The days of the powerless viewer are long gone but Channel Nine has yet to get the message. Nine has been rightly slammed over its ordinary coverage of London 2012 and has received disappointing ratings.
Foxtel, on the other hand, has seen viewing figures jump through the roof with its eight free channels.
Following the pasting it received at last year’s Rugby World Cup, and the criticism it received over the 2002 FIFA World Cup, you think Nine would have taken notice.
The audience is now empowered. They don’t want be told what to watch or when to watch, and they don’t have to. They have choice. And they want good coverage, not jingoistic crap or random jabbering.
But Nine doesn’t seem to be listening.
Before the Games even started, the network was boasting about how good the ratings were going to be, and how much money they were going to make.
This was despite the time zone difference compared with the Beijing Games and the fact that Australia wasn’t predicted to win as many medals as in past Olympics – a prediction which definitely came true.
Nine has been severely shown up.
It has been bagged in the beginning for showing repeats of swimming, swimming and more swimming. A Facebook group called ”Channel 9 Olympics Coverage Sucks” has more than 25,000 likes and an online petition has been directed at the IOC to campaign for future rights of the Games to go to multiple channels.
Other media have lined up to take potshots at Nine, which has offered little variety in its Olympic coverage and promoted its new shows like Big Brother with a relentless robot-like tenacity.
And if I see that ad for Swisse Vitamins one more time I will throw up.
Getting a personality like Karl Stefanovic, hardly the most popular in the land, to anchor its coverage was a strange move. And getting the likes of Tele journo Rebecca Wilson in, who questions the legality of the performances of a Chinese swimmer, is a bad look.
Foxtel, on the other hand, scored a win when it decided not to charge its existing subscribers extra for its Olympic coverage. Viewers get eight channels and are free to watch their favourite sports and get a wide breath of Olympic content. There is also a better calibre of commentators, less interrupting ads and the ability to watch the big contests live.
Sure, it’s not problem-free.
Two days ago Eddie McGuire’s call on the men’s triathlon final was painful, as he complimented the event on its ‘international’ flavour. Hello Eddie, this is the Olympics, what did you expect?
And Alan Jones’ editorial diatribes – one I’ve caught was on why they should get rid of the medal tally – have hardly been everyone’s cup of tea.
Still, on Foxtel viewers have basically been able to watch what they want from London when they want. For example, I have been able to catch every Opals and Boomers game live, not on delay or a quarter here or there, and most of the Aussie boxers in action.
Foxtel has reaped the benefits. On Tuesday, 524,000 people watched the Games in prime time and it has been the beneficiary of record-breaking audience numbers throughout the Games.
On Saturday, it had an average of 619,000 viewers. Remember Foxtel is only in roughly 33% of Australian homes.
While on Nine the ratings have been down on average compared with the Beijing Games. This was expected, but the ratings are also down on Athens, which comes as somewhat of a surprise.
Across the first week, the Olympics has averaged 1.65 million metro viewers on free-to-air versus Athens’ 1.79 million and Beijing’s 2.02 million viewers. Australia’s poor showing on the medal tally certainly hasn’t helped the Nine figures, but neither has its shoddy coverage and poor commentary.
The bigger question is, with the NRL rights up for grabs at the moment, will Nine learn? Will the network lift its game in the future?
Follow John on Twitter: johnnyddavidson
jack
Guest
Foxtel coverage great. Peter Donegan was impecable. Accurate, informative and observant. What a pleasant change to listen to someone who actually knows their stuff. Ray Hadlee and Rebecca Wilson PLEASE don't apply to do the next games. You pair were appauling, thank heaven for the mute button. Good to see all sports given coverage with the choice to turn to another channel if wanted. Australia is not the only country at the Games and other countries DO have athletes as good as and quite often better than ours. Don't care what country they are from, what a privilage to see the very best.
Boomshanka
Guest
One would hope that the new Commission realises that what Nine did for the Olympics it currently does for Rugby League. Why would you want your sport associated with media scum like Nine? I wish Channel Nine a long and protracted journey into oblivion.
