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Established in 2007, Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium (legal name 7048467 Canada Inc., also sometimes referred to informally in branding as CTV Olympics and RDS Olympiques) was a joint venture set up by Canadian media companies Bell Media (formerly CTVglobemedia) and Rogers Media to produce the Canadian broadcasts of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England, as well as the two corresponding Paralympic Games. Bell owned 80% of the joint venture, and Rogers owned 20%.
Contents
- Television
- Radio
- Other affiliated outlets
- Early coverage
- Rights fees
- Commentators
- 2010 Winter Olympics
- Broadcast team
- 2012 Summer Olympics
- Paralympic Games
- Criticism of Paralympic Games coverage
- Youth Olympics
- References
The consortium encompassed many of the properties owned by both companies, including Bell Media's CTV Television Network, TSN, RDS and RDS Info, and Rogers Media's Omni Television, Sportsnet, OLN, and the Rogers radio stations group. Several other broadcasters will carried consortium coverage, including V (formerly TQS), and several channels owned by Asian Television Network. Finally, dedicated websites in English and French (ctvolympics.ca and rdsolympiques.ca) were set up to stream live coverage over the Internet to Canadian viewers. The consortium replaced CBC Sports, which had held the Canadian rights to all Olympics beginning with the 1996 games, although some cable rights had been sub-licensed to TSN / RDS beginning in 1998.
Rogers announced in September 2011 that it would withdraw from the consortium following London 2012, and therefore not participate in its bid for rights to the 2014 Winter Olympics and 2016 Summer Olympics. The company cited scheduling conflicts and financial considerations for the decision. Bell Media then announced a new partnership with the CBC to bid for Canadian broadcast rights of Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016. Broadcast details for the joint bid were never released. The joint Bell/CBC bid was considered the prohibitive favourite to win the rights when the International Olympic Committee accepted bids. However, the Bell/CBC bids were rejected by the IOC.
On August 1, 2012, CBC Sports announced that it had made a deal to broadcast the 2014 and 2016 Summer and Winter Olympics, replacing the Bell/Rogers group. However, in February 2013, CBC announced that both Sportsnet and TSN would sub-license broadcast rights to the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Television
Radio
Other affiliated outlets
Early coverage
CTV has previously broadcast the Summer Games in 1976 (along with CBC) and 1992, and the Winter Games in 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1988 and 1994.
The 1980 "Miracle on Ice" game was aired live on CTV in Canada, but not ABC in the United States. Thus, American viewers who resided in or near the Canada–US border and received the CTV signal could watch the game live, but the rest of the United States had to wait for a delayed rebroadcast.
Rights fees
In 1974, Johnny Esaw (who anchored CTV's prime time Olympic coverage from 1964–1980) became vice-president of CTV Sports, a position he would hold until his retirement in 1990. He negotiated the host broadcasting rights to the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta. As the main host broadcaster for the 1988 Winter Olympics, the CTV television network paid $45 million for domestic rights to the 1988 Winter Olympics. Esaw also brought the 1964 Winter Olympics to CTV.
Production of the broadcasting for the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, which costs NOK 462 million, was the responsibility of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), with assistance from CTV and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). NRK had 1,424 people working at the Olympics, while international broadcasters sent an additional 4,050 accredited broadcasting personnel. The transmission rights for the games were held by EBU in Europe, CBS in the United States, NHK in Japan, CTV in Canada, the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, Nine Network in Australia, as well as other broadcasters in other countries. The total transmission rights price was 350 million United States dollars.
Commentators
2010 Winter Olympics
For the 2010 Winter Olympics, coverage was as follows:
Television
Consortium coverage originated primarily from the Vancouver Convention Centre (the International Broadcast Centre for the 2010 games) as well as Mountain Square in Whistler.
The television broadcast was filmed with 39 new Hitachi SK-HD1000 studio/field cameras from Hitachi Kokusai Electric including on-site technical support. The cameras were also used to broadcast the 2012 Summer Olympics. Following the games, portions of CTV's set were re-purposed by its Vancouver affiliate CIVT for its newscasts.
Radio
English-language coverage was provided by the Sportsnet Radio Network, and included coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies, selected hockey games, special editions of Prime Time Sports, and various updates / programs on the games. French-language coverage, which was similar in scope, was carried by Corus Québec.
Broadcast team
Hockey studio
2012 Summer Olympics
The consortium also held rights to the 2012 Summer Olympics. Coverage plans for those games were follows (see above).
Broadcast team
English broadcasters, as of July 30, 2012
French broadcasters, as of July 26, 2011
Paralympic Games
The consortium also owned rights to the corresponding Paralympic Games, namely the 2010 Winter Paralympics and the 2012 Summer Paralympics.
Coverage for the 2010 games consisted primarily of coverage of the opening ceremonies (live on CTV British Columbia, and on tape delay on the rest of the CTV network and RIS); daily highlights packages split among CTV, TSN and Sportsnet in English (and RDS / RIS in French); and live coverage of all sledge hockey games featuring the Canadian team. Although not originally scheduled, CTV and RDS later added live coverage of the closing ceremonies.
Coverage for the 2012 games offered no live television coverage and consisted primarily of 10 late night highlight shows carried on TSN2, Sportsnet One, and RDS2, though rebroadcasts of the opening ceremony were carried on both CTV and Rogers-owned broadcast network Citytv.
Criticism of Paralympic Games coverage
2010 Winter Paralympics opening and closing ceremonies
Originally, CTV did not plan to air the opening ceremony live. After receiving criticism on the decision, CTV changed its mind and decided to air the ceremony live in Vancouver region. CTV originally continued to stick to its initial plan of not airing the closing ceremony live. This decision led to more complaints and CTV relented by airing the closing ceremony live across Canada.
2012 Summer Paralympics
Despite the 2012 Summer Paralympics being a breakthrough games for international media coverage, giving a significant boost to the overall audience shares of British broadcaster Channel 4 and Australia's ABC, no Paralympics sports events were shown live on television in Canada or the United States. "Based on the level of overall coverage, it's clear that Canadian broadcasters do not deem disability to be important. They are not supporters of inclusion", SCI BC (BC Paraplegic Association) Executive Director Chris McBride said, contrasting Canada's coverage with Britain's. More than 1,000 people signed a petition calling for Canadian broadcasters to provide full Paralympics coverage at future Games. International Paralympic Committee President Philip Craven criticised North American broadcasters for having fallen behind and said in future the International Paralympic Committee would scrutinize broadcast partners more carefully. "If the values fit, we've got a chance. If they don't we'll go somewhere else", he said.
Youth Olympics
Finally, the consortium owned broadcast rights to the first Youth Olympic Games, the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics in Singapore. Coverage of those games was limited to a one-hour daily highlights package on Sportsnet and TSN2 (rebroadcast several weeks later on TSN).