Online petition protests at Nine’s Olympic coverage
Social media reacts to Nine's Olympics broadcast with an online petition to the IOC, pleading that they never win the rights again.
- Published by David Knox
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They always said these would be the “social games” and social media is hitting back hard at Nine’s broadcast of the Olympics, now with an online petition directed at the IOC.
Disgruntled viewer Susan Plunkett has posted an open letter to the International Olympic Committee via the website change.org asking them to review future rights to the games on multiple channels, without ad interruptions and calling on broadcasters such as the ABC to be given equal consideration.
“We never again want to see such a poor broadcast performance as has been seen in 2012 and offered by the Nine Network,” it reads.
“We claim the right to see a variety of Olympic events on free-to-air, and events without constant and repetitive advertising interruptions. Accepting that many events can occur at any one time we claim the right for broadcasters to be able to show events in their entirety on their second broadcast channels where they exist. Further, we claim the right to have a broadcast where commentators understand and uphold the Olympic spirit – to celebrate any medal colour, to celebrate the achievements of any nation and to inform us about barrier breaking sporting triumphs e.g. Australia’s first competing female boxer.
“We ask the IOC to review the policy that enables commercial broadcasters to more easily win broadcast rights at the disadvantage of non-advertising broadcasters such as the ABC who would be able to show events without constant advertisement.
“We request that the IOC refuse Network Nine’s tender (if it is made) for the 2016 Olympic Games on the basis that we assert that Network Nine has entirely failed it’s duty to show the 2012 Olympic Games in a respectful manner and one that reflects what we believe to be the true Olympic spirit of international brother and sisterhood.”
So far there are around 250 signatures, but it the campaign has only just gotten underway.
You can check it out here.
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59 Responses
I’m getting annoyed at all the people criticising the coverage. I think Nine have done a fantastic job of trying to cover everything, and there’s certainly been a lot more variety than Seven. Mind you, I run a digital recorder over the night’s coverage and then fast forward through all the ads and boring bits, and use the London2012 iPad app to see what time big events are on. As for the commentators, James Brayshaw has made the rowing very exciting; Ray Warren has been brilliant calling the swimming; and the guy calling the athletics is fine even if he does make it sound like horseracing. At least we don’t have to put up with Joanna Grigg’s woeful presenting.
To those posting about the advertisement issue.
Why has 9 has used the ad times – which of course is indeed a mechanism to help pay for its outlay on such an event – to principally advertise it’s own shows. Underbelly and Big Brother are the two that stood out. I can’t see how repeated advertisements for them would have assisted their outlay.
We did not propose no advertising. In part the ABC was suggested because they at least are prepared to offer the Paralympics which apparently 9 had no interest in. But I accept the inherent problematic in proposing that.
Still, given what we are now seeing, and that Nine itself didn’t seem interested in selling off the majority of its advertising time to external parties, the whole ‘we need advertising to make up the outlay’ seems somewhat moot. Apparently they didn’t need it after all and therefore neither would the ABC.
If you don’t think the Australian audience has any rights then I assume you think we should be grateful for whatever we get on free-to-air. I would welcome any network executive making that viewpoint blatantly clear. In their own name.
Mr J, if there was a “like” button on this site, your comment would have had it.
I have to say I’m pretty disgusted that Nine isn’t offering an Olympics highlights package during the middle of the day on weekends. Yesterday they were showing Rugby instead of the Olympics. In Melbourne. Right. I mean, at least put it on Gem or Go if you don’t want to show it on the main channel FFS! Thank God I have Foxtel. Their coverage has been fantastic.
I think if people are going to complain about the commentary or the chop/change decisions that is fair enough. But all these demands about having no ads, no self promotion, sticking with a whole game of hockey in primetime, and their “right” to Olympics just need a reality check. Especially when there is a foxtel option.
I say: if you can’t afford foxtel then tough luck, you miss out. No one has a god given right to free Olympics. It’s how the world works. I don’t have a Ferrari because I cant afford one so I’ll just have to go without it. much like the whingers will have to go without comprehensive Olympic coverage.
That said, the ‘viewer backlash’ would have to have been expected as inevitable from 9. It’s just part of the package of Olympic coverage. I don’t think they are doing any better or worse than 7 did in 2008 but they copped a lot too and ended up being awarded worlds best coverage by the IOC.
