Channel Nine has scheduled much of its primetime Winter Olympics to begin at 9:30pm weeknights.
Vancouver Gold, the three hour highlights package hosted by Eddie McGuire and Leila McKinnon, will wrap up the top events from each day.
From Mondays to Thursdays it will air from 9:30pm local time across the country. Friday, Saturdays and Sundays the start times vary from as early as 7:30pm to as late as 10pm.
Freeing up the earlier schedule will allow Nine to program other shows, although it is yet to reveal which ones.
The move could give Nine the upper hand in the ratings game, given daily shares are tallied on the 6pm-midnight block.
Live daytime broadcasts hosted by Ken Sutcliffe will air from 9am weekdays in Sydney and Melbourne, 8:30am in Adelaide, and 8:00am in Brisbane.
But Perth viewers get the raw end of the deal with delayed daytime broadcasts at 9am. With the exception of the Opening Ceremony, Perth viewers will have almost no live coverage of the games across the entire 17 days (Saturday February 20 is Live). After Seven’s delayed evening sessions with tennis, it is a bitter sting for Perth sports fans.
Weekday daytime sessions vary in length, anywhere from 3 hours to 6.5 hours. Weekends are up to 8 hours.
The Opening Ceremony is live in all cities at 12:30pm AEDT Saturday February 13, and replayed later that evening at 7:30pm in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth and 9:30pm in Sydney and Brisbane.
The Closing Ceremony is live in all cities except Perth and replayed at 9:30pm on Monday March 1st everywhere.
Nine still has cricket and NRL commitments to juggle.
Nine will also give the games coverage via Today and Nine News.
Thank goodness for Foxtel and I am very happy to pay for their Olympic Coverage which will be live, 24/7 and in stunning High Definition.
Might be in London for the olympics so that I don’t have to put up with Eddie Everywhere in australia and enjoying ad-free coverage on BBC
I am a Nine fan. The footy was presented proffessionally when Nine hosted it, Channel Seven and Channel 10 do not rate. However Channel Nine’s coverage of the Winter Games is appauling. Those interviews of Eddies are amatuer at best and not something i am used to seeing. Every session where the ‘personalities’ rant on makes me cringe, its like amatuer hour, it feels embarrassing and its dead air. Pretty dissapointed in the coverage, James Bradshaw is about as repetative and uninformed as it gets and needs to let the proffessionals comment on the sport rather than rant with generic one liners.
Overall the Channel Nine group should stick to footy and cricket. Their attempt at hosting sports they do not understand seems disrespectful and amatuer at best.
It is no surprise people are over the under representation of winter Olympics and over representation of cricket. I agree with everyone, I think we need to complain to the advertisers and basically don’t watch bad coverage. What I have decided to do is to hopefully you tube the sport if possible. I think we need to complain to our politicians to change media laws that channels should deliver what is promoted. Perhaps some media lobby for free to air sports committee (general public) should be improved with accountability mechanisms put into place. Additionallly, as corporates they would listen to a large interest groups (i.e. the customers of their products) that are angry enough not to purchase Their products after all these advertisers are the enablers of this pathetic coverage.
Again, as events were conducted today, nine’s coverage revolved around the hosts and what a great time they were having. Broadcast coverage was of them chatting around the table and cutting to interviews while other sports were actually being played! This is unforgivable. Network staffing should be restricted to commentators only and there should be a cap of only one minute per hour when their mug is on the screen. It is a sporting event – show the sport!
very dissapointed with the olympic coverage all that is mostly shown is the luge or snowboarding or if it happens to have an Australian in it or a former Australian.
as far as i know we are supposed to be a multicultural country so why not show some of all the countries. I have no intention of getting foxtel seeing as 9 is supposed to be giving the coverage as well.
very dissapointed with the terrible coverage
Channel 9′s coverage has been a disgrace. Only a mere sample of athletes’ performances is shown rather than the normal full coverage shown in the past by other channels. Instead, they waste time with, for example, (1) crass commentary between Eddie McGuire and Mick Molloy – the comments on the male figure skaters were worthy of a drunken session in a bar – and (2) interviews of Eddie interviewing athletes of the calibre of Dale Begg Smith where he denigrates his achievement. The guy lost, Eddie – get over it.
