After last year’s Rugby World Cup, most keen sports watchers would be only too aware of a shared low opinion of Channel Nine and their sports coverage.
It was with much disappointment that I saw that Nine had once again snared the rights to a major sporting event, and would be broadcasting the Olympics from London.
I have to report that even at this early stage Nine has disappointed me.
Even prior to the opening ceremony I saw very little about the start of the football tournament from our official broadcaster.
While all of Australia’s other networks at least gave us the results from the men’s and women’s matches during their breakfast programming, Nine had Richard Wilkins and Richard Reid doing their morning round-up of celebrity gossip from London’s Piccadilly Circus instead.
What must it have cost the allegedly cash-strapped network to send these two to London just so they could report on Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson’s faltering relationship from a crowded London street rather than a Sydney studio I wonder?
Then we had the opening ceremony, and it was here that Eddie McGuire once again proved to me that he really should not be working in the media. This is a man who was universally castigated at the last Winter Olympics for mocking an ice skater’s choice of outfit and homosexuality. And yet here he is again, Nine’s senior representative at the Olympics.
First to raise my ire were some of Eddie McGuire’s mispronunciations. Is there really no-one at Nine that could have done a better job of commentating on the opening ceremony, or did ‘Eddie Everywhere’ just fancy an all-expenses trip to London?
How else to explain the presence of this quite amateurish presenter at the Olympics?
During the ceremony I learnt that the Chariots of Fire theme was originally written and performed by someone named ‘Van-Jellies’; and that Kenneth Branagh was playing the part of ‘Eye-Some-Bard’ Kingdom Brunel.
Like me, you may have thought that people from Ghana were known as Ghanaians, not to Eddie though. They’re ‘Garnuns’, apparently.
Interestingly, he later went the other way, maybe someone had had a word in his ear, and described the team from an Eastern European country as ‘Moldovians’, not ‘Moldovans’ or ‘Moldavians’, either of which are acceptable, but ‘Moldovians’.
Leila McKinnon also made a linguistic faux pas of her own: nicknaming the Icelandic flag bearer Ásdís Hjálmsdóttir ‘Dottie’.
For the record Leila, the naming convention in Iceland means that all females have the suffix ‘dóttir’, or ‘daughter’, applied to their name. They can’t all be called ‘Dottie’ can they?
There were shades of the Winter Olympics when Eddie began mocking the Kazakhstani flag bearer’s national dress. Had he really not learned anything from his mistakes of a few years ago? We don’t all perpetually wear black suits Eddie!
The worst of Eddie’s stuff-ups, though, came during the performance of ‘Abide with me’. This was a tribute to those that died in the London bombings of 2005, a terrorist act that will be forever linked to these Olympics, coming the day after the announcement of London’s successful bid for 2012, and thereby effectively ruining the city’s celebrations.
Eddie’s response to the symbolic dancing and the singing of a hymn that has strong ties to sport in the UK, was to talk incessantly over the performance. If I remember it correctly, Leila McKinnon didn’t say a word, I like to imagine that she was holding her head in shame at her co-commentator’s lack of tact.
Luckily for Eddie, the NBC in the US chose to ignore this section altogether and broadcast an interview with Michael Phelps instead. As a result, they seem to have attracted the sort of disgusted response from other sectors of the media that on any other day might have been reserved for McGuire.
Eddie wasn’t alone in making mistakes though. Another notable open-palm-to-forehead moment came when when Nine’s directorial unit decided that the viewing public wouldn’t want to see coverage of the teams entering the arena, but would rather see footage of Layne Beachley throwing a ball around, or some of Australia’s basketballers dancing in an embarrassed manner.
This was not only disrespectful to the other countries athletes, but as some people have already commented on the Roar, they missed seeing the team representing their family’s nation. As Australia is a nation made of migrants, with so many of us able to trace ancestry back to other countries, this seems a shocking oversight from a national broadcaster, especially when broadcasting an international event.
Where Nine did do well though was to give Andrew Gaze a mic. His insights were pretty informative, and he seemed far more professional than the professionals.
How about Nine taking a risk and just having Gaze and McKinnon for the closing ceremony, I can’t be the only one that’s had enough of Eddie McGuire, can I?
As for the events themselves, once day one got underway did anyone else feel that Nine were trying to appease everyone, but ended up pleasing no-one?
I was keen to watch the men’s cycling road race, coming so soon after the Tour de France. With the sport attracting so much interest in the UK following the exploits of Wiggins, Froome, and Cavendish, it was sure to attract a huge crowd.
Unfortunately for those of us watching from home, the coverage was awful – no onscreen info, chopping and changing from one camera to another so we had no idea of who was where in the race, or what part of the race we were watching.
Apparently, a lot of this was the fault of the BBC’s feed, who learnt nothing from their competitor’s coverage of the Tour and thought that merely bouncing the signal between a handful of cameras on motorbikes would suffice.
This doesn’t however explain Nine’s practice of showing approximately 90 seconds of cycling, cutting to 90 seconds of rowing, a quick snippet of swimming, back to the cycling, and so on.
