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I can't believe you switched coverage of the nail biting bronze medal archery play off mid competition. Surely Countryfile could wait 5 minutes?

This kind of random programming makes it very difficult for those of us trying to record our favorite events.

Could you please put a video stream off the playoff on you web site please?

Why is the ´óÏó´«Ã½ not giving more prominence to the high definition content being broadcast? I'm extremely impressed with the offering through my new Freesat box but there seems little or no mention of this on ´óÏó´«Ã½1/2. Are people tuning into the high definition broadcasts too?

Most people's gut reaction to hearing there are 437 ´óÏó´«Ã½ employees in Beijing but when you actually look at it, it is not a massive amount considering just how much you are doing. On TV,there are up to 6 live events on at a time (with ´óÏó´«Ã½i) plus people needed at other events not being shown, then there is the highlights programme. Then there is radio and online also providing a lot of coverage. Just because it is not the ´óÏó´«Ã½ in control of the main cameras it doesn't mean there is nothing else they need to do.

Yes there could be less people but that would mean poorer coverage. Euro 2008 is a good example, every football fan I know preferred the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s coverage because the ´óÏó´«Ã½ was in Vienna rather than staying in Britain like ITV. When you compare to other networks like NBC it is quite clear that it is not a massive amount.

In the end it is the audience figures that will justify your decisions and I am glad to see everything has started well. I'm enjoying the coverage very much so far.

Hello Roger,

A fantastic opening ceremony and, as always, brilliant ´óÏó´«Ã½ coverage of the Olympics with a good range of sports covered so far. The coverage of the rowing and cycling has been excellent today, in particular. I am very pleased that an extra stream is available on Freeview by losing ´óÏó´«Ã½ Parliament for the duration of the games. This offers terrestrial viewers more choice, which is extremely welcome. I look forward to the rest of the games.

I am a real fan of these blogs, and think it is great that the decision makers at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sport give all viewers an insight into what goes on behind the scenes, and also that you personally talk candidly about matters that concern ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sport fans, often 'going over the top of the trenches' often knowing the kind of responses that you will receive.

I appreciate that you may wish to comment on this after the Olympics, but this is the first time we have heard from you since the news that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ did not bid for the cricket rights. Since you said a while ago that cricket fans should 'watch this space', I have been ever hopeful that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ would either manage to secure some rights to live games or an increase in the paltry amount of highlights available on terrestrial TV.

While Channel Five puts out a good programme, it is way too short, contains advertising breaks and we only get to see Test and One-Day International highlights, meaning that those people who cannot afford Sky (it is not a lifestyle choice for some people as others tend to say in their posted comments here, there are people who literally cannot afford Sky Sports) do not get to see any international Twenty20 highlights, and no county cricket whatsoever. England's winter tours are not covered by terrestrial (save the last Ashes tour, which was welcome) either.

Therefore, to find out that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ did not even bid for highlights, let alone live rights, and that until 2013 the diet of cricket on terrestrial will be as it is now, is really disappointing. Having hinted that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ was seriously considering bidding for the rights, and having seen how many disappointed people were discussing the cricket rights allocation on the 606 section of this site earlier in the week, it would be good to hear your side of the coin.

At a time when the ´óÏó´«Ã½ has lost some high profile contracts, namely England football matches and the FA Cup, and when there seems to be less high profile sport on the ´óÏó´«Ã½, this development is both frustrating and a crushing blow for cricket-loving licence fee payers. I would not have been as pleased about the Formula 1 news, if I knew that it had taken a lot out of the pot and meant no cricket.

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Can we have some coverage of the Fencing please?
Thanks!!!

i would like to know why out of 29 sports at the Olympics only one recieves no coverage in the ´óÏó´«Ã½ schedule?

why is Fencing not included in the 'in depth and at length' coverage of the games?
why is it the only sport not covered?
why can you find time to show a whole 3 hour bike race, repeat boxing matches twice in one morning, football preliminaries that do not even involve Team GB, and yet find no time for even 10 minutes of highlights from the Fencing?