Since most people work during the day and are unable to view events then, why on earth isn’t Channel 9 showing the coverage in prime time instead of waiting until 9:30pm or, if the wretched cricket is on, 10:00pm. It’s all prerecorded anyway and very few people have the luxury of being able to stay up until the wee small hours as they have to work the next day.
I don’t know why Channel 9 wasted the money buying the Olympic coverage – instead of enhancing their image, it has seriously damaged it.
Please, SBS or Channel 2, try and get the next winter olympics so we can enjoy them.
Worst coverage ever Channel 9…I cant believe you are giving Eddie and the (so called) experts so much air time. All of the interesting sports are truncated into 5 minute bites then we have to watch Eddie rant on about some hopeful athlete for 15 minutes. And we really dont need to see the same glod medal footage over and over every 20 minutes. I can see why TV stations refuse to have email addresses to send complaints to – Your inbox would be full Channel 9…
Channel nines Olympic coverage is a farce. TV times are ridiculous, The game show host as MC is tedious, the commentary by unqualified “footy show” participants embarrassing and the amount of events that receive no coverage at all is insane. If I hear another commentator yell/scream/say “you are a superstar” one more time I swear I will shoot myself. And why is Mick Malloy on? did he get sacked from 10? either way, he is boorish no matter what network he is with.
They should call nines coverage of the Olympics, ‘The Footy Show on Ice’ disgusting appalling, sexist, homophobic, uneducated, uninformed.
Absolutely pathetic! Obviously just a jaunt for the “Team” in Canada because we see more of them talking to each other than watching actual events. Why can’t we see every ice skater perform, not just the “select” or “Token” 3 who randomly appear in between “Eddie” appearances…For a channel that doesn’t seem to be doing well in the ratings anyway, it must have cost a fortune.
I have been struggling to watch nines appalling coverage of the games and last night was disgusted in the comments made by Mick Molloy and Eddie McGuire. Their comments on the figure skating showed how rude and how little background knowledge they have of the sports they are attempting to commentate on. Perhaps they should really look into what it takes to make it to the games in any of the olympic sports and the sacrifices these people make to make their dreams come true before making lame jokes and innuendo’s. A person’s sexuality should not be commented on it should be the athelticisim that is commented on.
As a watcher of every Olympic games – summer or winter I find myself turning off the telly or recording the measly amount that 9 has of actual events because I seriously want to throw a brick at smirking eddie. Just wanna know who died and made him God in the eyes of 9. His ego is not required at such an event. Interviews are shallow and the so called comic segments are just a outright embarrasment – that was just one evenings viewing. I think its a campaign to get the aussie public to get foxtel !!!! The coverage has never been so poor and I for one am upset !!
Channel 9 Suck.
Please, can I add one more thing? I don’t want to appear as spamming, but….
We get a measly 3 hours of “live” telecast, why in the world did channel 9 decide today to include at that time a story by the ” female swimmer ” about a Tea shop in Vancouver?
That’s it for me, I’m not bothering anymore. It just isn’t worth it.
Again, pathetic.
Pathetic, absolutely pathetic.
I wish TV would get rid of the want to be movie makers so we don’t have to sit through/change stations while some “want to be” tries to make an epic creation of sight and sound.
Just show us the games please.
And please don’t try to manufacture humor ie. Mick Molloy. Has he ever been funny? Maybe in the ’80s. Did you see his side splitting chat with Leila McKinnon? Mick asks how does she feel about him being on the channel 9 team, Leila replies, well in my time at A Current Affair I dealt with con men and the homeless. Hilarious-not.
Leila stick at what you do so well- bland. Boring, dull and bland.
