Some More Olympic Tv Updates

[Durban Sandshark]

Has TVNZ announced more details of their most comprehensive Olympic TV plans for the Pacific islands? It only seems like two weeks ago that they officially announced this. How many hours and the like the network has in store for them?

For ATV in Peru, based on the the channel's program guide for this week, it's got the Olympic Games airing live (unless not indicated) late at night and into early in the morning with tennis, swimming, volleyball, and cycling on weekdays. All through the midday, there's gymnastics and more swimming with a reappearance with a weeknight one-hour primetime presentation of women's volleyball and swimming. But it's really during the weekend when ATV Canal 9 really goes all out with its coverage almost all day with the aforementioned sports plus men's soccer. I missed out on the last week, but I presume that Opening Ceremony was shown live and then re-aired on tape delay for primetime with Olympic coverage immediately afterward on the weekend.

TVes' Olympic TV programming gets a similiar treatment and structure like that of ATV's. But unlike Canal 9, it isn't as detailed about the sports the network covers with some exceptions. You can best be sure that volleyball, softball, soccer, and boxing are involved. From midnight to 5 am, Venevision airs the 2008 Beijing Olympics live with Jesus Martin as the host from Beijing. There are a 30 minute show at 7 am on Saturday and a 1 hour show at noon on Sunday. For more, visit Venevision's Olympics website. Meridiano TV apparently does theirs in blocks with a four hour one in the morning, three and a half hours in the afternoon, and an evening two hour one. Not one major block during the day so as not to interfere with the MLB baseball, F1 racing, and stuff like that. Regardless, Meridiano TV's got their special Olympic website up.

Argentina's Canal 7, the public TV station, announced it would air 14 hours daily of the Olympics showing every Olympic event just like its cable partner TyC Sport. But the latter has simulcasts with the likes of basketball, soccer, and field hockey at times. Canal 7 will have greater emphasis on the Argentinian athletes of the two, but TyC Sports in their programming guide, doesn't mention, with few exceptions like those team sports, what exactly sports will appear on those programming blocks. It's more round-the-clock but steps aside when Primera Liga soccer hits on Sunday (Domingol) and other shows like Area 18, even during brief transmission stops.

Canal 10 isn't the only Uruguay Television representative. What's more their Olympic coverage is restricted to just late at night to a few hours daily--you can tell by its programming guide--with a daily half-hour show at 12:30 and coverage going from 23:55 to 7. Monte Carlo TV, another member of OTI, is also involved with cycling, swimming, soccer, gymnastics, and track and field. Much of the coverage starts late at night live from 1-1:30, depending on the day, to 6:30 with some resuming on some days a half an hour later for a few more hours to accomodate the swimming. It resumes for an hour on middays and then for an half an hour on primetime. Weekends, they of course get extended more to an extent in blocks.

Paraguay? I believe it may be worse than what was offered in that country than in Athens if not the same. There may be a highlights review package at the conclusion of Beijing. Neither Paraguay's OTI members SNT Canal 13 and Telefuturo have any daily Olympic TV stuff in their programming guides. Bolivia's Unitel is even worse for sure: that network's Olympic programming only runs two hours daily from 15-17:00 or 15:30-17:30 on weekends with highlights of the day with the focus on the Bolivians. Then again, Bolivia has no illusions about contending for any medal with its small team.

Armenia First Channel started things off with the Opening Ceremony live at 17:00 on Friday, and then its coverage deals with sports like judo, boxing, shooting, some swimming, weightlifting, and track (that's the schedule so far that I found) with a twice-daily Olympic Diary news/review show. AZTV in Azerbaijan is more limited with daily appearances late night/early in the morning (4-6 hours) and in the afternoon and evening review blocks.

Taiwan's Olympic TV networks representatives: Chinese Television, Taiwan Television, Formosa Television, and Taiwan Broadcasting. I'm surprised that these networks weren't in the list of international broadcasters for the Wikipedia Beijing 2008 entry. What they're doing is getting involved in archery, baseball, tennis, taekwondo, soccer, softball, swimming, and track and field, among others.

Khelo Or Jeeto airs on Geo Super in Pakistan after the competition at 10pm.

Belatedly, we finally have the Olympic websites from RDS, which is airing 200 hours of French-language coverage in Canada, Magyar Televizio (with both M1 and M2 operating on HD), Radio-Canada's Olympic TV schedule, RTE , and Telesport

I wonder if RAI Due's coverage is a little like Australia's Seven Network in terms of no choice but to jump around in its coverage instead of staying with one sport at a time until the end and give more extensive stuff to mother outlets? What does RAI Sport Piu do with theirs portion of the coverage? Perhaps SKY Italia can't come soon enough. I'll check on it soon with the TV guides online.

