The CTV/TSN/Rogers coverage of the Vancouver 2010 Games was terrific. I believe they would have captured the Silver, if medals were given out for host media coverage.
It was refreshing to see so many new faces of reporters and commentators, filled with energy … replacing the usual older, rarely excited CBC types that Canadians have come to expect covering international sporting events.
As someone who spent 26 years working in television, I am well aware of all the planning, organizing, personnel, technical effort and expense that goes into televising a political convention or election night coverage. Huge!
That, of course, is all miniscule, compared to what must go into organizing coverage of all kinds of disimilar multiple events, many happening simultaneously, at several different locations, while also playing Host Broadcaster, catering to the interests and needs of foreign broadcasters as well.
It literally involves a cast of thousands and generally, I felt CTV/TSN/Rogers pulled it off exceptionally well. In some very trying geographic and weather conditions.
At first, though, I must admit … I wasn’t so sure the consortium would pull it off!
Just before the Opening Ceremonies, there was Lloyd Roberston on CTV, wearing cadaver-like makeup, interviewing a plasticized Prime Minister Stephen Harper … both of them exchanging what I would describe as channel-changing dialogue.
Oh no, I thought! They’re going to do the Olympics the way they cover Parliament Hill !! Boring talking heads, powder puff questions and painfully predictable answers! Oh my Gawd!!!
But no … that didn’t happen. I actually enjoyed most of the on-air banter and background delivered by the CTV/TSN/Rogers broadcast panels. Because let’s face it: most of know (or should I say knew) very little about some of sports, let alone the participants, or what to watch for … until they won, and instantly became our best friends.
And the coverage of the actual events themselves matched the excitement of the events … both at the venues and beyond … even heightened it.
So why not Gold?
The coverage didn’t quite reach that ranking.
I watched both the CTV and, thanks to tape delay, NBC coverage of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies … and I enjoyed NBC’s more. Their hosts and their descriptions of what was happening were just more interesting and more informative than CTV’s.
Sure, NBC concentrated on the U.S. athletes; as CTV concentrated on Canadian performances. But, in a remarkable turnaround from previous U.S. coverage of sporting events that I have witnessed, I actually felt NBC did a better job of covering non “home” team achievements … like showing the singing of God Save the Queen, when Britain won its first ever Gold medal, or the total emotional breakdown of Dutch speedskater Sven Kramer.
CTV/Rogers/TSN may have had these things… but from my unscientific channel-surfing experience … I didn’t see the British anthem “moment” at all and they seemed to have the Kramer meltdown later and as not as complete as I saw on NBC.
NBC, by the way, was also heartwarmingly kind to and complimentary of the Games, Vancouver and Canada. The tourism promotional value of the images of our city projected daily to tens of millions Americans is almost incalculable. (The visuals of Vancouver on Stephen Colbert’s show on Comedy Central will also bring dividends.)
Back at CTV/TSN/Rogers: there were few glitches, but there were some: camera/switching errors I noticed, including incredibly (from what i saw) missing Alexandre Bilideau actually stepping up onto the Gold podium …showing only a tight shot of him already up there.
There were also, in my view, far too many in-show program “promos”, on top of what seemed like interminable numbers of ads, leading me to wonder if they exceeded the permitted number or total time allowed per hour. Probably not …but it sure felt like it, when combined with all the promos.
And frankly too many of their reporters seemed more like cheerleaders than real journalists, whose analysis could be trusted..
I personally also would have like to have seen a periodic scroll at the bottom of the television screen, telling us what was coming up later AND AT WHAT TIME (Pacific time of course). The on-air announcements of what was being broadcast on other consortium channels was a good idea … but not frequent enough: a scroll below would have been better.
Then there was the worst question i have ever seen asked of a Gold Medal Winnerat any Olympic Games I’ve watched …winter or summer. TSN’s Michael Landsberg, asked John Montgomery …. wait for it … to sing a few bars of O Canada… after he won and had already been shown singing the anthem during the victory presentation. A reporter has an opportunity to interview a newly minted Gold Medal winner … and that’s his journalistic opener? Sing the anthem? He’s a star athlete, Michael, not a performing parrot!
