VANOC ‘amateurish, very poor’ — Olympic broadcaster
February 18, 2010 · 44 Comments
Veteran Olympics television producer Ralph Mellanby ripped VANOC this week for bad decisions that have diminished what should have been an excellent Winter Games.
He said the organizing committee richly deserves the criticism it is receiving world-wide.
Describing the Vancouver committee as “amateurish,” Mellanby said in an interview, “They’re presenting an Olympics that’s filled with holes and errors, and holes and errors, and more holes and errors.”
The latest revelation, reported by The Wall Street Journal, charges VANCOC built the lethal luge track at Whistler for post-Games monetary gain. Despite dangerous design problems, VANOC wanted Whistler to capitalize on profitable tourism once the Olympics were over.
Citing the many other problems, Mellanby, who was head of the host broadcast at the 1988 Calgary Olympics, said of VANOC, “This is a very inexperienced, poor organizing committee.”
As for the domestic broadcast of CTV and its cable partners, Mellanby was full of praise.
“I think they’re done a fantastic job because they’ve had to fill so much because of cancellations and delays,” he said. “Keith (Pelley, the head of the broadcast) has done a great job with the features and overall coverage.”
I’ve been critical of the sloppiness of the telecasts and weak coverage at several venues, freestyle, downhill and snowboard cross.
Mellanby said the organizing committee’s main problem is inexperience.
“There’s a great saying in the Olympics,” he said. “It’s that the only amateurs in the Olympics are the organizing committees. VANCOC has proven to be perfectly amateurish.”
Mellanby said Vancouver should have tapped into the knowledge and expertise of the organizers in Calgary where the Olympics were well executed and widely praised.
“I did 13 Olympics around the world, and all the broadcasters said Calgary was perfection,” he said. “How many people from Calgary are working with the organizing committee in Vancouver? Nobody.”
Mellanby was sharply critical of mistakes made in the opening ceremony, as well as the apparent strategy of limiting international athletes access to the venues prior to the Games.
“Just a lot of bad decisions,” he said. “Putting barbed wire around the flame. Having Wayne Gretzky go for five blocks through the worst part of Vancouver to light the second torch. Not necessary.”
Mellanby touched on a point that struck me as well. VANOC, which was correctly rapped for excluding top Olympians such as Kerrin-Lee Gartner from the torch relay, selected four athletes to light the cauldron at BC Place: Nancy Greene, Catriona Le May Doan, Steve Nash and Wayne Gretzky.
Despite the huge contribution French Canadian athletes have made to Canada’s Winter Games success, not one was included. Gaeten Boucher (four Olympic medals, two gold) would have been an excellent choice, but he was snubbed.
Yes, it’s the Vancouver Games, not the Canada Games, and that apparently is why Nash, who is from Victoria, was included.
But if the Olympics had been in Quebec City, and the four athletes chosen to light the cauldron were francophone you’d still hearing the yelps from English Canada.
Good and bad at the downhill
The good news about CTV’s alpine ski coverage is that Gerry Dobson is going a first rate job of calling the races. The bad news is that Brian Stemmle is providing the analysis. I’ve resisted comparing CTV’s Olympic coverage to the CBC’s over the years, but I’ll make an exception for Stemmle. Kerrin Lee-Gartner, who provided commentary for the CBC, was able to explain how the skiers were performing during their race. She could tell us when a skier had executed a good turn and hadn’t. And she could tell us why a skier lost time. Stemmle does little of that. He babbles on about stuff extraneous to the race, and when he does focus on what’s happening he uses jargon. When one of the competitors in the women’s downhill Wednesday fell, he said she got “squashed down.” I don’t exactly know what that means and most viewers wouldn’t. I don’t know what a frog bank is, or tadpoles. The second analyst, Karen Percy Lowe, said little and contributed less.
From SportsBusiness Daily: In a memorable day (Wednesday) for the U.S. in Vancouver, NBC also scored big, beating Fox’s “American Idol” head-to-head and earning a 19.3 overnight (rating, percentage of potential U.S. households tuned in) from 8-11:15 p.m. ET. That is the network’s best overnight for the Vancouver Games to date, and marks the first time in six years that any telecast has outrated “Idol.” Head-to-head from 9-10 p.m., NBC’s Olympic coverage averaged a 19.8 overnight, while “Idol” earned a 12.3 overnight. On the same night during the Turin Games in 2006, when the two telecasts went head-to-head in the 8-9 p.m. window, “Idol” earned a 17.6 overnight, compared to NBC’s 10.7 overnight in the time slot. NBC won 53 of the 55 U.S. metered markets last night, while “Idol” won 50 markets on the same night four years ago.