Televisa says its share of the Mexican Olympic programming comes on Channel 5 there. TV Azteca has El Show Del Chadito, Luna Beijing, Analysis Beijing, and El Show Olimpico all airing where really there should be sports coverage at Daallo says.

Macedonia's MTV is frustrating for me because of the apparent lack of a TV guide for the Olympics, and I can't really get it.

[Durban Sandshark]

It's really MKTV in Macedonia

[NY20??]

who is next to take over NBC's coverage? I know NBC covered the olympics (since '88 summer olympics) I know ABC covered the games for a long time (last being '88 winter olympics) i say ABC will get back the games

Who says NBC will stop after 2012?

[Durban Sandshark]

NBC Universal still is the odds-on favorites to maintain their US Olympic TV/Internet rights beyond 2012. But when the negotiations are going to happen, we can see stiffer competition from ESPN and the Fox Network.

Olympics08, I noticed on Wikipedia Solar Sports has two PPV Olympic channels to watch more of the Olympics through Solar All Access 1 and 2. What do you know about them?

Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Panama, like many of the Latin American nations, all will have their bulk of the coverage late night on up to the morning, sometimes just highlights. Canal 8 is representing Ecuavisa--it showed the Opening Ceremonies in its entirety, but now does daily highlights stuff. RPCTV's Canal 4is doing the broadcast honours for Panama, where Panamians can watch it late at night either from 10-11pm to usually 6 or 8:30 am. 8:30 am and 1pm are the designated daily highlights shows with the 1pm one going an hour long. Costa Rica's Canal 33 and Canal 7 of Teletica are sharing the coverage with 7 having aired the Opening Ceremonies. Senal Colombia is running the Olympics 24 hours a day. All except for Costa Rica and Colombia, there exists no detailed Olympic programming on their grids. Don't forget RCN's Olympic Page.

Finally, SuperSport and the Taiwanese TV channels are now on the Wikipedia list.

[Olympic USA]

NBC Universal still is the odds-on favorites to maintain their US Olympic TV/Internet rights beyond 2012. But when the negotiations are going to happen, we can see stiffer competition from ESPN and the Fox Network.

I really hope Fox does not the right....seriously, Fox would completely ruin the Olympics in my opinion, could you imagine reporters from the Fox news network going to places like Sochi and reporting back.....ABC or CBS would be better.

[Quaker2001]

I really hope Fox does not the right....seriously, Fox would completely ruin the Olympics in my opinion, could you imagine reporters from the Fox news network going to places like Sochi and reporting back.....ABC or CBS would be better.

CBS has stated they have no interest in bidding on the Olympics. Fox will be in the running as will ABC/ESPN, this won't be a slam dunk like NBC had in winning 2010/2012, and don't expect a pre-emptive strike like they made for 2004-2008. The IOC may want to wait until the site of the 2016 Olympics is chosen before they make the decision (if Rio or especially if Chicago is the host, that could boost the value of the Olympics to the American networks). Personally, I hope NBC is still the network. They've built up such a solid tradition of broadcasting the Olympics and for all of the nit-picking, they have really defined the formula of how to cover an Olympics. Fox has some international ties that will help them, but overall I think they lack the firepower and experience to cover an event like an Olympics (sure they're the standard these days on something like baseball, but a big international sports event like the Olympics is a completely different animal). ABC/ESPN.. please no. Everyone will expect the old school Wide World of Sports-quality that people will remember from the 1980s but it's just not going to happen. As much as I'd love all of the extra coverage that ESPN would start providing on all of their outlets, it's just not worth it.

[lamptern]

"Did CCTV televise the Pre-Opening Ceremony at the Bird's Nest, if there was such like there was in Athens when ET1 did it?"

No. They just aired part of the pre-opening show while the programe director switched between several injection points.

[code1390]

That sucks NBC is streaming no track and field stuff online. Maybe some of us want to watch the hammer throw prelims.

[Durban Sandshark]

That sucks NBC is streaming no track and field stuff online. Maybe some of us want to watch the hammer throw prelims.

I would too, but I don't own personal computer (either desktop or laptop) to devote to watching at this time. You would think it all be there ultimately; we're just now into the events of course.

While we're dealing with omitting, I saw a NBC promo this morning announcing a 2-DVD complete set of the Opening Ceremony ready for sale. Could this be an American repackaging of the 2-DVD CCTV set to NBC commentary? I doubt that though. Everything's gotta be shown online now with more screen time for other nations. My question: will it be also available on Blu-Ray? It should. BTW, I saw on eBay the other day an upcoming release of a 3-DVD set inlcuding the Closing Ceremony from CCTV. Surely the artwork will change to reflect the occurances.

