Seven on the defense

Ian Johnson, chairman of Seven Melbourne, today responded to criticism of Seven’s Olympic coverage including questions about HD, delayed events, opening ceremony audio and AFL broadcasts. Such questions are not surprising given the scale of the event and the broadcast.

“We can’t please everybody,” he told Fairfax Radio.

“I accept that people will have different opinions.

“I think we’ve done a terrific job and we’re very pleased with what we’ve done so far and the ratings are proving that.“

Johnson said Seven’s policy was to show Aussies in medal contention live, or as live as is humanly possible, given there are 38 venues in competition.

He also spoke about technical problems during the Opening Ceremony.

“Apparently there were 17 international broadcasters affected by a power failure, 17 with audio problems. 4 even had vision problems so for a short period of time yes we did have problems but that was the whole international set-up.”

He said Seven was not allowed to show alternate sports on its SD and HD channels, part of the reason that it had formed a partnership with SBS for long-form sports.

“It’s not possible because of government regulation. At this point in time we do not have permission to co-stream sport that’s on the anti-siphoning list to other channels. Obviously we’ve been trying to get that changed at some point in time, and we’ll (then) be able to do that, but right now it’s government legislation.”

Yum Cha he said was there to bring the other side of the Olympics: “the fashion, the colour, the works.“

Johnson also said the games were being broadcast in high definition on Channel 70, despite not bearing a HD watermark.

“It is all in HD, has been from the very start and will be to the very end.”

And as for complaints about AFL, he confirmed that contracts had tied Seven’s hands.

“We’re obligated to play the football, it’s part of our contract with the AFL. We knew that we’d have to fit it in and we’ve done that.”

Friday and Sunday football will return this weekend.

“It’s not ideal,” he acknowledged, “but as I said before we can’t put two different pictures on at once.”

Source: 3AW