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Beijing World Athletics presented from Salford
marke09
Posts: 12,139 Forum Member
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am sure BBC bashers will be pleased to know that the presenters and experts for the World Athletics Championships will be based in Salford instead of trackside in Beijing --hope they get enough money together to send the team to Rio
I wonder how they persuaded Michael Johnson to fly to Salford instead of Beijing
tney did the same forvthe swimming earlier this month but even the commentators were based in Salford then
I wonder how they persuaded Michael Johnson to fly to Salford instead of Beijing
tney did the same forvthe swimming earlier this month but even the commentators were based in Salford then
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There are some people who won't be satisfied until there is one person at the BBC in a broom cupboard in black and white, transmitted in 405 lines with a mono microphone so "the BBC isn't wasting licence fee payers money". Never mind the quality of the coverage so long as it's cheap. This then allows them to complain to the Daily Mail that the BBC isn't high enough quality and should be scrapped. The Daily Mail then runs its obligatory double page spread asking "Is the BBC fit for purpose?" while at the same time devoting 48 pages of its Weekend magazine fawning over Strictly, The Antiques Road Show and BBC news readers' diets and fitness routines.
Repeat ad nauseum.
To suggest the only options as "feast or famine," doesn't cut it for me.
To present such sports programmes from a perfectly suitable studio already bought and paid for (at great expense) in Salford, seems excellent business sense.
I really don't bother much with the opinions of pundits, I usually record these events and fast forward through much of the padding. I can forgo the "How do you feel?" interviews with out-of-breath athletes at the end of their event.
It's bad enough when they were at the stadium, if the viewer is now to be pulled from China to Salford at frequent intervals I don't think I'll be watching.
Exactly, the days when the BBC could afford to spend a fortune to build a temporary studio with a nice view of Table Mountain for their sports presenters to cover the Football World Cup, are fortunately long gone.
Except that they didn't build it just for that, and it was at a time when the studio facilities for hire in the area would have been at a premium
It was also probably safer as IIRC it was on the top of a hotel meaning that security for the staff would have been very good as potentially they wouldn't have to travel far (South Africa is a bit of a security nightmare in a lot of areas due to things like car jackings being very common).
IIRC the same modular/portable studio has been used for a variety of things since with one of the most obvious being when they were broadcasting in the run up to the election (I caught it in use near a race course, where I suspect it used the race course's links rather than a satellite truck).
It's the sort of thing that is expensive to build initially (mainly for the equipment required for any studio facility rather than the cost of the actual structure*), but once it's built you've got something that for the price of transporting it (pretty cheap if done to go in standard shipping containers), you've got a proper small studio that can be used almost anywhere in the world if you've got some notice.
Very very handy if you're covering sporting events, major political events, or even just need a small studio for local events within the country.
And of course it gives you a backup if one of your normal studios is out of action that can be placed nearby (IE in the car park).
So as an example of extravagance you're probably a mile off the mark.
*in the same way that a GP or a Vet may spend £250k on a building for their surgery, then spend 500k-1 million up on equipping it (depending on things like if they have mini x-ray machines for fractures, ECG facilities etc).
Certainly not ideal but the BBC has no choice but make cutbacks like this given what the Government have saddled them with.
yea by doing that they save on having to pay overnight wages in Salford
gov hasnt saddled them with anythingbyet -the free licence stuff doesnt come in until 2020 by which the licence fee will have gone up by about 5% but dont lets get bogged down in that and enjoy or criticse the coverage
Or is it because the evening sessions will have more guests so it's cheaper to keep that in Salford, even if it is the "marquee" time?
Just comes down to time zones. If they did the morning sessions from Salford then it would mean working through the night. This way the UK based people can work a normal day doing the evening sessions and the highlights programme.
The commentators are in Beijing.
I completely agree. Michael Johnson was saying that athletics was losing appeal not only to the drugs scandal but also to how the sport is marketed. Broadcasting from a studio is not going to help as you are unable to capture the atmosphere of the event.
Will be watching on Eurosport rather than BBC as I hate all the studio cutaways be them in the the stadium or not.