[pacey988]

CBS has stated they have no interest in bidding on the Olympics. Fox will be in the running as will ABC/ESPN, this won't be a slam dunk like NBC had in winning 2010/2012, and don't expect a pre-emptive strike like they made for 2004-2008. The IOC may want to wait until the site of the 2016 Olympics is chosen before they make the decision (if Rio or especially if Chicago is the host, that could boost the value of the Olympics to the American networks). Personally, I hope NBC is still the network. They've built up such a solid tradition of broadcasting the Olympics and for all of the nit-picking, they have really defined the formula of how to cover an Olympics. Fox has some international ties that will help them, but overall I think they lack the firepower and experience to cover an event like an Olympics (sure they're the standard these days on something like baseball, but a big international sports event like the Olympics is a completely different animal). ABC/ESPN.. please no. Everyone will expect the old school Wide World of Sports-quality that people will remember from the 1980s but it's just not going to happen. As much as I'd love all of the extra coverage that ESPN would start providing on all of their outlets, it's just not worth it.

I too hope NBC remains as the U.S. Olympic broadcaster. Besides not having the experience, Fox does not have a national sports channel to compliment whatever they show on the main network (it's all regional channels) and I can't possibly see them having enough depth in terms of announcing. As for ABC/ESPN, the thing to remember is that ABC Sports as everyone knew it is no more. ESPN now puts its name on every sports program that is broadcast on ABC; they may be good at broadcasting sports, but they're not good in sports news. Think of the scenario that would play out if one or more of the "Sportscenter" hosts took part in the coverage. If one of them were doing a highlight package of the events, they would probably use catch-phrases and just not take the whole thing seriously, in a poor attempt to add humor to the broadcast (as Bob Costas once said of ESPN Sportscenter anchors, "they act like they're doing a stand-up sitting down").

[olympics08]

Olympic coverage so far here...

Solar Entertainment is mounting the Philippines' biggest ever Olympic operation to bring Filipinos all the action from Beijing.

They are there every step of the way - on TV, online, mobile phones, on restoraunts, hotels and pubs.

Solar Sports, BTV, Jack TV, RPN-9 (C/S Sports), ETC, 2nd Avenue and Solar All Access are providing I think 1,500 hours of extensive coverage from the Games.

2nd Avenue- Airs at 17:00-19:00 and 23:00-01:00. Airing diving, sychronized swimming, fencing and equestrian.

ETC - Airing beach volleyball, badminton and gymnastics. Same time as 2nd Avenue.

Jack TV - Airing BMX Cycling, wrestling, and I think the lesser familiar sports to Filipinos (such as handball). Airs at 14:00-16:00

C/S Sports - Airing the opening and closing ceremonies, plus archery, basketball, football, taekwondo, shooting, boxing, cycling, triathlon, weightlifting and tennis. Recently, I heard that C/S Sports is also broadcasting the star sports of the Olympics: swimming and track and field. Airs at 18:00-02:00 on weekdays (except 23:00-00:00 to give way for the news). On weekends coverage starts at 10:00 and its all the way till 02:00 the next morning! Also home to live coverage for terrestrial viewers (last weekend's tennis finals were shown live, so did the OC, and so will the CC). It's because RPN-9 is the major of the three Solar operated terrestrial channels.

BTV - Airing continuosly the basketball events.

Solar Sports - Nonstop coverage (24/7) of all 28 events contested in Beijing!

Solar All Access - Available for those who ordered this, cable viewers will be able to choose from up to two channels of action, 24 hours a day. Also available for the many cable systems that don't have Solar Sports (including mine). Also airing all events.

As usual, the website has all the latest news and photos.

I forgot, there's also a "Samsung Daily Update" 4x a dayt on Solar Sports and 2x a day on C/S Sports. A "Samsung Olympic Recap" airs at 00:00 simultanously on Solar Sports and C/S Sports.

Solar Sports can also be seen on mobile TV and on 3G phones during the Games. Solar All Access also provides public viewing in places such as the National Sports Grill, Century Park Hotel and Ocean Park Bistro (the restoraunt of an aquairium in Manila.)

That's it for now!

[Durban Sandshark]

Things have slowed down for me as far as bringing stuff on this thread largely because of my work committments with BTS time in full gear. Anyways...

I found out thanks to Wikipedia, Red Uno, another TV network is airing the Beijing Games in Bolivia with Unitel. However, we don't truly know for sure because the website is under construction. Also listed is TyC Sports airing them too, with an Argentine bent of course.

