Yeah Channel 7 is pretty pathetic. If you like horses though ..you'd be pretty wrapped !

I didnt have that much of a problem with the cross to the horses, sure it was annoying and as a basketball fan I was wanting to see he game in its entirity BUT at least they crossed to something that was live, something where we had a medal shot, and something that doesnt get saturation coverage on TV when its not olympics time.
What does piss me of is when we see replay upon replay of a swimmer winning gold and then geting her medal - we all know the result and dont need to see it every hour, show some LIVE sport and lets utilise your 5 other digital channels to show some variety, not evryone likes swimming and gymnastics!

Pretty crap effort all round (not just in Australia)... Maybe i am just not jingoistic enough to watch a FULL GAME of womens softball LIVE vs Japan - i might do a straw poll at work to find out if anyone from the opposition actually cares...

The most galling aspect of these olympics is the complete unavailablity of alternative broadcasting (on the internet for example) for free or at a charge...

No big deal though - cause i have despised the Olympics since Sydney and the Eric "The Eel" farce, and only care about the bball... Fact is when the Olympics roll round there's just too much sport, most of it irrellevant, and too much rabid jingoism comes to the surface (media, pollies, general population)...

Multiple Channels is the way to go, and it should be illegal for one TV channel to have a world wide event unless they can service it properly.

SBS given the crumbs SEVEN gave them have done a good job.
Every OZ event should be live on one of the FTA or Pay TV channels.

again as much as its a nnoying australia where going for a medal unlike our pathetic boomers,

and when you pay well over $500 million i guess you can show what ever you want.


the last 2 boomers games would not be good show pieces to promote basketball in the country infact it would show just how much of a shit hole where in at present

basketball doesn't rate in Australia. But DO we really have to see every heat of the swimming and what Liesl Jones had for brekafast and who her boyfirned is etc etc .. And how about those replays, incompetent commentators and cheesy ads that seem to pop up in the most inappropriate times. When we do actually get to see some game coverage it is butchured to pieces.

Once again Channel 7 force feeds what it wants to show and who (ie. swimming) rather then give variety. That's the problem with broadcasting in this country NOT enough choice

Channel 7 Olympics: a marathon of ads broken up by sprints of events!

The coverage this year has been a total disgrace and this includes away from the basketball field.

The main beef and add SBS into this is that neither are taking advantage of the HD channels by showing different events. There is no variety.

Sports are being delayed, cut, edited and shown how they want.

Basketball is being ignored, a total disgrace.

Last night's coverage was excusable - equestrian might be boring to us but it was a medal event with Australian representation. We still got to see the majority of the basketball.

seeing as how TV/cable is here in Aus ..why am I not suprised. We mostly get reject shows, reruns or shows that are 16mnts - 1 years old. I was in Canada a few years ago and I was flicking through like 100 channels on cable .. there was boxing, ufc, movie channels, playboy TV ..you name it.

What have we got .. FOXTEL ?? .. aside from the documentary channels and the sports channels what else we got? reruns of Simpsons? - and they have the nerve to make us pay for new movies as well - Movie in Demand my butt. What's more is we pay 30% more on cable then other countries for less/older content.

Hell we have ESPN and we had to practically beg them to show more NBA playoffs

The general comment on the state of TV in AUS - Channel7 is just the latest farce

Don't get too paranoid about being a minority sport. In the sailing, Australia has three crews currently leading their classes, two crews in third position and one in fifth. I didn't learn that from channel 7.

I guess the thing that has annoyed me the most has been the fact that SBS and 7 have been showing the same thing at the same time, i would have thought that the two FTA channels showing the olympics dhould show different events. I would have thought that the news services would have been the right time to show replays of Aussies winning and medal cerimonies.

Sharpeshooter, the coverage has made it virtually impossible to follow any sport except swimming, where we get all 37 heats of the 25m dog paddle.

SBS and 7 have six channels between them that could all be showing different content. Instead, we get one channel from each of them, and you can't tell from their own promotion what is going to be shown.

Here's my follow up letter to the one I sent channel 7 on Monday (due to the poor effort on Sunday):

