Winter Olympics 2018
Discussion
cuprabob said:
Rider007 said:
Christ sake, is curling the only winter sport the Biased Broadcasting Corporation can cover.Getting really boring.
I suspect there are a couple of reasons for it. One being that it's a relatively long event over the period of the games and the other being we're actually quite good at it and are still it in after a few days 
But I'm not complaining, our ladies are good to watch.
cuprabob said:
I suspect there are a couple of reasons for it. One being that it's a relatively long event over the period of the games and the other being we're actually quite good at it and are still it in after a few days
And the third it's an indoor broadcast so probably a lot easier to film, using less staff and less equipment, costs less and it's not brass monkey cold.Lynchie999 said:
I guess this comment belongs here but...
WHY do we always have to have Balding and a full female pundit line up every day ? - i'm all for equality and all, but it seems a bit... odd ??
Do any of you think the sports covered are female biased too.WHY do we always have to have Balding and a full female pundit line up every day ? - i'm all for equality and all, but it seems a bit... odd ??
Watched a lot of the Olympic coverage on BBC and it feels like I am watching women events most of the time.
Seemed to have missed most of the skiing events somehow.
With everyone here not liking Clare Balding, the rest studio team are OK.
Edited by Macski on Thursday 22 February 14:05
popeyewhite said:
cuprabob said:
I suspect there are a couple of reasons for it. One being that it's a relatively long event over the period of the games and the other being we're actually quite good at it and are still it in after a few days
And the third it's an indoor broadcast so probably a lot easier to film, using less staff and less equipment, costs less and it's not brass monkey cold.Ok, as a single event, biathlon has more staff covering it, but curling is not small by any measure.
The little events are things like speed skating.
Super Slo Mo said:
You are kidding right? 4 lanes all live at the same time means 4 OB vehicles, 4 directors, 4 of everything basically. Not to mention split crews as it’s a 16-17 hour day.
So what. You how many staff the Beeb has out there?Super Slo Mo said:
Ok, as a single event, biathlon has more staff covering it, but curling is not small by any measure.
The little events are things like speed skating.
..which is also indoors...The little events are things like speed skating.
Anyway at least as the Beeb is using almost all female presenters they'll be saving a bit of cash.
Kermit power said:
Lynchie999 said:
I guess this comment belongs here but...
WHY do we always have to have Balding and a full female pundit line up every day ? - i'm all for equality and all, but it seems a bit... odd ??
I think you're reading in something that isn't there, to be honest. The main studio pundits I've seen have been:WHY do we always have to have Balding and a full female pundit line up every day ? - i'm all for equality and all, but it seems a bit... odd ??
Amy Williams on the sliding events (the only other British Gold Medallist you could've got to do that has been a little bit busy for the last week, and is also female).
Rhona Martin on the curling. Yes, you could've chosen male curling medallists if you'd wanted to, but not a Gold medallist.
Jenny Jones on snowboarding. First Brit to win an Olympic medal on snow, never mind just in snowboarding. Can't help being female.
Christopher Dean on skating events. Male. They could've presumably gone for Jane Torvil if they'd wanted a clean sweep!
Chemmy Alcott. She's in the studio doing the punditry stuff, whilst Graham Bell is, I believe, doing race commentary. If Bell is better at the latter, and they can't both do both, why worry about it? I suspect the only other British skier most people could even name is Martin Bell, and whatever he's doing now, it doesn't seem to be anything to do with the media.
Rather than criticising the number of women on the BBC coverage, can you name any men you think should be providing coverage who aren't?
Sports coverage is something the BBC usually does very well, but with this, and the hours upon hours of Curling coverage with more exciting stuff "on the red button"......on a programme being broadcast at 2 in the morning, they do seem to have lost their touch.
JagLover said:
No problem with having female pundits in the studio, but I have been recording all the BBC shows and it is like a less rowdy version of loose women. Occasionally you get a token male, the rest of the time a four women posse.
Sports coverage is something the BBC usually does very well, but with this, and the hours upon hours of Curling coverage with more exciting stuff "on the red button"......on a programme being broadcast at 2 in the morning, they do seem to have lost their touch.
Since they are not covering everything, I'd imagine they had to pick and choose what to cover. Curling has a sSports coverage is something the BBC usually does very well, but with this, and the hours upon hours of Curling coverage with more exciting stuff "on the red button"......on a programme being broadcast at 2 in the morning, they do seem to have lost their touch.
tload of matches to covers, as does ice hockey and to a lesser extent xc skiing too, so they are great for filling airtime. But last time we won silver and bronze in the curling, and had good chances this time. We don't have an ice hockey team, and we had one guy in a couple of the XC skiing events. So it isn't surprising that the BBC ticked the "24/7 curling please" box on the menu. Parallel GS? It's all done on Saturday.
