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?
BBC Breakfast will only be on the BBC News Channel during the Olympics - ending at 0830. It's Olympics on BBC One and BBC Two with short News Bulletins as part of Olympic Breakfast on BBC One.
If you chuck enough money and staff at programming then you will get great output like the Olympics on the BBC.
The promo looks awful. Nice animation but rather tedious and drawn out. Not what most would associate with the Olympics.
Just makes you wonder is it really all worth it? Fair enough the BBC should cover it but sending hundreds of staff and spending millions of pounds is maybe not the best way of doing it...
If you chuck enough money and staff at programming then you will get great output like the Olympics on the BBC.
Just makes you wonder is it really all worth it? Fair enough the BBC should cover it but sending hundreds of staff and spending millions of pounds is maybe not the best way of doing it...
If you chuck enough money and staff at programming then you will get great output like the Olympics on the BBC.
Just makes you wonder is it really all worth it? Fair enough the BBC should cover it but sending hundreds of staff and spending millions of pounds is maybe not the best way of doing it...
Now that IS exciting. I doubt the BBC will get a whole "floor" of that construction given the number of media outlets, but there may be well a double sided studio that would be incredibly versatile.
Can't wait to see it in the flesh.
AIUI the BBC is on the first floor of the pagoda - don't know if they are sharing, and I'm not clear how big the space is. AIUI the gallery is in the IBC, which is a different building, so quite a distance from the studio.
If you chuck enough money and staff at programming then you will get great output like the Olympics on the BBC.
Just makes you wonder is it really all worth it? Fair enough the BBC should cover it but sending hundreds of staff and spending millions of pounds is maybe not the best way of doing it...
You said it yourself, it makes great output!
This is true, but is it worth it?
Depends how you define "worth".
In covering these events the BBC have a few basic choices :
1. Do everything out there - studio, production, presentation.
2. Do some stuff out there - studio and presentation, but do a large chunk of production in London.
3. Do most stuff in London with just reporters on location.
1 was the model for the Sydney and Athens Olympics (and for the World Cup and European Cup), and is pretty much the model for major sporting events globally these days.
2. was the model for the Torino Winter Olympics.
3. was the model for coverage up until the 90s pretty much (including the TV Centre presented Winter Olympics until very recently).
The problem with 2 is that now the Olympics are HD the BBC would have problems using their existing SD production facilities at TV Centre - and would have to backhaul multiple event feeds in HD (which is very expensive) rather than a single HD feed. If you want replays of ISO cameras, beauty shots etc. you'd need a LOT of HD circuits between Beijing and London, you'd still need a sizeable presence on the ground if you want interviews (reporters, location producers, unilateral camera crews etc.)
You also end up with less UK specific coverag - as you are less likely to deploy your own cameras at major event locations (so at the Athletics you wouldn't have cameras specifically following the British competitors as the BBC wouldn't have their own uni cameras on-site probably)
The problem with 3 is that if you end up with very anodyne studio presentation (no competitors in the studio), and lose out on the sense of occasion that being there gives you. Do you put your best presenters in a studio in London - half a world away from the action, and just use dull unilateral two-ways to get a sense of being there?
When you just got a couple of feeds from the host broadcaster - 3 become a sensible way of doing things. Now you can go live to almost every event - you need a lot more people out there to know what is going on.
The modern large sporting event model for major broadcasters is based on a location operation at the IBC on-site - it provides all the feeds you need - both live and networked replays these days - and the costs of providing these feeds in the IBC is effectively shared between broadcasters.
If you decide to run the operation from London - then suddenly you have to book your own unilateral feeds of all the locations you'd want back to London, and you'd be bearing the entire costs of these yourself.
With 10 minutes of EBU SD (not HD) satellite time costing roughly the same as a producer or camera operator for 1 day (15 mins if you include travel and overnight accommodation) - and I suspect fibre for HD would be more than this - you can quickly see how it becomes more cost effective to deploy people rather than bring loads of feeds back to London.
Also - it is worth remembering that the BBC is also a host broadcaster at Beijing (as they have been at many Olympics) - they are sending out production crew and facilities to cover the Rowing and flat water events for all broadcasters. (Just as Finland and Sweden are providing the athletics coverage, Australia the swimming etc.)
Just how much will be satellited over this time, I suspect the vast majority of the feeds will arrive via fibre. The increasing use of fibre opens up the option of handling production in the UK.
Having worked in Sat Comms at a formerly prestigious Satellite ES in the south west, the Unilateral from site approach used to be the only effective alternative. Moscow in 1980 was incredibly complex for it's time, indeed most feeds were sent out via a then newly constructed SES NW of Moscow. The sheer effort and allocation of resources was a drag but boy was it satisfying to see it all come off.
LA was quirky in the least - Archie MacPherson and Terry Wogan in a Jacuzzi on top of a Pickup driving through the LA suburbs was wierd to say the least.
Let's hope it all comes off spectacularly in two weeks time.