Sochi 2014 Olympic Media Updates

[intoronto]

i agree that music pumps you up for the games.

[Durban Sandshark]

In the interest of fairness to Canadian bilingualism, the Radio-Canada French version of the "Sotchi 2014" promo using the same dialouge that it's "closer than you think". Still the exact same thing.

Sportfive has already struck deals for the 2014 Winter Olympics in various European nations late last year.

TV2 Norge as its first back in 2011 with its excellent and experienced sports coverage over the years

http://www.sportbusiness.com/news/183788/tv2-awarded-first-sportfive-olympic-rights-deal

DR and TV2 get the Danish media 2014-2016 Olympic rights for extensive coverage on both games:

http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/sportfive_awards_danish_olympic_rights/

Modern Times Group's Viasat will hold the rights to Sochi and Rio De Janeiro to all the Baltic republics of Estonia (ETV), Latvia (LTV, no radio rights though), and Lithuania (LNK-UAB for exclusively ceremonies and Lietuvos Rytas TV for the events). Each free-to-air TV channel will air one exclusive event from Viasat with the pay-TV ones airing everything on TV, online, and video-on-demand:

http://www.c21media.net/archives/84616

http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/bevy_of_baltic_deals_for_sportfives_olympic_group

Ceske Televize buys Sportfive's Czech Republic TV rights and Cesky Rozhlas gets the radio platform with Nova Group on board for pay-TV:

http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/olympic_media_rights_sold_in_the_czech_republic/

RTVS in Slovakia gets the 2014-2016 rights for Slovaks:

http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/sportfive_sells_slovakian_olympic_rights

ANO Sports Broadcasting--comprised of Channel One, RTR, and NTV Plus-- will hold the Russian media rights to 2014-2016 that will allow Channel One, Russia 1, Russia 2, and Russia 24 air important events and extensive coverage:

http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/sportfive_concludes_olympic_agreement_in_russia/

RTV Slovenija holds the Slovenian Olympic media rights for this two year period:

http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/sportfive_seals_slovenian_olympic_deal/

[gotosy]

Olympic broadcasters gather in Sochi

27/02/2013

Rights-holding broadcasters for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games have gathered in Sochi for the second World Broadcaster Meeting, which is being held from 25 February to 2 March.

Over 200 representatives of international broadcasters have travelled to the Russian host city to view the broadcast facilities that will be available to them during next year’s Winter Games, such as the International Broadcast Centre (IBC), which will be the main hub for television coverage of Sochi 2014.

In May, work will begin on installing equipment in the IBC, in line with the requirements of Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) – the host broadcaster for the Games, which is responsible for international TV coverage production and the provision of services for broadcasters.

Representatives of the International Olympic Committee, OBS and the Sochi 2014 Organising Committee are also attending the meeting, which provides broadcasters with a chance to plan their own Games-time productions.

During the Games, the IBC – which is located in the Main Media Centre – will operate 24 hours a day and is expected to welcome approximately 12,000 media representatives, including more than 10,000 broadcast staff representing over 100 companies from all around the world.

In addition to the Main Media Centre in the Olympic Park, which provides direct and easy access to the Olympic venues in the Coastal Cluster, a second media and broadcast centre will operate close to the Mountain Cluster, where the skiing and sliding events will be held.

IOC

[Durban Sandshark]

Here's a major reason why TSN/RDS and Rogers Sportsnet were so interested in being a part of the new CBC-led Canadian Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium: these two entities have NHL hockey as its tentpole attraction on their networks, more so for Rogers with almost all of the Canadian NHL teams on its regional sports networks, and want to get access to the immense highlights and air them without those IOC restrictions as often and long as the two see fit to show Canadian residents their favorite NHL stars in action in Sochi. That, and the desire to show several games from the Olympic tournament, not just involving Team Canada.