Eddie McGuire? What a no talent nob.
Wouldn’t it be great to have an Olympics coverage hosted by sporting experts
( ie. no “stars” , or “personalities” – and without all the fake bells and whistles
( queue classical music and endless slow motion replays ). Dream on….
Channel 9′s coverage of the winter games has been pathetic and embarrassing to the station. I’m sick of all the interviews and lack of coverage. I want to see the games!! I don’t want see Eddie McGuire’s face or be taken for a ‘tourist’ view of Vancouver. There used to be Olympic coverage in the morning, afternoon and all evening, to get 3 hours of ‘highlights’ is shameful.
The games coverage should Never Ever go to channel 9 again!
I wish someone could explain to me, my family and our friends what we obviously can’t see in Eddie McGuire…….. What on earth does he bring to the Winter Olympic Coverage? We don’t even get what is so special about him on Millionaire etc but in our opinions he is completely hopeless on this. His interview with Dale Begg Smith was pathetic tring and trying to get hin to say the Canadian had stuffed it. Fortunately DBS was never goibg to head down that path. Love to hear others views on E McG.
I have just watched 2 hours of the moguls. Every moment analysed. Eddie trying his best, with no success, to get the silver medallist to say “I should have won”. WTF. When will the commercial networks realize there is more to Olympics or winter Olympics than what a (so called) Aussie is in? I was hoping that 9 would do a better job than 7 did with the summer Olympics but no, it’s even worse.
Why do 9 think that the Olympics should be covered like they do current affairs. With baddies and goodies. Just cover the games. It’s simple, cover the games.
I am so angry! 9 thinks there is nothing worth showing unless there is an Aussie in it.
I understand that people are interested in events that Australians are in but that is not all we want to see. I am so disappointed in 9s coverage. It’s as bad as 7s and that is saying a lot!
Give it toSBS? Or ABC just not the commercial butchers.
So disappointed and angry
Rob Brisbane
Channel Nine Cricket or the Olympics? Do not bid for the rights to telecast if you can not show it due to other commitments. As most of us work all day starting the days coverage at 9.30 or 10pm when the cricket is on is ridiculous. Give it back to Channel 7
why cant they show today live at 3am (or whatever the start time will be) ?
Nine Perth is commited – under programming deals – to airing the Today Show as close to the eastern states start time as possible. This means that they can only go on a 1, 2 or 3 hour delay with it. They cannot drop it completley. And thanks to the anti siphoning laws – the olympics cannot go on the HD channel. It could be Today on HD only, olympics live on SD. There is a technical issue with that, but it can be resolved. The major issue though, is that Nine sales do not recognise SD & HD being different … so they cannot sell airtime on HD alone, sure they could – but then you would effectivly be slashing your revenue because you are dividing your audience.
So what about nine’s cricket committments? Will they be palmed onto foxtel.
Great plan Channel 9 – no Winter Olympics coverage from 6-9am in Perth means that I (and many others) will still have no reason to switch over to Channel 9 from Sunrise in the mornings before work.
Matt says:
January 30, 2010 at 10:15 am
Other than the opening ceremony I don’t plan to watch Nine for one second during the games. Foxtel is giving us the type of coverage we’ve always wanted.
Just remember your paying for it?
So you should get better coverage!
At least some of the people on the Ch9 crew have *slightly* more credibility then Matt Shirvington and frickin’ Ruby Rose
re anthony – yes i would urge viewers to boycott 7 (and have been doing so on this site and other sites) during their delayed telecasts of the aust open. i do it thru the year for friday night football too and have numerous letters published each year in the west newspaper.
basically, my vendetta is against delayed sport, whoever is doing it.
10, 7, 9, 2 all do it all year round . sbs and foxtel are the only ones who play ball with live coverage, i wish foxtel had all afl, cricket, everything – so that if you want live you can pay, and if you cant afford foxtel or dont want to pay for tv, you get delayed. this would be win-win
Again a channel in Perth fails. Other than sport I never watch FTA now, sick of how they treat their customers.
