334 replies to this topic

[Quaker2001]

Durban Sandshark, on 01 February 2012 - 03:04 PM, said:

Now with the revelation of the supposed NBC Olympic networks roster (I'm very seriously thinking that it is), Bravo could go even further than what Oxygen did with just equestrian and gymnastics, and do those review shows. Of course, they have the experience from Athens to cover a wider range of sports that don't garner mass American attention--which I think they'll repise--including the ones that weren't televised in Beijing like judo, taekwondo, and fencing. Especially with NBC Sports Network designated as "the London home to Team USA". Now, I'm going to have to revise those TV hour allocations...

Keep in mind though that it was NBC people that produced all of the coverage, no so much specifically Bravo people doing the Bravo coverage from Athens.

Where I think they may get used.. if NBC wants to continue their round-the-clock coverage as they've done the past 2 Summer Olympics, then they have 2 key holes to fill. One is the Midnight-12:35am slot where NBC is in local news. For Beijing, that was CNBC which usually had a softball game at Midnight ET. And for Athens, that was the late night hour on Bravo you were alluding to that had sports like sailing and judo. So that could be what's in play here. The other hole is potentially at 2am. Since that's 7am in London, there usually won't be any competition on at that time. The question there is will there be an additional late night show on cable or is that where NBC Sports Network comes on the air. I have a feeling it might be the latter which, as we were guessing earlier, could mean upwards of 250 hours of coverage for them. Certainly wouldn't surprise me to see that.

My guesses for the allocation of hours since you brought it up.. 200 hours for NBC. 250 hours for NBC Sports Network. 150 hours for MSNBC. 90 hours on CNBC. I have no idea with Bravo, but let's say 75 for them. And that's not even including whatever there is on Telemundo, the 200 hours of 3D coverage, however much the Olympic Soccer and Olympic Basketball channels contribute (I'm betting those are back), plus the 3,000 hours of coverage (all live of course) we'll be getting online.

[bgdrewsif]

If NBC wanted to effectively use its networks they would move gymnastics and diving to Bravo to appeal to that network's core audience...

[Quaker2001]

bgdrewsif, on 01 February 2012 - 10:17 PM, said:

If NBC wanted to effectively use its networks they would move gymnastics and diving to Bravo to appeal to that network's core audience...

And what would they move to NBC in it's place? Gymnastics and diving (less so diving in the past decade since the United States hasn't won a medal since Sydney) are the big ticket events along of course with track & field and swimming. They need to be on NBC to draw those big audiences, they don't belong on cable. Bravo could potentially reprise the Oxygen role from Beijing and air some gymnastics coverage, but except the primetime show for London to be full of a lot of the same events they had in Beijing.. the big 4, maybe some beach volleyball, don't know you'll see too much else.

[Durban Sandshark]

Quaker2001, on 01 February 2012 - 08:03 PM, said:

Keep in mind though that it was NBC people that produced all of the coverage, no so much specifically Bravo people doing the Bravo coverage from Athens.

Where I think they may get used.. if NBC wants to continue their round-the-clock coverage as they've done the past 2 Summer Olympics, then they have 2 key holes to fill. One is the Midnight-12:35am slot where NBC is in local news. For Beijing, that was CNBC which usually had a softball game at Midnight ET. And for Athens, that was the late night hour on Bravo you were alluding to that had sports like sailing and judo. So that could be what's in play here. The other hole is potentially at 2am. Since that's 7am in London, there usually won't be any competition on at that time. The question there is will there be an additional late night show on cable or is that where NBC Sports Network comes on the air. I have a feeling it might be the latter which, as we were guessing earlier, could mean upwards of 250 hours of coverage for them. Certainly wouldn't surprise me to see that.

My guesses for the allocation of hours since you brought it up.. 200 hours for NBC. 250 hours for NBC Sports Network. 150 hours for MSNBC. 90 hours on CNBC. I have no idea with Bravo, but let's say 75 for them. And that's not even including whatever there is on Telemundo, the 200 hours of 3D coverage, however much the Olympic Soccer and Olympic Basketball channels contribute (I'm betting those are back), plus the 3,000 hours of coverage (all live of course) we'll be getting online.