But all in all, CTV/TSN/Rogers deserve kudos. Job well done … really well done.
Harv Oberfeld
6 responses so far ↓
1 Crankypants // Mar 2, 2010 at 9:53 am
The Ctv consortium did a good job from my perspective. Whether it was better than CBC did in past years is probably in the eye of the beholder.
Having Brian Williams as the lead made it seem as if the CBC was still the network that was covering the games and for the most part the commentators were indistinguishable from those of the CBC. The one thing I did notice about CTV’s coverage is that they spent a lot more time selling the games in a positive light as in an infomercial rather than letting the festivities sell themselves. No doubt that will improve as they go forward, I hope.
I’m sure the logistics were daunting for them, and the fact that it all was happening within our time zone meant that there was no opportunity for editing of any sort, as the results of most events were being reported on radio and online. In that respect they deserve full marks. We were fed to realtime coverage, and who could ask for anything more.
Bottom line, they did good and with practice will likely improve come London in 2012.
(Response: Actually, as I noted..all that promotional hype lost points with me … there was a bit too much of it. Leave that to the advertisers and those you interview. h.o)
2 StandUpforBC // Mar 3, 2010 at 3:15 am
And the three levels of government deserve to be shamed for spending taxpayer dollars to fund Sports Illustrated to come to Whistler to shoot their Swimsuit edition “using” our women athletes as the models. Read on… I’d like to know what people think of this use of our taxpayer dollars.
Going from podium to pinup, on our dime
http://www.timescolonist.com/travel/Going+from+podium+pinup+dime/2631265/story.html
BY LAURA ROBINSON, TIMES COLONISTMARCH 2, 2010
Twenty years ago, four other women and I represented Canada at the International Olympic Academy, an institution run by the International Olympic Committee in Olympia, Greece. For the first time the IOA session addressed women in sport.
Afterwards I wrote an op-ed for the Globe and Mail called “Beating the pink ribbon syndrome,” arguing no matter how fast and strong women athletes are, what really matters is whether or not men find us attractive.
We heard papers from “experts” arguing female athletes need to “please” the coach and others, often through their physical appearance.
I already knew this because I was a competitive cyclist. When I was out training men felt obligated to roll down their windows and make comments about my body. It was as if they thought I had ridden 60 or 70 kilometres just so they could make pronouncements about how I looked. I didn’t like it and didn’t feel safe.
Today as a coach of girls, like other women leaders in sport I know, I have to remind them that their body is not for anyone else but them. Sport should be one of the ways in which girls learn that their bodies are autonomous and powerful: No one has the right to sexually objectify them.
There is extraordinary pressure on girls and young women, more than ever, to look like sluts and women athletes have not been spared. All girls and women should be able to be in public spaces without being sexually harassed, and that is one of many reasons why the governments of Canada and British Columbia and the municipality of Whistler should not have orchestrated and funded the bid to have Sports Illustrated shoot its swimsuit issue with members of the American snowboarding and Alpine ski teams at Whistler.
If these young skiers feel the best way to express the strength of women athletes is to bounce up and down on a bed while nearly naked and Sports Illustrated couldn’t find any place except Whistler to do this — fine, let them pay for the cost of a trip to the Coast Mountains and shoot some soft porn. But Canadian, B.C. and Whistler taxpayers funded the project.
Tourism B.C. spokesperson Mika Ryan of the provincially funded organization says they “had a chance to bid on being a destination for SI’s swimsuit issue” and were delighted when they were chosen.
“People all over the world bid on this. It’s seen by 67 million people.” But does Tourism B.C. have a policy on how women are depicted? Didn’t they facilitate the sexual objectification of women? Suddenly Ryan has to go. She hangs up without answering those questions.
