334 replies to this topic

[Durban Sandshark]

That last post I made is the more accurate one with additional stuff posted from the one right above it. What happened was, the computer processing was so slow on the public computer I was using that, to make it faster, I wound up apparently double posting.

Those posts about the CTV London 2012 thoughts. Just more than a year's away we just got new Olympic webpages for London days ago with the new London broadcast logo from CTV Olympics and the French language one from RDS Olympiques. I'm thinking the background illustration will serve as part of the intro for the Canadian London Olympic coverage with the profile of the maple leafs from Vancouver back.

On its CTV Olmypics Facebook page, you can spot new photo shoots starring Canadian Summer Olympians. Surely they would have to be the commercials coming up with Donald Sutherland narrating. Clara Hughes is a part of this in cycling. RDS meanwhile doesn't have the London logo up on its Facebook page yet but will soon.

BBC TV and Radio have big plans as we get to the one year mark for London with a slew of special programming on the whole day on both platforms from various areas with that concert, being at the Aquatics Centre, and a little something about unveiling of the London medals. And it will be multilingual in coverage on the radio too.

[Durban Sandshark]

That's nice of RobH to appreciate my thread of London Olympic Media Updates! Thanks, RobH!

First big development in FOXTEL's London plans in a long while since the proposed amount of TV hours and channels a couple of years back. FOXTEL seems to have a team of Olympic Ambassadors in place with multiple medals between them at Olympics Day. The front London broadcast logo is likely will be it for FOXTEL.

[Durban Sandshark]

Those aforementioned CTV/RDS Olympic websites are of course still works in progress with not much to see at the moment. But little by little we will see some stuff add on to them, which will be very interesting as we all will expect. In the meantime CTV has set up profiles of Canadian Olympic hopefuls under the London Calling heading on its website that was originally on TSN's interim Olympic sports section. Don't be surprised to see these Canadians spotlighted for the "Do You Believe?" CTV promos. And, if there were no French versions to that from Vancouver, as there should have been, London would be a great way of making up.

You just have to expect that the background artwork for London has to be the future intro for the Canadian TV London Olympic intro like Vancouver having portions of the seemingly crystal-like maple leafs and the swirls and small flames with red-clad Canadian Olympians in various sports performing in front their flag-waving Canadian fans. It would be no different presentation-wise for London.

Next Monday, Canadiansports plans to commentate on his brilliant blog which commentators will get to do what sport with the following Wednesday he will speculate what the TV schedule could like for the Canadian coverage, as he spends parts of three weeks dealing with the Olympics as a major Olympic junkie like us here. Looking very forward to see what he will write! I'm assuming the Olympic Primetime portion hosted by Brian Williams will serve as the daily highlights package and encore presentations with some news since our primetime is late night over in London, a strategy that NBC would utitlize. Also, Mark Tewksbury is out as a CTV swimming commentator for he's the Canada Chef de Mission for London. Maybe Byron MacDonald could get snatched by CTV for London if not Steve Armitage for the CBC. I just remembered Mike Smith, the former decathlete who did some CBC Olympic track and field. So he could work for CTV in this if he's still around.

SuperSport South Africa is airing an Olympic series as they did for past Olympics--on I think on SS5, I'll check it again--called The Road to London. Right now, it is on its 15th episode this week, I think.

BBC Radio, knowing its far and multilingual reach around the world, is bound to cover the Olympics likely with BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2 possibly. I strongly believe the range of languages BBC Radio offers will likely put the languages offered from Canada to shame. I'm thinking at least 45 languages of Olympic coverage and news from them like Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, Persian, and Chinese. Definitely something to look into more as we closer. However with the British government's cuts into the BBC Foreign Language Service shutting down 14 languages for radio like Russian, Albanian, Portuguese (African), Hindi, Macedonian, Serbian, and Cuban Spanish, there won't be as much as hoped though, especially with a lot of ex-pats living in London from a lot of those nations would like to hear some coverage in those languages. There will be online and podcasts in those languages but it won't be the same in that they won't get the call on radio, for example.

For the London coverage next year, NBC Sports filmed the Wenlock Olympic Games likely as a piece perhaps for track and field. Even the Japanese and Brazilians are courting the organizers for this in theirs.
http://www.independe...es-2311696.html

Last year BCC World Service announced an innovative series on multiple platforms called 2012 World Olympic Dreams focusing on a diverse array of athletes from all the world in various sports like Usain Bolt, MC Marykom, Olga Kharlan, Nader el-Masri, Emily Seebohm, Jehue Gordon, and Shawn Johnson--25 of them all. Hosted by legendary British rower Matthew Pinsent.
http://www.moderngha...world-olym.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk...9/olympic.shtml
BBC's World Olympic Dreams website

Guess this will be it here until we officially get to the one-year countdown mark when the big networks worldwide will make public more general Olympic broadcast plans.