I was at a group job interview yesterday where a couple of the other applicants were bagging the swimmers ability to get the gold. I jumped in and took them down for their unfair hyper-criticality and got commended by one of the interviewers for recognising the ‘true spirit’ of the games.
That shut them up!
The perception of 7 is different I believe because they had overspill to SBS and the audience felt there was a greater choice. But also, that the commentators were simply better. Interestingly, it now appears there is a whole lot of renewed appreciation for Bruce McAvaney. Bruce has received many positive comments in the past days. Perhaps an unexpected outcome.
I suggest some readers here go and look at the Channel Nine FB page and read the comments. That page has a new ‘twin’ now also.
I can’t believe people here are saying Nine has been good. You must have low standards. I completely agree with Susan.
For Beijing, i remember Seven would give times for the schedule such as 100m will air at 7.15, the hockey will be shown at 8.25 etc. There’s none of that with Nine, it’s just chop and change between sports with viewers having no idea. They start showing the basketball so you sit down to think great i’ll watch this match. Then they cut after 5 minutes to something else. The other night they cut to the athletics so we were watching that, yet the audio was of the basketball game. James Brayshaw said Greek came 3rd, the country is actually Greece James. All of the commentary is woeful.
They stopped showing the water polo, but then go back to show the goals that we’ve missed. If they just show the match we wouldn’t miss the goals.
During the hockey they go to an ad for no reason during play, when they come back from ads, they say this what happened during the ads, and show the goal. Now if you hadn’t gone to ads we would have seen the goal. Pathetic.
This is the first true multi-channel environment Olympics – therefore we expected to see Channel 9 use their channels better. It has been no different to previous Channel 7 coverages, which is something I think people forget. I think Ch9 will learn from this and show events across different channels next Summer games…
To the wingers Shut The Hell Up!!! If you want a better coverage then Pay for Foxtel. Ch9 is doing a great job, way better than 7’s Coverage.
Neil, we aren’t calling for an ad-free airing of the Olympics.
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The sentiments here in the main don’t mirror those being expressed in social media and many Australians can’t actually afford Foxtel or are living in buildings that don’t readily support it.
But certainly the views here are not as they are other online spaces and I suggest you look to those as better indicators of audience response.
Do I think the petition will get traction with the IOC? I am a realist. But rather than just complaining over and over in social media as 17,000 people are currently doing, I think being willing to put a name to an opinion is preferable.
“Unaustralian” is a big generic stick often used to poke people or things we don’t like. We feel we are being very Australian. If we didn’t care about our athletes, we wouldn’t be doing this.
Actually there has been plenty of criticism of Nine coverage from readers across this site. Just as there was for Seven in Beijing.
This latest trend of getting on ones online soap box at the drop of a hat is beyond tired. Don’t like something on tv? Change the channel. Want a better option to free to air tv? Pay for it.
It’s great we all have an outlet via social media et al. but can we all stop complaining? All this leads to is legitimate complaints getting lost in the ether of pitiful whining.
Well that’s never gonna happen. ABC has no money to buy broadcast rights and without constant ads, Nine wouldn’t make any money off the Olympics. Apparently Nine are showing the Olympics at a loss anyway according to this report: mediaspy.org/2012/07/10/future-olympics-up-for-grabs-as-nine-predicts-30m-loss/
Every word of that is so true. Apparently the BBC has 19 channels for the Olympics.
Eddie was appalling in the commentary yesterday for the triathlon. Felt sorry for Greg Welch who is a former champion in the sport.
I also get annoyed that Channel Nine advertise everything in EST. eg it’ll flash up on the screen swimming finals 5:30am. With no indication its for the Eastern States folks. I just use the UK guide instead and add 7 hours.
I created the petition after sitting on the Channel Nine Facebook site for a few days and reading hundreds of negative comments. I waited for some response from 9. And, nothing.
One of the key shortfalls of current coverage is the complete lack of schedule. We have no idea what Nine are going to show and when. If they do show the end of an event we don’t know if they will show the medal ceremony or not. This has been a particular problem given the time difference; a real omission by Nine that adds to the impression that they simply don’t care about the audience.
The ads for Nine’s own shows are overwhelming. Some viewers have recorded precisely how many ads vs how much actual sport, and the proportion isn’t sound.
