Re: Olympics
 

Not watch any of it yet, whole thing seems like a damp squib. Then I find out that the Beeb is only allowed two feeds because Discovery have bought out the rights.☹️
So is everyone just making do with whatever crumbs the BBC can get?

Re: Olympics
 

Sadly the control of the rights were lost 6 years ago.:(

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...very-eurosport

Re: Olympics
 

Caught some Olympics today - wife was watching it - seemed all studio chat and no action to me :shrug:

Re: Olympics
 

If you hunt on BBC website you can find a lot of it, they just can't stream it live now,

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...utton-00000400


I watched the men's street skateboarding earlier, will watch the women's tomorrow and the park later in the week. Sky Brown is amazing, she's winning competitions competing against skaters older and more experienced than her, and she always looks like she's having so much fun, as she gets older, and bigger, she'll get even better as will be able to get more height, and go faster, you can see towards the end of her runs she's knackered as she can't get the same momentum as the older skaters so has to pump so much more.

I'm interested in watching the sports climbing, and the bmx events, and will probably follow the women's football as Team GB progress.

Re: Olympics
 

Want to watch the archery but the silly rights mean it's hidden away or snippets here and there. Something should be done to protect events like the Olympics but the money is so big now that more minor sports will not get shown on "national" stations.


I think the nationals maybe should focus more on the minority sports that don't normally get any airtime rather than the bigger sports that get shown more frequently but I guess the rational is to show what's got the biggest audience.

Re: Olympics
 

I can safely say I would not miss it if no one had any rights. :D

Re: Olympics
 

Big mistake from the IOC to give it to a paywalled service, a paywalled service that no one else even.

The Olympics aren't popular enough for people to actively seek it out and pay more as they do for the Premier League and football generally. All this means is a much smaller audience which will hit their ability to sell sponsorships and even the value of the TV rights later down the line.

Re: Olympics
 

So how do other countries around the world deal with it? The costs of broadcasting it has to be funded somehow. With the UK FTA channels it would be via the licence fee or by advertising.

Re: Olympics
 

It was a Europe wide deal apparently

https://www.sportspromedia.com/from-...lion-discovery

Re: Olympics
 

Some countries have small contingent in small number of events, only pay for those.
Some countries have fewer TV's. Do they bother much at all or just take free scraps?
Some countries have more hackers getting it free and sharing?
The real enthusiasts will pay to watch their sport/stars.


It's mostly countries like the UK with large spread teams and large spread audience that lose out being used to near total coverage "free".


I guess we will find out post event if the pay walling worked. Was there enough income to match the money paid for "exclusive" coverage? If not it may not get repeated and the IOC will have to do with offers from national broadcasters like in the past.

Re: Olympics
 

That €1.3 billion has to be recouped somehow.
Still leaves the question of how else would those countries fund it.
The key platform nowadays is streaming, with gives the widest coverage of events to the widest potential audience. It doesn't limit viewers to cable or satellite.
With Virgin Media cable, I have 9 Eurosport HD Olympic channels plus a UHD one, all at no extra cost.

Re: Olympics
 

I've always wondered what would happen if the 'bidding' for something didn't reach an acceptable level.

Not that it would ever happen in a world of corporate greed, but it's a pleasant thought :D