It won't pay out much but I've got money on Ester Ledecka winning, multi-sport double at the same games would be great to see, sounds unlikely but she's already won that part of it!
Looks like 1920 was the last time it happened; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Kirksey
It won't pay out much but I've got money on Ester Ledecka winning, multi-sport double at the same games would be great to see, sounds unlikely but she's already won that part of it!
Looks like 1920 was the last time it happened; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Kirksey
Edited by mizx on Thursday 22 February 21:51
popeyewhite said:
Super Slo Mo said:
You are kidding right? 4 lanes all live at the same time means 4 OB vehicles, 4 directors, 4 of everything basically. Not to mention split crews as it’s a 16-17 hour day.
So what. You how many staff the Beeb has out there?Super Slo Mo said:
Ok, as a single event, biathlon has more staff covering it, but curling is not small by any measure.
The little events are things like speed skating.
..which is also indoors...The little events are things like speed skating.
Anyway at least as the Beeb is using almost all female presenters they'll be saving a bit of cash.
The BBC presumably has a studio somewhere (either a hotel room/suite or at the International Broadcast Centre) and a handful of people who go and sit in the commentary positions or the mixed zones.
They haven't got that many people here really, or if they have, they're not very visible.
Other than that they just buy the feed from the Host Broadcaster, so as far as the BBC is concerned curling is the same as any other sport there, other than the length of time it’s on air.
That said, I would still expect them to have twice as many staff on Curling as any other sport just down to the need to have two shifts.
Edited by Super Slo Mo on Friday 23 February 02:01
Edited by Super Slo Mo on Friday 23 February 05:52
Greg66 said:
Since they are not covering everything, I'd imagine they had to pick and choose what to cover. Curling has a stload of matches to covers, as does ice hockey and to a lesser extent xc skiing too, so they are great for filling airtime. But last time we won silver and bronze in the curling, and had good chances this time. We don't have an ice hockey team, and we had one guy in a couple of the XC skiing events. So it isn't surprising that the BBC ticked the "24/7 curling please" box on the menu.
This insular approach to sports broadcasting really annoys me.tload of matches to covers, as does ice hockey and to a lesser extent xc skiing too, so they are great for filling airtime. But last time we won silver and bronze in the curling, and had good chances this time. We don't have an ice hockey team, and we had one guy in a couple of the XC skiing events. So it isn't surprising that the BBC ticked the "24/7 curling please" box on the menu. I am happy to cheer on a Brit if they are doing well, but to have the prime focus being a minority sport merely because a British team does well is very poor. Particularly when it covers so much of their schedules.
Gaz. said:
Yes, it was great, but the women's ski cross is about to start on Eurosport, they've had to modify the course after a fking enormous crash in the men's event a few days ago. Chris Del Bosco got the timing wrong and just went into orbit, landing heavily breaking his pelvis and some ribs. Think MotoGP crash but in skiware.
I was watching that, and wondering whether for some reason you crash harder on skis than you do on a board?king enormous crash in the men's event a few days ago. Chris Del Bosco got the timing wrong and just went into orbit, landing heavily breaking his pelvis and some ribs. Think MotoGP crash but in skiware.Not just Delbosco of course, and you don't generally get up from a broken pelvis (unless you're Geraint Thomas, when you just shrug and carry on riding the Tour de France!), but in the board cross, it looked like everyone who crashed got back up and carried on racing, whereas there were at least three delays for ski racers to be stretchered off after crashing...
Kermit power said:
I was watching that, and wondering whether for some reason you crash harder on skis than you do on a board?
Not just Delbosco of course, and you don't generally get up from a broken pelvis (unless you're Geraint Thomas, when you just shrug and carry on riding the Tour de France!), but in the board cross, it looked like everyone who crashed got back up and carried on racing, whereas there were at least three delays for ski racers to be stretchered off after crashing...
Snowflakes... Not just Delbosco of course, and you don't generally get up from a broken pelvis (unless you're Geraint Thomas, when you just shrug and carry on riding the Tour de France!), but in the board cross, it looked like everyone who crashed got back up and carried on racing, whereas there were at least three delays for ski racers to be stretchered off after crashing...
JagLover said:
Greg66 said:
Since they are not covering everything, I'd imagine they had to pick and choose what to cover. Curling has a stload of matches to covers, as does ice hockey and to a lesser extent xc skiing too, so they are great for filling airtime. But last time we won silver and bronze in the curling, and had good chances this time. We don't have an ice hockey team, and we had one guy in a couple of the XC skiing events. So it isn't surprising that the BBC ticked the "24/7 curling please" box on the menu.
