Bloody Crap Channel 7 Coverage of the Olympics

[servo]

The games have been on just 2 days and already I am sick of their presentation style.

They pretend that everything is live by crossing back and forth form one venue to another whenever something is happening. Tonight they pretended to cross to the soccer to see how things were going. First cross was for 3 minutes and Australia scored twice. WOW that was a coincidence. Second cross was for 2 minutes. Theres a bit of push and shove and two send offs. WOW another big coincidence.

Then they cross to the pool for an event "about to happen". We see a heat of some race then another heat then another heat with about a minute between races. That doesn't happen.

Finally we get the Aussie girls playing basketball and this time it really is live. How can you tell?? Because we go for commercials during the play and come back to see each and every time out live.

Then they intersperse all this with "live" crosses to the gymnastics. OK very good athletes, and we see about four of them do their stuff. I suspect they do it quite well too but who can tell?? Don't ever recall seeing a score for any of them. After saying we were crossing "live" to the gymnastics and then seeing two floor excercises Bruce then comes straight back on and says "this is how the team scores ended up". Live my ass.

If you want to see all of an event that lasts longer than about four minutes then you gotta wait until about 3am when you can see all of a volleyball match!!!!

I know I could get C7 and solve my problem but some bastard broke in last week and stole me videos, foxtel box!!!!!! and my pc!!!!!! (using my sons laptop at the moment). Bloody great timing that was. Foxtel wont replace the box until the police report is finalised and guess how long that is giong to take???? How long do the Olympics go for?? Oh yeah, about two weeks.

Geez i'm glad i've got all that off my chest.

Roy & HG's show "The Dream" is very good though. Its on every night of the games. They had Nadia Comeneche reading the news and then proceeded to take the piss out of the gymnastics, very funny. Moves like 'the flat bag', the 'hello boys', the 'shut the door' and the 'hi there' were hilarious. Catch it if you can.

[This message has been edited by servo (edited 17 September 2000).]

 

[CJ]

Well said Servo.

HEY CHANNEL 7, WHAT ABOUT THE SHOOTING??

The aussies have a good chance of winning some medals in the shooting, but no, what do they show, the bloody gymnastics where they have no chance at all.

GET A LIFE CHANNEL 7. SHOW US SOME OF THE REAL SPORTS!!

[This message has been edited by CJ (edited 17 September 2000).]

 

[Danni]

Servo - Even the C7 channels wouldn't have helped last night. You had the choice on their 2 channels of Soccer or...... Soccer!

 

[crowz4eva]

Servo thats why you should get Cable.... Tey tell you if its live and you get to see the whole thing, and has seven shown anythin but Australians??????? isnt there like another 150 + countries at these games???

 

[Dan26]

You know, I got the feeling someone would say this.

No matter what Channel 7 did (or does), someone will criticize them.

When you are covering about 100 different events, it is IMPOSSIBLE to cover all events live. Some events will inevitably be on delay.

Servo, you complain about Channel 7 goingto a sport for 3 minutes and seeing 2 goals. What a coincidence, you say ? What would you prefer ? To go "live" for half an hour and not see anything worth watching.

Channel 7 go "live" where possible. But when hundreds of events are happening simultaneously, it is extremely hard to show everyting.

I think they've done a great job so far. If you were in charge of Cahennel 7, I'll be that you would do exactly the same thing.

They are covering 24 hours a day, so you can't fault their commitment. They switch from event to event, so you don;t get bored, and when something "importnat" happens, they shift to that straight away.

I think they've done a tremendous job, so far, but obviously, people will criticize them. It doesn't matter what they do, someone wil say something bad about them. It's the Australia way.

 

[Dan26]

I can't believe some of the posts on this topic already.

On one hand we have someone comlaining that they only show Aussies.

On the other hand, we have someone complaining that they are showing Gymnastics too much which doesn't have any Aussies who will win.

Make up your minds, people.

Gymnastics is one of the most popular sports. Shooting, no offence, is boring television. Gymnastics is a MAJOR sport. Behind, perhaps only Athletics and Swimming in profile.

