Did you see the Olympics?
Now for the first time in decades my home country of the UK did a fantastic job at the Beijing Olympics. Well done team GB!! I JUST WISH i COULD HAVE SEEN IT.
Now the news networks mainly showed still pictures as they did not have the rights to show and the TV networks here in the Philippines had very strange coverage to say the least.
Solar showed pay for view coverage so the only other channel showing the Olympics was the CRIME and ADVENTURE network, yes you heard correct. Now I knew we were in for a rough time from the opening ceremony as the coverage that was allegedly live was stopped every five or six minutes by about seven minutes of commercials, the same ones again and again and again to the point you would know it from memory.
The commercials would come on and off without any consideration to the action that was taking place, and as the coverage seemed to be from an Australian network it was hard for me to follow anything as the Australian network was talking to its viewers and the Philippine audience would have to catch up after the commercials even to the point that the opening ceremony nearly lost the entrance of its own athletes entering the stadium.
But not to worry when we had no commercials we had short films about previous Olympics and the hopefuls from this country, this would be INSTEAD of the live coverage!! When we returned live the torture was not over, as we then got a screen full of non stop sponsors covering the action.
Now well done team UK and all the other teams andi n 2012 its the turn of LONDON and if I am in the UK I will watch it on the BBC without any commercials!!!
Go Team USA! Thank Solar Sports, though, for the coverage of the men’s basketball event, where LeBron, Kobe, and co. butchered the rest of the competition.
Looking forward to the London Games on 2012.
You know, John, that immitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Perhaps the telly gobs need to turn down the sincerity and turn up the technique!
I watch the NBC coverage for 2 weeks nightly. After the coverage, I feel like I had withdrawal symptoms, but this is one of the best olympics games in the modern era.
For some reason, I have about 4-6 channels here on Samal covering the olympics; about 4 of them live and I can choose which sports to watch. I was disappointed when I had to go to Davao for a weekend and there was nothing to watch over there. I have Home Channel, and fewer channels than what you get in Davao - but perfect for me. Like #3’s comments, I had withdrawal syndrome when it was over
Next, winter olympics in Vancouver (2010) - my other home. Hurray!
Migs
Basket ball is not that big in Europe and in the main it seen mainly as a ladies sport.
David
Was there some problem with NBC not showing the opening ceremony live?
Ellen
You and I go to Vancouver for 2010 the London 2012. Sounds good to me
u can download the opening and closeing ceremonies,nice vid quailty
Hi John- I have to confess it was thee best Olympics I have ever watched.The organisation was brilliant the opening and closing ceremonies were the best yet and Team GB was fantastic. Now the crunch,the hype has already started here for London 2012 and I hope and pray that they don’t end up with egg on their faces as is the usual when the impossible is expected.I would send all our sports editors and reporters to Guantanimo till the games were over that way reality may prevail.
Regards.
Jim.
hey, no basketball bashing! you know that’s subject to treason there. an NBA star whose a GB native just committed to play for your hoops team, so, um yeah. not sure why i wrote this.
admittedly, i found myself rooting mostly against team USA in most sports. nothing against them, i just like to root for the underdogs (& i got tired of NBC’s rah-rah coverage).
i was worried about how london would do for their closing ceremony bit after the impressive chinese performances … then i saw jimmy page. ’nuff said. no pom poms & high wirer acts can top that. im excited for london 2012. i hope they go for that hipster britpop theme that i love.
August has been a blast for me. I’m not a tv guy but i found myself glued to the olympics. then a week later i get the DNC (i may be the token lib in this site). so much fun. those 2 & my birthday on the same month too.
Do you all know that you can get DirectTV sent to your computer and watch it on a TV? Direct TV carries everything. Google Direct TV for overseas and you can learn about it. Basically you get an account here in the U.S. and it goes to this business that sends you your Direct TV broadcast via computer. I can say that when I move this is what I will be doing unless something better comes along. Macky NBC is an American broadcasting network-why would they not high light the U.S. team? I can’t imagine may Americans watching badmitton between two countries one not being the U.S…If you wanted to root against a team it should have been China-they won the gold medal count.
Hi rRon - you’re right about NBC. it wasn’t meant to be a dig at them. It’s just my personal qualms at watching the games with just one perspective (oh, if i only understood telemundo).
Besides, I like Bob Costas. though their west coast coverage was widely panned for not being live. I did watch a ton of games on their website live (no commentators though).
Makes me wonder if ABC/ESPN had won the bid. 24/7 olympic sports instead of time delay coverage squeezed into 4 hours in prime time in 2-3 channels.
I would have actually liked to have seen other sports not necessarily played by US just for curiosities sake. like an Iran/Israel match or table tennis with china & an underdog. just a world wide sports thing nothing anti-american (I’m a US citizen, btw).
It’s pretty clear I’m a sports nut so the olympics would have been a perfect time to discover unconventional sports with athletes from smaller countries. I always watch the NBA, NFL & other popular sports anyway (i may be that fantasy sports guy people hate)
it’s not a medal count thing at all.
Hosea
Thanks for the info I will do that but in reality i wanted it to be a shared event, not the same weeks later really.
Jim
I think the UK will struggle in 2012, as this week the UK government will be announcing its officially in recession and expect it to last a long time.
Macky
Happy birthday my friend and I am going to try and learn why Basketball is so exciting. Well maybe I will just enoy the long protracted “time outs” and the commercials lol
RON
I leave you and Macky with that conversation, however I think the point is that if the US is sending its coverage world wide it should try and be more unbiased as after all good sport is good sport
Hi John-The truth of the matter is this recession has been slowly but surely creeping up on us for the last two years.
Those of us who rely on the construction industry as well as the furniture retail industry have noticed supply and sourcing changes with the unwitting culprit none other than the hosts of the last Olympics.
Yes our totally inefective previous Chancellor now Prime Minister failed to curb the greed of the banking industry by empowering the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street to monitor and control the fiscal goings on in the UK banking world.When you privatise the countries utilitiy and transport industries you place the countries needs in the hands of outsiders and beyond your control and this is exactly what has happened. Like you John I kind of fear what the outcome will be in 2012 but being the optimist I hope all goes well for all those now in training for greatness in the various disaplines of the sport.
Regards.
Jim.
Macky, are you talking about Luol Deng? (Certainly not John Amaechi, I should think.)
hi migs - yep, i meant deng. they still won’t win a game ( i believe host nations automatically qualify) but it certainly makes things interesting. hopefully, ben gordon follows (london native).
i love that i’m familiar with the players from different countries. so much fun. spain, argentina & china hoop teams had so many familar names.
im not surprised you knew who i meant
John:
It was good to see the UK do well this time… Long overdue.
I just hope London puts on a good show… Hopefully, they find enough corporate sponsors to keep the British taxpayer from footing the whole bill. In particular, I think the security cost is going to be extremely high. Let’s hope the crazies in the world don’t ruin it for everyone.
Hosting the Olympics in the modern era is not only getting all the games played in an orderly manner, but also now the next hosting country have to meet the standard of the present country in both the opening and closing ceremonies plus the infrastructures on venues of the games. Not an easy task but i believe London can do it. good luck.