Seb Coe: anti-social viewing times won’t hurt Nine’s Olympics ratings, ‘lack of cultural distraction’ is why Australia is good at sport
Coe: expecting good ratings for Nine
Seb Coe, the man behind London’s successful bid for the 2012 Olympics, has said that anti-social viewing times should not hurt TV ratings in Australia for broadcasters Nine and Foxtel when the Games get under way in less than three weeks.
The Olympic Gold-winning runner and the chairman of the London 2012 Games said Australian broadcasters could expect ratings to match those for the Beijing Games four years ago – because of Australia’s obsession with sport.
A key difference this year will the “social Games” effect, with audiences boosted by content sharing in social media, Coe suggested.
An Australian audience of 3.3m watched the live opening ceremony for the last Olympics in Beijing, which were shown on Seven between 10pm and 2.17am, giving the network 52% viewer share, according to OzTam data.
Significantly fewer – 3.04m – tuned in to watch the opening ceremony in Athens in 2004, which aired at a similar time in Australia to the scheduled time for London’s opening ceremony – 5am.
Nine takes on coverage duties of the Summer Olympics for the first time since 1960. Seven televised the Games from 1964-80 and from 1992 to 2008. The Australian is reporting today that the rights to the next Olympic Games could be taken on by Seven, as Nine might not be able to afford the bid.
Coe, who attended the 2000 Sydney Games as a sports reporter for Seven, declined to give predictions on Australia or Britain’s medal tally – but said the “battle for fourth place will be tough”.
In the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Britain beat Australia to fourth place in the medals table by a single medal. At the 2000 and 2004 Games, Australia came fourth, while Britain came ninth and tenth.
Australia is likely to do well in swimming – a “religion in Australia”, cycling, hockey and triathlon, Coe predicted.
On why Australia was good at sport, Coe said that favourable weather, “embedded” sport at the community level, the “competitive nature” of Australians and “a complete lack of cultural distraction” have contributed to Australia’s success. He added that his last point “was a joke”.
“Lack of cultural distraction”? – that’s a comment coming from a country whose contribution to global culture is Morris Dancing, Benny Hill, Blood Pudding and fried Mars Bars.
Pride goeth…….
User ID not verified.
Yeah, Shakespeare, Dickens, Wordsworth et al all doff their hats to Benny Hill
User ID not verified.
Nice messaging to get a headline. Pommy git.
User ID not verified.
What about chugging beer and being racist towards international students? They are cultural distractions right?
Also top marks for above commenters not reading that “it was a joke”. Since when did Australians’ not get someone taking the piss. For shame.
User ID not verified.
Mike, have you tried Blood pudding? It’s really good. Sorry, I love pom bashing as much as next bloke but….
User ID not verified.
PS it’s obviously a joke (he even said so).. Maybe don’t take the bait this time, hooks make terrible mouth accessories…
User ID not verified.
Mike, there is a lot to be said for Morris Dancing, Benny Hill, Blood Pudding and fried Mars Bars (mostly good) but his comment of our suppose ‘lack cultural distraction’ smacks of old country disdain for the younger country that is doing so much better these days… or am I simply reading too much into it, probably
User ID not verified.
Sure it might have been a joke, but that’s what most people say after they make remarks designed to cause offence. No worries – we can give better than we get.
Just imagine for a second the outcome if he’d said “lack of cultural distraction” about an African nation, about dark-skinned people and their culture.
He’d have been crucified.
There’s no “free pass” to insulting any race or nation, and that includes Australia.
Trouble with the Poms is that mentally they’re still clinging to the 19th century, with Empire countries marked red on the world map, and millions enslaved by the mediocre.
Back then, it was no joke.
When the English are ready to join us in the 21st century, we will welcome them.
User ID not verified.
Stuff the pommy bashing, why isn’t anyone bashing Channel Nine?
Their coverage will kill the ratings, a predictable non-stop barrage of Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi – while top-notch events go unbroadcast.
I’ll be watching webstreams (yes, yes, copyright infringing webstreams, but since when did the Olympic ideals include maximising profits and gatekeeping veiwership?) from English speaking countries with little chance of success – much better coverage as they’ll focus on the best competitors and competitions, whoever they are.
User ID not verified.
So, the chairman of London’s Olympic bid committee is talking up the value of TV rights based on … what? By his own admission, the viewing audience for some of the big night-time events will be around half what it was for Beijing. He should have (or could have done so, but it wasn’t reported) observed how favourable the time zone is for us. 9am UK time is 6pm here, giving around 6 hours of clear watching time and close to a good night’s sleep every night for anyone who is fit enough and focussed enough to perform that marathon 2-week task of sitting on the sofa.