I was left unhappy, as I’m sure viewers wanting to see the other sports were too.
With Nine now broadcasting across five channels in major cities, would it be too much to ask them to pull out all the stops and utilise Go! and Extra to show sports in their entirety, rather than just giving us tiny bite-size chunks of each? If this is the standard we are to expect, this could be the Olympics that most of will look back on and not be able to recall much of anything.
John
Guest
I said my more than displeased rant above... However, I am also very dissapointed there has been NO weightlifting coverage...what is with that...oh thats right, Ch9 have no clue, shame on you Ch9, absolutely terrible coverage, however credit where credit is due; A GOLD MEDAL is awarded to Ch9 for all the MIND NUMBING advertising which collectively outstripped the time coverage of any of the events...seriously folks, I timed them and I ain't exaggerating... John.
Smacka
Guest
Did anyone catch any Soccer games from Channel 9. Yesterday after getting thoroughly bored with the floor mat gymnastics I was wading through via my Tivo PVR recording I turned on Al Jazeera News. It's live. The first item I saw was the Al Jazeera News commentator telling me that Mexico were about a minute away from beating Brazil for the Gold Medal. So if the gold medal game was gunna be on,.,I now already new the the result. What a piss off. Anyhow about an hour later on Channel 9 Stefanovic started talking about the soccer. Bewdy I says to meself. I'll still watch it, even rthough I'm pissed off about knowing the score. Guess what, 9 showed a full on amount of "bloody stuff all",.,about a 3 minute highlight package. I'm a fairdinkum pissed off punter. But was it my fault I missed the soccer from London via the 9 Network. How did you go, Tell me what you saw from 9. ======================= At least I have great memories of being at Sydney's Aussie Stadium, in 2000 for the Final between Cameroon and Spain. A thrilling comeback from the Lions who eventualyy won 5-3 on Penalties after coming back from 0-2 in the first half. Here's the game info http://www.soccertimes.com/international/2000/games/sep30.htm
BruceB
Guest
What’s really sad for Australian sports is that we won’t have any future champions with such trashy and limited coverage. My teenage kids turned off completely from the games and they love sports. Shame on you Channel 9 instead of showing sports you showed us your lack of talent and future programmes which are far from sport like Underbelly and Big Brother.
Barry
Guest
Whats with only showing the Olympics while people are sleep!?!? Should be atleast showing highlights or replays during the day!!
snook
Guest
In 1972, they actually showed lots of different and interesting sports. The coverage in the 70's was way better than it is now because we got what was being filmed in the host country and the host country, not being biased and nationalised, showed a great selection. This Australian, Australian, Australian thing is as dull as watching the clock wind down the last 5 hours on a friday afternoon
AP
Guest
Thanks Channel 9 for not showing any of the softball.. Oh that's right, softball isnt in the olympics anymore because it didnt grease the right IOC palms and now has been replaced by BMX this olympics, and rugby & golf in Rio. Another amateur sport played by millions across the planet losing out to the richer and more high profile.
andrew
Guest
wow, I have watched channel 9 coverage of the games and what can I say. I am a brit and this is my first olympics outside of UK. I can not believe how poor 9's coverage of the games is. Constantly switching over sports. pathetic commentators. Opening ceremony was spoilt with showing too much Aussie. and A basketball player commentating on all the basketball players. If I had to rate it in terms of a sporting performance. It was a massive own goal and almost I can say a no show. Channel 9 have in my opinion a very very steep learning curve before next olympics and the time difference will be worse in Rio. I think some major re thinking is called for. Thank goodness for the internet and watching the coverage via other means. PS I am not a winging pomme either. I just am a firm believer that an event that occurs every 4 years should have a gold first class coverage. cant beat 13 free to view channels can you!!!!!!!
Smacka
Guest
McKinnon finished talking up the Kiwis and introduced Norway. It was then I heard Mckinnon remark really expressively, “Now, Norway does well, in SHOOTING and SAILING” Bloody heck. I nearly choked on me breakky beer when she blurted that out. I mean crikey it’s only a year ago, bar one week, since Anders Breivik bombed 8 people to death in Oslo, then shot to death another 69, mainly young people, at Utøya Island. He also injured about 242 others in his deadly rampage. A few seconds later McGuire charmingly chimed in with, “And the Norwegians, we think of course, the horrible situation early this year,.,.”, , , I thought, good old Eddie was gunna say a few condolences about Anders Breivik’s monstrous massacre. Nuht,.,he was just referring to Alex Dale Oen, the Norwegian World Record holder for the 100M Breaststroke, who’d died suddenly from heart failure. McKinnon’s remarks were incredibly bizzare and thoughtless considering Breivik had shot 69 people on Utoya Island and in the water as they tried to escape. Even more bizzare and thoughtless is that, obviously, because of McKinnon’s and McGuire’s idiocy, without warning or explanation, Channel Nine then simply wiped the Norwegian Teams part of the Opening Ceremony from all its highlights. I tried to find Norways team parade in the many highlight packages Nine showed that morning. But each package kept jumping from New Zealand or Nigeria to a commercial break and returned with countries starting with S. So, if your wondering why the Norwegians didn’t appear in the Openining Ceremony parade highlights then that’s why. I gave up after looking all day trying to google up even a skerrick of a hint of an apology from the Nine Network. Or from McGuire and McKinnon. I found nothing. Nowt, Zero, Zilch. How disgusting of Nine ! The drongos at Nine need to straighten this out. If I’m wrong and Channel Nine have already done something about this then I’ll cop an uppercut !
