Lack of olympic sports diversity on TV

[robot slipper]

Yep, Gods bless the BBC. All those license fee payments are totally worth it. I can just flick back and forth between archery, handball, swimming, table tennis, equestrian, rowing, fencing*, whatever all day. I did used to live in Canada so I remember what it was like, my Dad used to get pissed off because he loved track and field but they would never show a whole round of an event. It would just be like "and here's having his throw of the discus. And now on to the rowing event that featured Canadians...".

*I have never watched fencing before. It's like they're wearing spacesuits! Really bizarre, and I have no idea how the scoring works.

 

[Hazzard]

I believe you can pay to access BBC Iplayer in another country or use a Proxy Server, and I refuse to believe it is bad because the BBC themselves announced they work.

 

[MrStab]

Here is Australia we get a lot of swimming, rowing and cycling. Other events are seen when Australia is competing in them. Personally I think they should show more of the women's beach volleyball.

I share this sentiment greatly! I'm pretty sure we got a bit of judo and some fencing though not 100% on how much they showed as I only saw the telly when I was walking back to dragons dogma after stocking up on supplies. I'm okay with the cycling coverage though as I cycle myself.

 

[putowtin]

I really wish you guy's could access BBC's iplayer. We have every event covered, live and recorded for every day of the olympics. Even the specific events like "Round 3 Team China Vault" are highlighted so you can jump straight to the action. T'is a thing of beauty.

this, I can jump from one event to another with ease!
First time in a decade I think the BBC has got something right...
"Way to go kid!"

 

[Mr Pantomime]

I have digital tv, so its not too bad. Lots of sports channels, so theres always something interesting on. Yesterday I watched Korea vs Ukraine in Teams Archery. It was pretty cool. No idea what its like on basic TV in New Zealand though.

 

[Darth_Dude]

I have Austar (Satellite TV) here in Australia, they have 8 channels simultaneously showing all the sports. It's fantastic.

 

[FamoFunk]

I haven't watched any of it, but if I wanted to yay for the BBC and the Red Button!

As we're hosting it, I guess the BBC has to make even more of an effort before we're even more of a laughing stock over it all.

 

[Bvenged]

I've seen fencing, judo, synchronised swimming, beach volleyball and gymnastics on BBC 1 here in the UK, and that's only when I turn on the TV with my morning coffee, or when I watch TV with my tea (dinner) or lunch.

Not to mention that (as others have said) all it takes is the red button and I can view any and all of the Olympic sports live at that very moment. Any sport I've missed but want to watch, of any team, round, sport or commentary, can be watched whenever I want over on BBC iPlayer (catchup TV internet service).

But we are the hosts, so it's only natural for our primary TV and radio service to give Olympic coverage in its entirety, across any medium possible at any time of the day on any device capable of internet or digital TV reception.

 

[Cowabungaa]

It's surprisingly poor here in Holland. Luckily I have about four channels to choose from,including the BBC so usually there's at least one event on that's fun to watch. Not that I'm really following the Olympics. It takes a backseat to The Borgias, Breaking Bad and Persona 4: The Animation

 

[General Twinkletoes]

I've seen swimming, rowing, hockey and gymnastics here in Australia. But it's been 80% swimming, 15% rowing, 4% hockey and 1% gym.
It's quite annoying, but I think it's mainly swimming at the start. It gets more interesting later.

 

[gunny1993]

It's because we (the U.K) are the host country we get the most broadcasting rights, at China 2008 there were only 4 or 5 channels over here for the olympics, this year we have about 20. I don't know if it was the same for our brothers across the pond last year.

 

[GrimTuesday]

The TV coverage is shit, I've been watching it all on NBC's internet streams or other places. If you are an American, just google NBC Olympics live and follow the directions they give and you can be cool like me and watch weightlifting and archery all night.

 

[Mr_Spanky]

NBC's coverage is pretty horrible in the States, as well. We get slightly more sports, but only "USA vs. _______". If the US isn't competing, they move on to something else. Really makes it hard to enjoy the events.

Yeah, it's really bad. I actually stopped watching them because of how they're covering it.

For those who don't know, they only cover US events, they don't air it live (it's on a six hour delay or so. They do this so they can get more people at a later time to watch to maximize revenue from advertisements) yet they pretend it's live, and they spoiled Franklin?s victory before they aired the actual race. And we can't see it anywhere else here in the US because NBC has full control of broadcasting it. Just a fucking joke all around.

As a Brit living in Norway I have to recomend the use of a programme called Expat Shield. It allows you to essentially auto-fake your IP and thus you can use BBC iplayer (or any other BBC service) without any problem. Its also perfectly legal as the BBCs insistence on license fee only applies to people living in Great Britain. So go crazy - they have about (depending on how many events are on) 10-12 channels for you to watch anything going on at the Olympics.

Kind of surprises me though that coverage in other countries isnt so good - here in Norway NRK (Nowary's national network) has at least 8 channels that can be picked up online. And the weird thing is that they broadcast mostly in better quality than the BBC online. May have something to do with the internet here though - which I can testify to being soooooo much better than in the UK.

 

[Albino Boo]

Yeah its stupid how they restrict the Olympic games to a few events. I mean I don't care too much about the Olympics (add hockey and then we'll talk) but they should at least try to cover as many events as possible.

Buddy I've got great news for you, they've just come out with this new thing called the Winter Olympics. Hockey up the wazoo.

I know that. The Winter Olympics are street ahead of the summer ones. I'm just suggesting a way to increase the watchablity of the summer ones. In fact lets just move the current summer Olympics to winter and replace all its sports with the winter ones and just have the winter Olympics ever two years.

Oh dear, hockey is a summer Olympic sport and has been since 1908. India has won 20 odd medals in hockey making it India's dominant Olympic sport, so to the 1 billion people living there it is quite watch able already.

 

[Korolev]

Australia's Cable Coverage is excellent, although ludicrously pricey and not worth it unless you already have all the channels. We have 8 dedicated channels for the olympics, showing every single event, 95% of them live. The commentary is pretty rubbish, but it's clear and it's great. I particularly like watching the Judo, Fencing, Shooting, Water Polo, Archery and Table Tennis.

 

[O maestre]

OP shouldn't complain at least you get some variety in Denmark its all about (pardon the pun) water sports. swimming, rowing and sailing every fucking day. i haven't seen single sliver of martial arts or athletics or any thing else... well there was a bit of handball and badminton...but then midway it was cutaway to guess what... swimming....sailing and finally rowing.

i hate the fact that tv execs do not understand that the olympics are not as much about patriotism as it is about the celebration of the games themselves, and the opportunity of seeing the very best of physical feats that is the kind of entertainment i want, and i am probably not alone

 

[aba1]

I am not sure if this goes on everywhere but I know here on all the Canadian stations all I can ever seem to find is running, swimming or gymnastics.

I'm not sure what you are talking about. I'm also Canadian and I was keeping the TV running olympics in the background today. In addition to those events you listed, today alone I watched womens weightlifting, horse jumping, judo, gymnastics, men's water polo, and beach volleyball. And I certainly didn't watch everything, for example I had no interest in the basketball, badminton, archery, or soccer that was also broadcast (and probably others I never even noticed)

Do you live in the middle of no where with no cable?

I live in Oshawa it is just outside Toronto and we have digital antenna. We have been watch CTV mostly. Ya but we have seen almost exclusively swimming and gymnastics with the odd exception for a short while till they switch back.