I was starting to get depressed this Olympics and then the hockey came on and I discovered that Barry Davies is there after all!

Where was he for the opening ceremony (he might have saved us from your awful China 'expert' who seemed to assume that she knew everything and those of us at home knew nothign)? And where is he for the gymnastics (I don't think I can express a view on the person doing it without breaking forum rules!)

Still, it is better to have him for the hockey than for nothing. I hope he'll be back for the coming football season - and I know of plenty of others who share my view!

How about some more coverage of the Olympic football?

Whilst you're so busy patting yourself on the back for your viewing figures, perhaps you'd care to explain why the "highlights" of the opening ceremony were such an utter disgrace?

In condensing them into barely half an hour of highlights, you managed to omit virtually every moment of note, including the spectacular fireworks display which followed the lighting of the torch.

I've spoken to several people about this and there seems to be a consensus that these highlights were a disgrace and whoever was responsible for editing them should be ashamed.

Roger, can you tell the ´óÏó´«Ã½ announcers to keep quiet about saying its on HD.
Not everyone has HD!
As for the coverage, it has been brilliant but could you PLEASE stop the interviews when there is live action.
I had to switch over to Eurosport to watch live swimming, why arent the interviews on ´óÏó´«Ã½i rather then on during live coverage?
Overall, it has been good rather then the Interviews over live action.

Also can you explian what the monkey is about on your Olympic Titles.
I cant see why the ´óÏó´«Ã½ has a monkey to represent its coverage.
Can you give me sone explaination?

Dear Mr Mosey,
I agree with your comments - the Olympics so far has been fantastic and I think the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s coverage is excellent. Most presenters are great, but please could you ask Sharon Davies to dress like a ´óÏó´«Ã½ commentator and bear in mind the family audience. She's at the Olympics not a nighclub.
Thank you.

I'd like to congratulate the ´óÏó´«Ã½ first of all on the coverage provided so far for the Games. I've especially enjoyed the rowing, with that camera that is able to rove all around the boats as they make their way down the course- it really is incredible and makes for really exciting viewing.

I would like to give some constructive criticism with regards to coverage of the opening ceremony though. The ceremony itself was a magnificent display of Chinese culture; art; music; dance and I loved every moment of it. I watched in awe with around 10 of my Chinese flat-mates, who were also spell-bound by the whole event. The only thing that somewhat wrecked the entire experience was the constant (in fact, never-ending) stream of commentary throughout the whole ceremony. I appreciate your efforts to 'educate' the British public in terms of Chinese culture and so on..but I have to say that some of the commentary was most un-necessary and in fact really ruined it for me (and my flat-mates). When you are watching a beautiful performance you don't want someone going on about political unrest/civil war/human rights issues and so on... A lot of the commentary also came across as 'British superiority' and a bit 'colonnial' actually!

I do realise that there are these other issues going on in the world..however, your commentators seemed to have something negative to say about almost every country involved in this, the greatest sporting contest in the world! I could see my flat-mates cringeing after some of the comments that were made during the ceremony and I felt almost embarassed to be British at the end of it all.

So perhaps the constructive bit of my criticism is this: next time please just allow the audience to watch a wonderful spectacle and maybe build in an audio commentary (using the 'red button') for those that want that particular aspect.

Finally, I just want to know: what was the thinking behind providing never-ending commentary? Will the same be done for London 2012? I hope not.

I wonder if Mr Mosey is aware of the many many criticisims, aired on this site, about the poor quality of commentating by the ´óÏó´«Ã½ on the Opening Ceremony?
It was a case of 'too many cooks' and I repeat that I believe that you get a far more spontaneous overview if there are fewer voices being heard.
It is a little like the ´óÏó´«Ã½ coverage of soccer games these days on 5 live where you have 2 commentators (1 should be able to commentate for 90') one expert summariser and then back in the studio yet another expert summariser - sometimes 2. There is so much summarising these days that it leaves little time for actual commentory, and after all that is what radio listeners want to here.