[Durban Sandshark]

Durban Sandshark, on 18 July 2011 - 06:27 PM, said:

Guess this will be it here until we officially get to the one-year countdown mark when the big networks worldwide will make public more general Olympic broadcast plans.

Guess not! Gonna have to amend that one.

Canadiansports on his blog really started his his 10 point CTV London Olympic speculation this week instead of next week because he's going to be busy. I'm definitely on the commentary for this one with my speculative feedback. For me, it's hard to disagree with his thoughts.

--He's through with the "I Believe" song (or "J'Imagine" in French") and prefers something along the lines of what the CBC used in theirs ("For the love of God, don't bring back "I Believe"), (not even the bumper theme?); it's been inside his head since it hit his consciousness over a year ago. I, on the other hand, like it. Maybe it's because I'm a Yank, and I don't hear it as much while we still have the Bugler's Dream. If the Canadian Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium decides to go another direction for a song, let's preferably find a memorable one performed by a Canadian. Something tells me, if retained, "I Believe" could get a modfication like the CBC does with its old Olympic theme to suit the music of the host nation
--would like to see Stephen Brunt used more, if not daily how about weekly on his thoughts of the London Olympics
--I agree that the best Canadian sportscasters available from the consortium should be out in London instead of just Toronto Blue Jays games and CFL matches and use them well in their involvement. Plus, all the commentators should be on-site too while allowing some hosts at the Toronto studios.
--I do expect there will be concerts in London during the Olympics; London is such an important center for pop music for many decades. CTV could get involved with the airing of the concerts during the primetime coverage, or more preferably, late at night. MuchMusic could go for the extensive version, and I do think this time those "fluff reporters" will be kept at home. He adds that since-promoted sportscasters should remain as effective sideline reporters like Farhan Lahji, Ryan Rishaug, James Cybulski, Sara Orlesky, and Louis Jean and that get the right people on the broadcast team to host the coverage. He strongly pitches for Gino Reda in this case for TSN's portion.
--he thinks streaming would be exactly like the CBC's in 2008: with, where possible IOC feeds with no commentary, TSN, CTV, Sportsnet, and RDS feeds streamed. I would suggest a multilingual option with to click for coverage with no commentary, BBC stuff, CTV/TSN/Rogers Sportsnet, RDS, Italian, German, Arabic, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, Filipino, Japanese, and multi-camera angles, etc. I'll discuss this in the future. Furthermore, interactivity would get more extensive, especially with social networking rapidly establishing itself
--if suitable Canadians aren't to be found for local London coverage, he says, turn to the BBC commentators. For sports like team handball and judo, I can see where this can come into play, where Canada hasn't been significant in those events in recent times (except maybe in Quebec, where some sports are more popular there than in the rest of Canada; RDS might do some team handball, for example)
--don't expect TSN2, RDS2, Rogers Sportsnet ONE to offer live London coverage, though they might end up doing so. It's expected Blue Jays and CFL games could head to Sportsnet ONE and TSN2, respectively, with the US Open Championship, if not Olympic coverage. With so many hours coming up for London, ideally those would be good places for other, not-huge-to-Canada Olympic sports. Could emulate what SBS did in Australia for their portion of coverage in Athens and Beijing.

I just don't think NBC's anchor coverage will go live with some exceptions. NBC Primetime Olympics, likely with CTV will just be daily highlights and coverage stuff since London will be late at night. It's when NBC heads into the late night portion is when things get interesting. We might get some live stuff, and maybe preempt the primetime encore presentation in a few cases. Daytime coverage will have at least some live stuff; it's the sister networks of MSNBC, CNBC, USA, and Versus where the live stuff really will be for numerous hours in the day. I'd be curious as to what sports will officially go where. I do expect a return of the Olympic Basketball and Soccer Channels from Beijing. DIRECTV surely does have some plans for London.

Over in New Zealand, the IBC's completion in London signaled the right time for SKY Sport NZ to announce there will six event specific Olympic channels, two more than what TVNZ offered during Beijing, with a montage channel to select the ones Kiwis want to see from a range of different categories, say, Sky Sport 4-9 (Channels 131-136). An Olympic News Channel is likely to return. If I recall correctly, SKY Sport NZ will air over 4000 hours from London.

