What do people really think of Channel Nine’s coverage of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver?
Australia is no different than most other countries in the world, where they show all their own athletes over and over again. As an ex-pat, this is frustrating because while so much sport is going on, all that is shown on Channel nine, is the same event over and over again. Speaking with other Australians, they feel the same especially when there are only 40 Australian athletes and not even in all the sports!
The day time commentators are pretty good. Not only do they know something about winter sports, but they are pleasant to listen to. Even better, is that we actually get to see some Live sport!
And then there’s Eddie McGuire. How did he get this job when he knows very little about any of the winter sports. Oh ya, he used to be CEO of Channel Nine. Australia should rethink who they put in front of the screen during primetime and I think Eddie has proved this by his many inappropriate comments and claiming when people deserve the gold and when they don’t.
Then there’s Mick Malloy in combination with Eddie McGuire. Not sure anything else needs to be said because they have already had to apologize once, and right after the apology, they made another ‘crack’ which to me means they aren’t really sorry at all.
Australia should reconsider who they have representing them as their voice in sport, especially the Olympics where the world is watching. As a country that claims to be multi-cultural and has many ex-pats from all over the world, having someone like Eddie McGuire just gives Australia a very bad name.
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Wot a crock of shit Channel 9′s coverage of the 2010 Calgary Winter Olympics has been. It is obvious that Eddie Maguire picked his own little inept, highly overpaid squad to commentate esp James Brayshaw (please let me know his sporting prowess because i am at a loss as to what it / they may be).
I am stunned that someone can interview a person and chastise them and patronise them at the same time. Our athletes don’t have the same training nor the money to enable them to move forward in their sport. If Eddie coughed up some of his money instead of his comments then we may have a much better squad altogether.
I am not watching anymore Channel 9 and that is a tragedy not only to the Olympics but to our own brilliant athletes.
Thanks for your comments. I assumed you meant Vancouver Olympics rather than Calgary’s since that was in 1988!
I was glad to see that Eddie interviewed Jeremy Weir last night and it was quite a pleasant interview. So that put them up a bit in my books. Plus they showed the USA vs. Canada hockey game which I still can’t quite believe that they did!
If SBS was showing the Olympics, I would be going there to watch them, just as I did in Beijing but unfortunately it looks like Channel Nine has all the rights this year!
As if the over emphasis on the most boring of sports – figure skating, ice dancing etc. with the deadpan boring ‘commentary’ wasn’t enough, what the hell is Fatso Eddie McGuire doing there – he is an idiot who is an embarrassment to Australia. McGuire clearly has never played / participated in anything requiring a greater effort than undoing his own fly.
The events are rarely shown as complete events and with the moronic interruptions from fatso what little they do show becomes difficult to watch. There are talented and interesting real athletes – e.g. Giaan Rooney who are given pathetic tasks when they would be far better than the bumbling blobby boy.
I also don’t understand why people like myself with ordinary jobs have to wait until 9:30 pm to see anything of this excuse of a coverage which soon ends – you’d think they could at least cancel their other very poor programs – e.g. 20 – to – 1 (at least for the duration of the Olympics)
Absolute worst coverage ever!!!!!!!!!
Yes the coverage has been on and off but I think overall, they didn’t do a bad job. They apologized for their comments (although still made inappropriate jokes at times) and had someone else do the evening show a few times instead of Eddie McGuire.
As a Canadian, I thought they spoke well our country, showed quite a few different sports (unfortunately usually during the day coverage). I do agree that the night time coverage wasn’t good at all. But then again, I heard the American and the Canadian coverage wasn’t great either. Maybe we all need to protest and get media thinking about what the viewers want rather than what will pay them big money!
This has been the worst coverge of any sporting event on the television in living memory (and I am in my 60s!!!) It was an insult to both atheletes and viewers alike. Living in WA we are further disadvantaged by Channel 9 (Channel 7 also fail dismally in this area) of getting “live” broadcasts several hours after the event. In fact you can usually find out the result of an event before its televised. Unfortunately the powere that be who give this coverage to the “commercial” stations are only interested in the revenue and not showpiecing their sport to the people and with current attitudes that is unlikely to change. Thank heavens the Winter Paralympics are on the ABC. Should get some professionalism at last.
Pretend “Live” coverage is the worst and I can only imagine how frustrating it was from WA. So glad to hear that ABC is covering the paraolympic games but I haven’t seen the schedule yet, so I really hope that they show a good amount.
My worst Olympic coverage moment was the Summer Olympics eight years ago. I was visiting friends in San Francisco and even when the #1 German swimmer was about to race, the switched it to some other event to show an American who was likely to come last. It as too hard to watch that coverage and I have heard from other Canadians who have been down in the States, for this Olympics, that it was just as bad!