Yeah, I knew that it was actually NBC that did the actual producing for Bravo's portion of the coverage back in Athens, several months after NBC Universal acquired Bravo, USA Network, and Telemundo. If your TV hours allocation is true for Bravo, that means it will even be less than what Bravo aired in its first portion for Athens (122 hours)--a 47 hour decrease. Based on what we know about that, I always assumed it was more the global-oriented of the bunch of the channels since it is the one that can afford to take that chance on Olympic coverage than its more mainstream and established channels. That is, cover more in depth sports like sailing, handball, judo, fencing, and taekwondo along with the gymnastics and equestrian. since surely some people were miffed they weren't televised among the networks and just online. Perhaps NBC may want to go over the 24-hour rate to accomodate Bravo's hours since a) it was 122 hours in Athens and we could assume there will be growth and expansion in hours slots in keeping a trend since Sydney when MSNBC and CNBC first joined. When then-NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol announced the prospective hours last year, he said there would be a 20% increase in hours on NBC proper (from 226) with a 100 hour increase among all the channels participating from Beijing. Surely, this was before the Ebersol resignation from his post, the merger of Comcast and NBC-Universal, the acquisation of Versus (now NBC Sports Channel), and the return of Bravo. All of which changes everything. But it may turn that you're right about the hour allocations and the time slotting to a large degree.

For Telemundo, I noticed on the press kit that it says Telemundo Deportes. Could this mean there is going to be a new Spanish-language sports channel to rival those from ESPN Deportes and FOX Sports en Espanol that will cover the Olympic sports, for example, further than what Telemundo proper could handle? Right now, it's a just a division. Telemundo aired 380 hours from Beijing, may hit 400 this time for all I care. We shouldn't expect anything different from them, except maybe the addition of both ceremonies, a first in US Spanish TV and maybe the creation of Deportes Telemundo that will make that more expansive. Yes, I too do expect those Olympic Basketball and Soccer Channels to be back.

On to CTV's new Believe 2012 Olympics campaign. Notice instead of the black on the maple leaf profile beside the Believe font, it's blue to coincide with the UK's Union Jack. I really like these promos that Josh linked for us to share and see, narrated by Halifax's own Ellen Page. Gordon Pinsent is coming. So colorful. But the thing I like the best about them is how multicultural these spots are taking you from London to Vancouver Island (an obvious nod to Vancouver's coverage) to Jamaica to China to Poland to The Philippines to Italy to India and to Portugal as everyone watches the Olympics wherever they are! They encapsulate just how multicultural Canada is within its demographics, something Canada likes to heavily promote. And the fact Canadians are liked and admired worldwide and how those (among many other) populations impact and influence Canada and more of the world together, more so than in the Vancouver Winter Olympics. If you have been paying attention regarding the Canadian Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium's coverage starting with Vancouver, it's not that hard to notice that Polish, Italian, Chinese (both Cantonese and Mandarin), Portuguese, and the South Asian languages (Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Bangla, Tamil, Gujarati) are potentially going to be involved in the multilingual portion as we see in those promos. Hopefully with other ones added like Spanish and German. Makes lots of sense to get Canadians into the London Olympic spirit with these promos as they gather nationwide to watch Superbowl XVLI on CTV to start things. Still no official word on will NBC do likewise for their coverage of the Superbowl. This time, hopefully, we will see the French-language ones to this. Where in the hell were they for Vancouver?

As I visited the Indian forum Saveondish, posters discuss that Doordarshan, the Indian public TV broadcaster, will televise the 2012 London Olympics on DD National and DD Sport, just like on previous Olympics and with the Commonwealth Games. However, some say will not be on HD and 3D since apparently ESPN Star Sport Asia has the exclusivity on those. But one poster says it will be on DD HD's versions. Regardless, coverage from London will be live from Doordarshan.

Found additional details on ESPN Latin America's coverage plans (including 35 hours of live daily coverage with ESPN3.com on Cablevision as a partner in this) for London as it starts an encroaching rivalry with Argentina's TyC Sports and in their longstanding premier coverage.
http://www.rapidtvne...-dominance.html

I hope NBC will stream the pre-Opening Ceremony show at the Olympic Stadium live and on-demand like CBC did on its numerous streams over CBCsports.ca when it had the TV rights to Beijing.