Don't ever think social networking isn't a part of this thread! Oh no! NZ Olympic Team's Facebook page, you can select which NZ Summer Olympic uniform you'd like the best. There were some good ones. This Olympics coming up you'll also see a retro NZ Olympic badge for London, inspired by the logo from London to Rome. Plus, there are blogs from potential Kiwi Olympians and thoughts from famous New Zealanders, not just athlets, on when were they most proud to be New Zealanders with the NZ Olympic Team.

In fact, social networking along with You Tube of course will play a greater role in London. Look for You Tube to create with the IOC an Olympic channel for London in the days leading up to the pre-Opening Ceremony soccer matches with events in their entireties.

[Lee]

The media centre is looking much nicer now it has been finished. Love the ventilation ducts showing outside against the garden foreground. A lovely contrast. This was the building I was most worried about looking dull and boring. Not any more.







Apologies if this has already been posted. I did a search and could not find the original broadcast centre thread anywhere.

[Durban Sandshark]

Reminds me of the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris with all the vents famously showing in the exterior. The architect was probrably inspired by it.

Back to the Canadian Sports Media blog regarding the CTV sportscaster updates, he says Rob Faulds will call swimming and diving instead of, as hoped, Shawn Armitage because Armitage is tied to the CBC. Gord Miller, Andy Higgins, Donovan Bailey and/or James Cybulski could be assigned to the Olympic Stadium for track and field. Looks like Cuthbert and McBean will be for rowing. Basketball will certainly be Devlin and Armstrong. He was told that Rod Smith will do track and road cycling. For the most part, these are all guesses. Honestly, why should anybody share with Brian Williams on CTV's Olympic Primetime? TSN/Rogers Sportsnet will have to divide its Olympic Daytime coverage into two sections for most days with one from 2:30am US CT to 5:30pm US CT on TSN and Sportsnet with CTV's share going from 2am to 6pm US CT. Two hosts for an Olympic programming section are just enough.

It's almost a near certainty that the Beeb will employ 3D coverage to the London Olympics after the success it had with Wimbeldon. But, for right now, it is undergoing numerous tests, among a lot of issues, to make sure the coverage for it is right. Furthermore, the BBC has yet to launch a 3D channel and hasn't decided on such. But so much is planned for the HD portion with 28 streams available to UK audiences taking up A LOT of priority for them and will have more numbers for HD than what 3D will get despite the immense growth for the latter next year. I think the BBC 3D channel will happen but with limited coverage to start with.
http://english.cis-s...ses/20110705-cb

Get you Team GB Olympic podcasts from the BOA here:
olympics.org.uk//podcasts.aspx

[Durban Sandshark]

Canadiansports analyzes his picks for CTV/TSN/Rogers Sportsnet's London 2010 potential commentating team. I'll put on my (limited) thoughts next week.
http://canadiansport...ators/#comments

People in the UK are speculating about the BBC's Olympic 2012 broadcasting team as the host nation and what kinds of role they're suited for with the coverage it make.
http://forums.digita...d.php?t=1482477

Surely come Monday at the one-year mark, we'll start to know about NBC's plans for London, among other things.

We'll have to see who will be on the RDS London team. I think it should be going at the same time as the English one. OMNI, APTN, ATN will have to possibly wait.

The actual link to the BOA's Olympic podcasts: http://olympics.org.uk/podcasts.aspx

[Quaker2001]

Durban Sandshark, on 23 July 2011 - 02:51 PM, said:

Surely come Monday at the one-year mark, we'll start to know about NBC's plans for London, among other things.

Surely you can't be serious?

NBC usually doesn't reveal most of their plans until a few months before the Olympics. Couple that with the fact that they're still working out the NBCU/Comcast merger (most notably integrating Versus into the NBC Sports group), not to mention the fact they have a new person in charge of NBC as of 2 months ago. It'll probably be a while before we get any concrete details about NBComcast's plans for London, 1 year mark or not.

[Brekkie Boy]

Durban Sandshark, on 07 April 2011 - 09:15 PM, said:

I also heard from a couple of Brit customers at my retail job that the BBC will have Welsh-language coverage of London 2012. By the way, the BBC will actually broadcast 5800 hours of coverage. I'll delve more into that and others soon.

Interesting if true - to my knoweldge there has never been any Welsh language coverage of the games.

