London 2012 Olympic Media Updates

[SwissO]

NBC's Today Show Olympic studio is near completion. Odd location though, next to the athletes village. Maybe convenient for athletes to pop in for a quick interview?

Convenient for Athletes, but could spectators attend it so close to the Village ?

[NY20??]

NBC's Today Show Olympic studio is near completion. Odd location though, next to the athletes village. Maybe convenient for athletes to pop in for a quick interview?

At both Athens and Beijing, the Olympic Stadium was the backdrop for the Today Show. What's it going to be for London? The Velodrome?

[SwissO]

At both Athens and Beijing, the Olympic Stadium was the backdrop for the Today Show. What's it going to be for London? The Velodrome?

Close to the Basketball arena apparently...

[Durban Sandshark]

Superfly (no inspiration from the classic 70s movie or the Curtis Mayfield track of the same name apparently) and Tortoise Matsumoto have a duet song set to be released on July 25 called "Stars" as Fuji TV's official theme song for its share of the 2012 London Olympics coverage as part of the Japan Consortium.

http://www.tokyohive.com/2012/05/superfly-and-tortoise-matsumoto-to-release-duet-song/

Asian soccer qualification and warmups for Japan was the thing to do for TV Asahi Channel 5 in March and April in its leadup for London.

http://company.tv-asahi.co.jp/e/contents/conference/2012/0327.html

Panama's RPC Canal 4 has been transmitting the Summer Olympics to Panama since Mexico City 1968. Now RPC Canal 4 has London Olympic website up for well over two weeks now. But there's still no details on its coverage as of yet that I can find for now.

http://olimpiadas.rpctv.com/

Did I mention that Sporza is broadcasting the European Track and Field Championship too this summer?

[Durban Sandshark]

Today, RTVE announced its London Olympic plans with the channels La 1, La 2, Teledeporte (spared of the chopping block, thankfully), Canal 24 Horas, and TVE HD as the TV participants. RTVE.es online. Radio stations involved for RTVE are Radio Nacional, Radio 5, and Radio Exterior. Teledeprote's coverage will be 24 hours a day as will TVE HD's, both of which will feature sports that will not be shown on La 1, which will conduct the Spanish Olympians and the big tentpole Olympic events like team sports. La 2 will have events too but also special Olympic-related programming. All on the TV front will have roughly 60 hours of coverage and special programs a day with everything on HD for the first time in Spain. For the Internet, RTVE's coverage will go towards 12 additional concurrent live streams not including the coverage on the aforementioned channels (they will their own on this) through RTVE.es available online, tablets, mobile phones, and smart TVs. Radio Nacional and Radio Exterior will present extensive coverage, special programs, and news of the Olympics with Radio 5 offering news reports and updates on everything that happens in London. You'll also get behind-the-scenes video footage of what will be as TVE Olympic promo campaign emphasizing teamwork, fair play, dreams, overcoming, and triumph.

http://www.rtve.es/rtve/20120528/rtve-calienta-juegos-olimpicos-lanzamiento-campana-promocional-potencia-valores-del-deporte/532041.shtml

FOXTEL absorbs Austar well before the Olympics in a A$2 billion dollar takeover completed last week. Good news is those in regional areas in Australia that Austar served will be able to have access to the Olympic channels FOXTEL and other new channels for both parties will provide at no additional charge to them. Bad news is the highly-regarded iQ PVR will not be made instantly available to Austar customers until next year at the earliest.

http://www.cnet.com.au/foxtel-and-austar-integrate-austar-viewers-gain-olympics-channels-339338528.htm

http://www.worldscreen.com/articles/display/2012-5-24-foxtel-austar

http://www.smh.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/foxtelaustar-merger-finalised-20120524-1z7uf.html

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/foxtel-completes-2b-austar-takeover/story-e6frede3-1226365448578

Danmark Radio supposedly is making its Olympic plans known for TV, online, and radio sometime this week. It said by the end of May.

[Brekkie Boy]

Off this post, I did a little research and it turns out you're off by an hour. They're not going until 4pm. They're going until 5pm!..

http://www.salemspec...olympics.18109/

The verdict is in: "Days of Our Lives" will be preempted for the entire duration of the 2012 Summer Olympics. As NBC did in 2004, "Days" will be preempted for the 10 weekdays of the Summer Olympics: Monday July 30, Tuesday July 31, Wednesday August 1, Thursday August 2, Friday August 3, Monday August 6, Tuesday August 7, Wednesday August 8, Thursday August 9, and Friday August 10. "2012 Summer Olympics: Daytime" will be airing on all NBC affiliates from 10AM-5PM ET (9AM-4PM CT/MT/PT) each day.

I'm floored by this (in a good way, of course). We know that NBC wasn't coming through on the live streaming front from Beijing and Vancouver, but that looked to be fixed this time around. Now we're getting all this extra TV coverage, too? I figured this from the cable side of things because of NBC Sports Network, but I'm amazed they're doing this for the network. Not that I'm complaining of course, but what a wonderful step in the right direction this is. I'll take it!

So 5pm is 10pm UK - but I guess even at the weekend there is zero chance of any live swimming or athletics. I assume too those not on the East Coast will get a further 2-3 hour delay.

[Brekkie Boy]

P.S. ITN/ITV have revealed the location at least of their studio for the games. They're not right holders but I expect all news bulletins will come from there.

http://twitter.com/#!/directordanitv/status/203066617674997760

Do the IOC make arrangements for non-rights holders as I'd imagine the number of (non-rights holding)networks reporting on the game probably exceeds the number actually covering the games - and surely it's in the Olympics interests to have the games promoted on non-rights holding channels too.

That's a question for Americans then - I assume if Usain Bolt wins the 100m at 5pm but NBC don't air it till 11pm the 6.30pm news bulletins and local news bulletins on non-NBC networks at least will take great delight in reporting it.

[Durban Sandshark]

Italian-based web streaming company Deltatre surely is taking watching the events online like the Olympics to new heights, especially as the 2012 London Summer Olympics is the most computer-connected and digital Olympics ever. Surprised with the list of clients involved that Italian sports broadcaster SKY Sport Italia is not among them. Deltatre shows how it's doing it with London.

http://www.sportsfea...igital-olympics

Polish DTH service N will take care of more than 100 hours in HD and 3D of basketball, handball, soccer, volleyball, boxing, swimming, tennis, and gymnastics from London while TVP takes of the rest of the coverage.

http://www.worldscre...lympic-Games-HD

Lionel Chamoulaud, Gérard Holtz and Laurent Luyat are your France Televisions Olympic anchors headlined on France 2 and France 3, also available in HD. France 3 seemingly taking up the bulk of the Olympic programming TV hours during each day with France 2 coming in much later.

http://www.sport-tv....-105692035.html

TVNZ may have lost New Zealand's broadcasting rights of the 2010 and 2012 Olympics to SKY and Prime TV, but TVNZ's ONE news team led by Simon Dallow along with Heather du Plessis-Allan, Garth Bray, Paul Hobbs, Craig Stanaway, and Irena Smith will be present in London to cover the Olympic news there with a special focus on news and interviews with NZ's Olympians in sports with strong medal hopes (and their families with their stories in the leadup) to go with the daily major Olympic developments. Even a couple of Maori/Pacific Islander Olympians.

http://dannews.co.nz...for-2012-games/

Artwork of TVN's advertisement of its coverage of the 2012 Olympics with co-anchors Pedro Carcuro and Fernando Solabarrieta prominent done by Carlos Latoja.

http://www.behance.n...012-Tvn/3960177

TV Record launches their London Olympics promotional campaign that will emphasizes a more extensive coverage in multiple sports at the same time with at least 10 hours a day.

http://www.revistafa....php?not=203625

Keila Jimenez revealed in his Folha De Sao Paolo newspaper column that Romario will join Mano Meneses as TV Record soccer commenatators for the London Olympics coverage. Romario worked with Record during the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara last year in that same capacity but for free because of his Brazilian Congressman job.

http://ca.sports.yah...-143422361.html

TV Record's digital video projection took place at least a month ago at the Sheraton Hotel in Sao Paolo to help promote its coverage of the London Olympics. I think this will be used as the TV intro for it and it looks great!

