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stuartpaul

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I have to say I thought they were pretty good this time around. Despite the restrictions it all appeared to go off relatively smoothly.

Only complaint was the lack of red botton coverage given the restrictions imposed by the tv deal.

Well done to Team GB!
 
I think this was the best coverage ever, got to enjoy many sports not normally seen, even the archery. Well done team GB
 
Only complaint was the lack of red botton coverage
?
Like this?

cheek_1.jpg


They really are changing things up these days.
 
I have to say I thought they were pretty good this time around. Despite the restrictions it all appeared to go off relatively smoothly.

Only complaint was the lack of red botton coverage given the restrictions imposed by the tv deal.

Well done to Team GB!
I've just got back from Tokyo working for the Beeb for the last 5 weeks. Yes it is a shame that they had limited coverage on red button but Discovery had the rights to all of Europe having bid something in the region of £970M, and the BBC were only allowed two live streams at any time. Given the restrictions I think they did a pretty good job.
Whether you like sport or not, and there's clearly those that don't, the days of free (ish, yes license fee, blah, blah) to air sport are coming to an end.
 
The Tokyo olympics provided a powerful example of the principal less is more. There was a silent undercurrent of schuedenfraude when the US women's football team was beaten by Sweden. The sporting world had not forgotten the cringing histrionics of Megan Rapinoe, the US team captain at the previous Olympics. With her ostentatious purple hair, arch goal celebrations and the public statements about Trump, she did very little to advance the global tolerance of LGBTQ+ issues. In Tokyo, Lauren Hubbard, the NZ female weightlifter, came and went with scarcely a whisper as she failed the weight early in the competition. Hubbard had become a freak show, the MSM predicting that with the build of a man, she would trounce the opposition. In the event she acted with decorum and will return home to NZ to live a life with dignity. The MSM, deprived of a comic target, did not widely report that the Canadian women's football team won the gold medal with a transgender player, Quinn. He has, or is, transitioning to become a man, and was selected for the team on the basis of 'gender assigned at birth'. Fair enough. He dropped his first name, Rebecca, and uses the mononyn 'Quinn'. He is a professional athlete, respected by all, and by virtue of Canada winning the football final, is the first, and will always be the first, transgender athlete to win an Olympic medal (of any sort) and a gold medal. A far more effective advocate of tolerance than Rapinoe. Quinn does raise the Q whether the public finds it easier to tolerate and understand a woman becoming a man (Quinn) as opposed to a man becoming a woman (Hubbard). Is this an issue to do with looks and appearance? But that is a debate for another day.
 
I thought the BBC coverage was excellent. The presenters, pundits and commentators were very good. Really enjoyed watching different sports.

Huge respect to Team GB. It takes massive commitment and hard work over many years to get to Olympic standard.
They did us proud and I felt the joy and the disappointment of the competitors 🥲
 
I thought the BBC coverage was excellent. The presenters, pundits and commentators were very good. Really enjoyed watching different sports.

Huge respect to Team GB. It takes massive commitment and hard work over many years to get to Olympic standard.
They did us proud and I felt the joy and the disappointment of the competitors 🥲
is it your first time watching the olympics, worst coverage ever,but lots of useless pundits instead of action
 
is it your first time watching the olympics, worst coverage ever,but lots of useless pundits instead of action
I tend to agree. The coverage was like a magazine for teenagers. The one standout (by a mile) was the ever charismatic Michael Johnson.
 
Still better than Tokyo 1964 as I recall.
Ann Packer winning gold on black and white TV (405 lines)

Bit repetitive this time around I suppose but I didn't get up to watch the very early morning events live.

The coverage suited my needs.
 
is it your first time watching the olympics, worst coverage ever,but lots of useless pundits instead of action
Why the need for such sarcasm? Surely a simple 'I didn't like the coverage' would suffice?

I've just got back from Tokyo working for the Beeb for the last 5 weeks. Yes it is a shame that they had limited coverage on red button but Discovery had the rights to all of Europe having bid something in the region of £970M, and the BBC were only allowed two live streams at any time. Given the restrictions I think they did a pretty good job.
Whether you like sport or not, and there's clearly those that don't, the days of free (ish, yes license fee, blah, blah) to air sport are coming to an end.
Yes, I realise the coverage was a victim of the discovery deal and a trade off against future coverage. Hopefully we'll get a bit more of the Paris games although I suspect maybe not.

As you say high quality coverage of almost any sport on the BBC now is going to be difficult with current constraints.
 
I tend to agree. The coverage was like a magazine for teenagers. The one standout (by a mile) was the ever charismatic Michael Johnson.

