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Vancouver Olympic Media Updates


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Thankfully, that is at least significant progress from what the Paralympics would get when it comes to TV coverage. Don't know how it will be in the US, though I wouldn't be surprised if Universal Sports took up the bulk of the TV coverage and made the rest online.

NBC really wants to protect their massively expensive Olympic investment in Canada, where copyright laws are surely weaker than in China. Though the Canadian government plans to make them more stringent, NBC isn't taking any chances in the name of combating piracy following what happened in Beijing. It's still learning how to effectively operate the Olympics online.

NBC Fights To Protect Their Olympic Copyright

Has anybody among our Canadian posters seen the RDS' Vers Vancouver, and what do you think about it?

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Rick Hansen, who traveled worldwide to bring awareness to spinal cord injury almost 25 years ago, is the host of 17 CTV's and Rogers' Olympic Media Consortium vignettes entitled "Difference Makers" that will be featured daily during its coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Teachers, parents, coaches, and peers who have helped Canada's Olympians and Paralympians to "overcome personal and sporting challenges". For his part, Hansen will start things off by saluting his late coach Stan Stronge on CTV pre-Olympic Opening Ceremony show. On the last day of the Paralympics, CTV will air a one-hour doc on Hansen in both English and French.

Rick Hansen Hosts CTV's Olympic Difference Makers

CKWX, CISQ, CFAC are also among the Rogers Media radio stations that will cover the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

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CTV-Rogers Olympic Media Consortium proudly announces that advertising sales regarding the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, but of course the plan was set in stone before the global economic downturn struck. Being the host does change things with interest still running high in Canada as it "becomes a cultural fabric" in the host nation.

In this Toronto Star articleToronto Star, where I got the story, it also reports come September all of the CTVglobemedia and Rogers Media Olymnpic consortium sportscasters and producers will conduct dry runs in a specially built studio becuase of the fact many of them never were involved in something this massive. Another reason why they're doing it then in September is to prepare for the ins and outs of specific sports that don't get much public mention. Plus, there's the matter of producing those infamous up close and personal features on Canadian Olympians.

On Canada Day (Happy belated Canada Day! :)), CTV Toronto premiered an ongoing segment called We Believe, taken from the "Do You Believe?" CTV Olympic campaign of the promos that we've seen. These are intended to be intros to local Canadian athletes from that area that you'll get to know about ready to go for Vancouver. First up was halfpipe snowboard specialist from Ancaster, Ontario Brad Martin.

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Still there's little further deatils pertaining to NBC's broadcast/Internet plans for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. But from Dan Rayburn's blog on streaming media online, through various reliable sources, Akamai was chosen to act as the streamer for NBC's Vancouver Winter Olympic broadcast, which is already planning the starting stages of the streaming to handle all that (and later confirmed they're streaming the event next year). This Olympics installment will utilize Microsoft's Silverlight and Smooth Streaming technology that Akamai used for a couple of months before allowing other CDNs to get onboard free that Akamai paid to use the exclusive license for. Smooth Streaming will play an important role with Olympic coverage online with the video quality and accompanying features to make it user-friendly for Olympic junkies like me. Plus their pricing was right along what the going market rate was...very low pricing; streaming significant events is still young and establishing itself in the mainstream, so the marketability of that is still far cheaper compared to TV since a lot of people don't think such drives a lot of substansial revenue to the quarter yet. Olympics as a large event get large traffic, yes, but for a two-week event, it's a fleeting burst then plateaus and falls. Getting attached to the Olympics with marketing, publicity, and awareness is great, but the substansial money streams aren't quite there as of yet. Since it's not in Asia this time, look for less involvement from Asian CDNs here. But other CDNs will get involved as syndication partners in the Olympic business.