OBS London secured 52 mobile units for the upcoming Games that will sweep the British nation for the coverage. Of which 36 come from outside sources. 6 flyover systems and 15 audio production independent units will get utitlized. And that's just the beginning of the insight that we will see about OBSL and their nitty-gritty for London through the IBC with its global, unbiased feed from this two-page article from TVB Europe magazine's May issue. We also get to see why the Olympic TV graphics are in English.

http://content.yudu....esources/24.htm

ARD presents a Q&A that answers some questions Germans have about the webstreaming (like how many), the minimal technical requirements on the electronic devices that can handle broadband technology, and what kind of feeds will be used for the sports not televised by Das Erste and ZDF.

http://olympia.ard.d...tworten101.html

Venezuela's controversial TVes will be the national TV transmitter of the 2012 London Summer Olympics to Venezuelans with a focus on minute-to-minute coverage of Venezuela's Olympians there. The network will send "human to technology deployment" to London to assure such coverage.

http://www.correodel...s-londres-2012/

[Quaker2001]

Do the IOC make arrangements for non-rights holders as I'd imagine the number of (non-rights holding)networks reporting on the game probably exceeds the number actually covering the games - and surely it's in the Olympics interests to have the games promoted on non-rights holding channels too.

I don't know if there are specific IOC rules regarding non-rights holders showing footage. I know there are deals with NBC in the U.S. regarding networks like ESPN showing Olympic footage. Back in 2006 when Al Michaels was "traded" from ABC to NBC, part of that deal was to allow ESPN to expand their use of Olympic highlights, not sure what the exact number is though. In general though, the embargo on video usually extends through when NBC airs something on primetime.

That's a question for Americans then - I assume if Usain Bolt wins the 100m at 5pm but NBC don't air it till 11pm the 6.30pm news bulletins and local news bulletins on non-NBC networks at least will take great delight in reporting it.

Other networks can report results to their hearts' content. There's no restrictions in giving results, just showing video. Even the NBC affiliates will often talk about results on their 6pm newscasts full well knowing the video is coming on their air that night.

[Durban Sandshark]

For example, if you noticed on the ESPN Films documentaries like The Announcement and Marion Jones: Press Pause whenever there was mention of the Olympics, there was NEVER any video footage just photos with sometimes audio. So I seriously presume the video embargo on the Olympics from NBC on the Games which holds the US broadcast rights to since 1988 is still ongoing. Same thing on YouTube with the likes of AP news video reports. I personally don't like this, but NBC can do whatever the hell it wants on the Olympics.

I have right now beside me as I write this a copy of the Ultimate 2012 Olympic Guide that I picked up last night at the bookstore. Nothing really exciting about this but picked it up because of the rareness of such things these days. You don't get this here in the US now. Like with a science textbook or a computer (be it a desktop or a laptop), something like this is quickly outdated as soon as it hits the shelves thanks to the Internet. Because of this, it doesn't get into the landscape of each sport and what the contenders are and would be like it was when Street and Smith's did for its Seoul 1988 preview. This is more like those old Access books that tells you for the most part about the rules of the sports, a little bit of the history, the venues, and the competition fields. No surprise that this is a British publication on this by Magbooks, the same people behind the 2012 year in British sports preview issue that dealt a significant amount of it to the Games. So it is British-centric with looks and photos of British athletes and legends like Sir Chris Hoy, Jessica Ennis, Philips Idowu, Sir Steven Redgrave, Sebastian Coe, Rebecca Adlington, Linford Christie, and Daley Thompson. I'll discuss more later.

Now we will see why there is so much synergy with the Australian Olympic Broadcasting Unit involving Nine, FOXTEL, 2GB, and ABC Radio when the first two picked up the Australian TV rights four years ago from Seven and SBS. One reason is that there were only 420 Olympic broadcasting passes alloted to Australia at the IBC in London with such an enormous undertaking. FOXTEL alone takes up 150 of them. FOXTEL won't even conduct additional video processing back in Sydney after all the compressing in London. Consequently on the first point, sportscasters like Eddie McGuire, Andrew Gaze, and Ray Hadley will perform multitasking.

http://mumbrella.com.au/more-than-a-game-broadcasting-the-olympics-91057

A few new CTV Olympic Believe promos hit recently. One involves Michael Phelps. Another features Canadian rower Tracey Cameron (both narrated by Gordon Pisent), and Ellen Page voices the scenes from Manila, Lisbon, and again her Halifax hometown. None of these are available for viewing stateside, so I won't upload them unfortunately unless there is a demand for them and a few others.

Hopefully the Olympic media rights saga in Sri Lanka can now finally be laid to rest. SLRC Rupavahini was ruled to have the rights to the 2012 London Summer Olympics by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union. Commercial broadcaster MTV failed to produce a legal document indicating and proving that it does. With that, Rupavahini can now build media platforms on for terrestrial, satelitte, Internet(?), cable, and radio within Sri Lanka.

http://www.dailynews.lk/2012/05/23/news13.asp

[Quaker2001]

For example, if you noticed on the ESPN Films documentaries like The Announcement and Marion Jones: Press Pause whenever there was mention of the Olympics, there was NEVER any video footage just photos with sometimes audio. So I seriously presume the video embargo on the Olympics from NBC on the Games which holds the US broadcast rights to since 1988 is still ongoing. Same thing on YouTube with the likes of AP news video reports. I personally don't like this, but NBC can do whatever the hell it wants on the Olympics.

That's not so much an embargo in the same sense that ESPN can only air a certain amount of Olympic highlights. Otherwise they have to pay rights fees to use Olympic footage. ESPN could do that but I'm guessing either the IOC won't allow it or it's not worth the expense to get the rights for it. Video footage of events like the Olympics isn't free for anyone to use. And it's not just the IOC that does that. Pretty much all the major sports leagues in the United States operate the same way. I don't know why you'd expect otherwise.

[Durban Sandshark]

That's not so much an embargo in the same sense that ESPN can only air a certain amount of Olympic highlights. Otherwise they have to pay rights fees to use Olympic footage. ESPN could do that but I'm guessing either the IOC won't allow it or it's not worth the expense to get the rights for it. Video footage of events like the Olympics isn't free for anyone to use. And it's not just the IOC that does that. Pretty much all the major sports leagues in the United States operate the same way. I don't know why you'd expect otherwise.

Shows that I still have a lot to learn about this. I knew there was going to be some expense fee involved in getting the rights to the IOC footage that would make the likes of ESPN not touch them as much as it would it like. Perhaps since the 1990s with the sports explosion boom hitting with leagues expanding and getting unprecedented wall-to-wall sports coverage is when we've started seeing this taking shape as sports league try to boost its value. The NFL is another good example in this. As a multi-billion dollar entity that is immensely popular in the US and Canada, it charges its rights and guards its trademarks like the Super Bowl like Fort Knox. Only league sponsors are allowed to use that and footage of the NFL are expensive to buy, which is why you may have noticed USFL footage to help sell TVs in commercials, footage that dates back to the 1980s. Never mind the fact that ESPN Star Sports Asia and ESPN Latin America (including ESPN Brazil) are current Olympic rights holders, but neither of those are the US version so the rights issues may be different in those areas

Going to be very interesting in this because ESPN Films is set to release this fall a full-length documentary centering on the 1988 men's 100m final and the subsequent revoking of Ben Johnson's gold medal for testing positive for steroids. This is likely where we will see the full Olympic video footage to fill ESPN's IOC access.

