Piece of World Cup lands in Olympic Park
Every so often I post a quick update on what we're up to - mainly to keep everyone informed of what the 91Èȱ¬ 2012 project is doing, but also in the interests of accountability. This blog literally answers to you.
So two things to mention today.
First, a long-running theme: we've secured outline planning permission for our studio in the . This will perform a similar function - being at the centre of the action and with a panorama of all the main venues.
The only difference here is that it will be able to accommodate simultaneous broadcasting for 91Èȱ¬ One and 91Èȱ¬ Three.
We'll publish more information about the studio in the coming weeks, but the headlines are that we've prioritised sustainability and value for money.
Part of the construction involves using shipping containers, which are economic and eco-friendly; and on top of them we'll be putting the which 91Èȱ¬ Sport promised would be re-used.
So Gary Lineker, for one, should feel at home; and the crowds in the Olympic Park will see the 91Èȱ¬ studio in a great location.
Second, I wrote a few months back about our ticket purchases.
We set tough rules: business and production use only and we wouldn't buy super-premium tickets. We also bought no tickets for ceremonies and we guaranteed there would be no free tickets for the personal use of our staff or presenters.
At the time our total number of purchases was, as I said, an average of 27 a day over the competition period - 488 in total.
There has always been an option for us to return up to 20% of this total and get our money back if the detailed planning showed there were tickets we might not need; and, having made a fresh assessment of our production and business needs, that's what we've now done.
So 100 tickets have gone back to Locog, and our new total is 388 and as promised, we will publish the information about how we use any tickets for business use.
Both these developments show our over-riding aim for 2012 - which is to spend money on the output where it can be enjoyed by tens of millions of people. It's an investment we're determined to use wisely.
I'm Roger Mosey, the 91Èȱ¬'s director of London 2012. That means I'm overseeing all the 91Èȱ¬'s 2012 preparations including not just sport but the Cultural Olympiad, our Olympic news and information services and everything that will bring the story of the London Games to audiences at home and abroad. I want to share here what we're planning - and debate some of the big issues. You can also follow me on .
Comment number 1.
At 11th Jan 2012, JohnW wrote:Thanks for this Roger and I like the openness about the tickets.
Btw the way, what is editorial line regarding Radio4's Paul Lewis and 91Èȱ¬ News's James Pearce and their parallel communication of availability of tickets from European ATRs?
I note that James (Twitter: @pearcesport) has said very little about in his reports, both in studio and out but Paul has been very vocal about it on Moneybox or on 91Èȱ¬ Breakfast or 91Èȱ¬ News. However, James has been superb on Twitter re: European ATR news. Is there a reason why he hasnt said much about it on TV? James really has had the inside track and has been an inspiration regarding his information. Since his 1st tweets about the French & German sellers back in late may/early June he opened a whole new world to us on Twitter and we havent looked back since then.... in fact... no, I won't say anymore ;-)
Thanks again for the info - can't wait to see the studios in action.
John W (Twitter: @volshy)
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Comment number 2.
At 11th Jan 2012, Jordan D wrote:Roger - are the tickets you returned being put on sale to the General Public in this round of resales (in theory you're reselling them!) or are they being held onto until LOCOG sell more tickets later in Spring?
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Comment number 3.
At 11th Jan 2012, Jordan D wrote:Separately - will the Studio be based inside the park itself, much like NBC's studio in Athens 2004? A stone's throw from the stadium with a big outside area to meet the fans?
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Comment number 4.
At 11th Jan 2012, Roger Mosey - 91Èȱ¬ Director, London 2012 wrote:@JohnW: well, my line is that I'd absolutely stand by Paul or James reporting freely on issues like tickets. It's important the journalism remains independent, and we also believe in the sharing of information.
@JordanD: the tickets are one for Locog, I think; but yes - the studio will be in the Park itself and we hope huge numbers of people will see it.
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Comment number 5.
At 12th Jan 2012, Trev wrote:My concern here is the presentation studio. A major critisism of 91Èȱ¬ sports coverage and in particular the Olympics is that they spend too much time in the studio pontificating. Last time I often would turn over to Eurosport to find them showing importent events while the 91Èȱ¬ was stuck in the studio with so called experts. Why not do away with the studio and show more action.
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Comment number 6.
At 12th Jan 2012, Trev wrote:Actually I think the 91Èȱ¬ Olympic coverage is going to very poor. As far as I can see only one HD channel will be available at a time. That is pathetic. As someone who is accustomed to watching all my sport in HD the thought of watching SD is not very appealing. At least I suppose we have Eurosport with much higher quality pictures.
It is even worse when you consider that the 91Èȱ¬ is going to supply Super HD pictures for Japaneese viewers and 3D pictures are going to be available for American viewers. The 91Èȱ¬ needs to start concentrating on delivery to licence fee payers.
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Comment number 7.