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Actually, there is a recent development involving NBC Vancouver Olympic plans. Thanks to an interview with NBC Universal President Jeff Zucker, NBC makes it clear the network and its members has no plans to put a lot of 2010 Olympics events live online, saying that streaming the live events cheapens the pleasure of television viewing. Excuse me?! The Internet with broadband is fast increasingly like television viewing as far as I'm concerned. So it would be beneficial for those who can't see it live on TV for whatever reason can turn the net for, say, the Opening Ceremony. But they want to protect the advertising revenue and copyrights. On the other hand, I can see that. For one thing, the Winter Olympics have far less hours of television video coverage than its summer counterpart with less events. With NBC's coverage in Torino, only a few events were never televised like a women's ice hockey game involving Germany and a 12th place classification game between hosts Italy and Switzerland and the preliminary figure skating except for the faves and dark horses. I can personally wait for the on-demand and surely an embargo will take place like for Beijing with at least 12 hours from its original broadcast. If NBC is really concerned about its footage and copyright, why not allow us to have our phones searched and submitted and what not while our access is submitted only for DIRECTV? Again, by contrast, CTV plans to have everything accessible free live and on-demand on the CTVolympics and RDSolympiques websites north of the border. Would like to see more deatils to emerge.

I'm starting to think, since USA Network no longer has the rights to the US Open and presumably wanting to get out of the sports business they've been in for so many years, it will not be a part of the roster of NBC Universal networks gearing up for Vancouver. I do expect Universal Sports to be a part of it, and hopefully by then it gets added to the digital satelitte roster.

Speaking of Canada and CTV, Samsung signed an agreement make its awareness known there on TV and online featuring the likes of Wayne Gretzky, Jarome Iginla, and Hayley Wickenheiser, underpinned by a massive advertising campaign. But that is not all.

After the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games are complete, the USOC finally gets to have their TV network up and running. Now how is this planned TV network is going to coexist with Universal Sports, which has access to the rights of the NBC-broadcasted Olympics?

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Wonder where the NBC Today studio will be?

Locations are rumoured to be either the grand plaza of the new Vancouver Convention Centre (Main Media Centre) at the central waterfront or the Peak of Vancouver at Grouse Mountain:

Vancouver Convention Centre plaza

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Peak of Grouse Mountain...not the best pic

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Australian Winter Olympic fans rejoice: For the first time in Australia's television coverage of the Winter Olympics, every Aussie Winter Olympian will be competing live on FOXTEL instead of tape-delayed and every gold-medal competition as they happen live on FOXTEL's four dedicated HD Winter Olympic channels in superb 5.1 surround sound, complete with a rich array of digital and interactive information. FOXTEL will air a total of 1600 of coverage with 340 of it live to its subscribers, a major leap from the 10 live hours from Torino and 100 altogether. Subscribers can record what and when they watch utilizing the FOXTEL iQ.

To be continued...

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Adding on to the previous info pertaining to FOXTEL's Vancouver plans, Australia's unprecedented coverage ever for the Winter Olympics, there will actually be eight channels of 24/7 Olympic fun come February--four in HD and an additional four in standard form. These will be classified in refernce to the venues where, though not entirely accurate, the sports will take place.

Cypress--freestyle aerials, moguls, snowboarding, ski cross

Creekside--alpine skiing, ice hockey, curling

Vancouver--figure skating, short track speed skating, long track speed skating

Whistler--Ski jumping, cross country skiing, luge, skeleton, bobsled, biathlon

That's a far cry from 7 what did in Torino (100 hours only 10 of it live--and NZ aired more on TVNZ!) and what Australians historically had for the Winter Olympics. The fee for all of this down under is A$50 (US$40 or C$44) to primarily pay off the transmission fees, but a lot of Aussies are complaining that is too much of a price for an extensive PPV event that, despite building a nice Winter Olympic pedigree for a Southern hemisphere nation by winning medals in four consecutive WOGs and earning gold in the last two, does not traditionally really garner massive public attention like the Summer Games do. Prices are comparable and fair, even cheaper, than the WWE events shown down there. It should be noted the A$50 is the early birder until the price becomes A$65 in January. Most Australians aren't into this, even if they happen to be hard-core sports fans. Other services and features for this are a programmable menu and cell (mobile) phone and broadband services. Austar will also offer the Winter Olympics through regional Australia (except in WA) for its 700,000 subscribers. For London, it was also announced that, to no surprise if you paid any attention to Nine and FOXTEL's 2006 Commonwealth Games TV coverage, FOXTEL will have 8 Olympic-specific channels all in HD.

