Windsurfing Rio

I imagine the IOC has got all all the footage tied up in some Olympics rights deal. They have lawyers, if you are careless how you arrange a few doughnuts on a plate the IOC will swoop in and demand compensation.

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AUS4 said..
Channel 7 Olympic app.

That would have cost me $ 20.00 . Lucky i didnt do that because the reviews on that app were between really bad to even worse ! Is this true , has anyone watched any windsurfing ? Any ideas on how to watch a repeat ?

I caught some footage of the Olympic windsurfing on tv and it looked really bad. The camera angles were no good. The Laser classes had much better footage and seemed to get most of the attention, they zoomed in and got some good shots of them.

This is very interesting when related to another recent thread on Olympic windsurfing.

There is all this jostling and negotiation to get (or keep) the sport in the olympics.

It is seen as a huge success that it is part of the games programme (especially instead of kitesurfing, for example).

However, if it is impossible for the average punter to follow the sport, then what's the point.

Is the Olympics really that important in promoting a sport if there is no coverage of it anyway?

Clarence

I watched a video of the gold medal race for the RSX Women on facebook.

I was as disappointed as y'all and wrote a little post about it

joewindsurfer.blogspot.com/2016/08/olympics-2016-windsurfing.html

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And your evidence is???????????

The IOC publishes information on ratings after each Games. The "fast exciting extreme" sports and disciplines rate poorly. The simple ones like running rate well.

People rowing and paddling in straight lines on flat water rates better than people bouncing down whitewater rapids or crashing 49ers at 25 knots. That's the facts. It's always been the facts. Therefore the claim that kiting would have been shown doesn't seem to have much basis.

It's apparently not actually very easy to televise kites. If you zoom out to show the kite, you can't see the sailor. If you zoom in to see the sailor, you can't see the kite. Actually talking to sports photogs about this stuff gives an interesting perspective.

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Chris 249 said..
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And your evidence is???????????

The IOC publishes information on ratings after each Games. The "fast exciting extreme" sports and disciplines rate poorly. The simple ones like running rate well.

People rowing and paddling in straight lines on flat water rates better than people bouncing down whitewater rapids or crashing 49ers at 25 knots. That's the facts. It's always been the facts. Therefore the claim that kiting would have been shown doesn't seem to have much basis.

It's apparently not actually very easy to televise kites. If you zoom out to show the kite, you can't see the sailor. If you zoom in to see the sailor, you can't see the kite. Actually talking to sports photogs about this stuff gives an interesting perspective.

My observation is that the IOC predominately televised sports that already had a global television audience eg. Basketball, soccer, golf. Add to these the disciplines of swimming, athletics and gymnastics and you have a ratings winner. Beach volleyball got more airtime than indoor volleyball. I wondered about that one, so methinks that it has something to do with the cozy ( or lack of it) that wins the ratings. I am sorry to say that I saw more synchronised swimming than windsurfing. To an Australian male this is appalling, but my honest opinion is that the top women's synchro teams are amazing athletes. They combine dance and gymnastics, doing most of it underwater and upside down. But the best thing of all about the Olypicsmpics is that it only happens every four years. The New Zealanders thump us in rugby every year. Maybe we should let them do it to us only every three years. I think that they are better than the Dream Team, but they will never get much coverage at the Olympics unless the convert to Rugby Sevens. To a real All Black that would be like a windsurfer taking up Kitesurfing just to go to the Olympics.

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Chris 249 said..
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It's apparently not actually very easy to televise kites. If you zoom out to show the kite, you can't see the sailor. If you zoom in to see the sailor, you can't see the kite. Actually talking to sports photogs about this stuff gives an interesting perspective.

Chris I suggest you watch the youtube HydroFoil Pro Tour channel video's..... It may debunk your view-able status for racing????


Here's a guy with a second generation (I believe or could be current?) DJI Phantom 3 (or 4) who has filmed these races superbly IMHO. The commentator adds color (really cracks me up sometimes) to each race. The HydroFoil races were post processed but imagine with a couple drones and a live connection (a reality with Phantom 4 models) this is TV real-time broadcast-able. BTW a Phantom 4 can push upwind in 20+ knots.

I'm a windsurfer only and only wish an enterprising soul or souls could do the same for Formula or PWA/slalom type events with drones........