Pretty predictable. Worldwide Olympic sponsor Panasonic announced yesterday in Osaka that it will send the largest array of audio/visual broadcasting equipment in Olympic (and in the company's) history to London for the Games this summer. From HD and 3D cameras to LED large screen display monitors at all venues to ENGs.

http://hd.broadcastn...c-Games-2047581

SVT is currently working on a series of Olympic TV promos for the network starring SVT Olympic hosts Andre Pops and Yvette Hermundstad filmed in Stockholm for its final Olympics broadcast that will hit soon.

http://svt.se/os/bak...lerinspelningen

Also, there has been a change with the roster of channels in SVT. Kunskapskanalen (the Knowledge Channel) replaces SVT2 as one of the channels involved for this with SVT1 (the Olympic Channel) and SVT24, possibly because of some concerns of having the Olympics being beaten over the heads of Swedes who don't want that on all the free-to-air channels as was feared with the BBC. Maybe it has something to do with practical issues of SVT2 taking over the Olympic programming whenever SVT1 goes on Rapport mode for an hour. Nonetheless, it will still total 600 hours in all in HD with an additional 1100 hours online in PCs, phones, and tablets as the network pledges to put all stops to make it "the greatest Swedish Olympic TV broadcast ever" in its 52 years of doing this. Andre Pops adds that he likes swimmer Therese Alshammer for gold this year as the big story for Sweden. Godmorrow Sverige host Mats Nystrand will be in London every day during the Olympics bringing his show there with news stories and documentaries from previous Olympics.

http://svt.se/os/svt-storsatsar-pa-os

http://translate.goo...%26prmd%3Dimvns

Just an extension and correction to what I made about Finland's YLE Olympics coverage eons ago. Now that I translated the release yesterday of what YLE's Olympic project producer Robert Portman, I can mention it more. The two YLE channels involved, TV2 and the Swedish language FST5, is correct and will broadcast 450 hours not the 430 as previously mentioned with, of course, emphasis on the Finnish Olympic athletes. TV2's coverage portion will also be in HD. Didn't mention the Internet coverage that will be live. It will also be available in 12 different and concurrent streaming channels which will cooperate with not just its Nordic partners like SVT and NRK but also shared with other European Olympic broadcasting rights holders in both Finnish and Swedish commentaries.

On the radio front YLE's Olympic Radio Speech is where to turn for Finnish Olympic fans with 200 hours of Olympic coverage direct from London. Olympia Radio can also be heard worldwide online! Report is translated from Finnish in the best of its abilities.

http://translate.goo...%26prmd%3Dimvns

You gotta hand it to NBC in its announcement of its full-fledged Olympic coverage for London just a couple of months away last week. No need to go into that 5535 hours of coverage is the biggest ever Olympic coverage for a Summer Olympics in the USA. Plus it expands on its daytime coverage dating from SLC in 2002 which surely comes in handy with some live action from London (and thereby pre-empting the soaps) like say, swimming or a track heat or a beach volleyball match.

One thing I did notice as I made my comparisons with NBC's London coverage from the previous ones dating back to Sydney, when it started using networks and channels outside of NBC proper, not counting the online and 3D amounts of coverage, is there's a lot of shifting of coverage to NBC Sports Network and possibly to NBC proper and very likely online where there's an increase from 2200 hours to 3500. For many of the veteran cable networks in the NBC Olympic family, the number of TV hours is down in each of them in no small part due to the advent of NBC Sports Network. Even Bravo's is down. Also will there be some type of Oxygen-like Olympic shows in any of the cable channels outside of NBC Sports Network.

Telemundo likes to promote its coverage as "its most extensive yet". Yet, when I see Telemundo's amount of TV hours for its portion compared to what it enjoyed four years ago in Beijing, it's actually down by almost 210 hours. How can it say that? If you ask me, Beijing's with 380 hours was. On the other hand, I didn't have Telemundo back then. Granted, some of this could be the result of wishing to cover Team USA men's soccer games but can't because of their failure to qualify, less Spanish-speaking basketball teams to cover, and no more baseball and softball on the Olympic program. Maybe have other Spanish-speaking teams' games involved or expand on the other sports rather than just the traditional Latin strongholds of soccer, boxing, basketball, swimming and diving, volleyball (both indoor and beach), and track and field. Would like to see Telemundo expand its horizons more like having team handball games like the Spanish men's and women's and the Brazilian women. Maybe it will cover both ceremonies for the first time. Something told me that with all of this, where all of that portion of the TV coverage, moved over to online. Then when I read the press release about its coverage, the Spanish-language portion will be limited to just to what Telemundo offers live with web-exclusive content. Hopefully I'll be proven wrong in that we could get the Spanish language option in the Internet viewing in all sports, even if it's offered from the OBSL.

Speaking of which, I'm glad we're getting the option of looking at multiple concurrent streams of select sports like gymnastics (each appartus in each session so we can follow a gymnastics team we like), track and field (each event), tennis (five courts), and maybe judo instead of just a single feed in each sport. If you recall, my post was about how different things were in how the field events were covered when ABC and NBC did it in the 80s, and NBC subsequently went into recap mode after each session. Quaker2001 adds that NBC got ripped to shreads back in 1988 for covering them in that manner. NBC can now proceed as it does while we can enjoy each dedicated session of the javelin, high jump, long jump, pole vault, triple jump, shot put, and the hammer throw with the track events going on simultaneously while we can select what we want to see. Outside of that, we don't really have much of any official details on the Internet Olympic coverage from NBC, but we can suspect some now-standard features like slo-mo, realtime stop, pause, and re-start, maybe multiple camera angles (maybe). There will be like points of interest in the competition to look at independently and click onto in the on-demand. With 3D computers hitting, if Terra can offer Internet streaming on 3D, why can't NBC do it too? How about the aforementioned language option or venue-only audio? Will touch more on the NBC coverage next time.

Another week has gone by with the Canadian Olympic Broadcasting Media Consortium headed by CTV not making an announcement on its Olympic broadcasting plans with its official combined TV hours numbers. I'm expecting within the next two weeks, likely next week, we will see something coming from Toronto in that. We know CTV will have 300 hours and with the total from the consortium is at least 5000 hours. With the amount of languages offered and with NBC, BBC, CCTV/CNTV, Terra, ESPN Star Sports Asia, and FOXTEL all hitting the 3000-5000+ hour barrier, I expect Canada will get around 5300-5600 to accomodate the multiple languages and its share of 3D Olympic TV hours. Doubtful at this point other channels will be added unless they'll be Olympic-specific ones. Streams are to be concurrent and live to around 18 of them.

Can someone know who does the Olympic TV broadcasting rights for Luxembourg? I would presume RTL and would do it in its native Luxembourg language. But Luxembourg residents can get coverage from ARD/ZDF, France Televisions, VRT, NOS, and RTBF, so I guess that nation is taken cared of.

ESPN Star Sports Asia's press release at the 60-day countdown mark on its featured 660 hours of pre-Olympic TV programming coming very soon. Already mentioned here earlier but with greater detail now.

http://www.sify.com/...f5puddeibc.html

BBC--5000

NBC--5535

CTV/TSN/Rogers/RDS/OLN/OMNI/ATN/V--5000

CCTV/CNTV--5600

Terra--4760

FOXTEL--3200

ESPN STAR Sports Asia--3800

ESPN Latin America (includes ESPN Brazil)--1700

SKY Sport Italia--2000

TVC Deportes--1224

SVT--600 w/1100 online

TVP--800

RTVE--960(?)

NHK--580

YLE TV2/FST5--460

Nine Network--300

ARD/ZDF--290 w/900 online

France Televisions-300

Eurosport--400

Sportsmax--356

TyC Sports--300

RTM TV1 and TV2--225.65

RAI Dua--200

Canal 13 (Chile)--100

[Durban Sandshark]

Did the Canadian Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium--80% owned by CTV, 20% Rogers--that includes CTV, TSN, Rogers Sportsnet, RDS, RDS INFO, V, OMNI, ATN, and OLN apparently read what I wrote yesterday? I'm joking about that, of course. They were already finalizing the finishing touches on its Olympic schedule yesterday. Last night in Toronto at the CTV Upfront Event those networks, presented by Brian Williams and Marnie McBean went public, in the most robust Summer Olympic media coverage ever in Canadian history, with their 2012 London Olympics TV, Internet, and radio plans:

--No surprise Brian Williams and Chantal Machabee will helm the anchors for their respective Olympic Primetime sets

--We know CTV will get around 300 hours of it in their share. But the English language share of it in total with TSN, Rogers Sportsnet, and OLN will 1114 hours.

