Olympics 2012: Live Coverage

The divine Clare Balding on Twitter mentioned something interesting which allegedly happened at the Excel this evening, and it turns out it was true:

http://london-games.reuters.com/london-olympics-2012/articles/boxing/2012/08/10/nbc-asked-cease-ringside-commentary

The NBC Olympics train-wreck continues . . .

Can Clare Balding be voted Sports Personality of the Year?

To quote Jan Moir of the Daily Mail, "Why cant everyone be Clare Balding?"

She really is simply fantastic. The star of the BBC's coverage by a long, long way IMO. I think Sue and Hazel would have been right up there if they had had more airtime. But Clare really shone through. An absolute breath of fresh air - but then again those of us who have been following sports broadcasting for years already know all that.

I'd rather you didn't quote Jan Moir...



Yes. Clare, John, Jake and Gabby have been prominent and excellent - versatile, confident, fluent and incredibly watchable. Sue and Hazel have been less prominent, but also excellent.

Now who was the weak link... Err... Some football presenter..

I think that's unfair really, he's been fine since they stopped pairing him with Ian Thrope, he's been good as a bit of an everyman, whilst they've had the more skilled and knowledgeable presenters at the big venues.

I think Clare has been the stand out star of these games, and of course her games are not over for a few weeks yet.

Except that you don't need an everyman in that role. You need a proper presenter who can do a decent interview...

I bet Channel 4 are very pleased with their signing!

I've really liked Lineker too. He's filling the Des Lynam role of chummy, slightly cheeky reliable presenter. Incidently I was quite surprised earlier today when I saw him chairing a 'London' press conference.

Tbh I don't see how you can say Gary was a weak link and then say Sue was excellent.

I think the big difference is that Sue can handle the mechanics of live TV and do interviews. It's interesting that two of the bigger set-piece interviews (William and Harry, and Jacques Rogge) have both fallen to Sue.

Gary always seems a bit nervous, and never really knows quite what to ask people. He just doesn't have the same fluency as the rest of the A-team. Not terrible - but I think others could have done better. I don't think he's Des Mark II.

It's interesting you say that, as I tend to agree. He always seems to finish the lead-in to VTs before they are ready to begin (and the same is true on MOTD to some extent) and manages to make it very clear that he's reading from an autocue/script when they do the headline or coming up sequences, for example.

I don't mind him being there, as he is a big BBC face, but I don't think he's ever been an excellent presenter and he's certainly proved that during these Olympics, IMO.

Very interesting discussion at http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/reading-the-riots-blog/audio/2012/aug/10/bbc-olympics-2012 regarding the BBC's Olympics coverage, and also what NBC could learn from it.

One point which was raised - the need for an evening round-up programme with a less Team GB-bias. The 'Global Round-up' during Sportsday at 12.30am didn't really cut it. And also a perceived lack of confidence regarding cross-promotion of Olympic channels.

Apart from that, almost universal praise . . .

On the whole the BBC Sport presenters have been excellent - the only one I felt was out of their depth was Jake Humphrey at the cycling. He has really come on as an asset to BBC Sport since Beijing (mainly thanks to F1) and is one of the best presenters at handling multiple sports, but he just didn't display the knowledge of cycling to ask the right questions and convey the right information (as Clare Balding did with such ease at the swimming) - and kind of fell back into the mould of kids TV presenter rather than sports broadcaster.

Jill Douglas should have led the cycling, even though I could understand them wanting her in the middle of the Velodrome due to her familarity with our biggest stars. She certainly should have fronted the outdoor events too - it was ridiculous using Tanni Grey Thompson to "present" the road races and Helen Skelton on the BMX/Mountain Biking, with Jill only interviewing at the end. Helen Skelton is easily one of the best Blue Peter presenters of recent years, but clearly out of her depth when it comes to sports broadcasting.

It's also the other non-BBC Sport faces I have a question mark over. Mishal Husain has proved herself a very capable live TV presenter, but was an unnecessary member of the team - while Matt Baker was great at the Gymnastics, but pretty rubbish in the studio. Meanwhile Hazel, Sue and Clare - who've pretty much exclusively fronted the Olympics and Commonwealth Games between them since 2006 - have all been rather underused (Clare had the swimming, but hasn't had a regular shift since).


Overall though looking at the full picture I can count the number of faults in BBC coverage on one hand really - excellent throughout and unrivalled around the world.