[bgdrewsif]

Quaker2001, on 02 February 2012 - 11:53 AM, said:

And what would they move to NBC in it's place? Gymnastics and diving (less so diving in the past decade since the United States hasn't won a medal since Sydney) are the big ticket events along of course with track & field and swimming. They need to be on NBC to draw those big audiences, they don't belong on cable. Bravo could potentially reprise the Oxygen role from Beijing and air some gymnastics coverage, but except the primetime show for London to be full of a lot of the same events they had in Beijing.. the big 4, maybe some beach volleyball, don't know you'll see too much else.

Quaker, I was joking... trying to be subtle to not offend (too much...) Think about the Bravo network for a while...

[Durban Sandshark]

Some additional thoughts

I'm very curious as to who will call the French-Canadian language coverage of basketball for RDS and RDS INFO. Given that basketball is a popular Olympic sport, it would make sense to designate a couple of people for it. Interest is high, especially in Montreal. I just cannot instantly think of anybody at the top of my head who can solidly do that. There are of course some players and coaches based in Montreal who can cover it (and likely do so with the analyst calling on a widescreen HD monitor from RDS' headquarters there) with knowledge of the international game like Sam Dalembert or maybe UQAM Citadins men's basketball coach Olga Hrycak (yes, a woman). I think it's more than likely someone actually from France with international basketball ties will get hired in that capacity. France's Les Bleues in both the men's and women's (if they qualify) teams are bound to be popular among the Quebec and Acadian populations in basketball along with the rest of the filed that features NBA stars from around the globe like of course Team USA. Richard Dacoury might do it for RDS, but he could do it again for France Televisions' Olympic basketball coverage.

I know some Canadians are sick of the sight of Believe making a comeback for London after Vancouver, as a few mentioned in response to Canadiansports' blog entry indicating the Believe's return. But it's memorable and a catchy brand for the Canadian public. I too don't see any reason to change it, especially since CTV and Rogers are pairing for what will be the last one (for now, pending what the IOC wants to change in TV rights fees for Sochi and Rio in Canada) I have no issue with it. The Canadian Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium can certainly make some additional change for London with this campaign, like maybe get another singer or song from Nikki Yanovski's "I Believe" Vancouver and come up with a comparable montage to CBC's..and don't get too sappy and melodramatic like NBC has been known to do.

That TSN London 2012 promo featuring Indian boxer Mary Khan had me seriously wondering if women's boxing will appear on TSN, as it assumes and very likely on the ATN networks since for the Summer Olympics, they focus more on the athletes and sports that appeal to the South Asian community in Canada. On that note, based on what we saw in the Believe 2012 campaign so far, we're going to see OMNI, APTN, and ATN finally get their turns for promos aired in their networks.

Plymouth, England's Plymouth City Centre gets the big screen ready for three months in the leadup and start of the Olympics from the BBC's massive
coverage
http://www.thisisply...tail/story.html

[daveypodmore]

OMG I just saw the BBC logo animated. I wasnt paying enough attention but the 3 boxes kind of turn and one comes closer to the screen showing images on the sides then they return to form the Olympic BBC logo. It looked good, simple and quite effective.

It was advertising the Proms I think, there was orchestral music, oooh why didnt I look up sooner!!!!!

Im so excited

Edited by daveypod-less, 03 February 2012 - 05:08 PM.

[BTHarner]

I wonder if, now that we have a proliferation of streaming players that connect to TVs (Roku, Apple TV, etc), TVs with internet apps, and game consoles (PS3, Xbox360), if NBC will be making its online coverage available through those types of devices.

[Barcelona_'92]

Here's a new interview with NBC Sports head Mark Lazarus:

http://www.hollywood...per-bowl-286911

He confirms that NBC Sports Network will have 14 hours of coverage each day, from 6am-8pm Eastern. Most of the coverage will be live but will not include the big ticket events, which will be streamed online but not archived.

[Quaker2001]

Barcelona_'92, on 04 February 2012 - 03:42 PM, said:

Here's a new interview with NBC Sports head Mark Lazarus:

http://www.hollywood...per-bowl-286911

He confirms that NBC Sports Network will have 14 hours of coverage each day, from 6am-8pm Eastern. Most of the coverage will be live but will not include the big ticket events, which will be streamed online but not archived.

That's a great find, Barc. Well done. So there answers a question about NBCSN. I thought they'd come up a little earlier than 6am every day. But it should put them over the 200 hour mark in terms of total coverage. Where those extra hours (if that does in fact happen), remains a mystery. But definitely a good piece of info to have.