Channel 7's Olympic Coverage

[logifuse]

OK,

So are we going to have Peter Donegan & the others calling sports off a TV from a demountable in a car park in Melbourne again this time around?

We know 7 have plenty of form for being flexible with the term "live", but last time it was laughable when they'd change from one "live" sport to another "live" sport & you could hear the first commentary again in the background of the second.

Here's a tip Channel 7:

soundproofing

1. Something that prevents sound from travelling through it, such as is put on walls so adjacent areas are not disturbed by noise.

Until the soundproofing is installed I don't think I'll be able to get to sleep here.

2. The act of installing material to dampen sound.

We're going to be soundproofing today, by tomorrow you'll no longer hear those noises.

[GlenR]

Is there a standard that defines what "live" means. What is an acceptable delay for it to be still officially "live"?

I think sometimes the networks get to almost false advertising with what they term "live". Obviously there will be some delay when something is telecast live - it takes so long for the satellite uplink propogation and so forth, but if the event is screened 5 minutes after the start is it still fair to say it's live? What about 15 minutes? #0 minutes? An hour?

Where do you draw the line? The term "Live" seems to be as flexible as the published guide times these days.

My favourite was when I was watching an event (can't remember what) and it had the "LIVE" watermark on the screen. Then, when they cut to some pre-recorded footage (as in the commentator saying "This happened earlier today") the "LIVE" watermark was still onscreen. Surely is should have been removed for that segment. To me, that's misleading promotion as if anyone just tuned in they would have assumed the events were occurring at that moment, not some hours ago.

The networks really are just a pack of cowboys...

[merovingian]

They are monkeys. But I'm going to watch an opening ceremony for the first time ever, just because it's in HD and I want to see the picture quality. So the monkeys have sucked me in nonetheless. I can handle non-live if it looks good. Besides which, I don't overly care for Olympic sports.

[dgaust]

I watched the Australians play their first match last night, and the only thing worse than their performance was the commentary.

It was absolutely disgraceful. Ended up muting it after 25 minutes and watching the rest of the game without sound

[DDH]

Yes despite the strange TV things that tend to happen around Olympics I will watch a bit of it with the kids (in HD of course). For me its a great opportunity to show the kids what archery, hammer throw, javelin, etc, etc look like, not just how they've been interpretted in the Wii !

[aanda6]

you should have tried listening on the radio. i was listening to SEN and they had Ray hadley, who I believe calls Rugby league normally. I am not suprised, what a di**, didn't even know the players names or the rules by the sound of it.

[logifuse]

Originally Posted by GlenR

Is there a standard that defines what "live" means. What is an acceptable delay for it to be still officially "live"?

I kid you not, this is the definition in the act:

live , in relation to the televising of an event, or series of events, has the meaning generally accepted within the television industry.

It's like the EPG - it can be as rubbery as they want it to be.

Justin

[FrAsErTaG]

Do you think prime will take advantage of there
View 1
View 2
and View 3 channels?
or will it just be 5 channels (including HD) broadcasting the same feed from the carpark?

[logifuse]

Originally Posted by aanda6

you should have tried listening on the radio. i was listening to SEN and they had Ray hadley, who I believe calls Rugby league normally. I am not suprised, what a di**, didn't even know the players names or the rules by the sound of it.

You should've heard him yesterday - 45 minutes in to the cycling road race (which lasted 6 + hours) he was almost prepared to call the 2 breakaway riders as the gold & silver medal winners ("THEY'VE GOT A 7 MINUTE BREAK ON THE FIELD!!"). And the turkey they had actaully covering it was calling blokes dropping off the back of the pack as struggling with the pace - the bloody peleton was only going at 25km/h & they were dropping back to the cars! FFS!

I'm very p***ed off that the ABC are blacked out of Sydney - it's so full on that they need to go to music at half time in the footy in case there is too much reporting of events in Beijing during the sports report.

And why isn't there any streaming radio coverage? You'd think they could sell those rights the same way the NRL & AFL are where a third party (like BigPong) has the stream. I can get ABC Illawarra sometimes when out walking the dog, so I might put up a temporary antenna to see if I can get something decent for the next 2 weeks.

Justin

[syrilion]

FrAsErTaG, I had the same query - until yesterday. Silly, silly, silly me for thinking that an Australian broadcaster would take advantage of digital tv technology. I got really annoyed when 7 decided it was time for me to watch the "news" instead of continuing with the cycling.

Eventually, when I am a grandfather, the TV stations will work out WHY they have multiple channels. Until then we are doomed to single stations being repeated...

At least Ch10 have got it right with HD - showing the F1 live on the eastern seaboard is fantastic. Shame it's not live here in Adelaide