BBC is trending and most of the Tweets say the BBC should have had them.
2 ad breaks in 20mins and this Jon snow guy is rubbish. He's not very good for Live TV is he and keeps fluffing his lines.

'BBC' is now trending as well, as in 'why aren't the BBC covering the Paralympics'

Channel4's coverage has been fine imo, a couple of mistakes by Jon but some excellent VTs so far. What do you expect them to do, show no adverts? I have no problem with a commercial channel showing commercials. Good on Channel4 for having so much coverage of these Games over the next couple weeks and I hope its a success for them. I love the BBC but some people are unfairly snobbish about Channel4 and Channel5 and never give them a fair chance.

'This Jon Snow guy' is a very well respected broadcaster.

Too early to be saying C4 coverage is not as good as the BBC when all there has been so far is buildup, but a very predictable reaction all the same.

I reckon the Paralympics will get an 8 million peak and 6 million average. I really don't know any at all that will be tuning in.

I have no problem with Channel 4 or Channel 5 but i wasn't impressed with this 'Warm up' on Channel 4


That might be so but he fluffed his lines a number of times tonight.

He does the same on C4 news, which he's been on since the Flood.

There's a clip of Roger Mosey from the Edinburgh TV Festival saying he was disappointed not to get the Paralympics, but on the other hand it was good that C4 got a chance and he wished them well.

I assumed this meant the BBC bid, but not as much as C4 (in terms of promised coverage as well as cash). Anyone know?

And he's a is a very well respected broadcaster

I don't watch Ch4 news and well i don't intend too. for me it's always going to be BBC or ITV's early morning news

Brilliant feature on Martine Wright from C4.

Odd decision to have such a lifeless studio though, not being in the park is a bit rubbish. Never been a huge fan of Jon Snow either but obviously he is well respected.

Overall not a particulalry impressive start after such a superbly executed promo campaign.

Sorry dan, I meant some of those on Twitter might be tv snobs, not you specifically .

Thats ok I have been called much worse

He's pretty good, apart from reading his lines.

.....Yeah....

Weren't they banned? I thought I read the Paralympic Committee wanted them to be on two different broadcasters.

I've two words for you: Trevor Nelson.

Adverts in the middle of the ceremony!

Im not a fan of him at all and i found him annoying during the Olympics and thank goodness he's on Radio1 at a graveyard hour however...I prefer him to this Jon snow guy. (Just my opinion of course)

Other channels may see a boost as the athletes entrance started just before 9pm - for many, this is the part that dragged during the Olympics Opening Ceremony.

If so, the Twitterers blaming Auntie should be told!

Weird to see adverts as we're so used to see Opening ceremonies on the BBC but it was only 2 minutes of commercials during a part of the ceremony when nothing happened. No one missed anything, it was just before the bit when the countries came out. The rights to the games don't pay for themselves and a few commercials here and there is fine by me as long as it's strategically placed well.

Time to switch over to BB now. Will switch back once all the athletes are in the stadium.

Indeed. I just drooled a bit at the new ident for Dallas on Channel 5. [/geek]

I love fancy idents.

Inevitably they'll be more comments about the ad breaks than the actual coverage tonight. It was a strange decision by C4 though to have just 30 minutes build up and to do it in the studio rather than at the stadium. Although I expected the main evening coverage to be studio based due to swimming and athletics taking place at the same time (better IMO to have them covered from one location than continuosly switching between two presenters at different locations), I'd have thought the ceremonies would be stadium based.


As for the BBC - it's worth noting their plan was that most daytime coverage would be on the red button, with primetime stuff presumably on BBC2 (though I'd guess the ceremonies would be on BBC1). The promotional push is where C4 really won it though - it's been pushed as it's own events, not an event just tagged onto the Paralympics.

In a way C4 have already done the job they were given the rights for - arguably promoting the games is more important than the actual broadcasting of them.


No idea though ratings wise how tonight will do - I'd like to think it'll top 10m and perhaps produce a bit of a "wow" moment tomorrow. As a massive Olympics fan though and someone who has followed previous Paralympics I am kind of ceremonied out though!

Let's just say I can't imagine this sort of benefit of the doubt being used if ITV was showing the Paralympics and ran ad breaks in the opening ceremony

Are you going to continue in this thread pretending Jon Snow isn't one of the most respected broadcasters of the last two decades?