FOXTEL will show the events in each and every round with nary a second missing, and unlike what 7 notoriously did when it was "Australia's Olympic network", it won't go into extensive commercial breaks. The Australian Financial Review notes the network channels will go for 3 minutes of advertising breaks every hour while Nine will have 8 minutes of commercials every hour in their portion of the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Also, FOXTEL will charge A$750,000 for advertising partnerships compared to Nine's A$600,000. Eight sponsorship packages total at A$40K. No other advertisers are allowed to air on the channels. Question becomes who will be the faces of FOXTEL's Olympic coverage? Will use from the Australian FOX TV personalities to front for their Olympic services? Will they import the commentators from the US, UK, or Canada? Will it be from their perspective and not an Australian one? Rumor has it that Australia's Next Top Model host Sarah Murdoch will serve as studio host since it easily fits into her schedule and was courted for that role. Speaking of studio, a 24-hour studio set in Vancouver is in the plans for FOXTEL. FOXTEL CEO Kim Williams says though not every medal ceremony will be aired there from the BC Place, it will if an Aussie does happen to medal. I can definitely see roles for both Bradbury, Cooper, and Camplin, if not Dale Begg-Smith.

Nine, meanwhile, has exclusive rights to cover both the opening and closing ceremonies, which it is selling at A$600,000 for advertising space. And because of the reality that many Australians aren't as gung-ho about the Winter Olympics despite its nice progress thanks to Bradbury and Camplin like in Canada, Germany, USA, Norway, Switzerland, Austria, or Russia, Nine's head sports honchos believe in a restrictive FTA coverage. Nine will reportedly focus on live coverage that will take place from 9am-midday on the Australian east coast on weekdays with a daily highlight show on 9:30pm and extended weekend coverage. Not that bad for Australia, could've been worse. So unlike if the Games were along the Asia/Pacific region, it won't be in prime time there--Vancouver is currently 17 hours from Australia. It's very likely Nine will act a little like 7 by dipping in and out of Olympic events on TV instead of staying at one thing. Eddie McGuire and Ken Sutcliffe are tipped to be a part of Nine's Olympic team with the former acting as studio host with journalist Stephen Phillips co-writing for him. McGuire is the host for Hot Seat and the currently-in-development Heads Or Tails game shows on that network. Some have said Sutcliffe instead should be the key host as a reward for his loyal services to the Nine Network. But McGuire, it should be pointed out, has a sports TV background, and 9 does have a deep roster of sportscasting talent to utilize for Vancouver, I understand.

I'm interested in see how SKY SPORT/PRIME will announce their plans for Vancouver soon. Now Australia can boast it has more Winter Games TV coverage for once than New Zealand!

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RDS HD is now available to French-speakers from Ontario to New Brunswick on Rogers Cable on a free preview from July 2 until October 1 to all those who subscribe with Rogers Cable HD box. It can be found on channel 647. Are there any plans to make a RDS 2 like a TSN 2 sometime next year?

Nothing has emerged at least here in the United States as far as podcasts for the Vancouver Olympics is concerned. I'm sure plenty of people would like that and expand its base. You would think NBC would come up with something pertaining to that with the iPod's ubiquitousness. Maybe NBC Universal is awaiting on what Apple plans with possibly upgrading its capacity from the current high of 120GB on the iPod Classic (the 160GB was recently discontinued) in the 4Q. Hopefully it'll go to at least 240GB for massive video footage--like to see it go to 300-400GB. Of course, NBC would have to make specific changes to make it fit into the technology and likely restrict it to highlights and interviews if not full events. There's a lot NBC can do with it, so we'll just be patient in the coming months.