As anyone who saw the final, sting-in the-tail, slap-in-the-face part of John Clarke’s “Sporting Nation” on non-Olympic broadcaster the ABC last night will know, sitting on a couch watching sport on TV whilst getting measurably fatter is now OUR national sport. Letting your kids get out and do stuff, far less volunteering to help out at grassroots competition, is becoming unAustralian for most parents. As for ACTIVE participation? Oh, you mean online sports betting for adults who can afford iPads, and Wii for everyone else.
And sports broadcasting rights will keep going up in this environment until 1976 hits again and we come 32nd in the medal tally and viewers lose interest in the Olympics. Then it depends who’s left holding that expensive baby, esp as advertising dollars for TV. like print, aint what they useta be.
User ID not verified.
mike, presumably they dont show the cricket or tennis where you live out west?
they do however show State Of Origin, the pinnacle of Australia Sport…..originating from the same place as Morris Dancing….
User ID not verified.
Cultured like an english tennis fan ? did themselves proud last night
User ID not verified.
Is he having a LAHFA?
User ID not verified.
What’s the difference between an Australian and a yoghurt? The Yoghurt has more culture.
User ID not verified.
These Olympics will be a ratings winner because they are not on Sourpuss Seven and SBS (Sex Between Soccer), the two stations which murdered the last two Games.
When I phoned Seven during the Beijing Olympics asking why they were not showing the weightlifting (even the superheavyweights) and instead had just a 90 second wrapup each night (as well as completely ignoring the men’s hammer throw, shot put and discus) I was told that there was not much interest in those sports and they were concentrating on swimming, equestrian, BMX, team sports and women’s events. When the sports director on the phone said to me “what do you expect us to do? Show hours of weightlifting, shot put, hammer throw and discus?” I replied “well, yes”. I can see team sports and women’s sport every time I turn on my TV at every other time in between Olympics.
A few weeks ago I wrote to Channel Nine’s sports director asking whether the weightlifting, shot put and hammer throw would be shown in full this time. I didn’t get a reply. So rather than going into a virtual lotto draw and hoping I’ll be presented with a prize when London came around, I had Foxtel connected, paid my money and booked in advance my tickets for the events I want to see.
Ah, freedom of choice. It’s something we haven’t had for a long time with the Olympics. Indeed there is a strong case for the Broadcasting Act to be amended to ensure the Olympics are always shown on pay TV in full in addition to the coverage on the FTA rights holder.
User ID not verified.
So .. . have I got this right? The 2012 Olympics will be a ratings winner for Channel 9 because they’ll show a limited number of sports interspersed hours of ads in a vain attempt to limit their revenue loss to only $10m, along with suffering a long-term if not permanent loss of market share to Foxtel? Good work all round.
My prediction: week 1 will see good numbers cos we’ll be in the hunt for swimming medals; week 2, fuelled by disappointment over our poor showing in the pool, we’ll see a major drop-off in numbers, apart from the big running events (100m, marathon, 100m women’s hurdles).
No, I’m not a Pom.
User ID not verified.
Andy … and more Wimbledon titles.
User ID not verified.
The Olympics? Meh!
User ID not verified.
It’s Black Pudding!
User ID not verified.
It’s Black Pudding!
9 will predictably ruin the Olympics, sensationalising every part of it and as mentioned above, giving most coverage to “Aussie Aussie Aussie” competitors, missing really important heats because no Aussies are competing in them. Their ego centric presenters getting more air time than the athletes – arrrrgggghhhhhh. Awful.
I will also be streaming it online.
User ID not verified.
You live in Australia for the culture in the same way that you live in Dubai for the skiing….
User ID not verified.
OMG Full English – do you think that will really happen?
At least we can be thankful that it will ONLY be Nine here in Australia that will be so myopic and focus on competitors in the country of broadcast when they are competing. Just as well NBC in the US won’t be doing that. Or the BBC in the UK. Or CCTV in China … the list goes on.
Should you suggest that there needs to be an enquiry in to how this can happen.
User ID not verified.
Simon … like you live in the UK for the good weather and food …
User ID not verified.
Simon, you can live in Dubai for the skiing. It’s fake and tacky, but it’s there: https://www.theplaymania.com/skidubai
Now, as for Australia and culture…
User ID not verified.
This is hilarious, it was a joke. Part on the never ending banter and mudslinging that is our cultural heritage…see we’re chocas full of culture.
User ID not verified.
and I can’t even spell. “Part of” see previous …
User ID not verified.