The Canadian Tourism Commission, funded under the Ministry of Industry went after the SI swimsuit contract through its “media relations team in the U.S.,” according to president and CEO Michele McKenzie. They also contacted Tourism B.C. and Tourism Whistler.
The three worked together, beating out some of the top travel destination locations on earth. Rena Kendall-Craden, communications director for the B.C. Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts sent an e-mail quoting Tourism B.C.: “the CTC invested in bringing the crew and models to B.C. Whistler had huge support from their industry partners. Our contribution was in offering logistical support.”
Within one day of appearing on the SI website, the best skiers and snowboarders the world has produced are “models” in the eyes of Tourism B.C. But then there is absolutely no athletic ability necessary to stand in the snow in a bikini bottom and little else.
Susan Iris, CTC’s vice-president responsible for strategic initiatives for the 2010 Olympics, says the swimsuit issue shows “cutting edge, really exotic destinations. We’re very pleased to support them; we’re very delighted.” She too wouldn’t explain why the CTC would pour resources into objectifying women.
It would all be laughable if it didn’t hurt girls and women. The federal and B.C. governments give little scraps to projects to “build self-esteem in girls through physical activity and sport.”
The girls I coach, who are First Nations, learn from the mainstream media by the time they are 10 that their hair and skin are the wrong colour. They think they are fat and ugly and tell me so at an alarming rate. There is a six times greater chance that they will be victims of sexual violence.
I told them to watch the Olympics because they will see the strongest women in the world. Hopefully this would help them commit to being the strong young women they are capable of becoming.
The federal government puts zero funds into a program such as ours. I interviewed Gary Lunn, minister of sport, at the Olympic aboriginal pavilion during the Games. He kept mentioning “programs for aboriginal youth in sport.”
I have been a coach in First Nation communities for over 10 years and the children there have yet to see one federally funded sustained sport program. Too bad it will be next to impossible for them not to see the government-funded swimsuit issue.
Laura Robinson, a former national-level cyclist and rower, wrote this for the Ottawa Citizen. She is the author of Black Tights: Women, Sport and Sexuality.
3 kootcoot // Mar 3, 2010 at 6:06 pm
I didn’t watch much of NBC’s coverage but since we had a short delay during at least some coverage between CTV and NBC. This was particularly relevant during hockey games because as usual, NBC is almost hopeless at covering hockey. Though not as good of commentating and play by play as the CBC Hockey Night in Canada team, CTV was so far superior to NBC. The NBC guys were regualarly getting confused about such things as off sides – seemingly not being able to tell the difference between a high stick and an offsides.
Thanks to my natural delay between channels I could dial up my own, on demand, replay complete with alternate sound.
4 George // Mar 4, 2010 at 3:54 am
StandUpforBC
Thanks for posting the excellent article by Laura Robinson. She is so right! Also why would our government feel that it is alright to pay for the privilege to objectify female athletes in this manor.
It makes me wonder if the Olympics have completely been changed by corporate greed, paying for soft porn on the backs of female athletes, for the enjoyment of men.All in the name of attracting business… Shame…
As for coverage of the Olympics I agree that it might have been enjoyable to hear different anthems, the Russian State Choir was exceptional in the closing ceremonies. I was lucky enough to have met 2 of the tenors on the bus one day, quite lovely people.
5 Henri Paul // Mar 6, 2010 at 2:45 am
StandUpforBC // Mar 3, 2010 at 3:15 am wrote,
Robinson states,”There is extraordinary pressure on girls and young women, more than ever, to look like sluts and women athletes have not been spared”
My question, just what does a slut look like, and how are women athletes been drawn into this equation?
I wonder if Laura Robinson has ever considered joining the nunnery or something like, where the women cover themselves from head to toe.
6 Norm Farrell // Mar 6, 2010 at 3:20 am
Lloyd was not wearing cadaver-like makeup. That was a cadaver wearing Lloyd-like makeup.
(Response: LOL!!!! h.o.)
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