This insular approach to sports broadcasting really annoys me.tload of matches to covers, as does ice hockey and to a lesser extent xc skiing too, so they are great for filling airtime. But last time we won silver and bronze in the curling, and had good chances this time. We don't have an ice hockey team, and we had one guy in a couple of the XC skiing events. So it isn't surprising that the BBC ticked the "24/7 curling please" box on the menu. I am happy to cheer on a Brit if they are doing well, but to have the prime focus being a minority sport merely because a British team does well is very poor. Particularly when it covers so much of their schedules.
I'm not sure any of the Winter Olympic sports can really be considered mainstream beyond maybe the traditional Alpine skiing events, can they? Even then, the overwhelming majority of the world's population only participate occasionally for recreation, as opposed to the comparison between a Sunday League footballer watching England play.
Super Slo Mo said:
Maybe I misunderstood, but you said it’s an indoor venue, small, so easy to film. I’m just pointing out the scale of it.
The BBC presumably has a studio somewhere (either a hotel room/suite or at the International Broadcast Centre) and a handful of people who go and sit in the commentary positions or the mixed zones.
They haven't got that many people here really, or if they have, they're not very visible.
Other than that they just buy the feed from the Host Broadcaster, so as far as the BBC is concerned curling is the same as any other sport there, other than the length of time it’s on air.
That said, I would still expect them to have twice as many staff on Curling as any other sport just down to the need to have two shifts.
If they buy the feed is that cheaper than having their own technicians in place? Maybe it's simply the case that curling as a competition takes longer to complete than other sports such as speed skating, hair more curling coverage broadcast.The BBC presumably has a studio somewhere (either a hotel room/suite or at the International Broadcast Centre) and a handful of people who go and sit in the commentary positions or the mixed zones.
They haven't got that many people here really, or if they have, they're not very visible.
Other than that they just buy the feed from the Host Broadcaster, so as far as the BBC is concerned curling is the same as any other sport there, other than the length of time it’s on air.
That said, I would still expect them to have twice as many staff on Curling as any other sport just down to the need to have two shifts.
popeyewhite said:
If they buy the feed is that cheaper than having their own technicians in place? Maybe it's simply the case that curling as a competition takes longer to complete than other sports such as speed skating, hair more curling coverage broadcast.
They're not able to produce any of the actual games coverage themselves. It's all very strictly controlled. So all of the games coverage is produced by one company who hire facilities companies (OBC trucks and cameras) and production teams to come in and actually make the programme. It then gets sold on to whoever wants to buy it.
The rights holders as they're called can have a commentary position, with a remote camera if required plus a position in the mixed zone where they can do interviews etc.
The only exception is the American mob, NBC, who do all of their own coverage. They focus mostly on American competitors though.
Curling takes hours, they start the first session at 09:00 and finish the last at around 23:00. Sometimes they have an afternoon session too depending on how many matches are to be played.
At this stage in the competition they are down to one Lane being used so some of the crew have already gone home.
Edited by Super Slo Mo on Friday 23 February 11:01
I haven't been enjoying the BBC2 nightly show, I just wish they could spend a little more time actually showing the action!
- Too much studio chatter
- Too many dramatic montages about tomorrows events
- Too many silly little features
I don't dislike any of the guests or Balding particularly, I just don't think the balance is right to give me a fill of sporting action - without reverting to red button options.
- Too much studio chatter
- Too many dramatic montages about tomorrows events
- Too many silly little features
I don't dislike any of the guests or Balding particularly, I just don't think the balance is right to give me a fill of sporting action - without reverting to red button options.
Kermit power said:
Yeah! Well said!!! Let's have more majority sports, like, er, the Ski Jump? Maybe the Moguls or the Snowboard Big Air??
I'm not sure any of the Winter Olympic sports can really be considered mainstream beyond maybe the traditional Alpine skiing events, can they? Even then, the overwhelming majority of the world's population only participate occasionally for recreation, as opposed to the comparison between a Sunday League footballer watching England play.
Most of the events you mention are listed in this listing of the most popular winter Olympic sports among spectators. I'm not sure any of the Winter Olympic sports can really be considered mainstream beyond maybe the traditional Alpine skiing events, can they? Even then, the overwhelming majority of the world's population only participate occasionally for recreation, as opposed to the comparison between a Sunday League footballer watching England play.
https://www.si.com/olympics/photos/2013/12/02/wint...
The snowboarding events (including the big air) tend to be very popular. Ski Jumping has long been a core component of the games.
Morever most of these events can be covered properly by an hour or so set aside in the broadcast schedule. They don't require the hour upon endless hour allocated to Curling.
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