I can’t see why the HD channel cant mirror the eastern states feed, then they can play the delayed version on the SD channel.
Yawn Yawn yawn. I dont watch nine now so it wont make much difference to me anyway
@guy
don’t you mean. 7 knows how too butcher an olympic coverage. this whole package with nin and fox is going to make whatever 7′s coverage look like a backyard production. because that what it was with bejing games. a backyard production
At the people that are complaining about the delayed coverage for Perth viewers, will you be the same viewers that would complain if 9 decided to air the Winter Olympics Live and you ended up behind on many of Channel 9′s other programs, whinging that “bloody sport ruins everything”??
@billy ray valentine
Perth dont watch Nine anyway. How do you think Seven win so much. Perth are in love with them, just like Melbourne are with Nine. I knew this was coming. Seven are the ones who know how to broadcast the Games. You watch them fall flat on there faces with the coverage. Just look at how they broadcast the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
Won’t do any good but why not send them a poison pen letter anyway.
9perth.com.au/About/Contact-Us.aspx
this will still be better than whatever 7 and their super flogs would produce. no rebecca wilson and tom williams would be a major plus in this coverage. fox will have their own commentators
Could be worse – you could be in the US. Although Vancouver is in the same time zone as the West Coast, they’ll get coverage delayed three hours as everything is being scheduled to suit the East Coast. And when the games aren’t in the Americas, they get the coverage delayed by hours if the local organising committee won’t give in to them and having finals at 8am in the morning! Thank god for the BBC!
Looking ahead to the Commonwealth Games in October though and it seems to have been scheduled to be Australia friendly – the swimming finals are scheduled ar 4pm Delhi time, which conveniently is 8.30pm AEST. Probably still not live in Perth though!
I cannot belive that channel 9 perth will be delaying the coverage of the games. Total bull**it if you ask me. Maybe subscribing to Foxtel may be the better way to view the games Live
complain to 9 and tell other people too! 9perth.com.au has their phone no. maybe if people complain and let their feelings be heard then they might change the winter olympics schedule to be live.
The siphoning rules should have a provision that if the host network can’t be bothered rearranging a couple of programs to accommodate live sports coverage to all states, then SBS or ABC should be entitled to do so.
If they had to compete for viewers against another FTA network showing it live, maybe they’d get off their arrogant fat a*ses and make an effort.
@billyrayvalentine, seems like more of a personal vendetta against nine, would you advise people to avoid 7 Perth as well during the Primetime Tennis coverage?
as a perth resident . i say thank god for foxtel . free to air over here is pathetic , delayed tennis, cricket , winter olympics , rugby union test matches need i say more ..
evryone in perth should stop watching 9 for 2 weeks to protest. watch seven 2, abc, one, ten, sbs, but not go or 9…
Nine’s coverage of Olympic Winter Games (its first since the 1994 Games in Lillehammer, Norway) is just as bad as Seven’s coverage of the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy. While the daytime live broadcast is welcome (Seven had little live coverage of events from Turin, and they all involved Australians), it is delayed by 3 hours in WA, which I think is very unfair to people living there (the only reason I can think of the delay is Today’s continuing battle against Sunrise). This will only force WA viewers to go onto the net or subscribe to Foxtel to watch the events live and find out the results.
Kevin its just a photo mate. Chill.
Wow!!! What a commentary team, two swimmers and an ex ice skater who won a gold medal after everyone else fell. Looking forward to this, not..
Perth gets delayed again…just another reason I hate Australian TV.
If Nine is going to delay it, then Don’t bother! I’ll get better coverage from the net anyway!
That said, I believe there should be a law that forces the TV Stations that if 1 state gets these events live, so should the other states.
You really aren’t going to have it much better with Foxtel, most of their commentary team is shared with Channel 9. i.e you will be hearing James Brayshaw on Foxtel!