Roger

May I take this moment to point out that, for what it's worth, I have been very impressed with the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s olympics coverage so far.

If anything, I think there should be more! In a way, the scheduling works out ok, as the coverage can finish before prime time tv hours so it doesn't take up a huge amount of peak audience.

Don't worry about the papers, in fact I think the ´óÏó´«Ã½ should take more!

It is for coverage like this (in HD too!) that I pay my license for - now if only I had HD kit to get better value! Keep up the good work!

Can I please ask why for the firdt time ever in my living memory the ´óÏó´«Ã½ decided to use a News Reader to cover the opening ceremony rather than a sports commentator?

I may be wrong but the role is usually filled by Barry Davies who brings exceptional insight about the countries involved and knowledge of many of the competitors parading. By using Huw Edwards it meant that 2 others were needed to fill his knowledge void and so made the commentary seem cumbersome and cluttered.

In the article that you linked to it says nothing about NBC sending 2900 staff, just that there is 2900 hours of coverage.

Can you provide a link showing that NBC are sending 2900 staff?

OK, Olympics going well but can someone please explain when the Butterfly stroke in the swimming suddenly became 'The Fly'!!

Is this just another example of sloppy grammar or sloppy reporting??
Its become really REALLY irritating!!

As a now retired Judo Player, I am bound to say that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Interactive coverage of the Judo in Beijing is superb. The commentary team (Nicola Fairbrother and ?) is a great combination. I hope that we might attract new members to the sport after their clear explanations of some of the more technical aspects. Well done !

We have won two gold medals now and a bronze, yet we are NOT being shown the medal presentations when the results of the day are summed up - we only see the medalists with their medals. Are the ´óÏó´«Ã½ not allowed to show the national anthem and the flag anymore?

Well done on Roger Mosey for answering the comments BUT come on Mr Mosey you can't get away with saying 'I was happy with the coverage of the Opening Ceremony' when so many people wrote in to complain about it. This is exactly what infurtiates many of us with the ´óÏó´«Ã½ is that seem to take no notice whatsoever of what the viewers think.
To mix the sporting element with politics was WRONG Mr Mosey, whatever you may think. We are sports lovers and therefore we do not want to sit there and be subjected to an endless stream of facts about China's political stance. That is for the NEWS channel.
Please Mr Mosey take on board what people have written and accept that the coverage of the Opening Ceremony was very poor - the wrong people were chosen and they had the wrong ideas about we most of us wanted to hear.

Does anyone know if the Opening Ceremony is going to be repeated or available for download at all ? I notice that it's available on the i-Player, but it's not available for download there.

Many thanks !

The coverage, in general, is excellent. The sheer breadth of choice available is amazing and the commentary and analysis has, I think, been top drawer.

However, two negatives:

1) Gabby Logan's highlights programme is terrible. All the joking around is clearly designed to appeal to a non-sports audience but I'd say it's unlikely they'd be watching anyway.

2) I'm very disappointed the ´óÏó´«Ã½ don't cover the swimming heats properly. There have been times where Sue Barker and Sharron Davies have been chatting and you can actually see races going on in the background. If you must have the endless punditry, at least provide the option to show ALL the heats on the red button, not just the last few as you have been doing. I say this not least because the enthusiasm of Jameson, Moorhouse and Davies is infectious and the coverage of the finals is excellent - despite the awkwardness of the hour!

Once again the ´óÏó´«Ã½ have decided that we all want to see endless talking heads rather than the actual sport...yes we have interactive but not if (like me) you want to watch in HD.

I remember the first day of Wimbledon where the first half an hour was spent chatting when there was live play going on! This at an event were often you have rain breaks which provide ample time for chat!!! A similar thing happened for the final round of The Open.

Are we going to see any F1 next year or will we only join in time for the first round of pitstops?

why are there 2 bronxe medals in jodo and weighlifting and boxing and not just 1? this is unfair to other events like cycling and rowing etc, why?

