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Olympics ad check

Viewers are already taking to social media to share their reactions to Nine's Olympic coverage and the amount of ads.

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Reactions to the first night of the Olympics on social media was volatile, with viewers already vocal about the amount of coverage they were seeing.

As we saw with Beijing, this is the challenge for any Free to Air broadcaster: how to cover multiple sports via one signal yet not be accused of limited coverage.

Viewers whose sport is interrupted to whiz across to another are quick to express their anger via Twitter and last night there was plenty of that.

Others were sarcastically accusing Nine of interrupting their commercials and promos with Olympic sports.

Certainly the scheduling of ads seemed to vary greatly, with some breaks feeling very short while others were much longer. This, no doubt was in response to working around live events.

I timed the breaks across three hours and you can see these below. Despite some  segments feeling very brief, it still works out at about 4 ad breaks per hour, and in reality some of them were actually very short. But it does feel like we are fleeting across events like a highlights snapshot rather than extensive coverage.

8pm
Cycling
Swimming
8:17 (break begins)

8:18 (break ends)
Rowing
8:22

8:25
Cycling
8:32

8:35
Swimming
Cycling
8:54

8:56
Shooting
Rowing
Swimming
9:02

9:05
Swimming
9:10

9:11
Cycling
Swimming
Cycling
9:28

9:30
Cycling
9:44

9:46
Update: Swimming, Judo, Shooting
Rowing
Cycling
9:56

9:59
Cycling
10:11

10:14
Equestrian
Cycling
10:34

10:36
Athlete profile
Rowing
Swimming updates
10:54

1058 (break ends)

And if you Australian coverage was tough, NBC is under fire in the US for delaying the Opening Ceremony live and waiting until primetime to screen it.

35 Responses

  1. Oh and seriously @Hayley7 (bit of a give away there)…. are u serious?

    No windows in the Set….. When was the last time you saw a TV Studio with Windows?
    and just for the record NBC (the american broadcaster) have their Olympics set in New York City.

  2. @Andrew – I understand if it is the Australian Government that has not allowed 9 to use more than 1 channel (stupid anti-siphoning list) ……. but people on this site keep saying it is the IOC that hasnt allowed this to happen. And also if it is the List why is Foxtel exempt? I have to admit i havent done much research on the List.

    Which is the truth?
    Any insight David??

  4. @camo2 – ignoring the high rotation of the same ads and the excessive promotion of some of their other shows (which is exactly what 7 & 10 would be doing), I think the main thrust of the discontent is that people feel that Nine could have applied to the govt for an exemption to be able to broadcast a different stream on GEM from their main channel.

    We don’t have all the facts and the story changes depending on the source (all of them second or third-hand so far) but that’s the guts of it.

  5. Interesting to note…if it has nine anywhere on it…some people who are repeat offenders will just bag the network repeatly…. icant work it out…as well there seems to be no whinging from the people who are paying for it…. FOX can provide a multichannel coverage because they have the money and subscribers to do so… so stop your whinging so tired of comeing onto this site just to read people whinging…

  7. @JM: It’s not a technical limitation but rather a regulated one. The broadcasting rules here (at this stage) restrict major sporting events such as the Olympic Games appearing exclusively on FTA digital channels, so Nine does not have the ability to run different streams of coverage even though the technology and infrastructure is there. That’s why Nine and GEM are showing the same Olympic coverage in simulcast but one is Standard Definition and GEM is an HD version of the same coverage.

    I’m not sure why SBS wasn’t allowed to take some of the overflow of coverage as they did from Seven in 2004 and 2008, an arrangement that seemed to work well in giving FTA viewers a wider range of coverage. Maybe Nine didn’t want to share or the terms of the agreement with the IOC didn’t allow it. I don’t know.

  8. Some short memories here. Libby Trickett’s Lenovo ad sent me mad during the Beijing Olympics. Not to mention all the Packed To The Rafters, Dancing With The Stars ads. We can still recite the darn AMP ad from Sydney 2000. The official sponsers and station promos are always on high rotation during the games. I watch on a short delay and just skip most of them, or keep a book/laptop handy.

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