BBC Gone Olympic Mad?

Thompson_NCL said:
We're not really a small country. We're ranked 22nd by total population, top five economies, top five military powers etc. The real surprise is that we've not been performing better in the early 1990's and 2000's.
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It's only really been in the past 20 years that a lot of sports have been funded properly though, thanks largely to National Lottery funding. It's absolutely no coincidence that we're getting better with the extra money invested.

As for the coverage, I personally love it. Considering how bad some of our national teams perform at global events (yes I'm looking at you England mens football team) it's great to see our athletes performing so well and seeing some positivity on TV for a change.
 
Davey_Pitch said:
It's only really been in the past 20 years that a lot of sports have been funded properly though, thanks largely to National Lottery funding. It's absolutely no coincidence that we're getting better with the extra money invested.

As for the coverage, I personally love it. Considering how bad some of our national teams perform at global events (yes I'm looking at you England mens football team) it's great to see our athletes performing so well and seeing some positivity on TV for a change.
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Problem in the UK is far too much coverage of football and not enough other sports.
The website is a little glitchy, probably over loaded.
The channel hopping as annoying but you can also watch any of the live sports via the website not what they choose to show on the main channels.

TBH they should just cancel eastenders and the rest of the dross and have 4 channels of olympics ;)
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
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Problem in the UK is far too much coverage of football and not enough other sports.
The website is a little glitchy, probably over loaded.
The channel hopping as annoying but you can also watch any of the live sports via the website not what they choose to show on the main channels.

TBH they should just cancel eastenders and the rest of the dross and have 4 channels of olympics ;)
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The prominence of football in general is what put me off sport when I was a kid. If you weren't good at football you weren't anything.
Put me off sport through my entire school life.
And kids that aren't good at sport weren't popular.

To this day I hate it and always will
 
Re the channel hopping for some events, from memory the BBC have to show certain things (news) at specific times on specific channels, so they cannot have a sporting event for example take precedence over the 9pm news more than a very limited number of times a year.

One thing that is amusing me when people complain about the number of staff the BBC send to the Olympics, is that the BBC use about a quarter of the staff that say NBC in America send, and yet NBC's coverage is apparently abysmal to the point that those with the ability will try and find streams of the BBC coverage.
 
Makes a change from hearing of the constant doom and gloom that we get normally.
I love it personally, watched a lot, however if I didn't then I'd just watch something else instead. Let's be honest, there isn't much on BBC that's worth watching most of the time, plus if you want news, use the internet.
 
It is two weeks every four years and while I don't watch much of it I was surprised at Rugby 7's. The very short game meant players got in from the whistle and made it exciting. Normally I would not give up a second of my time to watch Rugby and will not after the Olympics.
 
One More Solo said:
:o

You know how Russia have been exposed for massive statewide doping, who finished above them in the medal table last time round?

I think part of our success is targeting funding and resources around the Olympics at the expense of other events, but if other nations dominated events like we have done this time round then questions would be asked. I'm not saying we are cheating but the attitude that British = clean is naive. All athletes have the same desire and pressure to win.
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Funding is pretty important.

GB doesn't have a unique genetic advantage but it has money (when the will to give it out is there) to cover expensive equipment, training and babysitting of those with potential so they can train and compete in events which are only realistic if you have a stack of money behind you.

Stuff involving horses, boats and bikes (who's gonna fund a velodrome) are luxury events.

For many events someone has to give away serious money in hopeful optimism to give people the confidence to invest their lives in training for the event.

When it comes to budget grade sports like running you get a lot more of a level playing field.

Even then, the more non-sporting issues you can relieve athletes from, typically with more money, the better.


It is however ironic that in sports where athletes can make a good living out of it many pros choose to not attend because there is not enough money or glory in it for them.

Football? (probably the biggest farce of them all)
Tennis?
Golf?
 
I don't mind it being on so much, but I find the level pf coverage around the British athletes annoying.