On the whole, I think the coverage of the games has been good but, as others here have pointed out, far too much time seems to be devoted to aimless chatting and joking about - particularly in the one-hour highlights programme which, for most working people, will be their best chance to see any of the action. I recorded last night's show and fast-forwarded through much of the chat, which meant I saw about 15-20 minutes of sporting action.

The highlights of the opening ceremony on Friday were particularly woeful. Having heard descriptions of the amazing spectacle on ´óÏó´«Ã½ radio during the afternoon, I was looking forward to seeing it for myself on Friday night. Instead we got about 10 minutes of the exciting stuff, a clip of the dull speeches and far too much of the athletes parading into the stadium. The studio pundits then spent the rest of the show chatting and speculating about what was coming up and giggling about some of the teams' outfits. Considering that the opening ceremony was THE ONLY thing that happened in the Olympics on Friday, surely the highlights programme could have shown more extensive coverage. To make it worse, the pundits then kept referring to the extraordinary scenes witnessed earlier that day - scenes which they hadn't bothered to show to us.

I was also sorry to note the continued jokiness in last night's programme, where we were treated to sniggerings about the shell suit worn by one of the shooting competitors and shots of the women's cyclists having to nip off for a pee. During another programme over the weekned, we had Adrian Chiles making some smug remark about President Putin's sweaty armpits. Come on - you are not comedians, this is not Have I Got News for You - stick to introducing the sport.

Two questions, Roger:

How do the Olympics rights work given that British Eurosport are allowed to show the Games as well as yourselves?

How many people on average tune into the overnight sessions? (this isn't a loaded question, by the way, I am interested to know)

The interactive service has been great, although it's unfortunate that unlike the last games, you didn't put the daily listings in a printable PDF so I've had to buy the Radio Times to get them; what I've mostly enjoyed is the website live page with the video screen at the top and the reports running down from it, which is terrificly useful.

As far as your main coverage goes, I've noticed that you seem to have devoted more time than in previous Games to running features and interviews than live action; do you not feel these are a bit superflous when people like myself can just press the red button and ignore all of these?

I agree with the guy above who said it's a shame that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ aren't covering all the sports, but fortunately, as well as yourselves the European Broadcasting Union are running a website streaming live Olympic video - including the events that you aren't showing, so I've been using that to fill the gaps in, so to speak.

Hi

I just wanted to congratulate you on the commentary on the USA-China basketball yesterday. It's always a pleasure to hear John Amechi as he is so knowledgable about the game and so interesting. Also Rodney Mackintosh was good, and the pair worked well together.

It was a welcome change from the ´óÏó´«Ã½ treating viewers like they have no idea how basketball works.

Well done, and I'm looking forward to more games over the next few weeks.

Erm..Mr Mosey doesnt seem to have replied to my comment.
What has the Monkey and characters got to do with the Olympics.
For the 1st time, this years Olympic titles have been disappionting to be honest.
I look back at the past Summer and Winter Olympics of previous years, where they show heros from last Olympics and this year we get stuck with cartoon characters.
The Euro 2008 titles were highly disappionting, no disrespect to the people who make them but the ´óÏó´«Ã½ should have stuck with the titles that they are good for making rather then using cartoon characters.

Hi,

Really enjoying all the Olympics on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ so far, but I have a favour to ask:

We've only got highlights of the GB hockey available on the iplayer, is it possible for you to post whole matches up for us to watch?

As a fan of the game its great to see how the whole game is played, not just the goals and highlights, I'd be really grateful to see as much as possible, especially as the men's team have had such a great start.

Thanks

In reality i think that this may go down as the last great display of Art and ceremony of its kind, i think it will be the last time I will see such an event! Surley even China will never top that again!
It was quite stunning, I was amazed at the beauty on display here.