Quaker2001, on 29 April 2011 - 02:04 PM, said:

You're right, Durban.. never too early for a London media thread. And since you brought up the NBC logo...



It does kinda look like a police badge (I've heard that mentioned elsewhere), but otherwise I think it works.

So goes against the image London 2012 is trying to create. It's the sort of logo those who moaned about the official logo would have designed.

Durban Sandshark, on 15 June 2011 - 08:13 PM, said:

Nine and FOXTEL took some grief from critics down in Australia from its Vancouver coverage and will no doubt be ready to do likewise when London hits. Sure it still is early for the details--we will get to look at them starting around early next year. Both Nine and FOXTEL would like to avoid the notorious jumping round of coverage like 7 used to do when it held the distinction as "Australia's Olympic Network" up to Beijing with all the bad press accompanying it and raise the standard of broadcasting from what they performed in Vancouver. The Roar has some suggestions as to how to improve:

--make the joint sportscasters on Nine Network/FOXTEL from the respective sports be spot on, educate the viewers as well as themselves on the Olympic rules and the Olympians they are covering
--have all or most Olympics events televised LIVE on free-to-air (Nine in this case), not just selected events
--no Dim Sum-like morning show like in Beijing, probrably can't happen anyway with competition like the big swimming events being in the Australian morning and would like to get those live
--don't be so Australian-centric in medal ceremonies, show them ALL (could eat up some time meant for other sports)
--interview and profile Olympians from other nations, not just Australians (will be hard because the nations' broadcasters get first dibs on them and time constraints)
--keep the Australian bias to a minimum

But wishes like these are more suited for FOXTEL with its array of programming, since Nine Network would like to maintain interest to the general Australian public in their coverage. So it will be Australian in its bias. Nine will cover, consequently, events with great Australian interest because many viewers down there are not quite Olympic junkies, just casual viewers. And will continue to do so. However, I do think Nine will air something like 20-24 hours a day devoted to the Olympics with minimal jumping. With FOXTEL getting involved, there's that option to see events truly from start to finish.

To be fair 7 got similar criticism, but Nine somehow managed to encourage more. Most of them points outlined though are ultimately just not practicle and if they swung more towards them they'd get even more criticism when missing Aussies competing in events to show a medal ceremony featuring some Americans.

The set up in Australia doesn't help either - if it wasn't for FOXTEL picking up rights they would only get the main Channel 9 coverage as ridiculously C9 are not allowed to use their multi-channels to air seperate programming from the games (even more stupid when some coverage is on pay TV). Foxtel of course pledged to show every medal won and every competitng Australian live in Vancouver, but that simply won't be possible with the summer games.

I guess no news yet on the Aussie rights for 2014/16.

Durban Sandshark, on 28 June 2011 - 04:42 PM, said:

...And now, straight from our buddy here on these boards, Canadiansportsfan, the CTV Olympics London 2012 logo! Nice, isn't it? Interestingly, we are not yet seeing this logo at CTV's website, on its press releases, TV promos, or even on its Facebook page. No surprise that it's the same structure like Vancouver's with the maple leaf, only it morphs to the Union Jack, the only commonality to NBC's logo. After all, Britain birthed Canada and are Commonwealth members. He plans to reveal more Olympic coverage and other Olympic-themed thoughts as we get to the one-year mark to London 2012 in July and on to London itself from his blog. Looking forward to read them all!

A bit better than the NBC effort, but still very dated.

Lee, on 22 July 2011 - 11:06 AM, said:

The media centre is looking much nicer now it has been finished. Love the ventilation ducts showing outside against the garden foreground. A lovely contrast. This was the building I was most worried about looking dull and boring. Not any more.







Apologies if this has already been posted. I did a search and could not find the original broadcast centre thread anywhere.

Still not the most asthetically pleasing building, but I guess the view out is more important than the view in (though I suspect most broadcasters use CSO). The BBC are rumoured to be opting for a studio on top of a nearby council block instead, whilst Sky (with no broadcast rights) have a position in a shopping centre.

[Lee]

Quaker2001, on 29 April 2011 - 02:04 PM, said:

You're right, Durban.. never too early for a London media thread. And since you brought up the NBC logo...



It does kinda look like a police badge (I've heard that mentioned elsewhere), but otherwise I think it works.

How modern, interchangeable and forward thinking London's logo looks against that awfully bland and traditional logo. I am so pleased with how LOCOG has always tried to do things different and push the boundaries. London does not play it safe as a city and everything about it's Olympics should reflect that.