Jason Cave
Guest
I wonder if history is going to repeat itself? In 2000, Channel 7 was so focussed on its coverage of Sydney 2000, it didn't give much thought to bidding for the AFL TV rights once the Games were over. Seven only bid $20 million, but were beaten by the Nine/Ten/Foxtel partnership who bid $500 million-and won the rights. Now with the NRL TV rights up for grabs, could the same thing happen again-Nine bid for the rights only to be out-bidded by either Seven or Ten because Nine were focussed on doing London 2012 and didn't give much thought to putting in more money than either 7 or 10 to keep the rights?
Ariadne
Guest
What a delight it was to listen to James Tomkins' commentary on the rowing - and a disappointment every time Bradshaw opened his ill-informed mouth. The lesson is that viewers like to hear genuine, insightful (and brief) commentary from someone who knows the sport and the participants rather than from professional commentators too lazy, stupid and spoilt to do their homework on the subject.
Sonic
Guest
That channel 9 could televise a bit over 2 hours of the Olympic marathon and yet completely miss, due to an ad break, the only really important bit - the tactical surge that decided the winner - just about sums up the coverage. Disjointed, self serving, technically deficient and simply hopeless. Maybe it was a junket for the staff and they needed to write it off for tax. It wasn't something to be proud of. Chanel 9 was once the benchmark but it's all slipping away boys!!!!!!
,icl johnson
Guest
Ch 9 wants everyone to use pay tv more.....that is why the free to air coverage was so poor.... I watched one marathon of 42 kms and had to listen to eddie for 42 kms...no wonder im so bloody worn out at work.... No more eddie please.... Ill never watch any major coverage again with 9. Ch 7 coverage of the syd olympics was far superior and that was 12 years ago... Thanx
David
Guest
It has to be said that for many of Channel 9's lead commentators, this Olympics seemed to be more about them than what we were watching. Cue McGuire, Warren, and any of the talking studio heads. A notable exception was Peter Donegan who Channel 9 were at least smart enough to hire to call the Track & Field. A solid professional who is happy to let his experts such as Steve Ovett, Daley Thompson, Mel Gainsford-Taylor, Jane Flemming, Deek & Dave Culbert lead the way, Donegan just calls it straight. How many other commentators would stay quiet for a whole lap while letting Ovett & Deek explain the tactics behind what we were seeing on screen. Not many, simply because their egos would not allow it. The track and field was a great spectacle for the second week and I was glad to have Foxtel so I could get the undiluted experience without the Channel 9 sugar on top.
Jason Cave
Guest
It will take Channel 9 quite a long while to regain respect and dignity in the eyes of the TV community following its Olympics coverage Channel 10 found out the hard way after doing the 1994 Commonwealth Games from Victoria, Canada. Ten copped a pounding for its Games coverage and it wasn't until it got the AFL rights that it regained respect within the TV community. Foxtel, on the other hand, no such problems. Superb coverage all round.
Vic
Guest
My family and I felt like we'd completely missed the entire Olympics!!! Channel 9's 'coverage' was disgraceful! Not to mention the mind numbing ads for Big Brother and Underbelly! Pathetic! We feel cheated. We love watching ALL of the sports but ended up switching off after nonstop swimming replays - LAME CHANNEL 9! I despise this channel at the best of times but there was no excuse to screw up the Olympics!
Bondy.
Guest
I find it incredibly ironic Ch 9 close its coverage with Mark Nicholas " The Englishman " bursting onto the scene once again he's introduce/thrown to sports that have ranged from Dressage ,Double Trap Shooting,10 mtr Platform Diving, Womens Boxing but no Football none,what would he generally think as an Englishmen ! . Beautiful and I cant wait for Rugby in Brazil to add an extra threat to Ch 9 that'll bukem .
bobbysdad
Guest
I wish commentators would stop saying THE Ukraine. It's as lame as saying THE Australia or The Uganda, so PLEASE...... It is simply Ukraine. Every time I hear (so-called) educated journalists and presenters unable to get it right, just irritates the hell out of me and no doubt, every other Ukranian-Australian. It's not asking for much. Please get it right.