AM640 Toronto radio is not an Olympic rights holder, but it was able to grab an interview gold medal winner Maelle Ricker for the Bill Watters afternoon drive on Wednesday. Co-host Greg Brady’s interview was first rate.
Here’s my Wednesday column at Yahoo! Canada.
NBC aired a live clip of Shaun White’s coach giving him advice mixed with profanities. You can read a report here.
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The problem with the modern media and medium is that many commentators think they are important in ways that far excede the reality of the world.
Pundits read insignificant blogs and think they reflect reality or even some portion of popular sentiment. They don't.
Mallanby may have things differently. So what? It is his opinion that he would have done better, but that is speculative. The fact that the ratings were so good mean that there was something compelling was being presented because there were plenty of other viewing options had the coverage been as catastrophic as suggested here. You can claim your artistic vision is superior to what was presented, but such statements hold no real substance.
The numbers don't lie, the people have spoken. The pundits merely chirp in the background.
At least twice tonight, as the pool standings for hockey were shown, Brian Williams said only the top two teams advance and therefore Canada and the US are both through. What on earth is he talking about?!? I wouldn't even know where to begin if I was trying to explain to him how completely wrong he is.
I was wondering the same thing and took what Williams said to be true. Silly me. Wikipedia explains it as follows:
Format
The twelve teams in the men's event are seeded into three groups of four teams.[14] The NHL break will begin after February 14 and the tournament will start on February 16. In the Preliminary Round, a team plays one game against every other team in its own group (for a total of 18 Preliminary Round games).[16] Following the completion of the preliminary round, the teams are ranked 1 through 12 based on the results.[14] The top four ranked teams receive byes to the quarterfinals, with the remaining eight teams playing for the remaining four quarterfinal positions. Following that, the final eight teams play elimination rounds to determine the gold and silver medals, and the two losing teams of the semi-finals play for the bronze medal.[14] Each team is allowed to have 20 skaters (forwards and defensemen) and two or three goaltenders, all of whom must be citizens of the country they represent.[16][17]
As a rule, I am not a follower of the blogosphere but after watching the disaster that was the Opening Ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympics and the subsequent mess that is the coverage by Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium, I felt a need to find out what the online community’s reaction was.
Having navigated a number of blogs, I find that Truth & Rumours provides by far the best forum with the best posts and the most interesting comments.
In general, I agree with the overall opinions and comments, but perhaps it makes sense to look at things in the appropriate context.
From the beginning: the Opening Ceremonies were not produced by the Consortium, but were rather the responsibility of David Atkins, an Australian actor and dancer who had previously produced the Sidney Olympic ceremonies. Mr. Atkins was hired by VANOC and given $60 million to produce the opening, closing and medal ceremonies. Thus the fact that the rest of the world now believes that Canada is a country with a hip hop national anthem that is occupied by various Indian tribes, kilt-wearing fiddle players and performing artists who had not had a paying gig in years is all on Mr. Atkins and VANOC. Why VANOC didn’t consider Canada’s own world-renowned Cirque Du Soleil to produce its ceremonies will probably become clear in the post mortem of these Olympics. At that time we’ll also hopefully find out why icons such as Gaetan Boucher and Marc Gagnon where snubbed in favor of Steve Nash and Wayne Gretzky and why the special effects were operated by a ticket collector from the TTC.
Secondly, the video feeds for the games are produced by the host broadcaster, which is Olympic Broadcasting Services, an agency of the IOC that is run by Nancy Lee who was previously with the CBC. The Vancouver Olympics are the first games were the sole responsibility as a host broadcaster is with OBS. Any criticism about camera work; angles and focus should be directed at OBS and Ms Lee. It is, however, the Consortium’s responsibility to work with these feeds and create appropriate coverage and while lack of action due to weather delays can’t be helped (it is what it is), it is at those time that special features, athlete’s profiles and engaging broadcast journalism in general are needed to round out the overall broadcast.