I'd rather watch the major sports, even if there are no Aussies in them. I want to watch great sport. it's a "bonus" if an Aussie happens to be in it. Ive got no problems at all with Channel 7 showing the Gymnastics a lot.

Typical brainless Channel 7 bashing. When there are 100 different events, and you can only show one at a time, you won't be able to please evryone.

That important point, should be realised by everyone beofre they post idiotic comments about a network which has commited to broadcasting 24 hours a day into YOUR LIVING ROOM.

24 hours a day, and people ae "having a go" at them. Unbelievable. Just unbelievable.

 

[WCE2000]

I'm with Dan24 on this. It is impossible to show every event live. That's why i can't wait for Digital TV, when we can choose what events we want to watch.
The only problem, i find, with Ch. 7's coverage is the commenators. Whoever that main guy who we keep crossing back to is a goose. "We will now be crossing to to the gymanstics, ah, ah, rather, we will cross to the, ah, ah, Weightlifting".

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For all your footballing needs be sure to visit my AFL web-site at http://www.geocities.com/eastsydney5/index.html

 

[servo]

Ok crows4eva, please re-read my post. I do have cable but some bugga stole it and I can't get it replaced until AFTER the Olympics.

Dan24, I too can see the irony in people on this thread complaining about too much and not enough Aussie content, but I did not touch on that issue myself.

Also Dan24, please re-read my post as well. I was not saying they should only play live action. I was saying they should not say it is live or even try to give that impression when it is not live. A lot of my frustration was exacerbated when they finally did play some live action but kept cutting to ads when the action was on and coming back only to see time outs hence no action.

Please Dan if you are going to have a go at me at least make an attempt to read the whole post. Then I would at least acknowledge your critisisms of me. If you are not going to read the whole post then don't criticise it. This is what I did with your hobby horse, as I was not going to read your lengthy posts on the subject any longer I did not feel I could comment on them accurately so I didn't.

So far today it has been a little better, and the shooting was good to watch. But right now I am watching the womens hockey and they have just said, and I quote, "We will now cross live to the hockey to see how our women are going". Guess what?? I heard this exact piece of play (disallowed goal at 1-0)on the radio 20 minutes ago.

Why are people defending outright misrepresentation???. I don't have a problem with some delayed telecasts, they can't show everything live as Dan pointed out. But why do they have to pretend that they are showing it live???

 

[Dan26]

Well put it this way.

I'm not going to complin about a station that has made the staggering commitment to cover the Olympics 24 hours a day.

 

[Richmondfan#1]

I was just watching the hockey live on channel 7. They went to an ad and when they came back, Australia had scored a goal. That really shits me. They had a break a while after and what do you know?? The oppostion scored a goal.

 

[servo]

Sorry Dan. I forgot your opinion is not capable of being challenged, I should have learnt after all this time shouldn't I have?

I didn't realise Channel 7 were telecasting the Olympics out of the goodness of their heart. How could I have not realised that they telecast these types of things just to give we viewers the warm fuzzies, and at a loss too!!!!

WAKE UP DAN!!!!!

Channel 7 make a hell of a lot of money out of this event, a lot more than they have to spend on it. If you think otherwise then logic is a lost cause on you. Why would they bid so much money for the rights if they were not going to make money??

If Channel 7 management were so king hearted why sack two staff members for falling in love??

What is your hidden agenda on channel 7. You are defending an issue which has no defence. They are straight out promoting events as LIVE and they are obviously NOT. I say again, my gripe is not that they are showing delayed events but that they are passing them off as live to the viewers.

 

[Dan26]

Servo,

I am quite open to argument. I'll admit if I am wrong and my opinion certainly can be challenged. (except for the top spot thing)

If the events aren't "live", they're close enough to "live"

I see your point, but it's not worth complaining about. I don't agree with everything channel 7 does, but I can't really complan about the Olympics.

I see your gripe, and you are 100% right, but I think you are being picky.

 

[servo]

OK Dan, truce.