Dave
Guest
Just watched and heard the marathon. 2 hours and 8 minutes of blabbering from Sir Eddie McGuire. He must be more exhausted than the winner, whose name escapes me because I couldn't hear it. No, not above the crowd noise, but the Eddie Blab. It's my first and last marathon. I'll need some time to recover.
marco
Guest
I am so glad that channel 7 secured the rights to the AFL. After seeing what an appalling job nine has done with the Olympics , surely they cannot be trusted to do justice to a sporting event again. You would of thought that with 3 digital channels we could of had more variety of Olympic related coverage. The games are only on for 2 weeks every four years. Why would they do such a bad job when they had spend up big time to get the rights ?
Arthur Fonzarelli
Guest
Channel 9's coverage hit a low point while showing a Tae Kwon Doe (sic) bout involving an Aussie. After being tied after 3 rounds the bout went into "golden kick". There was a winning kick which was disputed causing a video review. And just as the result of the review was about to be announced, Channel 9 crossed to a canoe event. No mention during the next hour at least of the result of that bout. Also distressing was the Usain Bolt video montage to the soundtrack of "Soul Man". Could there be any more of a cliched embarrasing depiction of a black runner ? The use of people like James Brayshaw, Michael Slater et al calling Rowing & Diving et al is a joke. Thank god for Rob de Castella.
Jason Cave
Guest
Foxtel has shown why Channel 9 is no longer the leader in sports broadcasting on TV, When you watch AFL, NRL, SupeRugby or the upcoming Rugby Championship or even the Barclays Premier League, you realise just how well Foxtel-and Fox Sports for that matter-cover sport. Even more so when Fox Sports do the Australian cricket tours and the domestic one-day matches here in Australia. The late Kerry Packer would've been turning in his grave now if he had seen how bad Channel Nine's coverage of the London Olympics are. Packer wanted Channel Nine's coverage of whether it was Test/World Series cricket, State of Origin rugby league, Formula 1, the British Open golf, Wimbledon and the US Open tennis, to be the best-the very best coverage the TV sports world has seen. And now Channel 9 has been very badly shown up as way past their best in their Olympic coverage.
Tina
Guest
We cannot blame Channel 9 for the boring coverage. They have an agreement with the damn pay TV. Online petition is a good way to show people's voice. The more voice we got, the more power we have to make our dreams come true: to be able to watch more sports on free TV.
Jon Stark
Guest
Wow! You guys are a bunch of whingers. Try looking for positives in everything and you will feel better. You get the biggest, most amazing event in the world transmitted FREE into your living rooms and all you can do is complain about it. Probably half of the world didn't even get to see the Olympics because a) they don't have access to a TV and b) they are more concerned with their own survival. Here in London for the games we had to 'suffer' endless repeats of British medal victories, 24/7 and parochial commentary from Team GB ('Gloating Brits') They sounded very much like Aussies from previous games! But we loved every minute. Still, I craved a bit of Aussie commentary all fortnight. And the best way to see anything is LIVE. Book your tickets for Rio now and you won't have to suffer through all the Aussie TV coverage.
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.
SC
Guest
So glad there is discussion about channel 9's average, banal, limited and repetitive games coverage. The commentators look and sound old and tired. They seem out of place hosting the games coverage... A stand out example was an interview with the 16 year old african american winner of the artistic gymnastics. The commontator said "it's not easy for people like you is it". Unbelieveable! First time ever I have wished that i had foxtel
Jude
Guest
Couldn't agree more! Their ongoing rabbiting is totally distracting - they seem to feel they have to fill every second with yakking unless there is an Australian about to dive. Hey guys- silence is golden! At least give us a few seconds as the competitors dive to appreciate the moment.