--The French arm of it with RDS and V will get 704 hours.

--The multilingual channels from OMNI and ATN will dabble with 223 hours in Italian, Udru, Bangla, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hindu, Tamil, and Punjabi. Interestingly, if you saw the Believe promos airing since Super Sunday back in February that were filmed in The Philippines, Poland, Portugal, China, and Italy as well as Canada, you'd think all of their languages would be on. Alas, Filipino and Polish (as it was with Vancouver on OMNI) is not among them.

--on the Internet/mobile device side of things, at least 3500 hours of that will be available with all of the streams directly from CTV, TSN, Rogers Sportsnet, V, and RDS present at 1431 and the rest of the live Olympic events at various venues not televised clocking in at 2100 hours

--radio stations included are all from Rogers with 1310News (Ottawa), 680News (Toronto), News1130 (Vancouver), 660News (Calgary), 570News (Kitchener, Ont.), News95.7 (Halifax), News 88.9 (Saint John, N.B.), News91.9 (Moncton), Sportsnet 590 The FAN (Toronto), and Sportsnet 960 The FAN (Calgary). These radio stations will provide coverage of both ceremonies, daily hour-long Olympic highlights programming, and 3x hourly news reports during the Games. The national hour of Prime Time Sports with Brian McCown (5-6pm CST) on both The FAN Sportsnet Radio stations in Toronto and Calgary (and 19 others across Canada) will be devoted to the London 2012 Olympics.

http://bellmediapr.c...15186&yyyy=2012

This is the generic, barebones breakdown of the daily Canadian Olympic TV schedule for each of the English and French networks with the hosts next to them. Glad to see Kate Beirness, TSN Sportscentre anchor and TSN March Madness studio host, going to London with TSN's Olympic Morning.

http://bellmediapr.c...Y_SCHEDULES.pdf

All this still does not explain why APTN is not on board this time around. Or why there are less languages involved this time around than in Vancouver, when you might have assume there will be more (like including German and Spanish). We don't have the breakdown of what each of these networks' hours will have among themselves, save for CTV's 300. We don't know what the 19 other radio stations that regularly get the Prime Time Sports show--but I'll get to it next week. Many of the sportscasters for the CTV-led Canadian Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium have yet to be named to their Olympic sports, which surely is coming very soon. I do think the structure from Vancouver will be at work again this time in London with CTV, in this case, having live look-ins and then urge Canadian viewers to head to TSN or Rogers Sportsnet for more complete coverage. Analysis will arrive next week with NBC's.

Pre-Olympic track and field galore on Supersport!

http://www.superspor...Olympics_action

Latest in the SKY Sport Italia Olympic campaign will feature the young singers from the Choir dell'Antoniano reciting the national anthem hitting tomorrow under the promo "One Italian Passion for the Whole Family".

http://translate.goo...%26prmd%3Dimvns

BandSports Olympic team will conduct a "night tour" through the streets of Sao Paolo tonight on their now-famous red double-decker bus there promoting their London coverage. Luciano De Valle may be among them. Also mentions that NBC's London team is 10x more than what Record will send.

http://translate.goo...%26prmd%3Dimvns

There will be NO London Olympics coverage free-to-air in Hong Kong (it appears) because i-Cable, whose proposed FTA Fanastic Television will not hit the airwaves without a government-issued license in time to air the Olympics in that realm, failed to come to an agreement with the already-established terrestrial networks ATV and TVB, the previous TV rights holders of the Olympics, as the three fight over whose new TV licenses will be granted by the HK government. Yet both parties in the latter say talks are still on. This is unfortunate since Hong Kong could be the only territory in the world that won't have any FTA Olympic coverage on TV and ironic since Hong Kong comes to London as a former British crown colony in the fourth Summer Olympics following the 1997 British-Chinese transfer.

http://topics.scmp.c...r-Olympic-Games

Meanwhile over in Macau, the former Portuguese colony in China, it's mentioned in Wikipedia that TDM Direct Teledeporte 2, the 24-hour sports channel from Canal Macau, will broadcast the 2012 London Olympics with the Olympic feed provided by BBC Sport this time 9and the announcers calling the action back in Macau City on monitors in Portuguese) . Feeds have been delivered to Macau through various suppliers for past Olympics since 1984 that happened to be host providers like CCTV (Beijing), Nova Sports (Athens), Seven and C7 Sport (Sydney), NBC (Atlanta), Teledeporte (Barcelona), KBS Sports 4 (Seoul), and ABC (Los Angeles). Since Macau lacks an NOC, this is the least it can do for Olympic action broadcasting wise in Portuguese

http://en.wikipedia....iki/Canal_Macau

Chungwah Telecom, Formosa Television, Taiwan Television, KBRO, Taipei Broadband Communications, China Television, and Chinese Television System are all gearing up for the possible demand of 1 million set-top cable/satelitte boxes for the London Olympics in Taiwan and also in time for the analogue-to-digital TV conversion there.

http://www.digitimes...20601PB200.html

[Durban Sandshark]

SuperSport just unvieled in what amounts to be its most ambitious, "grand", and comprehensive Summer Olympics coverage ever this year hours ago transmitting across Sub-Saharan Africa not just South Africa. And guess what? SuperSport's got iconic Olympic legend Carl Lewis featured in this as one of its many top analysts! Supersport will have a eight channels devoted to Olympic coverage including a special HD channel specifically for the London Olympics--so that's four in HD and four in standard definition--channels will be SS4, SS5, SS6, and SS7 (called during the Olympics as SuperSport's Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Spirit channels) in SD with HD2, HD3, and HD4 joined by the Olympic-specific HD5. All will cover the Games in 24 hours of the day. SuperSport 3 will get involved only in the Olympic soccer when the designated SS Olympic channels can't get to them on certain days as will SuperSport 1 and SuperSport 2 in some other events. London Calling, a weekend Olympic breakfast show (8-9:30am South Africa time with an extra show on Women's Day), and Mind the Gap, a 15-minute show hosted by neil Andrews and Nigerian Olympic soccer champion Daniel Amokachi, will serve as the magazine Olympic shows. Look for those before and after the Olympic evening sessions. SuperSport Blitz news channel will supply rolling updates and news with live coverage of Team SA's first team announcements two days from now.

Yes, there will be Portuguese Olympic coverage again like with Beijing with SuperSport Maximo 1 and Maximo 2 providing events in Olympic sports that have interest to the Portuguese speakers in South Africa, Angola, and Mozambique in Southern Africa. Maximo 1 will be 24 hours a day with the Olympics as Maximo 2 plans to be ad-hoc in its. The only Afrikaans involved in SuperSport's Olympics coverage will come from the reborn Toks 'n Tjops show on kykNET, and frankly IMO that's the only disappointment with SuperSport's plans--not as much Afrikaans or Swahili as there probrably could be. SuperSport is packed in analysts and get the gold medalists like with Lindford Christie and Penny Heyns in the recent past like with 8 years ago but now with the aforementioned Carl Lewis it also has Ryk Neethling, Dame Kelly Holmes, and Wilfird Bungei (reigning 800m champ) too. Reporters include award-winning comentator Gerald de Kock, Carol Tshabalala, former Miss SA Nicole Flint, James Wokabi from Kenya, Udo Carelse, and reporting teams from South Africa, Kenya, rest of Africa, and general news. Along with those supplied by OBSL and two Outside Broadcast engineers supplied by SuperSport.

Magic World (Channel 112) will have daily Olympic highlights for two hours from 6-8am. Everything officially on the Olympic tip starts for SuperSport on July 2 with Olympic Countdown up to July 26 with your hosts Thomas Mlambo and Leigh Anne Paulick. That massive 24-hour channels launch will take place on July 27 with the Opening Ceremony. Other Olympic programming leading up in the countdown on SuperSport are Olympic Memories and Olympic Dreams, featuring Olympic vignettes with famous winners and medal aspirants, will broadcast throughout June and July and showcase showcase the ambitions of Caster Semenya, LJ van Zyl, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, Cameron van der Burgh and other Team SA Olympic aspirants. Olympic Memories will shine the spotlight on legendary South African past medalists Elana Meyer, Penny Heyns, Josiah Thugwane and the Dream Team relay swimmers and others.

