Olympic Fails

God, I hadn't thought of that. Duly noted!

Is their any real evidence to suggest by and large they care, other than those on a few internet forums?

I've always thought if you have an interest in television presentation you're more likely to thinking about the DOG and therefore more likely to be annoyed by it.

Yes. BBC One and Two, and Channel Four, all had dogs permanently on digital platforms when they launched in the late 90s. Due to the unexpectedly large volume of complaints, they were removed.

But how much is 'unexpectedly large'? If everyone on this forum sent in a complaint I'm sure we could have the same kind of result.

The thing that's been annoying me as someone who's mainly had the games on semi in the background is that there's no caption saying what the event is just before or flashing up during the event.

With the swimming in particular I'd find myself watching the race knowing how far they'd swum but not how far they had left! it would have been nice to have a 100/200m caption

Well in the context of the number of digital viewers in 1998/1999 - a significant proportion I suspect... Remember this was before Freeview or Freesat - only pay-TV viewers had digital originally (*).

(*) and the few who knew about the Sky FTV option.

This was 1998/9, pre most forums. Usenet was about the only 'forum' available in those days. I don't think there was any orchestrated campaign, and remember also digital viewing numbers were tiny back then. The DOGs on BBC 1 and 2 lasted about six weeks, the DOG on C4 (introduced on Good Friday 1999) even less.

Yep - and they featured heavily in duty log feedback for both broadcasters AIUI.

Also interesting is that Danielle Nagler (former Head of BBC HD) engaged with the subject more recently, toning down the BBC HD dog significantly. BBC Four had/have a policy of removing their dog from some genres entirely as well.

It's noticable that the BBC One HD dog has been absent during the Olympics as well. As all the Olympics graphics are 4:3 safe - it can't be to avoid clashes... (The BBC One HD dog is outside 4:3 safe ISTR)

See here: http://www.tvforum.co.uk/forums/post834661#post-834661

I don't understand why the different playout arrangements for the Olympics described in that link, explain the absence of the BBC 1 HD DOG ?

Well, I thought it meant that instead of having two versions (SD and HD), the SD version of the channel is just the HD channel down-converted to SD, so if the DOG was added it would appear both on SD and HD.

Surely if the the same facilities are being used for both SD and HD variants, the only option is to have the DOG on both SD and HD or not at all? Rather than only on HD, as was the case prior to the games.