I also believe we will get the same structuring when it comes to at least the men's hockey tournament with simulcasting of the men's gold medal game on CBC, TSN, RDS, and Rogers Sportsnet. Same personnel structure like with the analyts in Vancouver on all the English networks if not the exact personnel and maybe with individual Canada games, it will get divided among CBC (likely will get the first Canada game at least), TSN, and Rogers Sportsnet. Though we should not be surprised to see the CBC get the bulk of those games.

[Fox334]

Here's a major reason why TSN/RDS and Rogers Sportsnet were so interested in being a part of the new CBC-led Canadian Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium: these two entities have NHL hockey as its tentpole attraction on their networks, more so for Rogers with almost all of the Canadian NHL teams on its regional sports networks, and want to get access to the immense highlights and air them without those IOC restrictions as often and long as the two see fit to show Canadian residents their favorite NHL stars in action in Sochi. That, and the desire to show several games from the Olympic tournament, not just involving Team Canada.

I also believe we will get the same structuring when it comes to at least the men's hockey tournament with simulcasting of the men's gold medal game on CBC, TSN, RDS, and Rogers Sportsnet. Same personnel structure like with the analyts in Vancouver on all the English networks if not the exact personnel and maybe with individual Canada games, it will get divided among CBC (likely will get the first Canada game at least), TSN, and Rogers Sportsnet. Though we should not be surprised to see the CBC get the bulk of those games.

Lets be honnest, the only way TSN and SportsNet where getting any ratings durring those two weeks was by carrying the Olympics.

[intoronto]

Curling preliminaries are probably going to be on TSN with some hockey preliminaries on sportsnet/tsn

[ofan]

I wonder if only CBC commentators will be used since they hold the main rights, similar to in 2008.

[intoronto]

I wonder if only CBC commentators will be used since they hold the main rights, similar to in 2008.

If I remember correctly TSN had its own announcers for boxing in 2008.

[Quaker2001]

Here's a major reason why TSN/RDS and Rogers Sportsnet were so interested in being a part of the new CBC-led Canadian Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium: these two entities have NHL hockey as its tentpole attraction on their networks, more so for Rogers with almost all of the Canadian NHL teams on its regional sports networks, and want to get access to the immense highlights and air them without those IOC restrictions as often and long as the two see fit to show Canadian residents their favorite NHL stars in action in Sochi. That, and the desire to show several games from the Olympic tournament, not just involving Team Canada.

I'm no expert on Canadian television, but TSN and RDS are sports networks. I know they're both owned by CTV and Bell Media, but why wouldn't they want to be a part of the Olympics?

1 note about hockey and I started to get into it upthread.. a lot of the hockey games, especially in the men's tournament, overlap. So in both the United States and Canada, they'll need 2 networks to show all of the hockey live. If NBCSN had been in the mix for Vancouver, I'm fairly confident they would hvae shown virtually all of the hockey and the games were staggered to where they could have gotten all of them live. That won't be possible without a 2nd network showing hockey this time around. I'll be curious to see how NBC handles it.

[intoronto]

RDS is basically the French version of TSN and Sportsnet is owned by Rogers, Bell's rival.

[world atlas]

TVA Sports to broadcast Sochi 2014 in Canada

03 May 2013 By David Cushnan

CBC/Radio-Canada has sub-licensed the French-language Canadian rights to the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games to TVA Sports.

No further details of the level of TVA's coverage were revealed, but the broadcaster will become an official cable broadcaster of the winter Games in Canada, according to a CBC statement.

CBC regained the Canadian rights to the Olympics in August last year, reaching agreement with the International Olympic Committee for the 2014 and 2016 events. The company has broadcast 19 Olympics over the past 60 years but missed out on Vancouver 2010 and London 2012, the rights for which were sold to Bell Media and Rogers Communications.

"In acquiring the broadcast rights to the Sochi Olympics, one of CBC/Radio-Canada's primary objectives was to connect as many Canadians as possible with this unparalleled sporting event," said CBC/Radio-Canada executive vice-president Louis Lalande.

"Our agreement with TVA Sports represents a major milestone in helping us achieve that objective."