Got a couple of belated stuff pertaining to Germany, South Africa, and Norway (not necessarily in that order): NRK hooks up with SportN to provide Olympic coverage in HD that is of course simulcasted from NRK's feed. I checked out the African SuperSport programming. Outside of South Africa, there are two options: one for Nigerians and one for the rest of Africa. The Nigerian subscribers actually won't have SuperSport Xtra2 or SuperSport Maximo2 while those in the rest of Africa won't have access to just SuperSport Xtra2. Go ahead and click on the TV schedule for that, but do make sure you select Summer Olympics for what's left of the TV coverage ahead after you select either Nigeria and Rest of Africa. And now, at long last, the massive and eagerly anticipated ARD and ZDF Olympia TV 2008 Schedule. I would recommend the TV schedules with the four digital TV channels from both Das Erste and ZDF included for more complete stuff better.

I tried to look at Cuba but there's no website to its network. Just an email address to its network that I got from OTI's roster of member TV networks. I'm certain that Cuba's broadcast is at least 220-250 hours with track and field, swimming, volleyball, basketball, baseball, boxing, soccer all in.

[NYCD 2012]

Olympic Highlights Show presentor,

[NYCD 2012]

In Singapore, Olympic Highlights Show presentor, Jade Seah was caught saying f**k during a technical error on the show. Here the youtube video,

[Durban Sandshark]

I too hope NBC remains as the U.S. Olympic broadcaster. Besides not having the experience, Fox does not have a national sports channel to compliment whatever they show on the main network (it's all regional channels) and I can't possibly see them having enough depth in terms of announcing. As for ABC/ESPN, the thing to remember is that ABC Sports as everyone knew it is no more. ESPN now puts its name on every sports program that is broadcast on ABC; they may be good at broadcasting sports, but they're not good in sports news. Think of the scenario that would play out if one or more of the "Sportscenter" hosts took part in the coverage. If one of them were doing a highlight package of the events, they would probably use catch-phrases and just not take the whole thing seriously, in a poor attempt to add humor to the broadcast (as Bob Costas once said of ESPN Sportscenter anchors, "they act like they're doing a stand-up sitting down").

I too agree that NBC should retain its status as America's Olympic Network beyond London 2012. When I first got into the Olympics with ABC growing up, there were reasons why that network deservedly had that distinction, among them were the great Jim McKay and Roone Arledge. But now it's been two decades since ABC did them with Calgary, and the Olympics have grown exponentially in coverage, scope, and spectacle since. Pacey is right: everything in sports that ABC does now is under the ESPN banner, except for a few college football games. Part of that now deals with how the more obscure sports disappear from ABC's Wide World of Sports on free-to-air to cable channels thanks in no small part to the large multimillion dollar network TV deals given to sports like NCAA, NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, and the MLS. Because of that, priority is granted to them, so no more of that Wide World of Sports variety these days. I remember Sportsbeat, but what comes to that now from ABC/ESPN is Outside The Lines and the Sports Reporters. Those Sportscenter anchors really have to pleasantly surprise me to cover those Olympic sports; I know they're capable and can utilize expert analysis from the likes of Julie Foudy when neccessary. Catchphrases should be kept to a minimum becasue of the poor execution of injecting humor under a more astere enviroment. If ESPN wants to emulate TV Azteca or Televisa do it after the day's coverage is over. The one good thing that ESPN has over Fox Sports right now is the ESPN360, which can act as an outlet to sports and international coverage that can't fit into the TV programming like it does with CFL football (imported from TSN) and cricket (taken from ESPN Star Sports Asia) that the large ESPN worldwide family has the broadcast rights to. Of course, ESPN is more than capable of creating channels solely devoted to the Olympics along with ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN ESPNEWS, and ESPN Deportes. That way, it won't interfere with its Major League Baseball coverage and its Sportscenters too much. Hopefully assuming ESPN gets the rights to the Games starting with 2014, ESPN360 can store and archive more sports than just for a week by then.

Fox Sports' issue despite having the SKY Sports channels in its corner for Italy and New Zealand, as Quaker points out, are those Fox regional sports networks that can interfere with its Olympic ambitions; there's no national Fox sports network unless you consider Fox College Sports (did air some coverage of the 2006 Commonwealth Games for the first time to the US) and Fox Soccer Channel, which appropriately can air all the soccer games--men's and women's. Years ago, I thought FOX would get Sydney since it was at News Corp's own backyard. I'd be really interested in how to cover unknown sports (to us Americans at least) like team handball and judo fully Yes, like FOXTEL in Australia did with Melbourne 2006 and surely will with Vancouver and London, Fox can set up Olympic channels with full event coverage and offer live and on-demand Internet streamings. But NBC has built that familiarity and that expertise over the years that has earned it numerous Emmys for its Olympic coverages, despite the nitpicking we go into a hissy fit over. I also expect Universal Sports become a major player in this by Vancouver.