I think this may be the last time we will witness such an event.
Surley nobody will be able to top that for artistry and beauty. I always thought that art does often come at a high price and im sure a lot have paid a high price in performing this. Is it the final stages of an old regime, who knows, will the county swallow itself who knows either.
What I do know is that this took my breath away, it was stunning.
Only problem i had was the continual babbering from the presenters, who gave the game away disapointingly letting the cat out of the bag instead of letting us see it for ourselves.
I wished they would just shut up sometimes.
Ok we know you had seen a dress rehearsal but why spoil it for us all by telling us what was happening next and how it was done. Terrible reporting, the only part I liked was when the female spoke about how stunning a section was but the rest I could have happily done without.
I am hoping to get a copy of this without the babbling soon and I wont need to hear you spoil one of the most spectacular ceremonies in living memory.

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Why do you insist on advancing the commentary on sporting events to make it appear in sync with the pictures when it clearly isn't.

I presume it's to make the commentary seem more dynamic, but it ruins events for me.

You do it on all sports but todays
Olympic Show jumping was appalling. The commentary was a good second in front of the pictures, meaning the commentators "oohed" and "aahed" on a fench being down before the horse had reached it.

It is most disconcerting and made the experience unpleasant.

The viewer expects the commentary to reflect on what is seen, not to anticipate it.

Try and sort it out please!!

Mr Mosey, I have read the blog, but still its startles me to know that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ would rather use a cartoon to front its sports coverage then heros from yesteryear.

Will we be having a cartoon start up for Match of the Day or next season's F1 Coverage?

I still cant see why a Monkey would be the best idea for the ´óÏó´«Ã½, looking back at Sydney start-up from 2000, that has been the best start-up from the Olympics, 2008 wouldnt even be in the top and 2012...well I hope the ´óÏó´«Ã½ are planning an amazing Olympics titles.

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Loving your coverage of the sailing - it's great to see this sport getting serious attention. Commentary is fantastic, espcially from Shirley Robertson - her race interpretations and insights into the athletes' psychology are outstanding. Keep it up!

I disagree with Hank in post #26.

I think the ´óÏó´«Ã½ highlights show is excellent.

It has a really good format, a perfect round-up of the day's action, a hour is the ideal time for it, not too long and a class host in Gabby Logan.

Although the best bit is the opening, the previously at the olympics with the clips and that class tense music, what an opening!

Well done to all of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ - TV, Five Live on online - for the excellent coverage so far.

Can I express my dissappointment on the lack of terrestrial bbc coverage of the actual sporting action at the olympics. Some may say that Gaby's programme is great and does the job, well it is good, but only if you record it!
Iif the olympics is such an important and great event why isnt it on at a viewer friendly time?

If you work during the day, your only chance to see any of the action is on the news at night.

This is invariably mostly a reporter talking in front of the stadium and some shots of folk on podiums. Why cant you make better use of the 20 or 30 seconds by showing action with concise voice over?

There are lots of comments on your olympic blogs about poor coverage of a supposedly nationally important sporting event upon which huge bbc resources have been attributed to. The red button excuse is a shocking one! Why not put eastenders, reality tv, gameshows, constant repeats on the red digital button and replace this dross with something that might actually stimulate an audience into life and the enjoyment of it. And of course by pure accident might actually allow the bbc to align itself with its constant news items of lack of sporting success, rising obesity, decreasing health of the nation, rising anti social behaviour ... ad infinitum! So bbc stop pandering to the paralysis of dross, reignite a bit of passion in things that actually happen in real life and are enjoyable!!! come on I dare you.... Oh yes, tomorrows licence fee payers might actually thank you for it!
Many thanks for the opportunity to provide comment.

Most people have working lives and can only watch Olympic highlights on Games Today (7-8pm). Of course we want to see British highlights, but please cut down on the vacuous interviews that Gabby Logan and others conduct with winners (yes, we know it's a dream come true! can't the interviewers ask more interesting, informed questions?), the shark-music build-up to Phelps' daily achievements and all the other fluff in favour of highlights of the games as a whole. Yesterday we saw a very short clip of a superb Chinese teams gymnastics triumph and lots of swimming heats - more of the former would clearly have been more exciting. Please give us a flavour of the WHOLE games, with events introduced by as well as commentated on by experts on the sport who can inform us, rather than by Ms Logan. As anchor person in the studio, her contributions should be very, very brief. With only an hour for coverage, no time should be wasted.