They're always going to focus more on the British ones and rightly so, but the heptathlon was infuriating. During the javelin I think we saw four athletes throw on the international feed (Johnson-Thompson, Ennis-Hill, Thiam (the winner) and Theisen-Eaton (the world leader), and the rest they had a BBC camera trained on KJT after her disappointing showing - I don't think we saw anything athletics for 10 minutes, just watching her pace about, looking dejected.

I'm obviously cheering on GB and the success that we've had, but there are other athletes competing and it would be nice to see some of them rather than having so much studio time, repeats and recaps and endless GB stalking.


Oh, and John Inverdale has been an embarrassment to the country again.
 
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Hotwired said:
It is however ironic that in sports where athletes can make a good living out of it many pros choose to not attend because there is not enough money or glory in it for them.

Football? (probably the biggest farce of them all)
Tennis?
Golf?
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Tennis? Most of the top 10 were there and several of the ones who weren't were injured (such as Federer and Wawrinka). As for Golf, it was disappointing to see to see some of the players pull out, but look at the face of Justin Rose when he won gold yesterday and tell me it didn't mean anything to him. The same goes for Andy Murray, as well as the face of Djokovic when he lost in the first round. The number of athletes who think the Olympics don't matter is actually very very small.
 
Justin Rose was belting out the national anthem! :D

I actually find playing golf much better than watching, but he fully deserved to be proud given his performance.
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
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The website is a little glitchy, probably over loaded.
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The Amazon Fire Stick BBC App has worked without a single hitch for me.
I got it just before the Olympics (not for that reason) and it's been great. Amazing value for £34 considering I can also enjoy the benefits of Kodi giving me more stuff than I'll ever have time to watch (** Do not hint at piracy please - EVH **). A Raspberry Pi can do that too.
 
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I have enjoyed most of it..the pundits are by and large excellent as well

Love listening to Michael Johnson as he is very knowledgeable
Chris Hoy is very eloquent and gives us good information on the whole cycling set up

got a bit sick of the stock film about the olympic village though!!
 
I think the BBC's coverage has been first class and have really been enjoying it, especially the cycling, swimming and lots of the less popular sports we don't usually get to see.

The multi-channel streaming on the website is excellent, a few glitches aside, and has provided the opportunity to see in-depth coverage of sports that don't usually get much coverage, or to catch up on stuff you missed.

We should be celebrating the fact that there is still some quality sport on TV that hasn't been gobbled up by Sky. Stop moaning! :D
 
Not watched a single event, has been on in background on occasion but really not interested at all. Which is a bit odd as a watched a few event last time around.
 
The BBC has to be shown to be seen as "Ultra British Patriotism" at any cost as long as it doesn't appear fascist or too far-righty.

So its no surprise, they haven't punished the Brazilian government enough in their articles for the putrile environment most of the competitors have had to deal with, as this socialist event (which is truly a capitalist event like everything else) is right up the BBC's back alley.

So they let the sewage slide for a bit of Pro-British news, typical...

Thankfully Japan 2020 is looking to be perfect in comparison, and no doubt all that effort into the Brazilian games will be totally wasted and the stadiums vacant.
 
Thompson_NCL said:
We're not really a small country. We're ranked 22nd by total population, top five economies, top five military powers etc. The real surprise is that we've not been performing better in the early 1990's and 2000's.
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Funding for sport was very low down the priorities for certain governments of the 70s, 80s and 90s. I don't know if it's true but Thatcher had a reputation for not caring a fig for Sport and didn't believe it deserved any public money at all.

Governments since have done more for sport, an a national and local level, plus lottery funding has helped massively. That extra money has not just gone into letting people stop work, but into coaching, research and facilities which have taken time to deliver their full benefit but are really kicking in now.

USA and China are examples of well funded sport programmes, a lot of other European countries spend on sports too but focus on the social and health benefits of grass roots sport rather than the elite sports people who will win medals.

So yes it's money, but also how it is spent, that makes the difference.
 
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