so frequent and repetitive. I know they have to pay for the coverage, but it was out of control. By the time they had the lead in 'imagery' following the ad break we got very little coverage of the sport. They even missed all the middle jumps of Hooker in the pole vault. Why? If they ask Stephanie Rice once more about her relationship with Eamon S i think i will cry. This is about sport and she has already answered this question many time on Channel 7. I still like Bruce McAvaney's athletics calls. He knows every athlete's background and details and i love his energy. Channel 9...please improve this mess.