Now that NBC’s coverage of the olympics seems to have officially surpassed George W. Bush as the most pitted topic, I’m curious about coverage elsewhere.
Where are you located, and what is the coverage like over there? Is it only covered by one network/company, or do different stations show different events, giving you choices that we don’t really get here? Is anything live? Are there a bunch of historical/sentimental/nationalistic/boring montages about specific athletes?
NZ has four free to air tv stations, two state owned and two privately owned. One of the state stations has the rights to the Olympics, so they are showing all the live stuff. One of the private stations just does highlights.
I think the coverage has been pretty good. My major gripe is that most of the live stuff is in the middle of the night but that has nothing to do with TVNZ (Greece should move closer :D).
Every morning and early evening they do a round up of what the Kiwis have been up to that day but we seem to be getting a wide range of sports and seeing many countries represented. Of course we haven’t won a bloody thing yet so it makes it easier to focus attention elsewhere
They do seem to be showing less medal ceromonies then past years which annoys me a bit (those are my favourite bits).
When Kiwis do semi-well they will sing their praises. NZ beat Serbia (world champs) in basketball yesterday and their was much joy from the commentators, but it hasn’t got annoying.
I think the commentators are, for the most part, very good. They must have done all their homework before they left for Greece. Everyday I have picked up some interesting snippet about another country or sport. They describe what’s going on well too. (except for Anthony Moss…someone shoot him!!! grrrrr…sorry random Kiwi whinging moment).
We don’t seem to have the “historical/sentimental/nationalistic/boring montages” that you talk about.
TV ads have gone nuts though and every damn ad is insisting I be waving my little Kiwi flag all day long.
All in all I am happy with the coverage…all beats are off when we actually win something (hopefully in the rowing today!!! GO KIWIS) at that point I expect TVNZ to go nuts. So if you want better covearge stop winning every bloody thing
We get CBC here in North Dakota. The coverage, obviously, is primarily Canadian Olympians. It’s pretty good coverage, though it doesn’t seem to have too many hours for it. Of course, that’s the only Canadian station we get, so there could be much more.
Here in Australia, they’re basically doing what calm kiwi describes for New Zealand. Channel 7 has the rights to the live coverage. They start at about 3:30 in the afternoon and go through the night with live coverage. In the morning, they do highlights of the stuff that happened during the wee hours.
Another station, SBS, is also covering stuff, but not live. SBS is sort of the “international” station - they normally have stuff like Arab & Indonesian news, that sort of thing (they also used to have The Daily Show!!! but I can’t seem to find it now).
No stupid montages, although they have rather sentimental clips that are shown during commercials. No big deal, though - nothing like the NBC slop. After spending my entire life watching the Olympics as covered in the U.S., I have to say I’m enjoying the coverage here. It seems it’s more sport for the sake of sport.
The commentary’s pretty low-key, but there was one intro from a news announcer… As they cut into men’s gymnastics, he said, “And now, men in tights…” This sent my husband, who had been marvelling & raving all day about the sheer weapon-ness of the male gymnasts, into near apoplexy. Which was actually kind of funny in and of itself.
My only complaint is, don’t these people know they have an American in their midst??!! Except for some swimming events, I haven’t seen any coverage of U.S. athletes and I haven’t heard the Star Spangled Banner once. Granted, I haven’t stayed up until 4 a.m. for anything, but you’d think they might show a little Paul Hamm clip to soothe us expats.
We’ve got 2 channels playing it. One (7) is going for all the Australian events, even when the Australian participant hasn’t got a shot, which is nice in a way. The other SBS) I’ve got no clue what the reasoning behind which sports they show is but everytime I put it on they’re focusing on something different, often without any Australians participating, which is also nice. I’m sure someone else from Aust who is watching more can fill in in more detail.
The anchorman on 7 seems to be having a good time ribbing some of the talking heads and it’s pretty refreshing. Especially when he got the olympic gossip woman to admit that the Australian uniforms are pretty awful looking.
The montage for Ian Thorpe winning the 200m was horribly cheesy – sepia tones 70’s style footage, “inspirational” music, slow motion replays of him pumping his arm when he won… it was embarrassing for all involved.
Oh, Silentgoldfish, you’ve never seen the 15 minute tearjerkers that they show in the U.S., complete with interviews of the athlete’s childhood friends saying how he overcame a life-threatening bout of lice at age three, lost 4 limbs at age thirteen, and managed to still set the world record on the day of his father’s funeral. Makes the little things they show on Seven look like Oscar-winning documentaries.
Maybe we get a different feed in the US? I haven’t noticed that much coverage on the station here, could be I’ve seen different here. Either way, I’m obviously wrong on CBC coverage. Sorry.
Here in Ireland it’s on all day on one channel. Haven’t seen any kind of montages or anything. Nothing nationalistic either, although I haven’t watched any of the events that Irish athletes are competing in.
Here in Japan, it can basically be summed up in one word: JUDO
Since day one that’s practically everything they show here!
Seriosuly though, I’m not 100% sure of the legal stuff but I think that the national broadcasting company (NHK) owns the rights here and shows various sports spread out on three of their channels (one of which is HDTV! YEY!). Three other channels (that I know of) show bits and pieces. NHK of course shows the sports without any commercial interruption, which is a big plus. Oh and I mention HDTV?
Regarding WHAT is actually shown - if it doesn’t include Japanese participation it’s almost certainly not shown (this has been the case so far, although since the airing times is in the middle of the night, I haven’t verified this to be completely true)
I’m hoping for a bit more international coverage from this weekend with the Athletics and all.
The BBC is doing its usual bit. Chunks of coverage alternating between their 2 channels, plus a spot of digital too.
Currently 08.59 Blighty time and on BBC1 it’s the women’s 100m heats, alternating with some sort of swimming (which is only worth watching for Sharron Davies…).
My brother who lives in Ohio just returned from a trip to Canada and he reports that he loved the CBC’s Olympic coverage. Says he:
"Hope you get the CBC’s version of the Olympics. They actually show
events, although you still get some Canadian-style jingoism. ‘There is Jimmy swimming his personal best, within the top 15 of the world. Quite a performance today by our Jimmy!’
The best though was a disappointed Canadian fencer, who quoted Thoreau and Kipling after losing. You just don’t get that interview in the states."