As we would expect these days with all of the accessible digital technology, SuperSport surely doesn't want to be left out in that. SuperSport's Olympic section is now up and running since May 31 with lots of stuff up in store in the coming days with a special emphasis on the African bent, not just South Africa. Full broadcast schedules are to be on various platforms also through mobile (Mobi) and the Web (supersport.com) as part of the SuperSport app with live streaming from the Gold channel SS4 starting at 9am daily with Walka, DVB-H, and Drifta. Info on venues, athletes, and guest profiles. SuperSport's Facebook and Twitter pages will definitely get Olympiced up and that includes SuperFan social interaction powering broadcast programming starts on July 4. DSTv On Demand will have the daily highlights plus both ceremonies on HD PVRs. DStv Premuim subscribers get all that as well as the Olympic Dreams, Olympic Memories, London Calling, and Mind the Gap to record.

http://www.superspor...aspx?Id=1414591

Still don't know officially if RTL will get into the Olympics for Luxembourg if at all. But with RTL Netherland's "Celebrate the Summer" sports campaign, it will be live at the Heineken Holland House during the London Olympics with guests, Dutch Olympic medalists, and key athletes and coaches who made a mark there either on RTL 4.

http://translate.goo...%26prmd%3Dimvns

Yesterday, Studio Brussels Radio launched Studio Sport with co-hosts Linde Merck Poel and Stijn Vlaeminck, coming from Sporza after six years there, every afternoon from 12:00 to 13:00 look forward to the summer of 2012 in sports like the Olympics, Tour De France, Wimbeldon, French Open, and EURO 2012. During the first week lucky listeners can win two daily double tickets to the London Olympics.

http://translate.goo...%26prmd%3Dimvns

Heads up for all you Singapore residents (unless you already know this)! Mediacorp is inviting Singaporeans to come on down to the Cathay Cineleisure Orchard this coming Saturday to celebrate with Mediacorp's top media personalities from Channel 5, Channel 8, Okto, Visantham, Channel U, Suria, and 987FM--many of them are involved with the Olympic broadcasting free-to-air and radio--to show your support for Team Singapore at the 2012 London Olympic Games for a three-hour bash! Does Mediacorp always use that Aussie voicover for various TV stuff there?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH28iAxchIw

This is ETV's general Olympic webpage from Estonia. It currently doesn't have yet a proper one for "Londoni" nor any coverage plans--the Vancouver one is still up. But we can safely say that ETV and ETV2 will cover the Games live and direct from London.

http://sport.err.ee/olympiaootus

The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation is gearing up for the upcoming London Olympics. Through CyBC's PIK (I think PIK 1), Cypriots will get to see on TV all the action of and cheer on Cyrpus' Olympic athletes and the latest news, highlights, analysis, and developments during the Olympics and from the venues. More comprehensive coverage will come from Novasports. On the link I'll give you mentioning this news, PIK has a series of video focusing on Cypriot athletes called Go London with the Video on Demand. Greater details will arrive later.

http://translate.goo...%26prmd%3Dimvns

TV SLO in Slovenia has its Olympic things going with Londonski Vrtiljak airing tomorrow on TV SLO 2 for a half and hour on 20.00 (Slovenia time).

RPC Canal 4, part of Medcom, in Panama launches their Olympic campaign at a Panama City restaurant Grill50 with Medcom's daily newspaper Mi Diario (My Journal) and Canal 4's TV weekly Countdown to London along with docs and illustrations of past Olympic Games. Mi Diario's Claudio Pino Orlando will be assigned to London to cover the Olympics and the Panamian athletes there. Alessandra Mosque will be there in London for RPC Canal 4 for her fluency in English. Coverage on Canal 4 starts in the two days prior to the Olympics with the soccer of course with the Olympic broadcast days start at 5am and hopes to improve on their coverage and news as it happens with the emphasis on soccer, swimming, track and field, and gymnastics with capable sportscasters.

http://translate.goo...%26prmd%3Dimvns

Part 3 of TVC Deportes' announcement of the London Olympic coverage. Not to be confused, TVC Deportes' Cristina Millian is NOT Nick Cannon's ex, though they share the same name.

Freeview subscribers in Britain will have extra HD capacity for the Olympics after all at 304 with Channel 5 deciding not to go for that slot. But it will still be from the 24 HD streams in comparasion to what cable and satelitte counterparts will get in terms of streams. At least it's modest good news.

http://www.digitalsp...rage-in-hd.html

Can't wait to hear what the other big networks Olympic rights holders got in store for their outlining of their Olympic streaming plans like what the BBC's Phil Fearnley just did at the #GEN2012 did to rousing raves. Surely those will have to be as interactive.

http://www.journalis...age/s5/a549441/

I know I'm stepping into and reigniting the debate once again regarding the painful authentification just to get access to all the Olympic coverage galore with this to prove they are legit paying customers. But at least NBC realizes that many don't like it and are annoyed instead of arrogantly giving the finger to those who don't have access to cable, satelitte, or telcoms yet do it anyway to protect its massive Olympic investment. Why not go for the third-party verification route like through Facebook or Google+?

http://allthingsd.co...al-and-painful/

BigPond Sport's Olympic webpage for Australians: http://www.bigpondsport.com/Olympics/

This is a little more of what SKY Sport NZ will do for Kiwis during the Olympics with PRIME. Now PRIME has yet to reveal its details more fully by itself though it will deal with the Kiwis Olympians more in its coverage.

http://www.skysport....ic-games-61168/

[Quaker2001]

I know I'm stepping into and reigniting the debate once again regarding the painful authentification just to get access to all the Olympic coverage galore with this to prove they are legit paying customers. But at least NBC realizes that many don't like it and are annoyed instead of arrogantly giving the finger to those who don't have access to cable, satelitte, or telcoms yet do it anyway to protect its massive Olympic investment. Why not go for the third-party verification route like through Facebook or Google+?

http://allthingsd.co...al-and-painful/

I'm just curious here.. do you actually agree with the content of the article because it sounds like you're just repeating it for the sake of repeating it? "Brick.. Do you really love the lamp, or are you just saying it because you saw it?"

I think the 'painful' line was meant to be a little tongue-in-cheek. I went through the sign-up process with Time Warner. It was a little annoying, but it's done and now I never have to do it again. And hopefully that means I'm only a couple of clicks away from live video. Plus, here's the problem with using Facebook/Google.. what if I'm not a member of either of those? Why should I have to sign up with them? Better question.. what if I'm a Facebook user not living in the United States (and there are many of those)? I get what the article is saying about 3rd party verification, but that's a tough sell with an event like the Olympics where every country has their own rights holder and it can't just be a matter of using a website that's accessible to virtually anyone in any country. Yes, some people are getting screwed by this, but I wouldn't necessarily label it arrogance. Every country needs to protect their own individual Olympic rights and few of those countries are as large as the United States. If this is how it has to be (and I know it's easy for me to say because I have a provider that's already on board), I don't think it's a terrible thing.

[SwissO]

IOC to live stream London 2012 in 64 territories on its YouTube channel

During the Olympic Games (27 July to 12 August), sports fans in these 64 territories across Asia and Africa will be able to enjoy live coverage of the events as well as highlight clips on this digital platform — free-of-charge. Viewers from these territories will be able to watch the streams on the IOC’s YouTube channel, accessible online or on Internet-enabled devices like smart/mobile phones and other YouTube-enabled devices.

