10.10
“Do you ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” were the immortal words uttered by Johnny Rotten as The Sex Pistols imploded on stage in San Francisco and it was the feeling I had while watching the Bathurst 1000 on Channel 7 this afternoon and also watching the twitter feed on “the great race”. The penny dropped when The Official V8 Supercars account @V8Supercars updates were several laps in front of what was being telecast by Channel 7.
I’m sure tens of thousands of Australian petrol-heads who were tuned into the coverage from Mt Panorama had no idea they were watching delayed coverage as Channel 7 certainly didn’t alert them and they would have felt cheated if they had known. The coverage from Channel 7 was over 20 minutes behind reality when Craig Lowndes took the chequered flag in his Holden.
Apart from the personal slight of being kept in the dark by Channel 7 it has raised some other questions.
Were the event sponsors Supercheap Auto, MTAA, XXXX Gold, Dick Smith Electronics, Shannons etc aware that the race telecast would be delayed?
Were the drivers aware that their fans watching on TV wouldn’t know the results until after the winners had left the podium?
Were Channel 7 viewers making online wagers aware that the information they were making their betting decisions on was out of date?
It also ties in with the current debate on anti-siphoning laws in Australia. The Bathurst 1000 (and all other V8 Supercar rounds) is on the anti-siphoning list but it seems that being on the protected list guaranteeing broadcast on free to air TV doesn’t guarantee that Australian viewers will see the sporting events of cultural significance live.
Channel 7 and the other free-to-air broadcasters are fighting tooth-and-nail to keep the rights to these sporting events, but the behaviour Channel 7 engaged in today by delaying their telecast showed utter contempt for Australian sports fans. If an event is important enough for the Australian government to put it on the anti-siphoning list then the Australian government should ensure these events must be broadcast live.
Can you imagine the furore if Channel 7 decided to run a delayed telecast of the Melbourne Cup because it suited them better? The only difference between that happening and what happened today is that everyone in Australia knows what time the Cup is run, not everyone knows when the Bathurst 1000 finishes.
The betting allegation doesn’t stand up as the betting agencies would have a live feed, same for the Melbourne Cup.
What Channel 7 (and other networks) are doing is implementing a system Seven has called “NMAT”. This acronym stands for “Never Miss A Thing”.
What it means is that the final output feed from the OB van at Bathurst is fed into a device called an EVS. Basically it’s one huge hard disk unit which can record and replay video simultaneously.
When a commercial goes to air the playback from Bathurst is “paused” if there’s something interesting which happens. Sometimes things can be edited to get rid of the “boring” bits and keep the interesting bits.
Some commercial breaks might also be an opportunity to catch up to real time if there’s nothing really interesting happening.
This mainly happens at half time in football matches where the break can be skipped over to catch up to real time.
Anyway, the real intent is to ensure action is not missed for the viewer (cutting to a break when there’s a spectacular crash or someone overtakes the leader).
The result is that the viewer is treated with a certain amount of contempt as there’s the freedom to insert longer and longer commercial breaks.
Thanks John B for the clarification.
Just because a network has some gigantic whiz-bang PVR doesn’t mean they should stretch out the coverage to sell more advertising. There are plenty of inconsequential moments in most sporting events to show it in real time and still have ad breaks.
Ch7 if you cant respect the viewers and the Bathurst 1000 race by putting the race on LIVE please never ever do the race again!!!! This was the grand final of car racing in Australia and you took people for suckers and made a joke of it. Your a Disgrac…e and should be ashamed. GIVE IT BACK TO CH 10
Good to see News Limited and Bigpond are running some stories on this. The Channel 7 response is a cop out – at best it’s an effort to extract more advertising dollars, at worst a calculated plan to retain viewers and stop them from switching over to the live F1 coverage on ONE HD. You can also vote in an online poll about live sports coverage at http://www.2ue.com.au
Story links
The Australian – http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/seven-loses-fans-on-live-broadcast-of-bathurst-race/story-e6frg8mf-1225936850446
Herald Sun – http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/tv-viewers-stuck-in-slow-lane/story-e6frf9if-1225936872010
Bigpond Sport – http://www.bigpondsport.com/soapbox-bathurst-not-so-live/tabid/91/newsid/61721/default.aspx
I felt they really cheated Leanne Tanner after her win against the men in the Historic Car Race where she drives a Ford. I mean they could have shown the finish and her excitement of beating the men at their own game. Her husband drives a Holden I bet the air was thick at their house! She beat Jim Richards for god sake and there was no publicity about this at all! Obviously there is no women on the Channel 7 team!
And one more from the Daily Telegraph – http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/channel-seven-broadcasts-finish-of-bathurst-1000-30-minutes-after-race-actually-ended/story-e6freuy9-1225936875295
A further comment on this issue.
The best way to get these sorts of “fake live” telecasts stopped is to do what you’re doing now, complaining and complaining loudly.
There is a case for the NMAT “idea” to stop that speccy goal/crash/point being missed during a commercial break, but once the producers get this technology then the sales and executives work out new ways of making money out of it and squeezing more commercials in.
It’s fair enough that there’s advertising, it’s what pays for the telecast on Free to Air TV, but the people selling advertising do go overboard sometimes.
I will stick up for commercial TV when it’s necessary, I worked in commercial TV for years, but sadly the professionals are being replaced by accountants and businessmen who have no interest in craft or TV excellence. The decent people in the industry find it an increasing struggle to improve production standards and service to viewers.
So, the tip is, when you hate something complain, best to do it in writing. Each letter (written politely – no swearing) is taken to represent dozens or hundreds of viewers, because most people don’t bother.
If you like something, then also comment publicly or write a letter.
If there’s a new visual thing or camera position or whatever, and it gets positive comment, then it strengthens the hand of those people behind the scenes who’ve created this new technique.
All the best.
Cheers
JB
Excellent post JB.
It’s a shame the greedheads seem to drive the agenda and put viewers second to the almighty dollar.
Kudos to Mark Beretta from Channel 7 for getting involved in the twitter debate on the Bathurst coverage – I doubt the Channel 7 spokesman would.
Overall the Channel 7 coverage was excellent with fantastic camera angles and access to all facets of the race, but the delayed coverage is a real issue and one that needs to be addressed. I see this morning that there is an article in The Australian that betting on Bathurst was suspended on Sunday due to the delayed coverage.
A couple more links to articles on the matter
Fairfax Gadgets On The Go blog
http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/computers/blogs/gadgets-on-the-go/bathurst-delay-angers-viewers/20101011-16ey9.html
The Australian on betting being suspended on Bathurst 1000
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/bets-called-off-on-live-car-race/story-e6frg996-1225937362535
It would be unfair to think it’s just Channel 7 that delays live coverage, it’s just that they were caught with their pants down on Bathurst, Channel 10 are also copping a bollocking over their failure to show Steve Hooker’s gold medal performance at the Delhi Commonwealth Games.
In this day and age with instant access to live results being readily available sports broadcasters really need to examine ways to ensure that live coverage is available.
This is a timely debate to have with the current anti-siphoning provisions on Australian sport expiring at the end of the year. The free to air networks are lobbying hard to maintain their advantage by having their access to major sporting events protected, surely if they want to be given a competitive advantage the Australian government should insist that these events be broadcast live.
A very well written blog piece on the matter
http://itonlygoesuptoyourknees.wordpress.com/2010/10/12/strapping-a-kid-to-the-bonnet-how-seven-slowed-down-bathurst/