Ahh those sniping Brits. There’s nothing quite like deriding your closest competitor to make yourself look better by comparison is there? That being said, the BBC coverage of the Beijing Olympics was truly phenomenal and perhaps a couple of their tactics could have come in useful for CTV.

The main example of this is what we call ‘the red button’ in the UK. With the onset of mandatory digital broadcasting in the UK, the interactive options opened up enormously. Pressing ‘the red button’ whilst watching normal BBC programming brings up an interactive menu that links to headlines, news, sport etc. However – during the Olympics, ‘the red button’ served as a ‘pick your sport’ function. you could flick between sports whilst staying on the same channel, and even preview one whilst watching the other. This meant that it was very easy to keep up with what was going on, whilst not missing anything in the sport you are currently watching.

Whilst features like the above are something of an added bonus, I really think the main problem with the CTV coverage has been scheduling and communication of scheduling (as you say). It seemed like they really took some time to find their feet with how and when things were going to be covered, leading to some exciting events being missed – a prime example of this was the 1500m short track final, which featured a Canadian and was incredibly exciting, took place during a meaningless filler section of CTV coverage, and they didn’t even mention it. It is only in the last few days that they’ve started even giving times for the events that are coming up. I have found the “All this and more coming up….LATER TODAY” extremely frustrating.

But I would have to disagree on the bitter Australians. As someone watching the Olympic coverage from Aus, the commentators and hosts have been really complimentary towards the Canadian athletes.

I love what they have done with the sports science and the doctor guy coming in to look at video and different scientific things they are doing during training and throughout the events. That is a great segment. The one where they get different athletes to try the other sports is pretty good too.

The one thing I will knock them for is their inclusion of so many CBC personalities that were brought over just for the olympics. While I don’t have a problem with people going where the money is, a lot of the feature pieces and of course Brian Williams (who i detest… sooo boring) have a distinct CBC feel. If you want to set yourself apart and make it your own; don’t copy, be unique.

That and all the technical mess-ups that they are having.

Overall I would give them a B+ for creativity, A+ for viewing ease (the online streaming quality is amazing) and a B for execution.