After the sponsor boards and program opening above, the opening ceremony began. Significant audio problems. To start with you could hear the local commentary but the voices from the stadium including Morgan Freeman were hard to hear. You could notice an attempt to increase the stadium audio but then the commentators couldn’t be heard. Notable that there was a long ad break after just 8 minutes.
After the break Morgan Freeman was back - this time the audio was out of synch. No commentary was heard during this segment. However, this part of the ceremony was all singing so synch issues didn’t matter.
After the next ad break, the commentators were back.
Also noted, a subtle “Welcome to the world game” by the late Les Murray at the start of the show and also the game that followed.
The use of green screen to add depth and height to the set is tremendous. Looks amazing.
Excellent they acknowledge they’re in Sydney but then actually cross to the stadium reporter and commentator. SBS leading the way yet again with coverage. Leaving the likes of 7 and they’re horrible games coverage for dead.
Interesting to see that Be-In Sports are re-uploading the SBS highlights on YouTube (and I’ll assume on other platforms as well). I’ll assume it’s part of the deal to use Be-In’s Arabic commentary.
Well done to them. It will be interesting to see if there is any response from FIFA, in the way of declining appearances on the BBC or less access in the future.
That story is somewhat misleading based on other reports. As reported by other media, BBC was late to the broadcast because of other sporting commitments then chose not to show the final 10 minutes.
But viewers in Britain missed out on much of the spectacle because the BBC was late to broadcast the show by 20 minutes.
The first part of the opening ceremony was missed because BBC One opted not to interrupt coverage of the Women’s Super League match between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur.
But once the game had concluded and the BBC switched to its team in Doha, it refused to show the remainder of the opening ceremony on terrestrial TV, instead broadcasting a pre-packaged report on Qatar’s questionable human rights record and the controversy surrounding the tournament.