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At a recent Canada Day celebration at Sydney's The Ivy in the CBD that featured the introduction of the Vancouver mascot trio hosted by the Canadian Tourist Commission and Tourism British Columbia, it turned into an Australian promotion of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and Paralympics. Alissa Camplin, Australia's first Winter Olympic female gold medalist, announced that she'll be among those who will cover the 2010 Winter Olympics having signed to FOXTEL along with former sprinter Matt Shirvington to cover the games across four channels. Also present among Aussie Olympians was former alpine skiier Craig Branch and ski crosser Jenny Owens, who is anticipating the debut of the event in Vancouver. Ice hockey star Tyler Lovering was present too.

Camplin says to eTravelblackboard that Australians need to see more of Canada, its fellow Commonwealth member, than it does at present; in fact, she seen "more of Canada" because of training "than of Australia". She also defends the amount of 1600 hours of coverage on FOXTEL because it's "important" that it gives Australians top-notch "exposure to winter sports that Australia isn't good at...yet".

Leading up to February 2010, FOXTEL for its part will expand its airing of movies, TV programs, lifestyle shows, music, documentaries, and other stuff with a strong Canadian content across its channels to Australians more exposed to Canada and get to know it better. Also, it's unclear whether or not the subscription operator Austar will carry ads during its coverage.

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If I read and translated the online texts correctly--my German is a little rusty at the moment--Das Erste and ZDF will simulataneously begin Germany's full conversion from analog to digital TV on February 2010 starting with the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies. Everything will be televised in HD with ARD, ZDF, and EinsFestival all covering the sports as "HDTV Showcases" in standard Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound. Both broadcasters are eagerly developing varients on cellphone coverage, broadband on-demand, and the national rollout of DTT. But the networks have to be careful weighing the decisions over how it spends the money as public broadcasters. Coverage on ARD, I think, will total around 300 hours.

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Just a momentary additional information regarding FOXTEL's Australian Winter Olympics coverage: Panasonic, a principal Olympics sponsor, is expected to be a sponsor for it with Harvey Norman also tipped to be a sponsor for FOXTEL, which unlike Nine is convinced there are enough die hard skiing, speed skating, and ice hockey fans for its coverage, and the Nine Network's coverage. Telstra is expected to deliver the coverage of the Winters Olympics on its Big Pond broadband content portal service and on NextG wireless network. For many at FOXTEL and Nine, this is obviously a dry run for the even bigger and more important (in many ways to Aussies) London 2012 coverage both will man.

Norwegian public broadcaster NRK has chosen a UTAH-400 HD router switcher and four associated control panels for its programming coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics as the stand alone fly away pack that is mainly utilized for broadcasting remote events anytime anywhere. These devices worked impressively well for NRK during the the widely-watched IBU World Biathlon Championship in Peongchang, South Korea in February. Future plans is for a 64x64 HD route, loaded at 32x32, to make NRK's coverage high-def.

So now we finally are getting more details regarding CTVglobemedia-Rogers Media Olympic consortium's Internet plans. Just about everything shown on CTV, RDS, TSN, APTN, TSN2, RDS Info Sports, MTV Canada, TQS, and others will all be shown online with the option of English, French, or just venue audio and alerts to when your favorite athlete will perform or the game. I really like the potential of the Internet use with user-generated content by uploading photos and videos. Even hooking up with Facebook for this. It would be nice if there an option existing for customizing the camera angles and super slo-mo for the footage. Perhaps that will get announced at a later time.

http://www.cartt.ca/news/FullStory.cfm?NewsNo=8350

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Since the Philippines won't come into Vancouver with an army of Winter Olympians in diverse disciplines, many of which are not part of the sports psyche there, let alone gobble the medals, Solar Sports in the Philippines will simply air a daily highlights show during the games instead of several hours of daily sports montage. I don't know how long it'll be each day, maybe an hour or 30 minutes. Why couldn't Solar Sports just emulate what Mexico's TV Azteca did when that nation did not have a single Winter Olympian to Torino: focus on the more popular and exciting sports in it like figure skating?