Good post Insider – I agree with most of what you've said, however i think this rogers-ctv consortium as they call themselves deserves alot of the criticism; they seem to dodge it at every turn and get a free pass. they were the ones, don't forget, who made a big deal about them being the first home games to host the feed.
i say let's give credit where credit's due. solid, cable channel hockey coverage. BRUTAL everywhere else. a real disaster for a conventional broadcaster. they will hide behind big cume ratings; of course the ratings are huge, there is no counter programming. remember ctv airing the sopranos "unedited" up against cbc's olympics coverage? the production, the announcing, the promos, the marketing (has anyone seen anything unique?) have been brutal for these games.
Agree about the ratings, but in the land of the blind…
Let's see how the demos shake out. To quote the Chairman of British Airways: "I don't care how many we impress, I care about who we impress."
What brand wants to be associated with this garbage?
Maybe I am a total sap , but I actually have enjoyed the Canadian television coverage. Having travelled to Whistler from Toronto just after the opening ceremonies, we have skied at Whistler/Blackcomb this week and gone to several events including todays Ladies combined alpine event . No we are not watching events full time, but it seems that the Canadian television at least picks up the spirit of the competition. We have not resorted to "escaping" over to US coverage although the US press I have met are as humble as the Canadian television and ink stained print wretches. LIve a day in someone elses shoes(media here for example) and you may not be so critical. BTW, the security, transportation, and volunteer activities at least at Whistler, are outstanding and a credit to the organizers. To the whiners here(at the risk of being yelled at), next Olympics in Russia, just go there and lessen your reliance on the so called poor media coverage.
Argh! McDonalds has made a commercial out of Campbells call on the Bilodeau gold medal… We get to hear "this great country" ad nauseam!
Say it aint so …
On a positive note, at least Jamie and Ronnie McD have the same hair colour, so if they ever need a fill in for an ailing clown, Campbell will be available since his broadcasting obligations will surely be taking a drastic downturn in the imminent future.
Boy Ralph is still certainty as crusty and opinionated as ever in his golden age of life. I don't think there is one broadcaster, league or event that he hasn't taken swipes at over the years (decades). Some he presently scorns such as Gary Bettman and the NHL, he once championed as it was convenient for his own career advancement. Mr. Houston I for one don't give much credence to what Mr. Mellanby says as it seems he always has a personal agenda.
Yo Ralphie boy…Shuffleboard @ 5 pm…you in?
The current generation of broadcasters, many calling the first "World Stage" events of their young careers are being exposed for what they are: under-prepared because they probably wasted a lot of their prep time texting their pals anbout how cool it was to be there, and ill-prepared after using song lyrics or dialogue from movies to throw to their next highlight pack. This what happens when a small country like Canada gives out licenses and too many sports networks pop up. People who should still probably be reading the dinner hour sports in Red Deer suddenly get fast-tracked to Toronto and Sportsnet or TSN or CTV way too quickly. The same can probably said for the behind the scenes people as well. And then the viewers are up in arms when there are stumbles, burps and hiccups. The CBC set a very high bar and it doesn't matter how much $$$ you throw at it, experience doesn't have a price tag. Unless, of course, you were one of the handful who were bestowed the honor of having CONSORTIUM at the bottom of your current business card.
… and CTV will claim the production was a dazzling success; just look at the numbers. Like the Leafs, success is measured by one standard and one only, the bottom line. And in this day and age, can we really say they are wrong?
CTV can't be so conceited as to think the numbers are because of their broadcast quality, could they? After all, the Olympics are in Canada, it's the winter when people are not as mobile as in the summer, and a new people meter count to rate viewership numbers which is more accurate than the past has just gone into effect…I could go on, but I think you get the point.
Deep down, they have to know that they supplied a mediocre product…
Mediocre product Larry? You are being kind. My wife and I are astonished how little we know about Canada's competition. Even for the Canadian athletes, we have seen very few profiles. The best coverage came before the Olympics in the hockey analysis of each of the medal threats. That was well done, and we needed more of that for the other sports.