At 12th Jan 2012, Roger Mosey - 91Èȱ¬ Director, London 2012 wrote:@trevorjharris - we will have two HD television channels pretty much all the time: 91Èȱ¬ One HD and the 91Èȱ¬ HD channel. Additionally we'll bring in 24 live HD streams at peak initially focused on our website.
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Comment number 8.
At 12th Jan 2012, magnificentpolarbear wrote:Thanks for the update Roger - always appreciated and good to know that your unneeded tickts have been returned to LOGOG.
(PS the 'latest news' from the 2012 Blog and London 2012 on thr Olypis Sport page is stuck on 16th December !)
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Comment number 9.
At 13th Jan 2012, Trev wrote:@Roger Mosey
I was not aware that that 91Èȱ¬ One HD and 91Èȱ¬ HD were being turned over to the Olympics. I don't think many licence payers who are not interested in the Olympics will be very pleased.
The 91Èȱ¬ internet streams cannot be considered to be HD quality even if they are called HD.
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Comment number 10.
At 15th Jan 2012, borgwasgod wrote:Hi Roger
Just a side issue with regard to the 91Èȱ¬'s build up to the Olympic Games. Will there be an opportunity for the 91Èȱ¬ to show (perhaps on the red button in the weeks prior to the games starting) some classic Olympic footage (maybe all the track and field finals?) from the 91Èȱ¬'s gigantic sporting archive? It has always seemed a real pity to me that this sort of historic footage is squirreled away by the TV companies, presumably at the behest of a spaghetti plate of red tape and the IOC juggernaut. Showing this past footage (or as much as the 91Èȱ¬ has, perhaps starting with the iconic 1968 Games from Mexico City) would be cheap and would represent a commitment to the heritage of the Olympic Games, a heritage that we should all have access to, especially leading up to the first Olympic Games in this country for over half a century. It would also offer significantly better entertainment than some of the other offerings put out on some of the 91Èȱ¬'s channels over recent months (I do not pay my license fee to have Election Night '79 replayed on the 91Èȱ¬ Parliament channel)...
Not a gripe - just a utopian wish-list!
Cam Bowie
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Comment number 11.
At 15th Jan 2012, Roger Mosey - 91Èȱ¬ Director, London 2012 wrote:@borgwasgod: we're hoping there'll be plenty of archive, yes, including online. Meantime, look out for two big sporting history series if you like that kind of thing. "Sport and the British" begins soon on Radio 4 /mediacentre/latestnews/sport-and-the-british.html
- and then "Faster, Higher, Stronger" will be on 91Èȱ¬ Two nearer the Games looking specifically at the history of the Olympics.
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Comment number 12.
At 16th Jan 2012, b_barnett wrote:Roger,
I am confused by trevorjharris' post. Will the 91Èȱ¬ be 'providing' Super HD and 3D to outside unilateral broadcasters such as NHK or NBC, or are those services produced by those unilaterals (or by the OBS and/or Panasonic) and the 91Èȱ¬ is taking the feeds and displaying them?
Also a post on the cooporation and dealings with the OBS might be illuminating to some. It seems many still think that the 91Èȱ¬ is the "Host Broadcaster" providing the feed to the world rather than the "Rights Holding Broadcaster" in the host nation.
Thanks!
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Comment number 13.
At 16th Jan 2012, Roger Mosey - 91Èȱ¬ Director, London 2012 wrote:@b_barnett: good point, and there's a slight difference. 3D, along with the regular HD pictures, will be offered to tv companies around the world by the host broadcaster - OBS.
Super Hi Vision as a project is a long-term partnership between the 91Èȱ¬ and NHK, and it will be offered in Games-time through a further collaboration between those two organisations and OBS. It will only be seen at special screens in the the UK and Japan, with the possible addition of the US. Hope this helps.
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Comment number 14.
At 16th Jan 2012, Conor Dalgarno wrote:@Trevorjharris
So at first your problem is the lack of HD Channels to support the Olympics, and then when you discover there will in fact be two channels for it as well as the internet streams, that suddenly becomes an issue? It appears you are finding problems for problems sake.
I regularly watch HD TV online without problems (And yes, it is true HD) and in all likelihood this is where I shall be watching most of the Olympic coverage. I trust the 91Èȱ¬ to do a good job with it, as they always do.
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Comment number 15.
At 17th Jan 2012, Trev wrote:@Connor Dalgarno
Yes 2 HD channels is better than one but until we see the schedules we won't realy know what the HD coverage is. In any case only a small proportion of output will be available in HD.
Clearly you are happy with the 91Èȱ¬ streams but I would disagree that 720p25 with a bitrate of 3mb/s can be considered HD.
I don't agree with your assessment that the 91Èȱ¬ does a good job. During the last Olympics there was too much time spent in the studio with the so called experts when some major events were going on tin the Stadium. This year they have Hue Edwards heading the comentry team hardly known for his knowlege of sport. In fact I watched most of the last Olympics on Eurosport HD which I thought had better coverage dispite the adverts. Eurosport also deliver a better picture quality.
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