Monday was a triumphant day on the Gold Coast at the Commonwealth Games, with Kiwis snaring gold in track and field, at the pool, in the weightlifting hall and on the squash court.
It should have been a time of national basking in the glow. Instead, most of us were filthy. The target of our opprobrium was TVNZ.
TVNZ’s coverage of the Games appears to be driving people crackers.
While many folks appear to be understanding of the commercial requirement to screen advertising during events, the network’s failure to screen golden and potentially golden moments live has been more than most people (this column included) can take.
Monday evening started appallingly, and pretty much went down hill from there.
While Joelle King was going for gold in a thrilling five-set squash contest with a wonderfully angry Englishwoman, TVNZ’s three ‘Games’ dedicated channels were screening a weightlifting replay, a beach volleyball replay and a boxing match between an Aussie and a Scot.
When the weightlifting coverage finished, TV1 launched into an in-studio Q+A with Portia Bing about her hurdling prospects at the next Olympics.
Never mind that King was slogging her guts out at that very moment and closing on a gold medal.
The squash could be found online. So clearly TVNZ had access to the feed – and bizarrely chose not to broadcast it other than via livestream on its website.
For those with dicey internet connections (most of the country, then) or an inability to navigate the mysteries of live streaming (the rest of the country), it was a case of tough titty.
Late, very late, in the piece the final stanzas of the five-game match appeared on TVNZ's Duke channel, allowing some TV-based coverage of a wonderful gold medal win.
The posters on Stuff.co.nz’s live blog were not kind.
“So on TV is skeet shooting with no NZers, South Africa v Wales in the Hockey, and gymnastics and boxing to follow on 59. And no squash! Thank goodness for this blog so I can follow the kiwis. Toni Street has also just said that they will be showing the 90+ kg weightlifting,” wrote one poster.
The squash debacle had actually been forecast in advance, via Squash NZ’s clearly pissed off twitter account.
Continue here to the full article written by Steve Deane For Newsroom | || April 14, 2018 |||
