On Your Marks, Get Set, Go!
It’s Summer and while you would expect to see the cricket at this time of year (Channel 9, has been broadcasting Australia V West Indies One Day Internationals) two other winter sports are getting coverage. Last Friday night, Channel 7 kicked off proceedings for the NAB Cup with Channel 10 covering Saturday’s match while Channel 9 are broadcasting the Winter Olympics.
Like many Winter sports themselves, broadcasting them also has some risks. Channel 9 reportedly paid $126 million for the broadcast rights of these and the 2012 London Olympic Games. That’s a lot to recoup in advertising, in any economic climate, let alone one slightly flat.
Secondly, do we as a sporting nation (which is actually a misnomer given more than 50% of us are overweight or obese) care for Winter sports which we generally are not known for? For the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games we had a team of 435 athletes, but our Vancouver Olympic team consists of only 40. That said, this is the same number as that sent to Torino in 2006, which is the biggest number and interestingly the first time we have had equal numbers of men and women. But I digress.
Channel 9 has promised us 130 hours of live coverage plus 3 hours of highlights each night, but I repeat, do we care and will we watch?
Well if the opening Ceremony is any indication then it’s a yes.
Nine’s combined audience for the 2010 Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games (live at 12.30pm and repeated broadcast at 7.30pm) was up 5.4% on the combined (live and primetime) Opening Ceremony audience of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games.
The four hour Opening Ceremony had a combined (live and primetime) average audience of 1.5 million viewers with a total of 4.7 million people tuning in and watching the show which was directed by Australia’s David Atkins (who was also responsible for Sydney’s Opening and Closing ceremonies.)
Nine has sent a heavy weight of hosts and presenters in Ken Sutcliffe, Eddie McGuire, Leila McKinnon, Cameron Williams, Tony Jones, Peter Stephanovic (already based in the US) as well as expert commentators in Elisa Camplain and Steven Bradbury, and odd man out and comedian Mick Molloy.
Speaking of Mick, he and Eddie have apparently teamed up and produced a pilot called Skating on Thin Ice, a blend of sport and comedy.
But the show that has caught my imagination is Channel 7’s (Rexona’s) Australia’s Greatest Athlete (Saturday and Sundays 4.30pm). This was screened on 9 last year but Channel 7 has picked up the second series, which sees last year’s winner – Billy Slater, Melbourne Storm fullback, defend his title.
Assembled are eight of Australia’s best athletes from a range of sports including Geelong’s Cameron Ling, Olympic Diving Gold Medalist Matthew Mitcham and Racing driver Craig Lowndes (who most recently lent his voice to Conrod in the ABC’s Roary The Racing Car), who compete in a range of challenges that test their physical prowess.
Indeed the concept is brilliant and given our supposed love of watching sport, is quite frankly wasted on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Channel 7 programmers could have aggressively programmed this against the Winter Olympics, and given that it is a heavily if not fully funded program (by Rexona) it could have been a nice little earner for them.
Shot on Queensland’s Stradbroke Island during the off-season it makes for visually enjoyable tv (both the setting and the primed bodies!). Sunrise’s Mark Beretta and the Great Outdoors/Dancing with the Stars man Tom Williams host the series and provide the typical commentary while Ricky Ponting gives us the analysis of the physical demands of each challenge.
And after a tug of war, Queensland also nearly landed The Logies.
It seems that TV’s night of nights (don’t you love that cliché) will stay in Melbourne, in particular Crown Casino for the 12th consecutive tv and broadcast on Channel 9 on 2 May. And we are paying for that privilege with Victorian taxpayers dipping into their pockets via the Victorian Major Events Company.
With the location determined, the next biggest question is, who will host it. Rumours abound but my vote goes to Shane Bourne.