TVA Group's president and chief executive Pierre Dio added: "TVA Sports will be giving viewers the opportunity to get an up-close look at this major international competition and follow how Canada's and Quebec's athletes fare in their Olympic disciplines."

No financial details were revealed.

http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/tva_sports_to_broadcast_sochi_2014_in_canada

[Durban Sandshark]

Interesting. I'm taking that it will cover the French language commentary of the Olympic sports that Rogers Sportnet will take care of in English and balance things out. This is the first time TVA has been involved in the Olympics since Calgary, if I recall correctly. Now that it's official, I won't be surprised that TVA Sports will be brought in for Rio for likewise. For example, there wasn't much of a French version of the broadcasts for Canada's women's basketball games in London on RDS and RDS2. 3x champion Windsor Lancers women's basketball coach Chantal Vallee would be great for that there.

SB Nation's Steve Lapore ponders about how the NBC family should cover the Olympic hockey on its networks for Sochi. He even proposes an interesting idea of getting the NHL Network involved. If you're going to do that in the US, might as well do it for Canada too. Doesn't need to show games, even on tape-delay until perhaps much later, but have daily analysis for all games men's and women's. I do feel the NBC Sports Network should be the home for much of the hockey, especially the Team USA ones.

http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2013/2/26/4029798/winter-olympics-2014-hockey-television-nbc-nhl

No more Terra. America Movil is taking over for online and mobile Olympic broadcasting for all 17 Latin America nations excluding Brazil for Sochi and Rio.

http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/america_movil_lands_broadcast_rights_for_rio_and_sochi/

[Durban Sandshark]

In carrying on that Latin theme on my last post, don't be surprised that we Americans will see a Telemundo Deportes starting with Sochi as the Hispanic/Latin audience booms as I said on the London thread. We already got ESPN Deportes, FOX Deportes, and now Univision Deportes, beIN Sport, and Time Warner Cable Deportes. Why not TD? But in order for Telemundo Deportes to survive outside of the Olympics, it needs a tentpole TV rights programming. Maybe NHL hockey and some NCAA college basketball. Anyway, Telemundo Deportes can serve as an outlet for more expansive Olympic coverage in Spanish like more hockey, figure skating, curling, skiing, snowboarding, and daily Olympic news while Telemundo can deal with its own nice daily block of Olympic programming and show the ceremonies. Perhaps it can import the sportscasting feed from maybe America Movil if TD can't hire its own set.

I'm also thinking that TVA Sports will have the same amount of broadcast hours for Sochi that Rogers Sportsnet has--200 hours. We can expect RDS will return with its portion of the coverage in Canada with around that much, if not more. With RDS2 now in the fold, it's got to be a part of this. Don't forget TVA Sports wants to have access to the lucrative NHL stars footage in Sochi so it can show itself all the ice hockey footage for its fans. Quebecor certainly doesn't want to be shut out too, especially when it has major aspirations of getting the NHL back to Quebec City with its new 18,000-seat arena being built right now. So I think the French portion is all set with SRC, TVA Sports, and RDS.

A reminder of Nova Sport and Flip getting the 2014-2016 Olympic broadcasting rights in the Czech Republic for the first time to a Czech private broadcaster. Only for hockey apparently.

http://news.kurzy.cz/338959-olympic-hockey-in-2014-will-be-broadcast-on-nova-and-flip/

Please forgive me if this was already posted. NBC proudly proclaimed that it will show Olympic coverage the day before the Opening Ceremony for the first time ever at the one-year countdown. But there's very strong evidence that ABC had already did so back in 1980, much to the annoyance of former ABC Olympic staffers. But thanks to http://classicsportsmedia.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-nbc-false-claim-and-opening-night.html'>Classic Sports and Media and http://www.nyiskinny.com/2013_02_01_archive.html'>intrepid New York Islanders TV statsman Erik Hornick, NBC's claim is debunked. In fact, ABC showed the USA-Sweden hockey game, featuring coverage of the 3rd period that saw Bill Baker score the game-tying goal in the last minute that kicked off a magical two weeks for the “Miracle on Ice” team.Coverage was from 8-10pm US CST on February 12 during primetime. ABC did this again with the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics with USA hockey on tape delay on the night before the OC without intermissions. Also done in 1976 in Innsbruck.