NBC, I think it would've been appreciated for some of our Spanish speakers if both ceremonies were not going to be aired on Telemundo, would have SAP capabilities. Moreover, unless this was done already, a little dedication to Charlie Jones along with Jim McKay at the end of the Opening Ceremony would've been nice.

I tried getting access to Bulgaria's BNT Olympic website. But no success ("website not found"). Maybe you could.

One other thing I just remembered about SuperSport is hopefully when SABC gets involved with the Olympics more next time around lies in that SuperSport is kept as a partner and go even further in its Olympic coverage by providing Afrikaans language coverage in addition to English and Portuguese AND offer live and on-demand streaming of the Olympics. By 2012, broadband demand is expected to grow exteremely fast in South Africa and gain new subscribers in time for the next FIFA World Cup to be hosted down there.

Dominican Republic has Telecentro for offer offering Olympic TV coverage. I'll check out what they have to offer in the last few days of the Olympiad soon.

I since found out that VTC, through Wikipedia, is airing more coverage than what VTV is doing. If I got that right, VTC 3 and VTC9 are showing the Games.

TRT 3, the sports channel in the TRT family, is showing the Games while TRT1 does daily "Peking Reports". Yes, I did spot the Sendeplan for TV2 Sputnik, that would air all of the Redeem Team's games and other stuff on their two Internet OL channels as well as many other basketball games. Dubai Sports Channel airs the Olympics live and unencrypted on free-to-air TV from start to finish mostly live. Starting with the following Saturday from the Opening Ceremony that was on 4pm Friday, coverage is from 8am to 8pm Dubai time with a midnight daily highlights show. Dubai Sports Channels 1 and 3 offer Arabic commentary with Channel 2 on Nilesat will have English commentary.

[Durban Sandshark]

Just coming back to add these:

Many of us got floored when we heard John Tesh's NBA on NBC whenever the Redeem Team appeared on NBC for the weekend games televised by NBC. I'm sure Tesh, in his only involvement with the Olympics these days, is happy the checks are rolling in again his way everytime that theme plays during the broadcast.

Over at Rupavahini, judging by the programming schedules of both Rupavahini and Channel Eye, Channel Eye is showing more Olympic coverage of the two with a five minute newsbreak at the top of the hour, each hour.

At last I present to you, Switzerland's RTSI, the Italian langauge Swiss network's Olympic website. TSI 2 is airing the Beijing Olympics but I can't find the schedule nor how many hours I could find through them as of yet. Also the the last of the SuisseHD Olympic TV schedule that I was referring about, where German, French, and Italian languagecasts are in the offering. Like with many of the international broadcasters, I'll request via e-mail the complete Olympic TV schedules after the Games for research projects like here.

Some info that I got about Thailand's TV coverage from Yahoo's post: admittedly, the Olympic TV programming is very difficult for us to read, let alone understand, for us foriegners. Channel 7 (TruVision) is airing quite a bit of the coverage and mostly show events not on NBT. But both go on almost all day with that. According to one Thai poster, other channels getinvloved on other days. I think it's 5,7, 9, and 11. Here's the schedule from NBT, which will not help us at all for those who read in Roman alphabets.

NBT's Olympic TV Programming schedule (or what's left of it as of now)

[ltp74]

While I can't stand ESPN's on air talent, the idea of as many events as possible airing live on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, ESPN-U, the two new channels they have in the works, along with the primetime show on ABC puts them a head on NBC in my book.

NBC's play by play announcers for most of the big events all sound the same, with the exception of Teddy Atlas and Doug Collins the analysts are more of a distraction than a plus. Most of the secondary sports announcers and interviewers bounce between the networks or are contracted just for the Olympics so some of them might not even change.

I have a feeling that FOX is going to vastly overpay for the rights(just like they did in the early 90's for the NFL) and they will run things along the same lines NBC does(which means not letting us see marquee events until primetime) but with all of those goofy FOX graphics and sound effects. FOX also owns the broadcast network MyNetworkTV, FX on cable and the regional Fox Sports Networks, all of which would be used in the same manner NBC uses USA Network, CNBC and Universal HD.

[Daallo]

Which channel (of any country) will broadcaast he Wushu competition?

[Durban Sandshark]

I didn't edit my writing for ESPN Classic...

Finally, the Belgians RTBF's French language Olympic website and the VRT's Flemish language Olympic website. Sporza has the artistic TV channel Canvas offer daily newsmagazine show that reports on the goings on in Beijing as EEN does the Flemish-language honors. Click here for some info on the daily Sporza Olympic magazine show.

