RTE News Now to show Winter Olympics

mike2084

For the first time as far as I am aware RTÉ are covering the Winter Olympics, albeit on RTÉ News Now. The two ceremonies are live, but the actual sport is restricted to a one hour highlights show each evening.

http://www.rte.ie/sport/features/2014/0123/499734-winter-olympics/

I can presume this is due to the fact that the Olympics is no longer under the EBU model and is being sold individually to each country which I'm presuming is now costing RTÉ more. Of course much more blanket coverage will be on the BBC, however Eurosport will no longer cover Olympic events due to the loss of the EBU contract

The Cush

This was announced back in August - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=86055859

"As part of the agreement, RTÉ has also made a commitment to broadcast coverage of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics on RTÉ News Now, with the news channel featuring live coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies as well as a daily highlights programme."

mike2084

Thanks hadn't spotted that thread :-)

icdg

Its a pity they wouldn't find it a slot on RTÉ One or RTÉ Two, which might increase the profile of winter sports in Ireland. That said of course the BBC will be giving it blanket coverage for anyone wishing to follow Team Ireland's (all five of them) fortunes at the Games.

mike65

Oh good two hours of blurred action and my vision ruined!

I think I'll stick with the BBC 2 and Channel 981 (red button) thankyou.

Elmo

Hopefully they will use the opportunity to redesign RTÉ News Now and move the channel to RTÉ TV from RTÉ Digital.

Of course you'd wonder why they don't just provided full live coverage of the games on RTÉ News Now, rather than just 2 hours. You'd think that an hour highlight show would appear on RTÉ TWO.

byte

Will the video be windowed, with the stupid side bar and bottom news tickers?

mike2084

byte wrote: »

Will the video be windowed, with the stupid side bar and bottom news tickers?

I expect so, everything else has been since it started.

watty

Waste of Screen space. Haven't RTE heard of DVB subtitles (for silent screen in public place) and MHEG5 Interactive for extra mostly static information?

A bad copy of news like Analog CNN in 1997 on cable. Hello RTE, it's Digital!

Class Act

Quick question on this,

Does anyone know what times the daily highlights programme will be shown?

RTE don't seem to publish the tv schedule for News Now, like they do with RTE1&2

Thanks,

khumbu

news now listing
http://www.rte.ie/ten/listings/tvchannel?&channel=1968

Elmo

khumbu wrote: »

news now listing
http://www.rte.ie/ten/listings/tvchannel?&channel=1968

Go to Friday around 16:00 seems they are showing news.

icdg

watty wrote: »

Waste of Screen space. Haven't RTE heard of DVB subtitles (for silent screen in public place) and MHEG5 Interactive for extra mostly static information?

A bad copy of news like Analog CNN in 1997 on cable. Hello RTE, it's Digital!

It takes its inspiration from Sky Sports News more than anything else - CNN was never that bad (except CNN Headline News in the US, but that never made its way over here). Its almost a direct replica of SSN's layout. Most actual news channels just have a ticker - even Bloomberg, which used to be very busy, now only has a bottom ticker.

RTE seem completely allergic to the red button, the only place they use it is on UPC for the RTE player. I wish they'd employ it for some of their web only coverage.

As for the schedule, usually you'll find all RTÉ's live sport listed here, though they only list the opening ceremony and not the highlights shows.

http://www.rte.ie/sport/features/2012/0321/313217-tv-sport-schedule/

Class Act

icdg wrote: »

It takes its inspiration from Sky Sports News more than anything else - CNN was never that bad (except CNN Headline News in the US, but that never made its way over here). Its almost a direct replica of SSN's layout. Most actual news channels just have a ticker - even Bloomberg, which used to be very busy, now only has a bottom ticker.

RTE seem completely allergic to the red button, the only place they use it is on UPC for the RTE player. I wish they'd employ it for some of their web only coverage.

As for the schedule, usually you'll find all RTÉ's live sport listed here, though they only list the opening ceremony and not the highlights shows.

http://www.rte.ie/sport/features/2012/0321/313217-tv-sport-schedule/

Thanks - pity RTE don't publish a proper schedule for the News Now station

Sam Russell

Class Act wrote: »

Thanks - pity RTE don't publish a proper schedule for the News Now station

.... or proper programmes. I see DCC puts their council meetings steamed on the web. That should be shown on RTE NN, as it is of interest (and free).

Elmo

Sam Russell wrote: »

.... or proper programmes. I see DCC puts their council meetings steamed on the web. That should be shown on RTE NN, as it is of interest (and free).

The council members should be steamed

There is lots of live content that RTÉ News Now could provide even repeated.

Sam Russell

Elmo wrote: »

The council members should be steamed

There is lots of live content that RTÉ News Now could provide even repeated.

A little typo. I need a new keyboard as it keeps making mistakes! But it could be a good idea to steam them.:)

RTE News Now needs to be given the right to carry adverts so that it can afford to pay journo and editors to make it a real service.

Even so, it could still look out for decent free content that might interest the odd (and I mean odd) viewer.

Elmo

Sam Russell wrote: »

Even so, it could still look out for decent free content that might interest the odd (and I mean odd) viewer.

They have no time for the channel it is part of RTÉ Digital and acts as a pseudo-online service.

Simple effective non-costly things could be done.

