Winter Olympics 2010 - Vancouver - BBC TWO/HD/RB/OL/IP

So on arguably the day when they'd be the most interest in the games following last night's gold medal, the BBC really go and screw things up with their limited interactive offerings.

I tuned in this morning to find streaming of the Danny Baker Show had been given priority over the usual highlights show. Tuning in after 11am I was met by a lengthy "Coming Up" caption for the highlights and no sign of those highlights, and then at noon when highlights were still scheduled they screened extended curling coverage instead, an hour earlier than scheduled. And with at least half an hour to spare before Final Score, rather than giving the highlights another airing they opt to repeat the Olympic Guides yet again.

Can't help but feel that Sue Barker is only be used at these Olympics as a sop to the media who would claim that there was more ageism at the BBC should she be dropped. Giving her the figure skating commentator's job is an interesting way of keeping her involved but also keeping her off-screen. It looks like her role at BBC Sport will get increasingly smaller. Of course the problem is accommodating Claire Balding. The BBC have no real use for her these days with so little racing and they effectively have to give her multi sport coverage to occupy her. Would she not be a good host for Ski Sunday?

She would indeed, but not in it's current format with Graham Bell and Ed Leigh. I've long said though Ski Sunday should be axed and replaced with some kind of "Winter Grandstand", an afternoon of winter sports including those Britain are actually good at, not just the skiing.

Personally I'm happy Sue has been sidelined and Hazel given the most prominent role - she is easily the best of the trio out there and I'd rather see her in the lead female role for London 2012 than Sue Barker. It's already likely she'll have a lesser role anyway having quit as the main athletics host - I think the BBC gave John Inverdale the nod over Hazel Irvine so at least he'll be prominently involved in the TV coverage for a change (though I do think Hazel did a better job at the World Champs last year), so it'll be interesting to see if they return to a co-hosted format for the ceremonies at least, with John and Sue hosting and Hazel commentating - though I think Gary Lineker is due to be involved too, but I hope he isn't given the lead male role.

How long till either Question of Sport is axed or Gabby Logan is given the gig?

Well Sue is going on tour with it in October/November. Complete other topic but I'm not a fan of the changes made in recent years, especially giving options for "What Happened Next?", and hence removing the random guessing which provided so much entertainment over the 35 years previously.

Complaint after complaint after complaint on the BBC blogs about the coverage this year, mainly the situation on Freeview with only one interactive stream available - which if not showing a three hour curling match often finds itself simulcasting BBC2.

And considering the streams have been axed to make way for the HD channels, it's worth noting too I've not seen a single message of praise amongst them regarding being able to watch the games on BBC HD.

Not being as vociferous as Brekkie but why with only three out of eighty jumps remaining in the late running Men's Team Ski Jumping the BBC switched to an Eastender's Quiz on FV301, mystifies me.

Luckily I had the PC ready and missed only 20 seconds or so, nut that move was a bit stupid.

And how many people have Freeview HD?

I've not seen much of this year's coverage on the Beeb, though last week I was in Stockholm, and saw saturation coverage on SVT 1 and 2, as well as SVT-HD.

However, I watched the Ski Cross coverage on BBC HD on Sunday night. Host broadcaster coverage was superb (who was providing it ?) but the Beeb's presentation was awful.

The two commentators were straight out of the Alan Partridge school of broadcasting,

Com 1 "This is a sport for real men", Com 2 "Err... must point out on Tuesday it's the woman's turn'

There were BBC trailers stuffed into intervals, Why ? Do the Beeb really want to look like a commercial channel ?

Claire Balding's links and interviews were shot by a cameraman would couldn't stand still, kept walking round in a semi circle as she interviewed her guest. Dreadful stuff, oh and upscaled SD to-boot

Markymark - if you think SVT1 and 2 are saturated - watch NRK1 and NRK2! NRK1 is literally just carrying Winter Olympics and news bulletins, nothing else. The Winter Olympics shifts to NRK2 during the news bulletins - and on some occasions NRK2 carries a second event.

NRK1 is also available in NRK1 HD flavours (and Norway is a very successful winter olympics country) - but I think when NRK1 is showing the news you lose the HD Olympics stuff as it is a straight simulcast.

SVTHD is usually a straight simulcast of SVT1 - but during the Winter Games it has become more like BBC HD - and carries a separate schedule. As the Winter Olympics stuff moves between SVT1 and SVT2 the coverage stays in HD on SVT HD.

Neither country has a Red Button service though - though SVT and NRK have a very similar web streaming operation to the BBC's.

However both Sweden and Norway are HUGE Winter Sports nations - just like Germany, Switzerland etc. The UK isn't - and I think the BBC are spending far less in covering the games than SVT, NRK etc. I suspect SVT are covering the games like the BBC cover Beijing - with all the production teams being based in Canada.

The BBC usually doesn't do this for the Winter Games - and instead usually backhauls everything to London and produces from this end (so there are far fewer staff in hotels in Canada and far fewer flights to pay for, and far less extra kit to rent/buy and install on-site).

I suspect that this year the BBC unilaterals are SD (so in-vision presentation on BBC dedicated circuits will be upconverted) - and I don't know how much HD editing BBC Sport have at TVC - as they're moving to Salford next year (and unlikely to invest in HD kit in London prior to this).

We're not a massive winter sports country (in comparison to the Scandinavian countries) - and the BBC is continually getting blasted for sending 100s of people to major events - so keeping most people in London was probably politically prudent again this time around?

When it comes to the Clare Balding Whistler stuff - I think that is a personal style thing. I've massively preferred the on-the-hoof radio camera style presentation they're doing to SVT's "hotel room" studio which feels very distant from anything - it feels a bit like the BBC's F1 coverage in that "in amongst it" feel. NRK's studio could even be in Oslo - it has no windows and no geography at all.

Ah, yes. The hotel TV did also have NRK 1 and 2 available, I think at one point I caught 3 separate events across 4 channels.




Don't get me wrong, I've no problem with CB being outside, it's just the single camera 'yoof TV' style I don't like. In real life, if I were to stand listening to two people having a conversation, I wouldn't keep walking around them ! So I don't understand why you'd mimic that with TV presentation ?

Made me laugh on Sunday with the Ski Cross that they had Alan Baxter guesting with Clare and everytime she asked him a question he basically admitted he had no idea as he wasn't an expert in the sport.

I definitely think the ratings show the BBC should have dedicated BBC2 primetime to the event - the limited slots it has got have been getting around 3m, which is actually only a million down on a lot of the live action from Beijing, so the audience is clearly there.