El Salvador's Canal 4, part of the ESMITV consortium that includes Canal 2, Canal 6, and VTV, is airing the Games in typical fashion with a lot of Latin American nations with twice daily highlight shows and more ample coverage live late at night.

And the Televisa Olympic shows: El Show De Tachidito, El Show Olimpico, Luna Beijing, and Analisis Beijing. All with the same homepage presentations.

[Durban Sandshark]

Alright, Beijing's now in the history books with a lot of fond memories and massive coverage. But that doesn't mean I can't keep up with things about the broadcasting of the Beijing Olympics 2008.

As far recording the Beijing Olympics for me is concerned, hopefully soon when I get to know the computer language, hardware, and software when I finally my first computer be it desktop or laptop with advanced capabilities, I will largely take advantage of the supposed 4000 archived hours of the Beijing Olympics online at NBCOlympics.com and contributions from posters here into a mega-DVD Beijing 2008 Olympic set (for me at least personally on Blu-Ray, but I will make standard DVD versions upon request). I won't go into great detail about my plans here--I'll reserve that for Recording the Olympics thread--but to give you an idea of what I may do on Blu-ray, I'll use the Opening Ceremony as Disc 1 on Blu-Ray of what may or will be featured:

DISC 1--OPENING CEREMONY (subject to change)

BOB Broadcasting 2008 logo

NBC Opening Ceremony Version

CBC Opening Ceremony Version

Channel 7 Opening Ceremony Version

BBC Opening Ceremony

TVNZ Opening Ceremony Version

Radio-Canada Opening Ceremony Version

SuperSport Opening Ceremony Version

Eurosport Opening Ceremony Version

Bonus Features:

Opening Ceremony Behind The Scenes

CBC Pre-Opening Ceremony Show

CBC Beijing 2008 Olympic Preview Show

Beijing, Are You Ready?

Beijing: Opening the Gates of The East

Africa To Beijing

Bird's Nest Documentary

On TV networks and channels worldwide that I can no longer get access (or can't read due to alphabet/character issues) to their Olympic TV (and online) schedules online, what I will do is request them via email. I already printed out such from SuperSport, TVNZ, Star Hub Cable in Singapore (not yet complete), Nova (not yet complete with Eurosport, ERT Olympics, ET1, NET, ET3), SVT, DR/TV2, CBC/TSN, EEN, Canal 7, NRK, and YLE. There are a number of them that I have yet to reach.

My plan is to hopefully use Sony's Vegas Pro 8 for authoring and coverage. There will be bonus stuff on a separate disc for TV commercials, promos, worldwide news reports, openers, and the like (including Jade Seoh's mishap).

[micheal_warren]

good luck with that!

[Durban Sandshark]

I should also mention that other bonus features on the first DVD pertaining to the Opening Ceremony should include the 2001 Bid Announcement, the Torch Relay Ceremony with the accompanying short film and animated presentations, and perhaps any of the foreign Pre-Opening Ceremony coverage that was going on. Perhaps I may use Adobe Studio for this in the place of Sony Vegas Pro 8. But the project (and the other Olympiads) won't take place until next year hopefully...and I surely need a kick ass computer system to accomplish that.

I was going through my worldwide Olympic TV schedules that I printed from online--still going through that gradually--when I noticed that the CBC may have aired the Pre-Opening Ceremony show on one of the CBCSports' Internet streams. Could this very well be that was like in Athens? Could Canada be the only nation that aired it (I think it was two hours long)? Not even host nation broadcaster CCTV aired that, not even through Sohu.com as far as I know. I have my doubts, but if it is, I would like to include it. Even if it turns out not to be the case, it's worthy of inclusion for the benefit of those who aren't living in Canada.

Now we know belatedly about those multiple live Olympic Internet streams shown in Europe from France to The Netherlands to Poland to Finland: any EBU member network that holds the rights to the Beijing Olympics gets access to the Eurovisionsports.tv streams known as Beijing LIVE. Did the networks utilize their commentators to provide the call for those specific events? Or was it just silent upon access to them?

[Blarghman]

I was going through my worldwide Olympic TV schedules that I printed from online--still going through that gradually--when I noticed that the CBC may have aired the Pre-Opening Ceremony show on one of the CBCSports' Internet streams. Could this very well be that was like in Athens? Could Canada be the only nation that aired it (I think it was two hours long)? Not even host nation broadcaster CCTV aired that, not even through Sohu.com as far as I know. I have my doubts, but if it is, I would like to include it. Even if it turns out not to be the case, it's worthy of inclusion for the benefit of those who aren't living in Canada.

