I stayed up to watch the BMX on the Gabby Logan show last night and there was not a single complete run to watch – even though the time taken is small. It was the same with Chris Hoy’s keirin(?) win – they still only showed the last two and a bit laps of an event that takes less than 3(?) minutes in its entirety.

A lot of BBC programmes would be a damned sight shorter or more content-filled and probably cheaper to produce if they just showed the advertised subject matter.

Instead, we get endless ‘deliberately jerky/quirky’ black and white ‘snippets’ where we are told by a former athelete that the object of a running race is to cross the line first, or that if you start your long jump from behind the board you lose that many centimetres off of your potential jump.

I’m finding this more and more with the Beeb if you actually boil things down to what is content versus padding or conjecture and we could still end the TV with the national anthem at midnight!

I think its been fantastic, endless BBC channels covering eveything live.

I notice, Virgin and Sky didnt add any specific channels just for the Olympic weeks.

Its easy to knock them, and some of the comentating, but the truth is they have made the effort, and I am happy to stump this years license fee for just that reason.

I’m finding this more and more with the Beeb if you actually boil things down to what is content versus padding or conjecture

This sums up so much news and sport coverage, full of so much talk of what might happen rather than what actually has happended. Not just the BBC though, other channels are also masters at it.

This also sums up why I am watching less and less TV, it is a time thief for little benefit.

I notice, Virgin and Sky didnt add any specific channels just for the Olympic weeks.

Virgin did. 550 > 24HD channels then the next 24 are SD

Not just the BBC

Quite right, but I just expect the Beeb to be a bit different – a bit ‘better’ than others because, well, it’s the Beeb isn’t it?

I can’t remember the last time I watched ITV1 for example……

This sums up so much news and sport coverage, full of so much talk of what might happen rather than what actually has happended. Not just the BBC though, other channels are also masters at it.

The ‘oppinion’ is TV’s USP though. If you just want the straight news these days you go online, there’ll be a paragraph stateing the facts and that’s it. The TV version has to offer something different.

I agree through, the highlights are sometimes shockingly bad.

You can please some of the people all of the time.
You can please all of the people some of the time.
But you can’t please all of the people all of the time.
Simples.

Hugh Porter seriously needs to stf up, many times Boardman must have been burying his head in his hands.

Sometimes silence is fine, and when something is necessary Boardman can say it without the faux melodrama or inaccuracies. Porter has no purpose other then to be an incumbent, it would be better off without him.

It’s a highlights package! It crams in hours and hours into one small little show. Pretty sure all the sports can be picked out in full online to watch at your leisure…

I for one admired the way they skip through the boring stuff like boxing and show jumping. I’m sure the boxing fans and horsists wanted to see more though…

Every single event is being covered live on the red button and everything is available on the iPlayer afterwards if you miss it live. And if you want to watch an edited show with opinion etc then there’s that too.

No previous Olympics has ever had such comprehensive coverage!

I stand corrected about Virgin…. dont meet many around my way!

I think the Beeb (TV,Radio and Tinternet streaming )has been (almost) brilliant .
Some of their presenters need to stop giving the silver and bronze winners such a hard time though.
They may think that silver and bronze is a huge fail,but it does boil my bodily fluids at times.

Via the website you can watch every event individually (best found via the calendar view). The sports are up by session – so there might be 3 hours of rowing – but from within the video the ‘progress bar’ is segmented and lets you jump to any individual event.

On satellite and cable there are up to 24 simultaneous HD streams via Red Button so you should be able to watch any sport, in it’s entirety, in HD, Live. The two ‘standard’ channels pick ‘highlights’ from those.

Theres one thing that doesn’t work very well – if you’re watching the ‘sport’ stream when they cut to it from BBC1 or BBC3 you often lose the commentary/pundits. You’ll get a ‘we’re just going to talk to X now’ and the audio disappears on the sport channel while the camera pans around the statdium.

I’ve been sick all this week – i’ve seen a *lot* of olympic tv.

Anyone know if its possible to get all the footage from a specific event anywhere? ie iplayer

Anyone know if its possible to get all the footage from a specific event anywhere? ie iplayer

Yes, it’s all on the iPlayer. I don’t know how long it stays there for though.

go here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/schedule-results

click on the session you want to watch and click the catch up video.

I have found their coverage to be excellent. Especially when you consider this is the biggest thing they have ever had to cover and it’s not as if you get much chance to practice for the olympics.

If you can’t find what you want on TV then just go online and EVERY sport is available. BBCs camera crews and production team are second to none and all for the cost of the TV licence.

It’s a highlights package!

Surely they’d want to maximise content and minimise ‘fill’, then?!

It’s not the fact that it’s a short programme that I’ve got the problem with – I didn’t want to see all of the BMX – just a few full runs.

Brilliant.
Couldn’t find it through the iplayer interface on my Humax.

I didn’t want to see all of the BMX – just a few full runs.

Record the whole event then fast forward the bits that don’t interest you? Seems pretty straightforward.

I have mainly been watching it on eurosport and zdf in Germany, There has been a seemingly remarkable lack of on camera face time for the commentators when compared to normal UK sports coverage, they have also been very fair in praising all performances (of course they haven’t had that many German medals to celebrate).

I’ve been sick all this week – i’ve seen a *lot* of olympic tv.

There’s a lot of that going around at the moment 😉

ha ha this is going on right now.

the bmx is on. but first. here’s some total gumpf about ‘BMX’