Video Age International October 2016

46 October 2016 V I D E O A G E D uring the Olympics, broadcasting networks around the world tend to be criticized for one thing or another. However, it remains one of the world’s largest TV extravaganzas, reaching expenditures of over U.S. $5 billion (between TV rights and production costs) for a worldwide audience of more than 2.6 billion viewers. In the U.S. , criticism focused on NBC’s penchant for over-emphasizing human-interest stories, to the detriment of the sports disciplines. However, NBC supplemented its Olympics broadcast soap operas with live streaming services. The result: primetime TV audiences for the 17 nights of the Rio Games averaged 25.9 million viewers (versus 31.1 million viewers of the 2012 Games in London), while online streamings of the live videos reached 2.7 billion minutes (100 million unique users, 2.1 million viewers), a 29 percent increase over the 2012 Games. Nonetheless, for NBC, the Rio Games’ broadcast got much higher ratings than the Los Angeles Games in 1984 that averaged a 15.8 rating. Contributing to this success was the fact that the U.S. teams won 121 medals (46 gold). From north of the U.S. border, Toronto-based TLN Telelatino Network president Aldo DiFelice reported, “the coverage across multiple channels, besides host broadcaster CBC, was in no way outstanding. Canada had a couple of standout athletes but was otherwise not a factor in most finals, so following the Canadian athletes alone seemed oddly incomplete. Canadian TV coverage lacked multicultural coverage. Canadians could watch NBC in Canada and get coverage that was American-athlete focused. But following Latin American or European countries was not possible on Canadian TV, not to mention Middle Eastern or Asian nations. “Canada is widely regarded as one of the world’s most successful multicultural societies. One of the many contributing factors to this success has been Canadian-based ethnic media that speak not only to isolated linguistic communities but also to Canadians generally, sharing culture and building bridges,” DiFelice concluded. Canada won 22 medals (four gold). In Mexico , TV coverage of the Olympics followed the U.S. human-interest style with Canal Once going even further, expanding to topics such as as culture and traditional foods. In terms of medals, Mexico won a total of five. Going south to Brazil , TV Globo coverage was considered good, if controversial. In addition to the hoopla for the fake robbery story fabricated by four U.S. swimmers, Brazil went bonkers over commentator Galvão Bueno. He is the lead sports commentator of TV Globo and a folkloric character in the Brazilian sports world. More famous than most of the country’s Olympians, Bueno is a polarizing figure. Known for his exaggerated broadcasting style, he was told to “shut up” by a counterpart from the BBC during a swimming competition, and because of the noise made by Bueno, the judge decided to postpone the start for a few seconds. In Brazil , the Games were also covered by AFP-TV, but only from the human-interest angle. The country won 19 medals (seven gold). Moving to Argentina , the Olympics dominated the schedule of several TV outlets, such as the nation’s public broadcaster TV Publica and local TV channels. Plus, the pan-regionals — ESPN, FOX Sports and pay service TyCSport — all reached audiences above their historical averages. Argentina managed to win four medals (three gold). Going to Europe, Italy ’s public broadcaster RAI had good coverage, enhanced by expert commentators that were familiar with the disciplines. Just like NBC in the U.S., coverage focused on events in which national teams had chances of winning, sacrifying sports like field hockey and games like badminton. However many “minor” sports were available on RAI’s streaming channels. As for medals, Italy won 28 (eight gold), below expectations. Heading north to Germany , pubcasters ARD and ZDF shared the event: one day ARD was all about the Olympics, ZDF was the other. The live games were broadcast at night, while selected reruns, summaries and background reports ran during the day. The reports were mostly about Brazil’s social issues, the country’s sports arenas and the Rio Games organization. Germany went home with 42 medals (17 gold). France also had its own issues with their swimmers, when 10 km marathon swimmer Aurelie Muller was disqualified because she “dunked” (sunk) Italian swimmer Rachele Bruni for second place. Plus, Camille Lacourt publicly accused fellow Chinese swimmer Sun Yang of doping. These incidents left the audience of the TF1 telecast dissatisfied, but later on the broadcasts picked up steam, especially when medals started to pile-up, ending with 42 medals (10 gold). Moving east to Hungary , the Olympics were covered exclusively by two state-owned channels: M4 and M5. M4 broadcast only sports and the cultural network M5 helped with some live coverage. Both channels were also available for free online and Hungarians living abroad could follow the home teams via www.mediaklikk.hu. One drawback was the time difference, which pushed most of the finals late into the night. Hungarian viewers are very keen on final results and were satisfied that of the 15 medals won, eight were gold. On the other side of the pond in Brexit land, the BBC provided great coverage. In addition to covering the nation’s record number of winnings (67 medals of which 27 gold), the broadcaster entered into the lives of the British athletes, some of whom were competing in events not too familiar to the general public. Naturally, the highlights of the coverage were Mo Farahwinning two goldmedals despite falling in the 10,000-meter race, and the gold won by 58- year old Nick Skelton for horse jumping. In Turkey , criticism was not generated by the coverage, but from the way the Olympics TV rights were handled. Ultimately, they went to state broadcaster TRT, but until the very last day of the event, the network couldn’t agree on the license feewith rights holder SaranMedia. During the negotiations, TRT was under considerable pressure because the opinion was that it was the broadcaster’s responsibility to carry the Rio Games. The six-hour time difference also had an impact on the lower-than-expected viewership. Turkey won eight medals (one gold). Further east, the Russians were satisfied with the country’s TV coverage of the Games. The public followed Olympic news on the Internet and on the radio in the mornings, while in the evenings they were watching TV. Six TV channels were broadcasting the Games nonstop, and the best were: Match Arena and Match Igra. The state’s national channels Perviy Kanal and Rossiya Ossiya carried the Games online. TV commentators pointed out that Britain’s third place in the medal count [second for gold] was due to the fact that many Russian athletes were not allowed to compete for political reasons imposed by President Obama (Russia won 56 medals of which 19 were gold, while China came third with 70 medals, of which 26 gold). Russians also protested the RioGames’ medals to American runner LaShawn Merritt, who had been involved in a doping incident. For Russian viewers, the highlights of the Games were the Russian tennis players winning the Gold, the Brazilians’ gold in football, and the closing ceremony. In Singapore , swimmers also made headlines since Joseph Schooling won the city-state’s only medal — the gold for the 100-meter butterfly. The live broadcasts on MediaCorp’s Okto Channel (formerly MediaCorp TV12 Central) took place in the wee hours of the morning, so not too many people watched the Games, except for the butterfly final. A $5 Billion Extravaganza For 2.6 Billion Worldwide Viewers Criticism of the Olympic games’ TV coverage around the world is a national sport. Local athletes took most of the airtime and streaming came to the rescue of sports fans who were not too keen on broadcasters’ human-interest stories. Rio Games on World TV