I'm not sure if this is like Athens, but I did watch probably around 10 minutes of what was listed on CBC as the Pre-Opening Ceremony Show, though I don't remember it much. It was hosted in a stadium (I am assuming it was the Bird's Nest, but I'm not 100% certain), and had group of 2 or 3 presenters, and if I recall correctly a singing act, along with dancers on the field below where the presenters were. While this isn't really helpful, I can say that it was a direct stream of some sort of Olympic-related event occurring in Beijing, meaning that it wasn't like a CBC preview show, or a news/interview show. This was some sort of unfiltered, un-commented upon Olympic event, and was the same in style, to my recollections, as the other non-commentary cbcsports.ca streams. I don't know if that's helpful at all, but I did want to mention that I watched at least part of this stream.

[Durban Sandshark]

I'm not sure if this is like Athens, but I did watch probably around 10 minutes of what was listed on CBC as the Pre-Opening Ceremony Show, though I don't remember it much. It was hosted in a stadium (I am assuming it was the Bird's Nest, but I'm not 100% certain), and had group of 2 or 3 presenters, and if I recall correctly a singing act, along with dancers on the field below where the presenters were. While this isn't really helpful, I can say that it was a direct stream of some sort of Olympic-related event occurring in Beijing, meaning that it wasn't like a CBC preview show, or a news/interview show. This was some sort of unfiltered, un-commented upon Olympic event, and was the same in style, to my recollections, as the other non-commentary cbcsports.ca streams. I don't know if that's helpful at all, but I did want to mention that I watched at least part of this stream.

Pretty much what I expect that to be, actually, based on your descriptions, and it was indeed held at the Bird's Nest. According to the CBC broadcast schedule, the pre-show went from 5:45 am live Canada Eastern time to apparently 7:45 am for the Opening Ceremony live stream on CBCSports.ca 1. CBC's broadcast started at 7am that morning--was there a preview leading up to the countdown like talking with the Canadian Olympians, analysis? Also, with all of those hours archived on NBC Olympics' website, was that one of the stuff featured that wasn't on TV or on the live online coverage since added? I would like for it to be aside from the fact there weren't any commentary upon it.

I since found out that TVNZ.co.nz's two other online streams from TVNZ ONE's and TVNZ Sport Extra's simulcasted streams used feeds directly from BOB's broadcasting. Plus, I'm sure that was the case with Israel's Sport5's Internet streams.

How many networks still hold full event replays, analysis, news, and interviews aside from NBC online?

When I checked again the CCTV's schedule translated by Lamptern, according to it, all of the swimming on TV listed was in the morning finals and not the heats and semis that occurred in the evening. Nor did I spot much water polo or field hockey, even with the Chinese involved, That likely changed with the Chinese women's field hockey team going to the gold medal game against the Dutch and was likely placed on CCTV-1, since that channel gets first priority on Chinese Olympians. The Olympic tennis TV listings weren't around. Outside of the pre-Olympic TV schedule, the Olympic soccer was almost non-existent. I would like to have a more complete scheduling if that's available including the internet streams if possible--I finally printed out Australia's 7/SBS after a few weeks. CCTV ultimately had 4000 hours, according to the Beijing Olympic Media and Marketing Report.

BOB made known that at least 5000 hours of Olympic broadcasting coverage will be made. Back some pages ago, NBC said, leading up to the Games, the network will archive up to around 4000 hours of Olympic stuff. I've been since thinking what those missing/added online footage would be: when you take away the massive amount of hours for commercials and brief newsbreaks and HD simulcasts out of the 3600 hours closer to 3000, there are obviously stuff that wasn't shown in their entirties or omitted to fit a packaged presentation because of other focus. Take gymnastics for example, when a gymnast currently on focus for NBC TV like an American is doing his or routine, other gymnasts are conducting there you'll notice in the background, likely ones who weren't serious medal contenders. Or we can use in the preliminaries of boxing, wrestling, tennis, and judo, other matches are taking place which can apply. On field events in track and field, sessions are ongoing when the focus is on the track and we get the highlights narrated by Dwight Stones instead of "as it happens". You get the idea. So why didn't NBC go exactly 5000 for archiving online? Different camera angles, for one thing. But it's not the only factor. It would be nice if the Pre-Olympic Show got included. I hope some of you recorded the US Olympic Trials stuff that was on-demand.

For those who watched the NBC Olympic Basketball and Soccer channels, what were your thoughts on the presentations and coverage? Was there anything you wished they didn't miss? Were they all commercial free? How did those channels dealt with the intermissions?

TVC Deportes in Mexico aired some Olympic coverage, according to Wikipedia. Maybe Daallo can fill us in on their role and what they did. With Terra, was the coverage uncommentated with Spanish or Portuguese?