Another thing to consider is that while CTV trumpets those "record" viewing numbers, one thing that isn't being said is that the numbers are COMBINED viewership across all of the consortium channels. When you're showing the opening ceremonies on such a large number of channels simultaneously (something like 10), duh, no wonder the ratings are so high. I wonder, would the ratings be as high if CTV had access to only one channel, as had been the case for previous Olympic broadcasts?
Larry … the CTV consortium conceited? Absolutely- 'n- YES! Ivan Fecan, Doug Beeforth and their little court jester Keith (I love myself so much) Pelley are 3 of the most conceited, and insecure "gentlemen" I have ever met in my 30+ years of professional work. These guys are clearly in a different world when it comes to value on their own self-worth.
Note to Ziggy (the keeper of all knowledge and BS on this board). I have never been an employee of any of consortium companies, nor any "media biz" . Have been a solo practitioner of my creative work since the early 80s where media types call me and ask "how much"…… and they usually pay no matter how high the $$ is quoted! Dumb-dumbs always pay too much to say "I worked with Wolfgang", which is great for me.
Please Mr Houston we need to know where the Globe TV critic(The usual suspects) has been during the Olympics!
Was he given a tactical time out by the mighty Olympic consortium as pointed out by some readers Wednesday?
Something SURE smells fishy!
Isn't Ralphie-boy the same person who brought don cherry to our teevee screens? 'Nuff said.
Much too much whinging by spoiled, over exposed members of the media concerning the apparent short comings of the games. These guys see everything for free, and are given access that others could only have a wet dream about. There will always be shortcomings, but the griping is really too much. Even from Brunt who generally seems more measured. But then again this is the same guy who carried the flame in Nfld. I guess the organizers didn't suck so much then?
Seriously, no one does self flagilation better than Canadians. We'd win gold, silver and bronze if it was an event.
SOur grapes form someone who wanted to be included and was not. I am positive that had he been involved, Mellenby would be praising the efforts of the games. He is hardly an unbiased voice.
Good coverage so far, but do we need to see the same segment 5 – 6 times a day?
The coverage and the Olympics are very similar, both have been poorly run, messy, overhyped and expensive. There of course have been bright lights at both CTV and VANOC but just way too many errors. Don't forget how much money that VANOC got from the goverment and how much time they had to prepare and comical errors like the cauldron's not working and the "green" snow machine breaking down are inexcusable and I'm disgusted that those in charge haven't taken any responsibility or been disciplined. CTV overpaid for the games and couldn't afford to bring in the A-list talent necessary to cover them, and for everyone who says "who cares what a private company does with it's money" remember that these networks want to up your television fees to afford so called local television. Which is a joke coming from networks that don't offer the CFL's championship game over the air, but the NFL's Super Bowl is for some reason.
whoa…. pelase they ahve butchered the games enough… dont let them get their hands on the CFL again…. it is doing just fine with TSN
LOL I agree with that just pointing out CTV's hypocricy
Praise has to be given to Rod Black for his wonderful call of Marianne St-Gelais Silver medal winning race in the Short Track Speed Skating 500m.
I thought he captured the moment perfectly.
I too have noted that many of the analysts and commentators are trading their journalist hats for Canadian toques. My pre-Olympics exposure to Katherine Dolan was very limited as I'm not really a sports fan (my husband is!) but I have been saying out loud every night how great she is at the Olympics. She is professional, very likeable and treats all athletes, Canadian and otherwise, with tremendous respect. She is a terrific interviewer and her star should surely be on the rise after such great work at Whistler. Two other comments: James Duthie and Lisa Laflamme – not so much. Chris Cuthbert is the most underutilized play-by-play guy out there – he's terrific (far better than the other guy who gets the big hockey games) and yet I don't understand why we're not hearing more from him.
"But if the Olympics had been in Quebec City, and the four athletes chosen to light the cauldron were francophone you’d still hearing the yelps from English Canada."
This seems *exactly* wrong.
I was watching the short-track speed skating on the main CTV network with the women's 500 final coming up. Two of four racers in the final are Canadian, pretty much a guaranteed medal. What does CTV do? Cut the live coverage to show a medal ceremony with less than 30 seconds warning!! You've got to be kidding me. I know CTV has more experience with "idol"-type events, but if you bid for and get a sporting event, put the emphasis on the sporting part of things. Who makes these decisions? I don't think I'm alone in prefering a live sporting event vs. a live medal ceremony. What a joke.