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^ I kinda wish we were hosting the Summer Olympics, especially with the incredibly gorgeous and warm weather we've had for the past 2 months.....the Summer Games attracts the attention of everyone.

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Melbourne native Tiffany Cherry recently completed an 18-month stint as ESPN SportsCenter host here in the US and after her time with FOX FOOTY back down under. And she was just named among the growing list of on-air personalities for FOXTEL's unprecedented Winter Olympic coverage in Vancouver. Matt Shirvington has done some short features ready for the lead-in for the start of the Vancouver Games.

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This latest installment of the Believe in 2010 campaign from CTV doesn't have Donald Sutherland's voiceover or even a prospective Canadian 2010 Olympian for the Canadian public to get to know. But it has someone who will volunteer at the Whistler Sliding Track as the centerpiece.

Vancouver CTV Believe in 2010--Alan Morasch presented by Barb Higgins

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Since the Philippines won't come into Vancouver with an army of Winter Olympians in diverse disciplines, many of which are not part of the sports psyche there, let alone gobble the medals, Solar Sports in the Philippines will simply air a daily highlights show during the games instead of several hours of daily sports montage. I don't know how long it'll be each day, maybe an hour or 30 minutes. Why couldn't Solar Sports just emulate what Mexico's TV Azteca did when that nation did not have a single Winter Olympian to Torino: focus on the more popular and exciting sports in it like figure skating?

Okay, highlights are exciting too. I'm going to watch them, if C/S 9 (the terrestrial channel of Solar Entertainment) will show them. However the NBA and its Philippine counterpart, the PBA, would be obstacles. I've enjoyed watching daily highlights of the World Games in Kaoishung.

The state controlled Channel 4 did that.

Hey, do you think CTV may air a "thank you" and "we will never forget you" message after the Winter Olympics? We Filipinos did that too, in 1995 when we paid host to the world's largest youth gathering.

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Canada's CTV has chosen Creekside Park at False Creek, adjacent to Science World/Sochi 2014 House, as their Official Broadcasting Location:

http://www.concordplace.ca/

The site features great shots of BC Place and the downtown skyline, and is also a 5-minute walk from the Olympic Village and other festivities.

I've gotta say, in both Summer and Winter Games history there has never, ever been an Olympic host city doing so much in terms of public events on top of the Olympic organizing committee's Cultural Olympiad and nightly medal ceremonies:

- TWO nightly medal ceremonies sites at both Whistler and Vancouver. Whistler with 8,000 seats and Vancouver/BC Place with 35,000 seats. Previous Winter Games host cities would be lucky to even have one nightly medals ceremony venue with 8,000 seats.

- I'm not sure, but I believe Vancouver is the first Winter Games host city to adopt the Summer Games tradition of having a Cultural Olympiad.

- we have a ton of Live Sites throughout the downtown core and Whistler Village, a lot more than any Summer and Winter Games host city before us....including two large Live Site concert parties able to accommodate tens of thousands at David Lam Park and the Beatty bus depot

- And we have a massive pavilion festivity site, able to accommodate tens of thousands, which is an Olympic first.

This is all great and incredible, if the weather cooperates.

There's so much to do that even the IOC was telling us a few months ago that "we might have too much".:haha: I could see it as a big security concern though, and it's bound to create quite a bit more traffic on top of sports events spectators.

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  • 2 weeks later...

That massive CTV-Rogers Olympic Media Consortium announced the bringing aboard of multiple (22 to be exact) Canadian sponsors for the multimedia sponsorship packaging leading up to Vancouver. Including:

--McDonald's Canada

--RONA

--Air Canada

--Canadian Pacific Railways

--Samsung

--COLD-FX

those are just a handful of them that were announced and aren't surprising with a number of them since McDonald's and Samsung are TOP sponsors. In all, 17 Official Olympic Games Sponsors and 5 Other Media Sponsors have signed deals.

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