The commentary team have shown repeated negativity towards anything less than gold and viewers have cringed over some of the patronising negative comments implying outcomes have been failures. Please also get athlete’s names correct. Very basic issues are amiss.
They have cut away at critical competition moments and left the audience hanging.
The list of issues goes on and on and we genuinely want the IOC to review it’s policy. There should be some form of best practice and Australians are certainly not receiving it on free-to-air.
Susan
Gold medal worthy sentiment but I dare say this will fail to qualify with the judges..
Some people are Unaustralian and love to complain. I have seen the olympics and feel it is better than Seven’s coverage in 2008. The Beijing olympics were the same over 5 different channels on ch 7,70,71,72 and 73 and they cut the coverage for the news and Today Tonight while offering no coverage on 7HD at that time. I also remember that they had AFL commitments too and Sydney were not to happy when 7 cut to a Swans game on a Sunday arvo in place of the Olympics. Of course things were different then.
I heard Nine could only offer 1 stream and thus decided to use Gem for a HD simulcast while offering coverage during Nine News and ACA. They also have put on the highlights package on for people to see events they may have missed. The simulcast is hurting Gem’s share too. Nine is a commercial network. Advertising is their main source of income and they need to make money from the games. If Seven or Ten had the games, I am sure they would be advertising too and 7mate/One HD would be a simulcast. Nine also put NRL on Gem last Friday nationwide. I say well done to Nine fo doing the best they can. Next time, the IOC should allow the FTA rights holder to broadcast at least 2 different streams.
sounds like Susan Plunkett needs to get Foxtel.
Considering NBC’s coverage is far worse than our’s this will not hold much influence. Especially when the rights holder has a pay tv option. I would be interested to know how many other countries have a Main channel, HD channel, a 3D highlights channel (although it’s only in capital cities) and a Pay TV option.
Maybe those complaining should just get Foxtel and be done with it, 8 HD channels no waiting!
Haha show without ads? Some people are naive. That’s what subscription tv is for. People can’t expect to watch for free and complain about broadcasters trying to recoup their investment.
Ch9 have actually done a pretty good job. There are so many sports, many running concurrently and Australian competitors deserve recognition. There are plenty of family and friends back home that want to cheer them on. As for the ads ch9 have been very flexible on timing of breaks and most of the coverage is live.
For those whingers that expect and demand more how about cough up the money next time so you can watch it on foxtel
Nines coverage has been fine in my opinion.
I hate whiners which is exactly what Susan sounds like, I think Nine are doing the best they can with what they have available, has he not heard of the anti siphoning list? I’m sure Nine would love to have 3 channels airing 3 different streams of sport but they can’t.
I think Ms Plunkett will be pushing the proverbial uphill if she thinks the IOC will back her call for an ad free Olympic coverage. The IOC is out to make as much money as possible and selling the rights to commercial tv stations is one of their top earners. I certainly don’t begrudge 9 for the amount of ads they put on, as they need to recover their expenses. Annoying yes, but totally understandable. If anything, we should be blaming the IOC for making the Olympics the big cash cow that it is, which forces tv channels into this situation.
I certainly haven’t watched much Olympics. I am a sports fan and brought a new tv just a month ago, but for some reason it hasn’t grabbed me this time around. I have enjoyed listing to the radio coverage on the ABC – fast paced, multi sport coverage, and intelligent commentary and interviews. Just a pity you don’t have the vision.
David, maybe you could do a post Olympic interview with the relevant person from 9 to discuss their coverage and the thinking that went behind it. I would like to see some stats about the variety of sports covered and amount of time devoted to each sport and the amount of time devoted to ads.
Every country has its jingoistic coverage, but just occasionally you want to see the “hero” stories of athletes from other countries. 9 have gone too much for jingoism and emotions; and in my opinion have ignored the great stories that sit behind any number of athletes competing at these games.
Thats why I’d rather watch foxtel
to be honest, I haven’t found nine’s coverage any worse than seven’s in recent years…smash cutting between sports trying to find an aussie medal chance. Nine have at least supplied a HD channel (which hasn’t appeased the whingers who bemoan the lack of HD sport), and although I would have liked sports to be played out in full on multi channels, it is what it is (entirely like seven’s olympic coverage).