http://fangsbites.com/2013/02/how-an-nbc-sports-olympics-press-release-got-debunked/

[Quaker2001]

Please forgive me if this was already posted. NBC proudly proclaimed that it will show Olympic coverage the day before the Opening Ceremony for the first time ever at the one-year countdown. But there's very strong evidence that ABC had already did so back in 1980, much to the annoyance of former ABC Olympic staffers. But thanks to Classic Sports and Media and intrepid New York Islanders TV statsman Erik Hornick, NBC's claim is debunked. In fact, ABC showed the USA-Sweden hockey game, featuring coverage of the 3rd period that saw Bill Baker score the game-tying goal in the last minute that kicked off a magical two weeks for the “Miracle on Ice” team.Coverage was from 8-10pm US CST on February 12 during primetime. ABC did this again with the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics with USA hockey on tape delay on the night before the OC without intermissions. Also done in 1976 in Innsbruck.

http://fangsbites.com/2013/02/how-an-nbc-sports-olympics-press-release-got-debunked/

Durban, once again you continue to both amaze and bemuse me with your posts. NBC's proclamation about coverage before the Opening Ceremony was already posted. That press release is the first post in this thread, actually. What's funny is that not only did several people reply and discuss it, you were 1 of them!! You're posting something nearly 3 months after the fact that you already had seen and commented on.

Like I've said before.. you find more news and information related to Olympic media than I would ever think is out there. But when it comes to NBC and what's coming from the United States, sometimes you just seem to miss the mark or be so out of date that it makes me curious how you're finding these things. I'm always happy to discuss NBC and the Olympics anytime. I know you have more important things to do than comb the Internet for stories on Olympic media, but I do wonder sometimes how you'll post something months after the fact as if it's supposed to be fresh news. Granted, we're not all American here, but many of us are. So you can get away with that with media stories from all over the world. Be careful though where you're doing that with NBC or else you're posting about stuff that may have been posted and discussed weeks or months earlier. I mean, if you're telling us in December that you've just watched the Opening Ceremony and giving us detailed thoughts on it, keep in mind we all did that months earlier. You're a little late to the party in that regard.

[reidjr]

Does anyone know how many hours total Cbc/Sportsnet/Tsn will air?

[Durban Sandshark]

Rogers Sportsnet does plan to air at least 200 hours of coverage upon the announcement that it was joining the CBC. As for the CBC, I'm thinking for now it will follow suit to what CTV did and air 22 hours a day, if not less, with the two hours reserved for news like The National and CBC Evening News and local news. Don't know if we'll see a CBC SportsPlus as was planned to come in, since it's on hold indefinitely. That might a time for it to come in, especially for Sochi and Rio.

TSN will probrably go at least 200 hours too with somewhere between 18-21 hours a day.

[andrew_syd]

It's just been reported that Network Ten have won the Australian broadcasting rights to Sochi 2014:

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/national/ten-wins-2014-winter-olympics-rights/story-e6frfku9-1226640656496

Damn, I was hoping this would be Seven's return as "Australia's Olympic Network" At least it's not Nine again!!

[reidjr]

Rogers Sportsnet does plan to air at least 200 hours of coverage upon the announcement that it was joining the CBC. As for the CBC, I'm thinking for now it will follow suit to what CTV did and air 22 hours a day, if not less, with the two hours reserved for news like The National and CBC Evening News and local news. Don't know if we'll see a CBC SportsPlus as was planned to come in, since it's on hold indefinitely. That might a time for it to come in, especially for Sochi and Rio.

TSN will probrably go at least 200 hours too with somewhere between 18-21 hours a day.

I am not sure if they can but it would be nice to see them use Cbc News World for some events say 6-8 hours a day.