margo
Guest
Sorry computer froze then posted - If Leila McKinnon wasn't married to Bruce Gyngell would she be commentating at the Olympics her droning voice drives me crazy - her commentary is so uninspiring I just want to turn her off - unfortunately dont have foxtel so have to have channel 9 - better than channel 7 though because then we would have had the awful andrew o'keefe
Janet
Guest
Tony Jones, what a stupid thing to say to Usain Bolt.
Diane
Guest
Ross could not have said it better myself totally agree with your comment.
Ross
Guest
CH9's coverage of the Olympic games is NOT coverage of the sports as much as it is coverage of MIND NUMBING commercials! 8/10 events you cover, are single events, example; a heat swim followed by 3minutes of MIND numbing commercials, followed by another single event then followed by another 3 minute set of commercials. This is repeated throughout your coverage and to be frank, this has made the viewing of what should be exciting, entertaining exposure of these elite athletes into a complete farce of VERY disturbing, forced down your throat, of MIND NUMBING commercials. Shame on you channel Nine! This is coverage of commercials, not coverage of the Olympics games...absolutely disgusting coverage, with very little coverage of other sports outside of swimming and a few others.
Monika
Guest
My sentiments exactly :) Apparently we're all still rolling around in Fosters, smearing Vegemite round our navels whilst jumping round the pool in ugg boots cheering "oi oi oi" whenever we see a kangaroo leap past. It's enough to leave you sobbing into your Weet-Bix.
Tony
Guest
Channel nine, low rung celebs put themselves with higher airtime than athletes and the sports, just show the sports and shut up. We are not inerested in uniformed dribble from commentators while we miss sports coverage 100 m final, how many times are we going to have it shoved down our throats with inane commentary ....I suggest we will have it again and again and again
Matt
Guest
It's simple really - Australian television is rubbish - always has been,Parochial news bulletins and saturation coverage of sports like League and AFL, imported US and UK crime shows and badly made local soaps and 'drama'series - Packed to the Rafters or Underbelly isn't TV gold it's amateur hour dross. SBS and ABC try hard but are limited by their budgets. Just like with the Petrol companies, Supermarkets and Retailers, where Australians have suffered from a monopolistic stranglehold with rigged prices and poor competition it's the same for the TV networks cosy little anti siphoning monopoly, the advent of digital TV in the UK ushered in scores of channels accompanied by fanatastic development of online content, just check out the BBC or Sky websites even in their filtered for Australia form they are light years ahead compared to any Australian equivalent. If you're savvy enough get yourself a UK DNS for your internet settings and then go to the full UK version of the BBC website and prepare to be amazed by what's on offer. Wake up Australia we don't live in the 70s anymore, time to realise we're getting shafted by lazy corporations using our own patriotism using Aussie Aussie Aussie, Brave Aussie Battler and all those other boring cliches to get away with treating us like idiots, with their blow par, overpriced rubbish.
D Hayes
Guest
I agree! This is awful! I am watching the marathon which lasts two hours with the equestrian cut out. When the equestrian is on there is a sub screen of the two hour marathon race! For the equestrian cross country the camera would pan in on the audience as much as the horse/rider. The sound effects are such that the background noise is actually louder then the commentators. Finally, at the beginning of the coverage, times were given for each of the events (swimming) so one wouldn't spend hours waiting for coverage of an event happening at 4am. No times were given for tonight. Come on Nine, your coverage is below standard in this Aussies book!
Diane
Guest
Good on you Paul I agree with everything you have said. I had a lot of trouble finding a link where I could provide feedback to Channel 9 with regards to there coverage so like HardcorePrawn has said I don't know if Channel 9 will see this feedback but one can only hope. I did find another discussion page but at the bottom it said discussion was closed, wonder why, maybe they were not liking what they were hearing.
Diane
Guest
Well written Lindsay and agree totally as I have found myself very frustrated trying to watch the Olympics on channel 9, instead of just being able to sit back and enjoying all the different events as I have done previous years.
Diane
Guest
Total agree Razor bring back SBS coverage, Channel 9 is just discussing, you leave one event for ads and when they go back you are watching something completely different, then 2 seconds in they flick to something else with the commentators all the time saying we will be back with the diving shortly - when in the next hour? Not happy at all, hence why I am on the computer and not watching the Olympics as I am finding myself yelling at channel 9 to stop flicking instead of yelling for the competitors to win.
Diane
Guest
Worst coverage ever of the Olympic games, channel 9 should be ashamed of how they are destroying such a wonderful event, we are so pissed off with Channel 9's coverage we will not be watching any TV programs on this channel for at least the next 6 months and recommend others follow suit. Very disappointed!