2024 Paris Olympics

As someone who has been involved in Olympic TV coverage since 1984, here is what I think you will get across NINE and STAN.

The main NINE channel in HD and GEM-HD will be heavily focused on Aussies and will be full of ads, sponsored segments and the main sports (although GEM will maybe focus on team sports). If you want to see Aussies in action and the interviews after their events, this is the place to be. Also a good place for breakfast time highlights with the NINE commentary team and studio hosts.

NINE NOW looks like it will have everything if you can navigate your way through it, including full replays and 4 min recaps/hilites of events - a good way to catch up quickly but all with a pre-roll ad-break and maybe ads during play as well. Probably a mixture of NINE commentary and World English commentary (they use quite a few Aussies anyway due to our neutral accents).

STAN at $36 for the month are offering 4K/5.1 audio on many events. Again you need to be able to navigate to get everything but they will have no adverts and also offer full replays, recaps (about 10 mins) and Hilites (about 4 mins) of many events. Will likely only have World commentary but will have it for the entire session of the event. No (or not many interviews) although they do offer the Olympic News Channel for rolling 30-min bulletins and even some curated multi-sport channels and some from different countries like India, Italy, Greece and the UK for those interested in other country's coverage.

Enjoy the Olympics - NINE managed to show the whole Opening Ceremony out-of-sync so I hope they improve. Did not like their commentary much either but, at least, not many commercials.
 
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RooFlyer said:
Well, having watched it now I think a lot of it was kind of weird. That said, I think foreigners who watched the Sydney Olympic games opening ceremony might have thought the same. But being a made for TV event rather than being in a stadium, I think definitely detracted from it.

I’ll laughed out loud when ABC broadcasters described the thing carrying the Olympic cauldron a “balloon like structure”. Never heard of the Montgolfier brothers, obviously.

And some buffoon on channel 9 talking over the top of the French National anthem 😟

Can anyone tell me why retired Canadian singer Céline Dion had such a prominent part in the ceremony?
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Celine speaks French.
 
Well I haven't watched a thing and won't. The only thing I have watched since Sydney is a replay of the London opening ceremony to watch the "Queen" jump.
Our son had a part in the Sydney games. He worked for a film company and got himself a press pass. He and his mate dressed in their dinner suits and went to the weight lifting and sat beside Dean Lukin.
My Olympic history is being a part of theback up team of swimmers acting as pacers for a long distance swimmer in the lead up to the Tokyo games. A really boring thing for a 17 year old especially having to get out of bed at sparrows.
 
Xrayspice said:
Are you a famous singer?
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No. I was just having a bit of fun above, but I do speak French , and can belt out the French natural anthum😊.

My point was that I was surprised that the French gave a leading role to someone who is not from France no matter how talented. I mean are they so so lacking in native talent that they need to import artists? Think of Sydney 2000 - Tina Arena was not an internationally well known artist, but she was spectacular in the opening ceremony.
 
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Family in the Olympic Village in Sydney. Younger son was a fan of Peter Brock and was more excited to see him than the Olympic athletes. As a 35 year old now he still has this photo. Peter was fantastic with the kids as you can see here.




Brockboys.jpeg



Boysbrock.jpeg
 
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RooFlyer said:
My point was that I was surprised that the French gave a leading role to someone who is not from France no matter how talented. I mean are they so so lacking in native talent that they need to import artists? Think of Sydney 2000 - Tina Arena was not an internationally well known artist, but she was spectacular in the opening ceremony.
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Well, the majority view is that Opening Ceremonies should only showcase talent from the host nation. Remember the furore when it came out that the Sydney Opening Ceremony was to feature an American high school marching band? They were hounded out with such vitriol and outrage that I genuinely felt sorry for those poor kids.

This also reminds us that the majority view is not the universal view, nor is it required. The Olympics is an international event so why not feature international performers (and torch-bearers such as Nadal, Lewis, Williams etc)?
 
Facebook reminded me today that on this day, we were in Paris watching the last day of Tour de France, 9 years ago, and it too bucketed with rain and they cancelled the last event. And it was freezing.
 
Human said:
Remember the furore when it came out that the Sydney Opening Ceremony was to feature an American high school marching band? They were hounded out with such vitriol and outrage that I genuinely felt sorry for those poor kids.
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The initial furore was that it was only going to be a traditional American marching band but the fuss was of course disproportionate. it was amazingly spectacular the way it turned out.

Human said:
The Olympics is an international event so why not feature international performers (and torch-bearers such as Nadal, Lewis, Williams etc)?
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No reason at all and good on the French for doing that. It certainly seemed to be a deliberate strategy, featuring an international cast in both the entertainment and the final torch relay so prominently. I wonder what the selection process was. So many to choose from if you’re going to broaden it out like that.

I remain surprised that they did it.
 
Human said:
Well, the majority view is that Opening Ceremonies should only showcase talent from the host nation. Remember the furore when it came out that the Sydney Opening Ceremony was to feature an American high school marching band? They were hounded out with such vitriol and outrage that I genuinely felt sorry for those poor kids.

This also reminds us that the majority view is not the universal view, nor is it required. The Olympics is an international event so why not feature international performers (and torch-bearers such as Nadal, Lewis, Williams etc)?
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Especially as there was a local Marching band that were invited to march in the 1994 Pasadena Rose Parade. Members are Newcastle High School kids. We saw them perform quite a few times when we lived in the Hunter.
They have performed again in Pasadena in 2018 and also with the Rugby league in Vegas.


 
Pushka said:
Family in the Olympic Village in Sydney. Younger son was a fan of Peter Brock and was more excited to see him than the Olympic athletes. As a 35 year old now he still has this photo. Peter was fantastic with the kids as you can see here.




View attachment 399210



View attachment 399211
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Friend's mum was a torch runner and still has it in a display box on the wall. She's in her 90s now.

Same friend's son was one of the kids carrying a nation's name sign when entering the stadium. In my cleanup last year I found the VHS tape of the it and friend was so excited. And that little kid I use to babysit, carrying out that sign? He's a well known/popular exotic male dancer and stripper these days 🤣
 
Denali said:
Friend's mum was a torch runner and still has it in a display box on the wall. She's in her 90s now.
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Yes we have the torch on display at home. We bought the Perspex stand for it. Alex Tobin, Aus Soccer captain, lit his 🔥

torchlit.jpeg

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CaptainCurtis said:
Disclaimer: I didn't pull that file together, found it online but couldn't find a source to credit.
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No matter. You still found it and shared it.
 

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