[rio2016man]

Will be interesting to see how TEN goes with the Winter Olympics, and whether Foxtel can work out a deal to offer dedicated channels once again

[Durban Sandshark]

Been since 1988 since Ten was involved with the Olympics. A lot had happened with that network since then with being in the red and bankruptcy, being in ratings decline, Christopher Skase and Qintex, rebranding to TV 10 Australia, and receivership in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It's got lots of experience no doubt with sports. But not as far as I know much in the winter sports with this crop now present; it's a whole different era now than when Ten last did the Winter Olympics in Calgary. Will the sportscasters be willing to educate themselves on the sports and hire really good analysts?

Glad too it's not Nine Network for this at least. I still hope Seven will get the Summer Olympics, Andrew_Syd. According to Wikipedia, FOXTEL and Nine apparently struck a deal to get together for Sochi.

CBC Newsworld would be interesting to get on board for Sochi for 6-8 hours. It can now that Bold had been sold off. Still loads more to discover as we get closer.

[ofan]

It is now CBC News Network

[Brekkie Boy]

It's just been reported that Network Ten have won the Australian broadcasting rights to Sochi 2014:

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/national/ten-wins-2014-winter-olympics-rights/story-e6frfku9-1226640656496

Damn, I was hoping this would be Seven's return as "Australia's Olympic Network" At least it's not Nine again!!

Well this is a one games deal and according to SportsProMedia the IOC will now try and sell 2016/18/20 as a package, probably hoping the two summer games loosens the purse strings. Whether sold separately or as part of this package I'd still put 7 as facvourites for 2016.

[ofan]

If Seven gets 2016/2018/2020 Australia's Olympic coverage is just jumping back and forth between networks.

[andrew_syd]

You got the impression through Seven's marketing and presentation that they considered the Olympics to be something special, the biggest and best even in the world. In the lead up to Sydney 2000 - and beyond - they obviously invested a lot in their Olympic brand. Nine pretty much treated the Vancouver and London Games like just another big sporting event on their schedule. That's the main difference between the two, in my opinion.

Every Games, Seven copped a lot of criticism for various reasons - too many ads, saying an event was live when it was actually slightly delayed etc etc. Valid arguments but you are always going to have that sort of thing from a free-to-air network and I never thought they were that bad anyway. In fact I would go as far to say that they were better at the Olympics than any other network I've seen in the word. I kinda laughed a bit when everyone during London was criticising Nine, saying to bring back Seven. I just thought "we'll guys, you got the change you asked for last time" lol

And it's no secret that Nine was desperate to snatch the Olympics away from Seven in an attempt to gain at least a bit of an audience again.. For years they couldn't get people watching so the Games gave them the exposure they needed to push their upcoming shows like Big Brother and Underbelly. Recent ratings has shown that has paid off for them to a degree.

[Quaker2001]

Every Games, Seven copped a lot of criticism for various reasons - too many ads, saying an event was live when it was actually slightly delayed etc etc. Valid arguments but you are always going to have that sort of thing from a free-to-air network and I never thought they were that bad anyway. In fact I would go as far to say that they were better at the Olympics than any other network I've seen in the word. I kinda laughed a bit when everyone during London was criticising Nine, saying to bring back Seven. I just thought "we'll guys, you got the change you asked for last time" lol

[sarcasm] Wait a sec.. do you mean to tell me that people actually complain about Olympic TV coverage in places other than the United States? And that NBC isn't the only network that shows commercials or time-shifts Olympic events? My goodness, what an amazing revelation this is!![/sarcasm]

I've read a few times that Aussies time to have somre of the same nitpicks with Olympic coverage as we have here in the States. Obviously not on the same level as NBC, but then again the United States has about 14 times the population that Australia does. And it's the same rhetoric we get all the time here that NBC needs to go and any network would be better. I guarantee if ESPN had come in and taken over for Sochi, people would be asking for NBC to come back. It's a no-win situation. The Olympics are the type of event where you can rarely please everyone, so you'll always have those voicing their displeasure.