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Please can you give the options to show full coverage of prime sports - such as athletics and swimming.

As athletics is covered in the main ´óÏó´«Ã½1/2 programmes you often miss action due to pundits talking, or presenters concentrating on hyping up British hopes in other sports. I've just seen this happen with the swimming and hope it won't be the same later in the week.

It would be great to have uninterrupted coverage of athletics available.

The complaints about the lack of sports action seems to be recurring theme, with regards recent ´óÏó´«Ã½ coverage.

There seems to have been a policy decision that what 'casual viewers' want when they tune into a sports show isn't sport, but talking heads, and that all highlights shows should be dumbed down to this level.

Almost acceptable with Sports Review of the Year (sorry Sports Personality of the Year sponsored by Robinsons), but very dissapointing with highlights shows of particular events and particularly with the greatest sporting tournament on Earth.

Whoever sanctioned the embarrassing bit with our canoeing silver medallist having his head superimposed onto an astronaut's body should hang their head in shame - what a degrading way to treat him

People who think they are funny - especially on television - usually aren't

Gabby Logan is not

Found on the Sailing section:

The trio have a seven-point lead at the top of the standings, five points ahead of the Netherlands, who came in fourth.

Give that man a job in Government!

For the 2012 Olympics you'll hopefully be looking for a british tune and not the irritating music you're using for your titles now. Can I suggest using the Grandstand theme tune. The best British sports tune ever.

I have an irritating annoyance with the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s Coverage.
Particually to the coverage of the Americam Michael Phelps.
The ´óÏó´«Ã½ seem to be drooling over him, I dont care about him at all.
He aint British yet the ´óÏó´«Ã½ have an obligation to go on about him.
Please Roger, stop your lot from talking about Phelps, he isnt British, I didnt know I was watching ABC!
I thought I was watching the ´óÏó´«Ã½!

Roger,

Although I have enjoyed the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s coverage of the Olympics so far I do have a few issues:

1. I totally agree with WebbyFoxes view Michael Phelps yes a great swimmer but the ´óÏó´«Ã½ are obsessed with him. He is American and the attitude of some the presenters towards him is very sycophantic.

2. I am a massive gymnastics fan and so far the coverage of the women's competition has been very disappointing. I sent my digi box to record the overnight competition (tuesday night) and awoke Wed morning to Hazel Irvine saying and China win the women's team competition. Great now I know the result before I have even had a chance to watch the competition. Then I find the gymnastics that I have recorded and Matt Baker's voice sings out you join us at the start of the final rotation. Final rotation what about the previous three??? So I then have to wait until 4pm to see highlights on ´óÏó´«Ã½ 1 after watching re-runs of Michael Phelps countless times. Gymnastics is a very popular sport and in previous olympics the coverage has been far superior. My video tapes of competitions dating back to Seoul 1988 bare this out. Please sort this out.

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Just to say thanks to Hazel Irvine for this morning's introduction to the women's beach volleyball - "last time the Brazilians had a close shave as it were"

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Excellent coverage so far - only complaint is the lack of simultaneous coverage on both ´óÏó´«Ã½1 and ´óÏó´«Ã½2.

I know we have ´óÏó´«Ã½i, but sometimes the more traditional idea would work best - now for example while the Badminton is on ´óÏó´«Ã½1 and the swimming heats have vanished off Freeview - yet we get Dressage of all things.

I do think during the afternoon a few hours with coverage on both ´óÏó´«Ã½1 and ´óÏó´«Ã½2 would have benefited the viewer - and considering you do it for Wimbledon there is no excuse for the Olympics.


I would echo the question of why a news presenter was chosen to commentate on the Opening Ceremony. Is Huw back for the closing ceremony considering he's now in London?


Finally, a quick word on the interactive service. Full marks for the extra stream via ´óÏó´«Ã½ Parliament, but I think the Olympic text service itself could be a lot better. It's great it's now all integrated, but the content doesn't seem as well organised as the previous dedicated services - the news especially seems all over the place.