The live-streaming on the IOC’s YouTube channel will provide exclusive digital access to the London 2012 Olympic Games in territories where digital broadcast rights have not already been acquired by the IOC’s broadcast partners:

Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Bhutan, Cambodia, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Iran, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

And in 42 Sub-Saharan African territories on a non-exclusive basis, including:

Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The IOC’s live streaming on its YouTube channel will consist of 11 different simultaneous high-definition broadcasts, all with English language commentary. There will be 10 live feeds from London 2012, running 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. (London time) (on some days, these will start earlier or finish later based on the competition schedule), plus a 24-hour broadcast of the Olympic News Channel, which includes summaries of the latest results, general reports on different events, and interviews with athletes.

Fans will also be able to catch up on highlights and full events — all organised by the day, medal event or the sport. The IOC channel will also continue to feature historic content from past Olympic Games. In total, the IOC’s YouTube channel will offer over 2,200 hours hours of sporting event coverage from London 2012, including all the medals finals.

Timo Lumme, Managing Director, IOC Television and Marketing, said: “We are delighted to be able to offer live online coverage of London 2012 to sports fans free of charge across these 64 markets. We first provided clips on our channel on YouTube during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games across the region, and since then have continued to provide footage of past Olympic Games across the world on our YouTube channel. Now we will also be able to offer live coverage during London 2012, complementing the excellent coverage provided by our broadcast partners across the world across all media platforms.”

[Durban Sandshark]

That's very much what the IOC offered four years ago with You Tube in Beijing with those 64 nations, only now there's greater access to full events and competitions and it will be in HD with the creation of the specific Olympic channels since Torino. This time it isn't as widespread with many of the North African/ Middle Eastern nations that were previously involved aren't it. Apparently, they just got an Internet deal too with maybe ASBU or Al-Jazeera Sport or Nile Sports. Considering the fact that there's two official IOC languages used--English and French with whatever language the host nation has that is neither (or in addition to one or the other), wouldn't it make sense if for the French-speaking African nations for example if there were French commentaries as part of it to stay consistent with the official languages? It's not going to given that English is far more widespread worldwide in usage like in the Olympic TV graphics. And yes, there are plenty of English-speakers in those areas. Furthermore, we would've heard something well by now if many of these countries had struck Olympic Internet deals, be it exclusive or not. For example, we know yesterday that SuperSport will go for some streaming on its Olympic website, but it's only from SuperSport 3 (aka Olympic Gold channel, more on that later) and will go throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. Partly it may be due to computer access and high broadband speeds, despite growing midle classes in several African nations and increasing access on both counts, is still limited. You would've assume that with the reach, breath, and muscle ESPN Star Sports has through West to Southeast Asia, it would've allowed for setting up live and on-demand streamings for each of those channels with massive digital interactions and presentions with Web exclusives. But it's a bit surprising it hasn't it at least for the likes of rising nations in the world like India, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Another thing, Papua New Guinea is widely considered an Oceanic nation and a former Australian colony, so why isn't it getting coverage provided by Australia, its next door neighbor?

Maybe with the London Olympic Channel coming up, we can probrably be the start of, among other things that has happened, the IOC opening up more and more vintage and fuller event video from past Olympics. South Africa being the most industrialized and economically-strong nation in Africa, I'm sure SuperSport can provide far more streams like 8-12 to coincide their channels and get Olympic events, news, analysis, and Web exclusives than it will. Maybe it's out of respect of the lack of strong and widespread broadband across the continent. That SS3 Olympic Gold's sole streaming and the lack of abundant Afrikaans language Olympic coverage on SuperSport--maybe place it on kykNET if not creating a SuperSport Afrikaans channel are the only disappointments I can see from SuperSport.

I'm just curious here.. do you actually agree with the content of the article because it sounds like you're just repeating it for the sake of repeating it? "Brick.. Do you really love the lamp, or are you just saying it because you saw it?"

I think the 'painful' line was meant to be a little tongue-in-cheek. I went through the sign-up process with Time Warner. It was a little annoying, but it's done and now I never have to do it again. And hopefully that means I'm only a couple of clicks away from live video. Plus, here's the problem with using Facebook/Google.. what if I'm not a member of either of those? Why should I have to sign up with them? Better question.. what if I'm a Facebook user not living in the United States (and there are many of those)? I get what the article is saying about 3rd party verification, but that's a tough sell with an event like the Olympics where every country has their own rights holder and it can't just be a matter of using a website that's accessible to virtually anyone in any country. Yes, some people are getting screwed by this, but I wouldn't necessarily label it arrogance. Every country needs to protect their own individual Olympic rights and few of those countries are as large as the United States. If this is how it has to be (and I know it's easy for me to say because I have a provider that's already on board), I don't think it's a terrible thing.

At this point I personally don't care because, in my case, I plan to finally have digital satelitte TV later this month in time to watch the London Olympics (among other things) and the authentitcation will be nothing more than a formality to me as it was with yours. If using "painful" was intended to be tongue-in-cheek to descibr the annoyance, it was real good. But you're right about the issue of having a third-party like Facebook involved in the sense it is worldwide with about a billion users, so how would it acknwoledge the important territorial restrictions needed to watch NBC's Olympic coverage, and it was something I forgot about when I wrote it. Having a third-party entry would in theory simpilfy matters, though. Yes, what if you're not a member of those and don't have financial access to those electronics and want to watch the Olympic coverage? For example, RTE Ireland plans to put its Olympic streams on its RTE Sport Facebook page for Irish consumption. Will it be restricted to just those Facebook members who like RTE Sport or simply RTE to comply with the territorial demands? How will RTE know and determine that the Olympic viewers are actually Irish residents? Might have been scrapped by the time I wite this or not, perhaps realizing the "tough sell" with the Olympics with jst about every significant nation has its media rights settled. I get and understand the need to protect the territorial media rights and coverage in each and every nation, but with technology changing so rapidly, Olympic footage, with somebody wherever in the world, will find a way to break through those barriers.

Speaking of Ireland, actually in this case Northern Ireland, I noticed today on Wikipedia's list of 2012 Olympic broadcasters, that Northern Irleand's UTV, a Belfast-based TV and new media company is among the broadcasters. Doesn't UTV know that Northern Ireland, as a member of the Home Nations, is party of the UK and that it is the BBC holding the broadcasting and digital rights to the 2012 Olympics for the UK? What is it going to bring to the table that the BBC won't? Is it providing Gaelic-language coverage? Is it a supplier? Following article I found after Wikipedia's link doesn't say much about UTV's Olympic broadcasting plans but it does mention that it hopes for a revenue boost with that and EURO 2012. Sounds like it's more in the radio realm.

http://www.rte.ie/ne...o-holdings.html

[Durban Sandshark]

FOXTEL updated its FOXTEL Olympics Facebook page with the banner Follow The Games recently and it looks really nice! It certainly has that fun feel asking questions to Australians about how Australia's place in Olympic history and feats and the Olympics in general, among other things. Furthermore, FOXTEL also updated its Olympic website too with lots of comprehensive info about its broadcasting plans like the 8 FOXTEL London channels all in HD, the sports, the FOXTEL Olympic broadcasting team, and Aussie athletes to watch in London. I still can't quite understand why in the eyes of FOXTEL basketball can't get a full, proper channel among the eight Olympic channels like NBC will with its own version (ditto for soccer)? Olympic basketball games are played daily for several hours with lots of TV programming largely to itself, and FOXTEL could've put some coverage of other sports before and after that once it hits the quarterfinal rounds. Then again, like I said, probrably basketball, though it's increasingly popular down there with the younger audiences like with the NBA, doesn't quite have the Australian Olympic pedigree like swimming has.