1. Put sport highlights programming on the channel such as Against the head, put The View on the channel.
2. When there is no live news just put up reports without presenters like EuroNews
3. Put Oireachtas Report on Earlier in the evening.
4. get rid of the titles
5. get rid of end credits and end boards
6. give it over to RTÉ TV to schedule

stereomatic

I hope the RTE article posted by mike2084 had a typo when they posted that the competition is 7-16 February otherwise 6 days of competitions will not be shown which in my opinion would be more important than the end celebrations.
Also I was looking at the EPG for RTE NN for the week ahead and there is no mention of the Olympics.

mike2084

stereomatic wrote: »

I hope the RTE article posted by mike2084 had a typo when they posted that the competition is 7-16 February otherwise 6 days of competitions will not be shown which in my opinion would be more important than the end celebrations.
Also I was looking at the EPG for RTE NN for the week ahead and there is no mention of the Olympics.

I would expect that's a typo alright, it would be bizarre to not do a show each night.

lertsnim

They haven't removed the banners. I'll watch on the BBC I think

stereomatic

Unfortunately the side pictures and captions exist with the live broadcast of the Olympics opening. The broadcast seems to lack atmosphere especially when compared with the Summer Olympics RTE broadcast and also in comparison to the BBC Winter Olympics broadcast.
The EPG showed the Winter Olympics for today and shows it for the week ahead
There were some technical problems with the visual broadcast on RTE NN as opposed to the BBC broadcast with the introduction where a colour bar test card did appear twice

watty

Very soft looking video too.

RTE News now is too Irritating.

stereomatic

RTE NN broadcast is even worse no reference of Seamus O Connor in the slope style semifinals thus no Irish perspective what so ever. Why bother having highlights if they fail to highlight Irish performances :mad:
No Irish commentators either

lertsnim

Bog standard highlights package from the Olympics people I am guessing.

mike2084

Yes it appears to be the OBS international highlights package.

Delta2113

lertsnim wrote: »

They haven't removed the banners. I'll watch on the BBC I think

Remove banners with major LIVE event such as the opening ceremony and a few more simple steps and it could be a great channel - instead it's an embarassement to RTE.

Side banners should permanently go.

icdg

I'd imagine they are only showing it because it was included in the Summer Olympics package. Previously RTÉ got the Olympics as part of their membership of the EBU. The IOC has now decided that it will make more money by selling the rights individually in each country (in time, this will almost certainly lead to it moving to pay-TV in some jurisdictions). Hence RTÉ now have to deal directly with the IOC and I'd say they possibly insisted on at least token (and make no mistake, this is no more than token) coverage of the Winter Games. The end of the EBU contract also means Eurosport are gone as an Olympic broadcaster and we don't have the situation in London 2012 where every EBU broadcasters coverage was available across the continent online.

The Cush

This from RTÉ's press release last August

RTÉ has successfully secured exclusive live free-to-air television broadcast rights for Rio 2016. In addition, RTÉ Sport has also secured broadcast rights for television highlights coverage, radio coverage comprising both live and highlights broadcasts, and comprehensive digital coverage with live, highlights, simulcast and catch-up packages across online and mobile platforms for Rio 2016.

The broadcast rights were awarded to RTÉ by SPORTFIVE International, the sports marketing agency which acquired the broadcast and exhibition rights to Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016 in 40 European territories from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and is now sublicensing them.
...

As part of the agreement, RTÉ has also made a commitment to broadcast coverage of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics on RTÉ News Now, with the news channel featuring live coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies as well as a daily highlights programme.

http://www.rte.ie/presspack/2013/08/16/rte-secures-comprehensive-broadcast-rights-for-2016-olympic-games/?platform=47&start=1376092800&end=1377302399

and from Wikipedia

In February 2009, the International Olympic Committee appointed Sportfive as its official media rights agent for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil across all distribution platforms, in 40 European markets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sportfive

http://www.sportfive.com/index.php?id=1142

Elmo

TV3 might buy the rights
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:pac:

stereomatic

RTE radio had no live broadcast of the slopestyle semifinals yesterday when Seamus O'Connor was competing I was up in the morning watching it on BBC and checking for live RTE commentary

DG7

I've been watching on BBC all weekend. Just saw on News Now that highlights were coming on so I watched for a minute.

It's really a poor effort. No commentary at all. I switched straight over to BBC and that's where I'll stay.

Very disappointed. They could have at least got one person to read a script over the pictures. How much effort would that have taken.

mike2084

Tonight was the first night there was no voiceovers, they had OBS added ones the first two nights

channelsurfer2

i think RTE were made take this one hour highlights programme as part of the renewal of the summer olympic rights. At least thats the way it looks with no effort from RTE at all. The banners around it with news and weather etc and the picture quality make it awful to look at it.

The Cush

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

i think RTE were made take this one hour highlights programme as part of the renewal of the summer olympic rights.

Yes according to their press release

As part of the agreement, RTÉ has also made a commitment to broadcast coverage of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics on RTÉ News Now, with the news channel featuring live coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies as well as a daily highlights programme.

http://www.rte.ie/presspack/2013/08/16/rte-secures-comprehensive-broadcast-rights-for-2016-olympic-games/?platform=47&start=1376092800&end=1377302399