Obviously I was pretty worked up about it when I started the thread, and I am still not happy with it. I am beginning to realise though that it is not going to change just because I don't like it. I have emailed them via their Olympics website but I don't really expect a reply.

I suppose if I didn't listen to the radio whenever the tv was not in view then I wouldn't get as frustrated about it.

I will try and be less negative and maybe I will enjoy the games more.

 

[Eagle_Fan]

I'm with Dan too. It's a pretty tough thing to cover, and while it's a bit repetitive more addicts like me, they're not doing too bad. What's with Bruce though? For a guy who's been preparing for seven years to be the major anchor, he seems to be suffering a severe bout of nerves.

Also agree with whoever mentioned "The Dream'. I actually woke people up with my laughing. Good to see seven aren't taking themselves too seriously with Roy & HG making fun of camera angles, as well as the commentary and coverage. The Mens gymnastic Roy & HG style was hilarious

It's just starting now, it'll be interesting to see if they can keep it up for the whole two weeks.

BTW/ I hate daylight saving! Three hours is so much more than two when it comes to getting up at 8 or 9 to catch a swimming heat or whatever...

 

[Grendel]

What was with the flash shots of Norman at poolside??? What the hell did have to do with the swimming team, thought he must have been national coach the amont of time the camera was on him.

Roy and HG can stick to Sydney this is supposedly our proudest moment and you have these two drongos carrying on like true yobs.

Thankfully the rest of the world dont see them, cringe inducing 'ockerisim' at its worst.

No so far the coverage has been woeful, pretty much to be expected given their track record.

 

[Kevin_sooky]

Look on the bright side PPl, at least we don't have the nbc style of coverage.
Ie. the life story of the winner of each event followed by their heat, and final.
oh yeah as long as they are from the USA

 

[jod23]

I think Channel 7 are doing a good job so far except for one thing. They show too much FUC*ING EQUESTRIAN. Its got to be the most boring sport ever invented, you could use it as a torture method to get the deepest and darkest secrets out of ppl. I was watching it today and my brother came in and was forced to resuscitate me because i died of bordem!!!!! FUC*ING HORSES!!!

 

[Eagle_Fan]

But won't it become far more interesting if we win the Gold as looks likely?

 

[Westy Boy]

As much as I love watching us win gold Eagle Fan, equestrian is one "sport" which I would much rather watch the medal presentations and only the medal presentations. I agree Jod23, they just show it tooooooo much. You would think they would understand that it is not one of the viewers favoured events.

As a comedian once said- "I do not need to sit down for two hours and watch some dickhead paralel park a horse!!!!!

My apologies to the billions of equestrian lovers out there.

 

[sandie]

Grendel
I'm sorry but I can't agree with you, I think the only entertaining bits about the Olympics is Roy & HG, they put everything into perspective, with a touch of humour, stops it being boring.

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Mantis

 

[Eagle_Fan]

Very good Westy!

I don't like watching it at all (don't get me wrong), but will certainly be taking the credit and glory if we win!

Do you think it's really an Olympic sport? I don't. Shooting and sailing neither -although our medal count will go down dramatically with no horses or guns. What others are a bit iffy?

 

[sandie]

Jod23
We all have sports that send us to sleep, but this is the olympics, we all have to be bored to deaf at some time.

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Mantis

 

[sandie]

Jod23
We all have sports that send us to sleep, but this is the olympics, we all have to be bored to deaf at some time.

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Mantis

 

[GoEagles]

jod23 - I totally agree with you. Watching horses walk around with Prince Charles try-hards sitting on them doesn't do a lot for me.

I wish Channel 7 would show at least 10 minutes of the sports Australia doesn't do too well in, but at least they are exciting to watch (Fencing, Table Tennis, ect)

What does everyone think of Bruce Abba and Bazils 'Tonight at the Games' coverage - I reckon one of them is going to be eyeing bruces main position for when he retires.

 

[servo]

Grendel, Greg Norman has been adopted by the swim team as the official Team Motivator. Thats why he is always at the swimming.

Did you see John Howard at Michael Diamonds event?? For an evowed anti gunner he seemed to enjoy the shooting a lot.