France Televisions in Paris went further last month with its press conference announcing the France Television Olympics coverage with fencing legend Laura Flessel-Colovic as flag bearer. I've already mentioned the set design, the hosts, and the double decker bus named Louise after Louise Ekland (who will be there traveling around to various interesting spots of London). This brief article mentions that TF1 will actually broadcast the Opening Ceremony but France 2 will show a gala evening opener live in London with host Marie Drucker. However that TF1 one might be a mistake.

http://translate.goo...%26prmd%3Dimvns

France Televisions' confirmed full roster of sportscasters of the play-by-play people and analysts for the London Olympics can be found here

http://www.lezapping...-105277708.html

France Televisions Sport's 2012 Olympic Games media guide or press kit that just hit. France TV seems to be focusing on only several instead of all of them this time. What's shocking is that gymnastics, an incredibly popular sport worldwide, is not to be found there at all among the sports shown. No volleyball either, either indoor or beach. This may have something to do with France not qualifying for both. Yet, France TV sent a team to the European Championships in Montpellier, France. It's also got on France O an Olympic quiz show that started on June 2 all the way to the day of the Opening Ceremonies. Plus, there's Paralympics broadcast info too.

http://www.francetel...complet-BD3.pdf

France residents, become an e-reporter at the Olympic Games in London for FranceTV Sport!

http://plateautele.f...-francetvsport/

Jerome Alonzo replaces Xavier Gravelaine as France TV's soccer analyst.

http://tele.premiere...visions-3366290

According to France's Sport TV, at the home page underneath the Olympics rings, it has the brand new beIN Sport, a creation of Al-Jazeera Sport for the French market, among the logos and rights holders for the London Olympics. Can't quite confirm that beIN Sport is taking the place of Canal + as the pay TV Olympic broadcaster in France. It would definitely be interesting if that happened as a very young sports channel with Orange Sport also now existing. If proven true, this may take care of the gymnastics and volleyball portions on TV.

The Canadian Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium structure as it continues to take shape since Thursday night's announcement with its 5500 hours is making me seriously reconsider my thoughts on how it will distribute the coverage. There's still much to be covered, but I'm starting to get the impression that because of the even wider-ranging amount of Olympic sports than it was in Vancouver, the Consortium will not be able to do the Vancouver structure of CTV doing the live look-ins of the events and urge people to head over to the network doing the fuller coverage. I think CTV will have some events to itself unless simulcasted like both ceremonies. Apparently, the soccer, at this point the women's soccer, will be shared by CTV/TSN and Sportsnet but with separate sportscasters in both entities.

Because of the immense amount of Summer Olympic sports, I was (faintly) hoping some of the other networks like TSN2, Sportsnet ONE, Sportsnet World, and RDS2 that weren't a part of it last time in Vancouver (In RDS2' case, it didn't even exist yet) would come in and help ease the burden on the premier networks involved and provide an outlet for sports that don't garner much attention in English Canada at least and possibly can't do because of other serious commitments like CFL football (TSN) and Toronto Blue Jays baseball (Rogers Sportsnet). You would think that with the immense soccer it covers, Sportsnet World would easily take care of the Olympic soccer matches that CTV/TSN and Rogers Sportsnet can't take in on their TV schedules and perhaps have more global sports like team handball, volleyball, sailing, water polo, field hockey (Canada failed to qualify there), shooting, and weghtlifting like the US Bravo did for Athens 2004. TSN2 ideally can take care more of the basketball, if needed, which hasn't officially announced its team, likely Matt Devlin and Jack Armstrong from the Toronto Raptors, and equestrian. But in those entities, they got other broadcast commitments too and it wouldnt't be as cost-efficient, so they're sent online as part of the 2100 hours contingent. We know for sure TSN got gymnastics on ice with Rod Black and maybe some track and field (athletics). You probrably assume with the events mentioned on the Gordon Pinsent-narrated TSN Believe promos of Mary Kom (boxing), Wang Hao (table tennis), Jason Whitten (triathlon), Valerie Vezzi (fencing), Tom Daley and Alexandre Despatie (diving), Lin Dao (badminton), those sports will be featured all on TSN. You'd be forgiven if you do and turned out not to be the case. These days, you gotta have at least four TV networks working round the clock for satisfactory comprehensive Olympic coverage.

Not really concerned about the 704 hours on the French arm, though I'm confused if RDS INFO is actually involved, I'd like to say yes because its logo is still among those part of the Consortium. Would've liked to see RDS2 get involved, though. But APTN's absence had me curious. Why isn't it a part of that? Did talks break down? Is it the issue of not seeing enough interest from the Aboriginal communities on this in London like there was in Vancouver or not enough Aboriginal Canadians outside of the once seemingly-invincible boxer Mary Spencer going to be on the team? Not enough widespread Canadian Olympic medal contenders in various sports? Were there any other impracticalities? Surely there's some Summer Olympic sports the Aboriginal Canadians would gather around to watch. Haven't talked to CanadianSports on this yet, but will. I'll revist all this later.

CTV did introduce some new sportscasters for London: Paul Romanuk, the former TSN hockey commentator, notably from the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships currently semi-retired from broadcasting and now living in London, will do play-by-play in wrestling there. Romanuk did the CBC's basketball coverage in Beijing. Russ Abner, former host of TSN's boxing show In This Corner, gets to do the boxing analysis with the announcer TBA. RJ Broadhead will announce beach volleyball.

Some Canadians are stunned that Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole, originally co-hosting in the TSN Olympic Morning slot, are stunned they won't do that now that Kate Beirness has that spot; they were looking forward to waking up with them. CanadianSports believes in his blog they may end up doing the TSN SportsCentre 5pm (Canada/US CST) edition back in Toronto as TSN's top team to get first access to the many highlights from London and compete against Sportsnet Central's Hazel Mae. Darren Dutchysen could eventually be the face of CTV/TSN sports when Brian Williams is ready to pass the torch. Like CanadianSports, I'd too like to see Lloyd Robertson at both ceremonies for CTV given his long-standing experience and knowledge of the Olympic Games.

http://canadiansport...tails/#comments

For those who want the French version of the CTV Olympic press release, click on to this. Look for the Corus Quebec radio stations to be back for this soon:

http://bellmediapr.c...15188&yyyy=2012

[Durban Sandshark]

PS: This is who the Consortium has for women's soccer according to Wikipedia: Luke Wileman, Lloyd Barker, and Jason De Vos (CTV/TSN) with Rogers Sportsnet (saying it out of habit) has Gerry Dobson, Craig Forrest, and Scott Rintoul. No Kara Lang in sight after she was previously announced in March. Surely that will change to fit in her.

Looks as though James Brydon will do all the combat sports reports for CTV including taekwondo.

[SwissO]

France Televisions in Paris went further last month with its press conference announcing the France Television Olympics coverage with fencing legend Laura Flessel-Colovic as flag bearer. I've already mentioned the set design, the hosts, and the double decker bus named Louise after Louise Ekland (who will be there traveling around to various interesting spots of London). This brief article mentions that TF1 will actually broadcast the Opening Ceremony but France 2 will show a gala evening opener live in London with host Marie Drucker. However that TF1 one might be a mistake.

http://translate.goo...%26prmd%3Dimvns

France Televisions' confirmed full roster of sportscasters of the play-by-play people and analysts for the London Olympics can be found here

http://www.lezapping...-105277708.html

France Televisions Sport's 2012 Olympic Games media guide or press kit that just hit. France TV seems to be focusing on only several instead of all of them this time. What's shocking is that gymnastics, an incredibly popular sport worldwide, is not to be found there at all among the sports shown. No volleyball either, either indoor or beach. This may have something to do with France not qualifying for both. Yet, France TV sent a team to the European Championships in Montpellier, France. It's also got on France O an Olympic quiz show that started on June 2 all the way to the day of the Opening Ceremonies. Plus, there's Paralympics broadcast info too.

http://www.francetel...complet-BD3.pdf

France residents, become an e-reporter at the Olympic Games in London for FranceTV Sport!

http://plateautele.f...-francetvsport/

Jerome Alonzo replaces Xavier Gravelaine as France TV's soccer analyst.

http://tele.premiere...visions-3366290

According to France's Sport TV, at the home page underneath the Olympics rings, it has the brand new beIN Sport, a creation of Al-Jazeera Sport for the French market, among the logos and rights holders for the London Olympics. Can't quite confirm that beIN Sport is taking the place of Canal + as the pay TV Olympic broadcaster in France. It would definitely be interesting if that happened as a very young sports channel with Orange Sport also now existing. If proven true, this may take care of the gymnastics and volleyball portions on TV.

