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Beijing Olympic Games 2008

Friday 8th - Sunday 24th August (June 2008)

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JO
Jon
Brekkie posted:

Plus Huw Edwards hosting the Opening and Closing ceremony with Sue Barker. Come on, this isn't the Pope's funeral!

They must have got that idea from Doctor Who.
Square Eyes posted:
What ? No Ray Stubbs or Dougie Donnelly ?

In my view Dougie Donnelly is much under used outside of Scotland and Ray Stubbs (legend) seems to be out of favour at the moment.
MI
m_in_m
Ronant posted:
m_in_m posted:
Two questions, why is the lunchtime news moved to midday rather than One? Secondly, does that mean Breakfast will move to BBC Two, or will it be shortened and only be shown on the news channel?

Im guessing there could be some big athletics finals or something which would clash with the 1.00 News. And i dont think Breakfast will move to BBC2 as Olympic Breakfast will incorporate all the News, Regional News and weather. But i dont know what the news channel will do - perhaps screen Breakfast as normal but from N6 - a bit like the weekend version?


That would be a good idea, then at least digital viewers have a choice if they wish not to follow the Olympics.
JO
Joe
cylon6 posted:
Jugalug posted:
cylon6 posted:
I can only see this doing well if the Brits are doing well like at the last Olympics. Without British success it could be turn off TV.

Like Euro 2008.

Precisely only the what you would call glamour ties like France v Italy are getting the viewers. With no home team interest there is a general level of apathy about this tournament with the British public. If British athletes don't make a quarter/semi or final I can't see the ratings being good.

No, I was disagreeing with you...

Guardian Sport posted:
Average figures have remained consistently over 4m, with other peaks including 7.1m viewers for Holland v Italy on ITV1 and the same number for Holland's demolition of France on BBC1.

The figures for matches not involving England are only marginally down on Euro 2004 and the ITV director of news and sport, Mark Sharman, said he expected audiences to rise further as the tournament moved into the knockout stages.

"We always thought it would do well, but I think it's probably done a bit better than we thought," he said. "There is a great appetite for football all year round, the quality of the matches has been high and so many of the players are familiar," he said. He said there was a core audience of 4m to 5m that had tuned in even for more unattractive matches, with no game on any one of the main channels attracting less than a fifth of all viewers.

BBC's director of sport, Roger Mosey, has pointed to record figures for its sport website as evidence that the tournament is also driving web traffic. The corporation is making its multimedia and interactive coverage more of a priority as it attempts to highlight the breadth and depth of its sports offering.
PT
Put The Telly On
Jake Humphrey...and get ready to bleep this.. is a **** ****!
AN
Andrew Founding member
Square Eyes posted:
What ? No Ray Stubbs or Dougie Donnelly ?

There's no Harry Gration either
CO
Connews
nok32uk posted:
Jake Humphrey...and get ready to bleep this.. is a ****ing ****!


Haha, you sure you're in the right thread, there? Laughing
BR
Brekkie
cylon6 posted:
And Jake Humphrey just isn't good enough for primetime, there are much better presenters than him.


If he'd been given the overnight gig fair enough - after all it's his first games working for BBC Sport (unlike Mr Inverdale who's been with the BBC a good couple of decades!).

Looks like he's not even the main anchor for Five Live considering Simon Mayo is doing the first week - John Inverdale should be the main man out there for the TV coverage. Simple.

P.S. Good they are moving the news to reflect the Olympic schedule, and I hope they do that for the opening ceremony. Recent ceremonies that have aired during the day have found themselves shunted to BBC2 when they've over-run - so for example in 2000 with Sydney anyone recording on BBC1 and allowing for the over-run missed the lighting of the flame as they switched to BBC2.


Also they're upping their Paralympic coverage quite a bit this time, with nightly primetime highlights on BBC1 and live coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies on BBC1/2, plus live weekend action and daily live coverage on BBCi.
AN
Ant
wells posted:
Brekkie posted:

Plus Huw Edwards hosting the Opening and Closing ceremony with Sue Barker. Come on, this isn't the Pope's funeral!

They must have got that idea from Doctor Who.
Square Eyes posted:
What ? No Ray Stubbs or Dougie Donnelly ?

In my view Dougie Donnelly is much under used outside of Scotland and Ray Stubbs (legend) seems to be out of favour at the moment.

Even in Scotland Dougie isn't seen very often. A few years ago he presented Sportscene Results (Scottish equivilent to Final Score) but Stuart Cosgrove has that job these days.

He's only ever seen hosting the live matches which, at the moment for BBC Scotland, is limited.
SE
Square Eyes Founding member
Dougie is out of favour it seems if this article is anything to go by.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/entertainment-news/2008/06/09/bbc-sacked-me-from-the-open-golf-coverage-by-voicemail-says-dougie-donnelly-86908-20600490/
NG
noggin Founding member
Inspector Sands posted:
Brekkie posted:

Plus Huw Edwards hosting the Opening and Closing ceremony with Sue Barker. Come on, this isn't the Pope's funeral!


But with recent events, the protests and the handover to London at the end; it has become just as much a news eevnt as a sports one


Exactly - and Huw does most major events these days, not just the newsy ones. With the London 2012 handover and the potential for political statements during the ceremonies (however much the Chinese may not want them), having a safe and very skilled commentary pair of hands is a very good idea. The ceremonies are not sporting events per se - they are large international events.
BR
Brekkie
I understand why, but really if they were using their sports team correctly they wouldn't need Huw there. Both John Inverdale and Adrian Chiles have the journalistic clout to cover such events.

IMO the only reason Huw is hosting the ceremonies is so the BBC can justify sending him out to anchor the Ten o'clock News from Beijing for the duration of the games.


P.S. Square Eyes - can you edit that link please so it's not stretching the page. Thanks.
NG
noggin Founding member
Brekkie posted:
I understand why, but really if they were using their sports team correctly they wouldn't need Huw there. Both John Inverdale and Adrian Chiles have the journalistic clout to cover such events.


Think both of them have the journalism credentials - but haven't ever heard either of them do TV commentary of any events. It is a skilled job - and very different from radio commentary (where you have to describe what you can see that the listeners can't) or TV presentation.

In the current era of joined up thinking - having him do both the Ten and the ceremonies gives both events a feeling of being "BBC One".

Huw is now the commentator of choice for most BBC One events - and has the balance of journalism and gravitas (for serious stuff), combined with warmth and humour (for lighter moments).

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