Not quite golden coverage

DURING Euro 2012, I was a functioning obsessive – I still managed to work and socialise but a sizable part of conversations were spent with one eye on the TV, just in case I missed a goal or some other such exciting moment. Having just recovered from that, the Olympics coverage has tipped me over the cliff of normal behaviour entirely.

 

I now find myself tutting if anyone calls to the door if there’s the chance Michael Phelps is about to appear (as I write he has just secured his 19th Olympic medal to become the most successful athlete so far) or a Chinese fly-by-night is speeding up the pool at a rate of knots (she too has just secured another gold).  If there was a gold medal for quickest tea making abilities, I’d have it in the (ahem) bag.

Trying to follow all the events going on can be somewhat mind-boggling but I’m loving the ‘red button’ function on BBC, which allows far more choice of watching what you actually want, rather than hear commentators analysing every moment or prattling on over the events, when really you could do without half of it. There’s nothing to beat the tenseness of live sporting action but, that said, many broadcasters came under fire earlier this week for failing to cover events that matched the public’s appetite. In the age of social media, everyone is a critic and they are not afraid to make their opinions known about every aspect of coverage instantly.

NBC in the US was the first to get it over its decision to air Saturday’s main swimming event, won by American Ryan Lochte, on tape delay in prime time and for showing women’s cycling, instead of the US men’s basketball team’s opening game.

The BBC were then slammed for their poor coverage of the men’s cycling road race, in which Britian had high hopes of a medal and the gymnastics, where Britain reached its first final in 100 years (and incidentally won an historic bronze medal) but much of the clips concentrated on athletes from Russia, China, the US and so on. It’s a tough job for the stations to keep everyone happy in an era where people carry phones or laptops that instantly deliver news in their pockets.

To an extent, the internet is filling the gap, with most events being streamed but as BBC chiefs pointed out after the cycling debacle, much of what is videoed is out of their control as the coverage is dictated by the Olympic Broadcasting Service (OBS), who supplies footage and data to all the TV networks globally.

As it happened, for all the complaining on social media about the cycling updates, it was in fact, technically, Twitter’s fault that there was a glitch in proceedings in the first place. Spectators inadvertently jammed the network used to provide crucial race timing and positional updates to broadcasters from the athletes’ bikes by using Twitter as the athletes passed.

Twitter was also at the centre of a separate storm on Monday, when LA-based British journalist Guy Adams had his Twitter account suspended after criticising NBC’s coverage. Angered by NBC’s decision to broadcast some events on tape-delay, he began venting via Twitter, eventually publishing NBC president Gary Zenkel’s corporate email address so his followers could email him directly with their complaints. It has been alleged that NBC was alerted to the posting by Twitter itself, who advised the company on how to file a complaint against Adams.

His account was suspended, which led to another storm, on Twitter, about what Twitter is supposed to stand for. Not quite end-of-the-world stuff but it shows the different age the London 2012 Olympics are operating in. By the way, in case you care, Adams’ account was reinstated by Tuesday evening. All’s well that end’s well then.

This might be all too much for some though, so I recommend sticking with RTÉ /BBC for an easy round-up of what’s going on. And if wall-to-wall Olympic coverage isn’t your thing, it might be time to take a TV holiday. Failing that, it’s the perfect time to catch up on all those box-sets bought at Christmas.

THE great Maeve Binchy passed away on Monday at the age of 72.  RTÉ led the way with a tribute by repeating the documentary Maeve Binchy – At Home in the World on Tuesday night.
It explored how a girl from Dalkey grew up to become a beloved author of 16 books that sold over 40 million copies worldwide. She was no stranger to the silver screen with three of her books, including Circle of Friends and Tara Road, adapted for the cinema and two turned into films for television. Although she was due to retire in 2000, she continued writing and her last novel, Minding Frankie, was published in 2010, the year she also received a lifetime achievement award from the Irish Book Awards.

In the documentary, Maeve Binchy herself relayed memories of a happy childhood, her adventures while travelling and how life as a teacher and journalist moulded her future as a writer, with contributions from family, friends and colleagues. It was a wonderful tribute to one of Ireland’s great treasures.

RTÉ One’s The Meaning of Life with Gay Byrne featuring Maeve Binchy, first shown in May 2009, is also available on the RTÉ player if anyone would like to take a trip down memory lane.