[rkl]

After arguably the greatest ever men's 100m race tonight (four men under 9.9s in the same race for the first time in history), why did the BBC take four minutes (yes, I checked my video counter, it was exactly 240 seconds) to action replay the Olympic men's 100m race? Is this the longest delay ever for an action replay of any race? You could have run 24 races in the gap between the end of the race and the start of the replay

[Tenacious G]

Originally Posted by rkl

After arguably the greatest ever men's 100m race tonight (four men under 9.9s in the same race for the first time in history), why did the BBC take four minutes (yes, I checked my video counter, it was exactly 240 seconds) to action replay the Olympic men's 100m race? Is this the longest delay ever for an action replay of any race? You could have run 24 races in the gap between the end of the race and the start of the replay

Surely the replay was controlled by the host broadcaster and not the BBC? As for why it took 4 minutes, probably the same reason they can't figure out how to design on-screen scoreboards that give any kind of meaningful insight into what is happening in a given event, and that's just one example of the amateurish production qualities of this year's Olympics.

[rkl]

The BBC has its own cameras in the athletics stadium (witness the farcial shot of one of our long (or triple?) jumpers being tracked from the side by a BBC camera because the Greek broadcasters weren't airing it). They also have their own replay machines - there's no excuse for the BBC production team not to realise after say, a minute, that the host broadcaster had lost the plot and wasn't going to replay the race for ages?

It was a major dropped ball both by the Greek broadcasters and the BBC - I'd all but forgotten the race by the time they replayed it and didn't even remember that a guy in lane 2 pulled out early on, it was so long ago

[Frenchybaby]

well the BBC do have a few cameras around the Stadium, mainly used to focus on no-name brits who the Greeks dont feel worthy of showing decent coverage of.

I saw that race, i thought it was fine. They showed the winner celebrating, running around the track etc, then showed the replay, if they had shown a replay + Slow motion finish etc, we would have missed some of his celebration

[RTOlson]

The replays took around the same time on CBC and NBC. Although I was watching taped coverage, it was recorded live-to-tape and unlikely to have been altered.

I think the broadcasters may have exercised the option of showing the celebrations and reactions of the various athletes instead of going immediately into a replay. Although I could also see there being a possible delay in getting the replay available.

[MartS]

Actually the coverage of the athletics is nothing to do with the Greeks.
The host broadcaster AOB have sub-contracted the coverage out to YLE of Finland for the track/field action and SVT of Sweden for the 'jump' events.

[sidekick67]

what's the big deal ? Am I missing something ?

S.

[Hamlet77]

I agree with those who mention the belebrations if the Beeb had shown the replay 47 times in 10 minutes there now would be a thread entitled 'Why no showing of the celebrations for 100 m' or somesuch.

Other possible thread 'Why did the BBC show so much of Paula Radcliffe and not the marathon winner', in that case lets be honest there was no way the beeb were going to play around with Sunday afternoon schedule on BBC1 to show a Japanese athlete winning the ladies marathon. were they? They decided we would be all watching Paula 'win' the marathon and when she retired they had to choose, Paula or some other women who noone could pronounce their names properly.

Just goes to show you can't please all the people all the time

[mb@2day]

Originally Posted by sidekick67

what's the big deal ? Am I missing something ?

S.

I saw the race and didnt notice if the replay was 3 or 4 mins after.It didnt matter to me , the coverage of the post race events was alright.
I was more preoccupied by the commentators who were so surprised by who won the race.

[jjk]

I noticed the delay in the replay, it annoyed me, but only cause I was wanting them to get on with it as I was waiting for them to announce the result of the hammer final (which I'm not sure they ever actually bothered to do).

[ashishn]

yep all to do with the celebrations, dont wanna miss them, no big deal over replay time

[Geordie_Cy]

YLE of Finland are responsible for the Track coverage, BBC cameras are used for Close ups of British athletes only

[Akilduff]

For me, it was more important to show the celebrations than any instant replay... this was the blue riband track event of the Games and both the Beeb and the host broadcaster thought it was better to focus on the aftermath rather than showing again a race which we´ll all be watching again forever anyway.

They made the right call!

[johnofhertford]

Originally Posted by MartS

Actually the coverage of the athletics is nothing to do with the Greeks.
The host broadcaster AOB have sub-contracted the coverage out to YLE of Finland for the track/field action and SVT of Sweden for the 'jump' events.

And I believe the swimming has been done by the Australians. Have the BBC been providing any of the "host" pictures? I know they've done the Equestrian in the past.

[Geordie_Cy]

Originally Posted by johnofhertford

And I believe the swimming has been done by the Australians. Have the BBC been providing any of the "host" pictures? I know they've done the Equestrian in the past.

BBC were responsible for the tennis