They need to cater for all levels of knowledge so it's always going to cater for the lowest common denominator.

I thought Lutalo Muhammad came across really well as a pundit. Chris Hoy and Beth Tweddle too. I found the diving pundit a bit annoying.

Michael Johnson is indeed excellent although he seemed a bit more grouchy this time around.
 
He is a professional athlete, respected by all, and by virtue of Canada winning the football final, is the first, and will always be the first, transgender athlete to win an Olympic medal (of any sort) and a gold medal.

I doubt that very much, go back to the 60's and seventies, look at female russian, iron curtain athletes.
Some of those ladies had hairy chests ........................... all the way down to their boll...xs.
 
They need to cater for all levels of knowledge so it's always going to cater for the lowest common denominator.

I thought Lutalo Muhammad came across really well as a pundit. Chris Hoy and Beth Tweddle too. I found the diving pundit a bit annoying.

Michael Johnson is indeed excellent although he seemed a bit more grouchy this time around.

Johnson, as always, was excellent with sound analysis and common sense.
Maybe he was more grumpy this time around because of the incessant focus on Team GB members finishing 5th or 6th or whatever and totally ignoring the winner of the races.
The other presenters, especially during the Athletics, were almost sycophantic in their talk about Team GB and never slow at pointing out about how young they were and time is on their side, or they had a hard year because of the circumstances, or they had injuries, and so on ad nauseum.
What about the fact that many of our trek and field athletes just aren’t good enough and believe their own hype.. especially the sprinters ?

Decent but also some disappointing coverage…a sign of the times .
 
the opening ceremony was not very good this time, the whole thing was very bizarre, I didn't feel woke enough to enjoy it, I really didn't like the voiceover of the scottish presenters, some of the comments ruined it and I just had to stop watching it.

as for the actual sport part that was alright though.
 
There is increasing evidence that pay to view is seriously damaging major sports - football, rugby, golf etc

It provides an immediate benefit to those at the top of sport as the sums paid can be huge.

But it reduces visibility of the sport to those who are either unable or disinclined to pay. Long term sport becomes less popular, with smaller audiences, can no longer command high pay to view income and loses live audiences at events.

Those left are minority sports who cannot get pay to view cash - this goes free to air by the TV companies as it is cheap.

Sadly things are not going to change quickly - the big clubs/sports will be reluctant to give up immediate income having built a high cost infrastructure, and there is no good reason for government (or the licence fee payer via the BBC) to pick up the bill. Market forces rule!
 
One for debate...... the Olympics has traditionally kicked off interest in a huge number of sports due to so many new things being shown. Kids fancy taking up anything from diving through judo to rugby to bmx etc etc. The normal coverage with so many sports covered has given kids (and adults) new opportunities to go and try things that will keep them fit and healthy. This year, BBC (or other terrestrial) stations couldn’t compete with £960M. So, how much is the Government planning on spending to bribe kids and families to eat healthily? Possibly more than TV rights and they’ll still have to pay the burgeoning costs of obesity on the NHS.
Show more sport and more people would play.....
 
They need to cater for all levels of knowledge so it's always going to cater for the lowest common denominator.

I thought Lutalo Muhammad came across really well as a pundit. Chris Hoy and Beth Tweddle too. I found the diving pundit a bit annoying.
uple of
Michael Johnson is indeed excellent although he seemed a bit more grouchy this time around.
Yes, MJ did refer, a couple of times, to the internal disputes still going on in the US track team. Also he pointedly said he and Carl Lewis never agree on anything! Good point re the lowest common denominator. I miss the days when David Coleman said of the great Cuban 800M runner Alberto Juantorena , '.....and here comes Juantorena down the back straight, he opens his legs and shows his class .........' and Ron Pickering where every athlete was running in a sea of lactic acid. Those examples give my age away!
 
Yes, MJ did refer, a couple of times, to the internal disputes still going on in the US track team. Also he pointedly said he and Carl Lewis never agree on anything! Good point re the lowest common denominator. I miss the days when David Coleman said of the great Cuban 800M runner Alberto Juantorena , '.....and here comes Juantorena down the back straight, he opens his legs and shows his class .........' and Ron Pickering where every athlete was running in a sea of lactic acid. Those examples give my age away!
MJ also made it clear that the GB Men's 4x100m relay team threw away the gold with a terrible last leg.

We were supposed to be happy with silver but MJ quite rightly pointed out that our final runner's technique had deserted him.
The presenters seemed to gloss over his accurate observations.

I was brought up on Coleman and Pickering. They were part of the entertainment. Great commentators.
 
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