To be accurate some comments...

- France TV (with its channels France 2, France 3, France 4 and France 0) is the only rights holder for the Olympic Games in France (beside specific Eurosport Deal) on all platforms (including free to air & paid per view channels)

- France TV will broadcast on its main channels France 2 & France 3 from 9am to midnight, all sports & events, focussing on the French team and the primary events of the Games. The list of sport in their press file is not the full one... For example they are not mentioning here the cycling events... but those cycling events will have a prime coverage as one of the main source of medals (Track, BMX & Mountain Bike !). So we will see Gymnastics here, some beach volley ...

- But France TV is trying to make money with those rights... so is sharing some of them !

=> TF1 will broadcast the Opening Ceremony (but France TV also... not clear if in live or not)

=> BeInSport will broadcast the Tennis, Handball & Basket tournament (but France TV also)

[Durban Sandshark]

To be accurate some comments...

- France TV (with its channels France 2, France 3, France 4 and France 0) is the only rights holder for the Olympic Games in France (beside specific Eurosport Deal) on all platforms (including free to air & paid per view channels)

- France TV will broadcast on its main channels France 2 & France 3 from 9am to midnight, all sports & events, focussing on the French team and the primary events of the Games. The list of sport in their press file is not the full one... For example they are not mentioning here the cycling events... but those cycling events will have a prime coverage as one of the main source of medals (Track, BMX & Mountain Bike !). So we will see Gymnastics here, some beach volley ...

- But France TV is trying to make money with those rights... so is sharing some of them !

=> TF1 will broadcast the Opening Ceremony (but France TV also... not clear if in live or not)

=> BeInSport will broadcast the Tennis, Handball & Basket tournament (but France TV also)

SwissO, thanks on clearing up some of those things.

I intentionally didn't include Eurosport and France TV because I thought that was to be understood by now given the length of pages in this thead that France TV and Eurosport has the French rights--already mentioned the channels.

Glad to hear that France TV is not completely giving up on gymnastics, tennis, beach volley, and cycling in its coverage. Those sports are tremendously popular in Europe, and it would be scandalous of France TV if they weren't televised. No surprise at all the focus on Equipe France is paramountFurthermore, also glad to read that it wasn't the complete array in the France TV 2012 Olympic press kit. So where will the new pages be soon and expect when the next wave of sportscasters announced?

BeInSport's got two channels to start with. Will they be France TV simulcasts though? Will it have it use its own commentary. You'd think if it got the rights earlier, it would try to take the mantle of pay-TV Olympic broadcasting locally from Canal + and perhaps add more Olympic-specific channels. But will those you mentioned the only sports it'll cover. There's online from France TV, but I can use a reminder about how many streams it will use that, and includes the TV stuff, features Olympic material not televized.

Like to know who the TF1 Opening Ceremony announcers are when that's confirmed.

It will be SS4 aka Olympic Gold that will the streamed stuff online and mobile devices and not SS3. Also, a new SuperSport Olympic "All The Games" promo campaign arrives this weekend that will focus on Olympic icons including some African ones telling stories and marveling other Olympic legends.

http://www.supersport.com/article.aspx?Id=1415721

Universal Sports and NBC ready for the US Gymnastics Trials and amatuer Olympic qualifying boxing:

http://tv.broadwayworld.com/article/NBC-to-Air-Live-Coverage-of-Visa-Championship-Gymnastics-Finals-Beg-68-20120607

http://www.multichannel.com/article/484507-Universal_Sports_Jabs_Olympic_Qualifying_Boxing_Coverage.php

[Durban Sandshark]

Denmark's TV2's OL 2012 website is now up and running! http://drupal-sporten.tv2.dk/ol

[SwissO]

Glad to hear that France TV is not completely giving up on gymnastics, tennis, beach volley, and cycling in its coverage. Those sports are tremendously popular in Europe, and it would be scandalous of France TV if they weren't televised. No surprise at all the focus on Equipe France is paramountFurthermore, also glad to read that it wasn't the complete array in the France TV 2012 Olympic press kit. So where will the new pages be soon and expect when the next wave of sportscasters announced?

BeInSport's got two channels to start with. Will they be France TV simulcasts though? Will it have it use its own commentary. You'd think if it got the rights earlier, it would try to take the mantle of pay-TV Olympic broadcasting locally from Canal + and perhaps add more Olympic-specific channels. But will those you mentioned the only sports it'll cover. There's online from France TV, but I can use a reminder about how many streams it will use that, and includes the TV stuff, features Olympic material not televized.

Like to know who the TF1 Opening Ceremony announcers are when that's confirmed.

Regarding France TV, I don't know why they only focused in their media file on Athletics, Swimming, Boxing, Handball, Judo, Football... as they will also have huge coverage on events where France has great chance to get medals : Fencing, Cycling, Equestrian, Canoe slalom, Rowing, Modern Pentathlon, Sailing, Tennis & Wrestling... and will also as usual show most of the sports including some very popular as Gymnastics or some less as Weightlifting !

With live broadcast from 9am to midnight (France 2 & 3) plus 2 channels dedicated to a specific sport France 4 (women soccer) & France O (men soccer), you could almost see every sport....

Plus, as i said, they will have, as for Beijing & Vancouver, the live streaming of 12 feeds online (the same as some countries will see on youtube !). Plus VOD, Plus behind the scene report, ...

BeInSport will only do live coverage on Tennis, Handball & basket, with their own commentaries from Paris. Sometimes, France TV (but also Eurosport) will broadcast the same events at the same time ! (Not sure if there is specific deals regarding events involving french team (or player in Tennis) that would only be shown of France TV);

But you could not compare BeInSport and Canal+. As Canal+ was a channel that people are able to received through "air" and not only through numeric (ADSL box, Satellite, Fiber, Cable....) ways. The rights that Canal+ had in the past was from UER in the package for "Air" channels...

France TV has the rights in France for the next olympics including 2020. Still don't understand clearly the existing deal for Eurosport, but from my pov BeInSport will be more a contestent for Eurosport than France TV.

Regarding one of your question, I don't think France TV will publish an addendum for their Media file... but they already announced their team of sports' consultant :

Franck Adisson : Canoe

Jérôme Alonzo : Football

Brahim Asloum : Boxing

Michel Boutard : Gymnastics

Virginie Couperie : Equestrian

Richard Dacoury : Basket M

Virginie Dedieu : Synchronized Swimming

Stéphane Diagana : Athletics

Patrice Dominguez : Tennis

Bernard Faure : Athletics

Didier Favori : Wrestling

Olivier Girault : Handball M

Frédérique Jossinet : Judo

Laurence Le Boucher : Cycling Mountain Bike

Roxana Maracineanu : Swimming

Frédéric Magné : Cycling Track

Valérie Nicolas : Handball W

Marinette Pichon : Football W

Michel Rousseau : Swimming

Isabelle Sévérino : Gymnastics

Yannick Souvré : Basket W

Cédric Vasseur : Cycling Road

[SwissO]

So in France, regarding the ceremonies, the fact that TF1 will broadcast them live is an old story/agreement from 2004.... before the election of the 2012 games !!!!

At that time it has been agreed that France TV will broadcast live all the sport events, and TF1 the 2 ceremonies plus a daily resume in the second part of the evening !

So France TV will only propose the ceremonies delayed... and TF1 will have them live.

Regarding their daily resume, FT1 sold apparently the rights for it to BeInSport....

By the way, BeInSport2 will start on July 28th !

[FiveRingFever]

Universal Sports and NBC ready for the US Gymnastics Trials and amatuer Olympic qualifying boxing:

http://tv.broadwaywo...Beg-68-20120607

http://www.multichan...ng_Coverage.php

DS, boxing happened in May. An item of interest for USA track fans might be the season debut of Tyson Gay at the NYC diamond League meet. It's on NBC Saturday from 3:00-4:30 EDT. Overall, the fields aren't quite as strong as last week's Prefontaine meet in Eugene but there are some good events, particularly the women's 100m.