13 August 2008


Seven Network Limited
PO Box 777
Pyrmont NSW 2009



To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing in follow up to my letter dated 11 august concerning my complete and utter dissatisfaction at your coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
In addition to my previous areas of complaint, I am also wishing to express my further extreme displeasure at your broadcasting schedule for specifically the evening of the 12 August 2008, and early morning of 13 August 2008 involving the coverage of the Australian men's basketball game against defending Olympic champions Argentina.
As was the case with the Australian men's game scheduled on 10 August 2008, your network presenters continually promised to show the basketball game later that evening. I therefore stayed up to watch the game that was due to commence at 12:15am AEST. Whilst the start of the game was missed due to the existing coverage of another sport, shortly afterwards your began to broadcast the basketball live which was greatly appreciated.
Understandably, at the half time break your network crossed to another event (Equestrian) to cover the action there. However the coverage stayed with the equestrian and did not return to the basketball. There was no mention of the basketball at all, and no indication to advise whether or not the coverage would be crossing back. Bleary eyed, I hung on for another 20 minutes hoping to see some more basketball coverage, eventually falling asleep  bored to death watching animals jump over fences. So having stayed up all night to well after 1:30am in the morning to watch a game of basketball, I was yet again let down and left disappointed, missing out of the second half of a crucial contest. Absolutely flabbergasting!
Your treatment of the Australian basketball teams and the Australian sporting public is both perplexing and disgusting. Your network's actions only reinforced my original conclusion that you are treating the 2008 edition of the Olympic Games and the Australian public with disdain.
Despite by best judgment I gave your network another chance, and once again I end up being frustrated, disappointed and left feeling short-changed. You will not get another chance. I now remain committed to watching broadcasts of the Olympics exclusively on SBS on free to air television. I'm still also unable to do so online, as your Yahoo website is just as bad if not worse than your television coverage.

I expect to receive a detailed response to my complaint, and remain intrigued as to what continues to drive your incompetence in covering the greatest sporting event in the world.
Regards,

LC


*** Please feel free to plagiarise it and amend it for your own purposes.

ffs there is more to the olympics than watching a half arsed boomers side

LC

Just because you are a basketball fan doesn't mean the rest of Channel 7's audience is.

In the Equestrian events Australia actually won a silver medal last night during the basketball and were fighting for more medals in the individual events.

While I too was up to watch the basketball I am open minded enough to realise that given the fact 7 only have one feed that they will show an Australian medal chance rather than a team which would have been horrible to watch for the general public.

If the Boomers played exciting basketball or were even competitive I would suspect that it might be easier to get them on TV. Even as a basketball fan I glad I didn't have to see any more of the game after half time.

Agreed - they had to show the equestrian. The biggest frustration is that they DO only have one feed when it appears they have the capacity to show more on their other channels. Or is there some legal issues that prevent them doing so.

I think the point is that considering two channels are covering sports; you'd not restrict the "Australian" competition to only being shown on Channel Seven.

Personally it would have been best to advise viewers that the full game can be watched on one of the HD Channels or the coverage has been moved over to SBS.

Saying you're covering an event like basketball and equestrian and trying to "juggle" them is a stupid idea. Having a "temp" channel during olympic time that will show uninterrupted games of 'whatever' sport you're into is the way to go.

So yes, while there was a medal chance in equestrian (which by the way, congrats to Aus for the Silver), badgering an audience on regarding basketball and then failing to show anything of value; when there are at least 4+ channels that can show the game in whole, is a poor example of planning.

It shouldn't matter whether or not specific sports are more appreciated than others; because in all honesty, they could be showing full basketball games rather than watching Swimming heats, containing swimmers we already know are going to make the finals.

And yes, while the same can be said for pre-finals basketball; the fact you go ahead and promise coverage of aussie competition then fail to deliver across a number of sports, you're doing a pretty pathetic job of meeting your mark and keeping 'good old fashioned' promises.

The letter is all about lack of coverage for basketball. Whilst that's true .. basketball is a small sport here so the channels won't focus on them which is fair enough. What is frustratng is the lack of options on coverage and the fact that the Olympics is NOT just about Swimming either !!

7 clearly has its own agenda in marketing the swimming "stars" to sell more ads - Uncle Tobby anyone- for their sponsors. There is NO need to go on about swimming replays and the personal lives of swimmers - when there are other sports Aussies are competing that deserve coverage that are missing out

7 seems to treat the Olympics like a big advertising campaign and have incompetent coverage in a form of "A Curent Event" or one of those shows - rather then a Sports Event that it is

If they have to cut away - why can they not have an updated score in the corner?

You guys need to get your heads out of your arses and realise that there is much more to the Olympics than basketball.

LC - what response do you think your letter will get complaining about "my complete and utter dissatisfaction at your coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics". This is on day 2 of a 16 day event. Pulease!!

The coverage of basketball is consistent with the it's interest to the rest of the population.

^ that post somes it up, unfortunetly, we are but the minority who want to watch the basketball.. very rarely does the minority prevail

Fair points is most cases. But if you sit on your hands and do nothing, nothing changes.

I will say say one thing, I must thank Channel 7 for replaying the SEMI FINALS of the 100m Freestyle for at least the third time!

Surely there is some live sport going on right now that Channel 7 should be broadcasting that wouldn't allow time to replay SEMI finals 3 times. This on top of showing them live (which I have no issue with at all).