NewsBite

‘Why is Sunrise on?’ Viewers scathing of Olympics coverage, app

CHANNEL 7 has sent viewers over the edge as the unofficial Olympic sport of bashing the TV coverage hits, three days in.

Debbie SchippDebbie Schipp
3 min read
August 8, 2016 - 3:44PM
It ain’t Rio: Seven’s choice to broadcast Sunrise as live Olympic sports played out has been criticised by some viewers.
It ain’t Rio: Seven’s choice to broadcast Sunrise as live Olympic sports played out has been criticised by some viewers.

IT WAS Sunrise that sent them over the edge.

Bashing Australia’s Olympic TV coverage is an unofficial Olympic sport, and Channel 7 copped a pasting today as the network opted to air Sunrise — albeit “Sunrise in Rio” — on its main channel as live sport played out in the host city.

Ryan Phelan and Samantha Armytage anchored proceedings from Seven’s Olympics studio at Martin Place — roughly 13,500km from Rio — as gymnastics and tennis played out live in Rio, broadcast on 7TWO and 7mate.

But on the main channel viewers got awkward live crosses to Rio with off-putting time delays, Phelan interjecting with “breaking news” of the latest medal win, and a prerecorded Blake Lively interview for her upcoming film.

It incensed viewers already complaining about coverage they see as long on ads and short on sports on a free-to-air network limited by three channels to broadcast on.

Seven has set up special studios in Redfern — dubbed Riofern — for coverage co-ordination and hosting, but viewers are making it clear they just want live sport.

“These are exclusive pictures coming in now,” said Phelan from Sydney, as Aussie golden girl Catherine Skinner arrived back the athletes village in Rio after winning gold in trap shooting. The delays were off-putting — as was the garish green and gold on the hosts and the cheering studio audience in the background.

Half of the Sunrise team is in Rio working, and the home studio audience contains many family members of Olympians who couldn’t make it to Rio.

Digs at the commentary team and the sets made it clear viewers were unimpressed.

“Why are #Ch7 so incapable of designing a set? Take #Sunrise and & #Olympics as retina-burning examples. To many colours and ideas,” read one tweet.

“The main time when most Aussies will be able to watch the Olympics and @Channel7 has sunrise on. Typical 2nd grade coverage,” read another.

At the weekend when Seven tweeted “catch up with the news from Day 1 with our Fresh News Update with @ryanphelan”, the reply was a blistering assessment from one viewer: “Two Aussies shooting and zilch #poorcoverage @Channel7 #Olympics #disgrace.”

“Could coverage get any worse?” another frustrated viewer tweeted.

And Seven’s much-vaunted “Olympics on 7” app — which the network boasted would allow you to program your own Olympics to watch online — has been pilloried for its slowness, after demand saw many left stuck buffering rather than watching sport on the weekend.

One Twitter user said loading it took as long as running a marathon.

The app, which costs $20 for the premium version of Seven’s streaming service, allows access to 36 live channels with more than 3000 hours of coverage via the website and mobile apps.

Foxtel redefined how Australians watched the Olympics in 2012, when the subscription TV service, which partnered with Channel Nine to broadcast the Games, made use of eight new channels, each dedicated to specific sports, assuring coverage of every gold medal event. Essentially allowing viewers to program their own Olympics experience, the move earned the 2013 Logie for Outstanding Sports Coverage.

Seven’s offers similar freedom — and while online streams on Sunday hit 2.8 million, according to Seven, it appears the app was a victim of demand — with no streaming available Saturday and Sunday for some users for long periods of time.

The 2.8 million streams was a record for Seven — eclipsing 488,000 for last year’s Melbourne Cup, and 843,000 on the first day of this years Australian Open tennis.

But a Seven spokesman told Mediaweek “unprecedented demand for live sports streaming from Rio Olympics has had a massive impact on streaming architecture”.

“We apologise for inconvenience that this is causing and we are doing our best to restore streams soon,” he said, as the number of streams since the coverage began hit 4.1 million today.

“Our streaming partners — Olympic Broadcasting Services in Rio and Akamai — have assured us they are doing everything they can to avoid a repeat of any problems caused by the unparalleled audiences coming into digital platforms today.”

The app appears to be less troublesome today, and those that did get through on the weekend appeared to have mastered the art of multiscreen viewing, either setting up computers next to TVs at home, or as one viewers commented, catching gold-medal swimming on the train..

Regardless, the TV ratings are rolling in for Seven.

The network scored a 46.3 per cent share for Saturday night as competition began, and 1.61 million metropolitan viewers watched the Opening Ceremony life from 9am on Saturday.

On Sunday, Seven’s Olympic Games day one wrap up In Rio Today was watched by 1.332 million at 7pm.

Day one coverage of the games from 9am grabbed 1.250 million metro viewers, while the highlights package from 2pm pulled in 1.120 million.

Sunday’s broadcast from 9pm was watched by 885,000.

Add your comment to this story

To join the conversation, please Don't have an account? Register

Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout

More related stories

Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/sport/olympics/why-is-sunrise-on-viewers-scathing-of-olympics-coverage-app/news-story/aaab98bd32481153477256a2dae488f3