Cheers Peter

ps - Olympic sailing televised was again piss poor as has been every other Olympics.
pss - best vision was Fiji 7's celebration after winning, 2nd best was Pentathlon winner, Chloe Esposito - so proud of her dad:-)

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Peter Ciesa said..

Chris 249 said..
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It's apparently not actually very easy to televise kites. If you zoom out to show the kite, you can't see the sailor. If you zoom in to see the sailor, you can't see the kite. Actually talking to sports photogs about this stuff gives an interesting perspective.

Chris I suggest you watch the youtube HydroFoil Pro Tour channel video's..... It may debunk your view-able status for racing????

Here's a guy with a second generation (I believe or could be current?) DJI Phantom 3 (or 4) who has filmed these races superbly IMHO. The commentator adds color (really cracks me up sometimes) to each race. The HydroFoil races were post processed but imagine with a couple drones and a live connection (a reality with Phantom 4 models) this is TV real-time broadcast-able. BTW a Phantom 4 can push upwind in 20+ knots.

I'm a windsurfer only and only wish an enterprising soul or souls could do the same for Formula or PWA/slalom type events with drones........

Cheers Peter

ps - Olympic sailing televised was again piss poor as has been every other Olympics.
pss - best vision was Fiji 7's celebration after winning, 2nd best was Pentathlon winner, Chloe Esposito - so proud of her dad:-)

Sorry Peter, but that seems to confirm that all you see of the sailor is a minute black dot, a couple of mm high, from hundreds of metres away. You or I might like it, but if we look at the sports that attract higher ratings it seems that they are very different to watch.

Here's the list of cumulative TV ratings from the 2008 Games. I'm using them because the 2012 Games report didn't provide as much detail about separate disciplines.

Athletics 206 hours broadcast / 65 mill spectators each minute
Road cycling 121 / 23.8
Swimming 120 hours broadcast/ 58.8 mill spectators each minute
Artistic gymnastics 106 / 53.3
Volleyball 103 / 38.5
Triathlon 68 /. 19.4
Beach volleyball 59 / 23.6
Rhythmic gymnastics 49/ 30.4
MTB 45 / 16.4
BMX 44 / 23.2
Table tennis 41 / 40.8
Track cycling 37/32.8
Diving 31 / 43.5
Rowing 24 / 40.8
Water polo 24 / 17.4
Sprint (flat water) kayak/canoe – 24 / 32.4
Slalom (whitewater) canoe – 22 / 22.3
Sync Swimming 17 / 25.7
Shooting 12 /28
Trampolining 11 / 41.6
Sailing – 11 / 24.5

These show that "boring" rowing and paddling in a straight line on a flat lake outrated "extreme" images like the kayaks bouncing and zig-zagging down rocky rapids, and the 49ers crashing at 25+ knots in the extreme last race. Road cycling, with a bunch of guys riding pretty much in a straight line in a bunch, outrated "extreme" MTBs and BMXs bouncing over jumps and rocks, and the faster track cycling on 42 degree banks. In the pool. people swimming in a straight line at about 6 knots rates its socks off, and people twisting and tumbling in an amazing way as they dive down 10m or so doesn't rate that well.

So the actual stats seem to show that "extreme" sports don't rate well - what really counts is being able to get in close and see things like the athletes close-up and see who is winning. Given that, kiting or windsurfing may always be problematic.

One thing I find interesting is that (AFAIK) no one from sailing has ever sat down and discussed with the TV companies what makes for good viewing. When you talk to professional photographers and art directors you find that they often have completely different ideas than many sailors do.

Fascinating info Chris249, thanks for sharing!!!

Highlights of mens medal race;

What a workout!!!

I think some of the problem is it is called "yachting RS:X"
Nobody knows what that means. "Normal"people might be more likely to watch if they saw "windsurf racing"in the TV guide.
I dunno what a 49'er vs a Moth is, nor do i care.
So what hope do we have of "normal" people picking up on it? They see "RS:X" and don't know so don't watch. That's IF it is on...

If they called BMX "cyclingtype2" and MTB was"cycletype3 suspension bikes" how many people would think 'yeah I will watch that'?

This is where the IYF / IOC relationship supports us a bit, but also fks us over I think.

I wanted to watch shooting and archery on free to air at a reasonable hour and had no chance. Even when it was the first time we ever won a medal in team archery!!! So I sure as hell won't get windsurfing when we didn't field an entrant

The telly coverage, over 3 channels, was weak as piss with 10 sports shown heaps and the others on at 3am if you are lucky.