BBC 2012 - The Olympic Broadcaster

A few other bits and pieces:

Complete list of presenters and commentators including the Opening Ceremony commentary team of Huw Edwards, Hazel Irvine and Trevor Nelson.

More on the interactive coverage here including something I don't think I've seen mentioned before, that the smart TV app will also be available on the PlayStation 3, opening it up to many more users.

Short clip about the interactive video player.

it's a bit on the quiet side, but there's a nice bed on that clip.

I wonder what the plan will be for weekend news on BBC1 during the Olympics. Try and fit in in-between events or shift the Olympics to BBC2 for 15-20 minutes?


Will include national and regional news. Probably like what they did in Beijing with a brief national summary once an hour and one regional news bulletin per hour?


That and the signed programmes I'd guess


Good to see Barry Davies still involved (as part of the hockey team)

Trevor Nelson on the opening ceremonies - and I thought Huw Edwards was bad enough. Today though seems to be a rehash of the announcement from a few months back.

I struggle to get excited with the ap when they've neglected interactive TV on Freeview at least - they seem to have put every effort into getting as much red button content to people on Sky, Cable, Freesat and now with PS3s etc. - but have completely neglected the biggest TV platform in the country.

I've read elsewhere that the 00:00 slot will be BBC News, also as 'Sportsday' is a BBC News Channel brand & there has already been Olympics Tonight on BBC1, it might actually be the case that BBC1 technically joins the BBC News Channel at Midnight.

I don't really see why BBC News is screening Olympic Sportsday at 10.30pm when they'll be highlights on BBC1 at roughly the same time.

It's the usual spot for Sportsday, just adding the Olympic tag because, well, its likely to be the main sport taking place! I'd expect it to be quite different to whats on BBC 1- an extended sports bulletin rather than a highlights programme- quick reports on the main events of the day, not extended highlights where the results aren't revealed before you've seen the action, interviews with any British medalists etc.

Perhaps that'll be the BBC Three alternative commentary that I heard about?


Can confirm that midnight will be a 'news' slot. One of the late night programmes (can't remember if it was the 2245 or 0015 one) will be a bit more 'entertainment' based.

Other interesting snippets I've recently learned:

• the BBC's studio complex will be right next to the world's biggest McDonald's. It'll be perched on top of a stack of shipping containers. The main studio will be in the same glass box as the used in Cape Town, but with a different interior set. It'll be next to the BBC Three set, which will be a little more exposed to the elements.
  
• the main studio tower will be on a different pile of shipping containers, on the other side of the McD's. Apparently it doesn't have quite as good a view.
  
• NBC will be based on ground level, somewhere near Park Live East. They'll also be taking up about twice as much as space as the BBC in the IBC. (the IBC is at the bottom-left (north-west) corner of that map.)
  
• the News Channel and World will be on top of Lund Point, or the "Stratford Broadcast Tower". World will relocate elsewhere so that BBC London can use their studio for the 1830 news.
  
• There is news on BBC One at weekends, though not necessarily at 1/6/10.
  
• 'Media 1', the vehicle which will be filming the torch relay, is a converted horsebox.

Odd BBC1 gets an extra news bulletin during the Olympics. I can only guess it's purpose is to reach viewers who may have missed the news during the day due to watching the Olympics?


Probably 2240. The title 'Olympic Sportsday' at 0015 implies it will use the NC Sportsday format, which is very much a 'straight' sports news bulletin

I am looking over the list of regional Torch Relay shows, and I don't see one for BBC London. I am assuming the outer boroughs will be covered by a National show, or National coverage? I know the torch will be stopping about 10mins down the road from me at Paradise Park.

Yes the 2240 programme Olympics Tonight will feature guests from sport and entertainment amongst the highlights.

Another snippet - the 10.00 news on Opening Ceremony night will be on BBC2, presumably without any regional element... although perhaps they'll have Wales Today/Reporting Scotland/Newsline with a filler eg. Coast in England.

It would make no sense to air keep the regional news teams around till after midnight for the opening ceremony. It'll probably be the only late edition of the regional news ditched all year, so considering they don't think twice about condensing the main evening bulletin for football or Wimbledon axing the 10.30pm edition makes sense.

As for Olympics Tonight - why on earth do they need guests from the world of entertainment - the Olympics are entertaining enough surely and any highlights show should give as much time to highlights as possible.

Tonight's BBC2 coverage of the handover ceremony was pretty poor too. Firstly the special torch relay titles didn't look as good as they do in the ad, and then with it being a BBC News production it was tagged by the awful live DOG (though thankfully we were spared the lower thirds!) while Chris Eaken was very negative about the whole thing towards the end. As I've said all along BBC Sport should be responsible for anything Olympic related - someone like Claire Balding would have been much more enthusiastic about the whole thing without glossing over the issues either.