In the worlds of sport and media, this week’s announcement that Nine Entertainment Co – the owner of The Sydney Morning Herald – has secured the exclusive broadcast rights for the Paris, Los Angeles and Brisbane Olympic Games was big news indeed.
As media and telecommunications reporter Zoe Samios (who revealed back in December that Nine was the likely winner of the rights tussle) noted on Wednesday, Seven has been the dominant Olympic broadcaster for most of the summer games in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.
High point: Cathy Freeman crosses the line to win gold at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.Credit: Craig Golding
I love the Olympics and grew up with aspects of Seven’s coverage imprinted in my memory. Garry Wilkinson’s commentary of the Sydney 2000 Opening Ceremony was a masterclass, and who could ever forget Bruce McAvaney’s commentary of Cathy Freeman’s triumph at the 400 metre final at the same games?
Freeman’s got work to do here. There’s about 150 to go. Guevara and Merry are right up. It’s going to be a big finish. Into the straight Graham leads. Freeman runs up to her. Merry inside. Cathy lifting! Goes up to Graham. Takes the lead. Looks the winner. Draws away from Graham and Merry. This is a famous victory! A magnificent performance! What a legend. What a champion.
That moment still gives me goosebumps nearly 23 years later. This September actually marks three decades since the then president of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch, pulled an envelope from a pocket in his suit jacket and declared: “And the winner is ... Sydney!”
I’m such a tragic that when the IOC uploaded the full-length video of the Sydney 2000 Opening Ceremony to YouTube at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, I watched it twice in one week.
IOC officials visited Australia earlier this year when the rights were up for grabs, and it was great to show them around the Herald newsroom during a stop at Nine’s headquarters in North Sydney. They beamed when I told them about the print editions of the Herald’s Sydney 2000 coverage being specially preserved at our archives in Alexandria, and stopped to take a look at a big poster of our front page from the Opening Ceremony which takes pride of place on a wall in the newsroom.
The battle for sport broadcasting rights is a fierce business and an increasingly imprecise science in the age of streaming and other digital media. Nine paid $315 million for the rights to the three summer games as well as the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics and the 2030 Winter Olympics, which will likely be held in either the United States, Japan or Sweden. Our competitors argue we paid too much, but a rights deal involving an Australian games was always going to carry a premium.
Media companies fight hard for sport broadcasting rights because they allow us to offer a premium level of coverage to viewers and readers. When we’re locked out of a rights deal, things get tricky.
Take this as an example: last November, SBS sent the Herald a very angry letter complaining about the use of small video clips in our World Cup live blog. SBS even threatened to use their sway with football governing body FIFA to revoke the accreditation of our reporters covering the event in Qatar.
I raise this not to have a dig at SBS but to highlight the difficulties of bringing full coverage of an event like the Olympics to you without the exclusive broadcasting rights. This is one of the many reasons I’m excited about the Nine deal. It will mean you – Herald subscribers – get full access to video of all the Olympic moments. There will be other benefits, too, and I’ll keep you updated on those.
It’s hard to believe the Paris 2024 Olympics are only 18 months away. As Europe correspondent in 2020 and 2021, I wrote a bit about how the impending games will be the first real test of the new slimmed-down Olympics model. About 70 per cent of venues used for the Paris Olympics will be existing, 25 per cent temporary and just 5 per cent new, meaning the construction budget of €3.4 billion ($5.4 billion) is for the first time smaller than the separate operating budget of €3.9 billion.
The Tokyo Games were good but the pandemic really curbed their magic. By contrast, Paris will be spectacular: beach volleyball underneath the Eiffel Tower, swimming in the Seine, skateboarding and breakdancing at Place de la Concorde, archery outside the Tomb of Napoleon and equestrian events in the courtyard at the Palace of Versailles.
I can’t wait for Paris. And Los Angeles and Brisbane after that. Olympics deliver moments that stay with you. They cheer us up. The athletes inspire us. The whole spectacle is a much-needed brief distraction from the darkness in the world. And for journalists like me, they offer a chance to deliver the absolute best coverage for you.
Have a great weekend.
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