And when they took the photo, they made sure the Nine microphones were perfectly angled to the camera!
i will watch both fox and 9. more fox because they have the all rpound package and that’s why these 2 covering it will be a 1000 times better than what could produce.
Thanks for your explanation, David. I didn’t think of general hosting, I thought they must have been commentators. I have just gotten off the phone from purchasing the Foxtel Winter Olympics package, so I won’t be watching Nine’s coverage at all.
Does this mean Survivor: Heroes vs Villains will be fast-tracked after all? Oh I hope so!
Read on The Daily Telegraph website the article about Matty Johns signing with 7. Howevere found the interesting part to be the line at the end which says “…while Nine is holding it’s big gun Underbelly: The Golden Mile for next week”. This Winter Olympic programming announcement could indeed mean we get to see Underbelly 3 from the outset of ratings rather than March or even post-Easter as had been suggested. The plot thickens…
9am in Melbourne is about 1pm in Vancouver…
Does anyone know if channel 9 are going to be showing any morning events live in the early hours? Or does Today take first preference?
Are nine able to use their HD channel for additional programming (cricket, NRL…)
Man that sucks that Perth gets this delayed. Who cares about Today being on, I would rather the Winter Olympics live from 6am, it would work out much better for Perth Viewers. Channel Nine you suck.
I sure hope so Liam. And I completely agree Mrs Taz, it’s getting painful to see her around the clock.
Seven had barely any live coverage at all so this is an upgrade, doesn’t sound too bad actually, guess it’ll depend on what Nine shows and if they are prepared to go beyond the schudlued times if an event goes overtime etc.
7.00-9.30 Two and a half Men
9.30pm Winter Olympics
yesterday i bought the extra foxtel channels and i am glad that i did
I love the Olympics, Winter Olympics, meh, but with Eddie McGuire. Giaan Rooney, Grant Hackett, Ken Sutcliffe, Leila Mackinnon…..yeah i won’t be watching.
@ Liam: You’d hope Nine’s learnt their lesson re: Survivor. The fact that they’re planning on showing Heroes vs Villains hopefully is a good sign that they plan on showing it pretty soon.
Allie, Nine will have hosts, commentators and presenters. It’s not all sport commentary just as it wasn’t for Seven’s Beijing Games. There will be ‘colour’ pieces as well giving us a sense of Vancouver atmosphere.
And to the question on is there anything live: read it again?
Could this mean Channel 9 *may* still fast track ‘Survivor: Heroes & Villians’ and use it as a lead-in to their Tuesday night 9:30pm coverage, seeing as there is now definitely room for regular programming?
Its starts in the US Feb 11, but will not be anywhere near our screens until March if they wait until after the Winter Olympics have finished. The early summer advertising of the new season makes me wonder… are they thinking of airing it during the Olympics?
Why couldnt they just broadcast the events just like they would for the summer olympics? most people i would think would find the winter olympics quite interesting, seeing that it is very different to what we are used to here.
But then again, if you really wanted to watch it, youll watch it on Foxtel.
Could somebody please explain to me what kind of commentating expertise in winter sports Giaan Rooney and Grant Hackett have?
Other than the opening ceremony I don’t plan to watch Nine for one second during the games. Foxtel is giving us the type of coverage we’ve always wanted.
Perth viewers: The delay’s justified. If it were to air live, it would start in Perth at 6am, and Today wouldn’t air for the period of the Games.
Brisbane viewers: Today will likely be live into QLD for the duration of the Games, skewing breakfast, possibly exposing a new audience to Today in Queensland.
So, breakfast ratings are likely to be skewed, with only three markets having Today head to head with Sunrise.
Getting mighty sick of Mrs Gyngell being foist upon us in practically everything lately….
Yay 2 weeks to catch up on other TV!
I shouldn’t be surprised that, once again, Perth gets delayed coverage… but the anger builds…
Another sporting outrage! Is there any live coverage of events, besides the nightly highlights?
Seven broadcast the games better than this.