It was live on Sportsnet. That's where I watched it live.
But I do agree — CTV probably should have taped delay the medal ceremony and gone living to the speed skating. It was a curious choice.
I can honestly see them going either way on this one. I know lots of people who want to see Canadians getting their medals above everything else – including the two women I share a dwelling with.
"But if the Olympics had been in Quebec City, and the four athletes chosen to light the cauldron were francophone you’d still hearing the yelps from English Canada."
But they weren't and we aren't, so this isn't really much of a point, is it?
Wrong again. Those of us from "English Canada", blamed for everything wrong in Jamie Campbell's "proud nation", would just shrug our shoulders, mouth "whatever" and then go back to trying to remember where we left that can of beer.
You're saying that the original post was wrong.
So why're you replying to me?
Please Someone Save the CTV Olympic Hosts from further embarrassment and tell them it is
NOT BI ATH A LON But BIATH-LON …. There is only only one A in the Word Biathlon
Same Goes for Decath-lon Pentath-lon and Tri-athlon Marathon has two A
You folks should at least know how to pronounce the EVENTS you are covering.
Please someone save the CTV Olympic Hosts from further embarrassment and tell them it is NOT
TRI-ATH-A-LON but TRIATLON……. there is only one A in the word .
Same goes for Decathlon Pentathlon And Triathlon. Marathon has two AA
You folks should at least know how to pronounce the events
I am really disappointed, Mr. Houston. Of course Ralph Mellanby would stick up for the consortium – it's an old boys club and he has family working for Bell. Plus, he was part of the disastrous television coverage at the 1988 Calgary Olympics. How soon we forget about that horrible coverage. Blame it on VANOC – of course, why not? A bad carpenter always blames his tools.
Honestly, I find it hard to take seriously a guy that thinks CTV has been doing "a fantastic job." CTV has been brutal, and is making a very strong case for why we need a public broadcaster in this country. The breadth has been good, and when not annoyingly boosterish or vague the event coverage has been decent. But the studio and remote bits have been brutal. Landsberg is embarrassing, Hedger thinks she's back on Lofters, and the celebrity worship and hot tub stuff is ridiculous.
As for this "latest revelation" about the "lethal luge track" what's the news here? That VANOC didn't want to use public money to create a white elephant, but instead create something that would be used and have a future after the games? That's a scandal, really? That seems more like sensible planning.
Yes, there have been mistakes and bad decisions. This happens at every Olympics. But by and large, the criticisms have been blown-up by cynical journalists for headline purposes. These have been a very successful games.
I try really hard to avoid the Cdn coverage except for hockey. Mike Emrick of NBC is even more irritating than Pierre Maguire.
Greg Brady is a terrific radio host and interviewer.
And certainly the most successful of Mike and Carol's three boys.
Agreed. And I really wished things had worked out better for Marsha…..
I only heard it once live (didn't pvr the segment), but it struck me how strange this comment was … If, I remember correctly when referring to the Paerson crash Dobson said, "What do you call that?" Stemmle relied "Scary — scary-sick!", but he said it with a giggling tone. A little strange, but he does have experience of nearly being killed in a horrific fall at Kitzbuehel in 1989.
I did watch the NBC version later in the evening, and naturally they focused on the Americans, but did show a few of the many crashes. Just like Nascar, people don't want to admit it, but a good percentage do watch for the huge crashes.
All this Olympic bashing is getting tiring. It's the media's favourite game and it's not just Vancouver. Every host city gets bashed whether it's Beijing for pollution or Salt Lake for the corruption, Atlanta for transportation issues etc. The list goes on and on. The death of an athlete is of course inexcusable and needs to be investigated but all the rest just sounds like whining.
If it was Jerry Dobson doing the women's downhill, I cannot agree this was a good call. He sounded like he was screaming all the time.
Also, not sure if it was him or Brian Stemmle who seemed gleeful during Anja Paerson's incredible fall. I noticed that when they rebroadcast the women's downhill later in the evening, they edited out some of the more obnoxious commentating during the fall of Paerson – at one point a commentator yelled it was "sick". I don't really know the jargon of young people but sick=good, I think. Not so good for Anja Paerson.