Memo to NBC: you should rejoice and pat yourself on the back for your Beijing 2008 presentation--the most watched event in US television history. Surely, you as a network will pick up some Emmys for that, both regular and in the sports version, and I admired your original graphics. I wish NBC would present China more to American living rooms into the coverage. Coverage of events "were beautifully shot and sensibly packaged", to quote USA Today, and don't look for NBC to abandon the showing of the sweeping helicopter shot to the nation for their openers like something original like the BBC did. That said, it would be nice to emulate what the Beeb did with a speed review of the previous Olympic day's coverage at the start of the broadcasting for London. Internet Olympics is a great thing and it would only expand by 2012, which was the best Olympic overall viewing experience for US TV. I look for Universal Sports to be a greater participant in the TV coverage, assuming it penetrates into digital satelitte and cable nationwide in the next few years, maybe in time for Vancouver.

Make both ceremonies commercial-free (or have a sponsor make it at least with limited interruptions).

Also, after London starts, don't lie to us and pretend certain events didn't happen. Of course, to keep the viewership and interest high from them and advertisers alike, you would want to have them on primetime regardless of the results and keep it "plausibly live". But, as Krow said, the live tag truly applies only to the East and Central time zones. In this age of instant results online thanks to other sports-oriented site on the Internet, you are capable of packaging truthfully. Besides, no way in Hell will Sebastian Coe and his LOCOG people will host the swimming finals at 4am London time for US primetime. Several swimmers worldwide, not just a few US ones, complained about the Beijing times. You can show it twice: live in the afternoon and then on primetime tape delayed (only if you can convice advertisers to pay top dollar for a repeat performance on tape). Then again, we'll never see history like what Michael Phelps did at least for a lifetime, which makes what you covered much easier. You seemed ill-equipped to be quick on the judging controversies with all due respect to Bela Karolyi and offer useful journalism on the matter and other controversies. That should be an idea for a daily journalist roundtable/discussion show on the Olympic issues of the day.

Bob Costas loves to be back; he interacted well with other casters as time went on. Resign him. Get more international in the TV coverage. Understandably, the attraction will always be on the domestic athletes, but America is becoming more multicultural, multiracial, and multiethnic each passing day. World's getting smaller, and you're heading to be sure. One example of dropping the ball was when you failed to ID the young woman who hugged Yao Ming at the closing ceremony at the Closing Ceremony. I know who she is: Australian basketball superstar Lauren Jackson--I happen to be a fan of her. That caused a stir in China partly for Yao's married thus and exploded her popularity among the Chinese. But you did not mention who she is for the benefit of those who don't (and she does indeed play pro basketball in the United States with the WNBA's Seattle Storm really well) having covered her games. I realize Yao's got a bigger Q rating than Lauren in the US, and that's OK. Still...Expand each on the Spanish, Chinese, Korean Olympic coverage and maybe add Arabic, Hindu, Portuguese, just to name a few. Or you could offer simulcast language button options for online if not TV.

Why stick a microphone on some athlete still upset over losing a medal and ask how do they feel? He or she may go off on a Darko Milicic-like tirade and you'd be embarrassed for having done talked to the person in the first place. Stop using mikes on team huddles too. Creepy.

To be continued...

[Blarghman]

Pretty much what I expect that to be, actually, based on your descriptions, and it was indeed held at the Bird's Nest. According to the CBC broadcast schedule, the pre-show went from 5:45 am live Canada Eastern time to apparently 7:45 am for the Opening Ceremony live stream on CBCSports.ca 1. CBC's broadcast started at 7am that morning--was there a preview leading up to the countdown like talking with the Canadian Olympians, analysis? Also, with all of those hours archived on NBC Olympics' website, was that one of the stuff featured that wasn't on TV or on the live online coverage since added? I would like for it to be aside from the fact there weren't any commentary upon it.

As to the CBC stuff, the network broadcast did have the usual sort of introduction to the games, starting at the 7 am time mentioned, with interviews with athletes and some segments on Beijing, usual CBC opening broadcast fare. This was about an hour long, leading into the ceremony. A couple of nights before, a more general preview was made from the regular Olympic Sports studio in Toronto with similar content, but less of a Beijing focus (since, obviously, it wasn't in Beijing). The pre-ceremony was the only thing on for about half of it's total length, as you probably already can see from the schedule.

As to one of your points about the delayed v. live events for NBC, the moment that summed up NBC coverage for me was the first night (in Canada, morning of Day 1 in Beijing). I turn on the TV, flip to NBC and see Yao Ming during the opening ceremonies, something already on CBC twice that day. Flip to CBC, and I saw the American men's gymnastics team doing preliminaries, while NBC pretended that all the sport would start the next afternoon/night. I understand protecting their rights to earn huge ratings, but I feel bad for hardcore Olympic fans in the US (at least live streams are making this somewhat more bearable)