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London 2012 Olympic channels

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 10:16 am
by mark1234
With 100 days until the 2012 London Olympics kick off I thought I'd mention the TV coverage that will drown out everything else this summer.

All 24 BBC Olympic channels will be available in SD and HD for Sky, Freesat and Virgin viewers. Doesn't interest me, but I recognise that many people will love this. Don't suppose there is any chance that MS/BDS will get the guide data sorted for 24 channels that will only be around for a few weeks!

Freeview/BT Vision doesn't have the bandwidth for these new channels, but will get coverage through BBC Three extending its broadcast hours during the Olympics (taking over BBC Parliament's bandwidth) and also through BBC One coverage and on the red button. Everything will be available through BBC Online as well.

There will also be limited 3D broadcasts available through the BBC and Eurosport for the 12 people that have a 3D TV.

London 2012 Olympic channels

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 10:23 am
by StumpyBloke
Will be glad when it's all over to be honest...I couldn't be any less interested! But everyone to their own.

Re: London 2012 Olympic channels

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 10:32 am
by mark1234
Agree. You even know that the main event, Beach Volleyball on Horse Guards Parade will be ruined by rain and cold on the day!

The torch relay is passing close by on three days however, and I do intend on going and seeing that. For 30 seconds...

Re: London 2012 Olympic channels

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 7:29 pm
by milli260876
Dunno, beach volleyball in cold and rain sounds good to me....
Just not sure the girls taking part would agree!

Re: London 2012 Olympic channels

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 8:55 pm
by bmblank
If the girls don't have their heat into it than its just not the same. They have to WANT tip be there. Or at least pretending to want to be there. I can work with that too.

Re: London 2012 Olympic channels

Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 4:12 pm
by mark1234
More details on the BBC coverage. Seems to be a text book example of wall-to-wall coverage.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18071080
  • An enhanced video experience will give access to up to 24 live HD streams and 2,500 hours of coverage via the BBC Sport website on PC and laptop.
  • A free Olympics mobile app will allow audiences to access content on the go.
  • The BBC Olympics mobile browser site, accessible across all mobile devices, will mirror much of the desktop experience, while audiences can also access coverage through tablets and connected TV.
  • The BBC's Red Button service for the Olympics on Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat will offer audiences access to up to 24 live streams, while there will be an additional 24-hour channel of extra BBC Olympics content available via the BBC Red Button for audiences with Freeview and BT Vision.
  • The BBC Sport app for connected TVs will give audiences access to the BBC's interactive coverage, while Virgin Media TiVo users will be able to access this content via the BBC Red Button.
  • The BBC Sport website will offer a page for every sport, country, athlete and venue. The coverage includes live updates, Twitter visualisations and comments from across social media.
The flagship Olympic channels, BBC One, BBC Two (when BBC One switches to the news), BBC Three, BBC HD and BBC One HD will be dedicated to the event over the 17 days of competition.

A 24-hour digital radio station, Radio 5 live Olympic Extra, will complement BBC Radio 5 live and BBC Radio 5 live Sports Extra for the duration of the Games.

Re: London 2012 Olympic channels

Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 4:50 pm
by holidayboy
Yawn! :silent:

Re: London 2012 Olympic channels

Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 5:44 pm
by mark1234
At least they aren't polluting BBC Four.

London 2012 Olympic channels

Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 5:54 pm
by STC
Hey at least you peeps have the choice. North Americas offerings will be chunks at best. It's the Beeb showing off again.

Re: London 2012 Olympic channels

Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 6:03 pm
by holidayboy
mark1234 wrote:At least they aren't polluting BBC Four.
Nothing has been announced yet anyway!.......................

Re: London 2012 Olympic channels

Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 6:05 pm
by holidayboy
stonethecrows wrote:Hey at least you peeps have the choice. North Americas offerings will be chunks at best. It's the Beeb showing off again.
That's our tax dollars (Pounds) at work baby. What recession????????????

Re: London 2012 Olympic channels

Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 6:09 pm
by mark1234
holidayboy wrote:
mark1234 wrote:At least they aren't polluting BBC Four.
Nothing has been announced yet anyway!.......................
There will probably be an Olympic themed season of programmes.

Surely I'm not going to be reduced to watching ITV over this period??!!

Re: London 2012 Olympic channels

Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 6:33 pm
by holidayboy
IT.. what? ;)

Re: London 2012 Olympic channels

Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 10:25 pm
by mark1234
Exactly!

Re: London 2012 Olympic channels

Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 1:34 pm
by mark1234
The extra BBC Olympics channels are due to launch on July 25th. This is two days before the Opening Ceremony, but it is the first day of events as the Women's Football starts on the 25th with Great Britain v New Zealand. Five other games that day as well. Lets just hope the Beeb do a better job of filling these channels than they did with the Jubilee coverage.

Channel 4 are also pushing the Paralympics and are adding extra channels as well. They will be showing live coverage on Channel 4, More 4 and are adding three additional channels. These extra channels will be on Sky, and are expected to be on Virgin. They have a heap of streaming options and apps for iOS/Android will be available as well.

Re: London 2012 Olympic channels

Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 1:36 pm
by mark1234
mark1234 wrote:
holidayboy wrote:
mark1234 wrote:At least they aren't polluting BBC Four.
Nothing has been announced yet anyway!.......................
There will probably be an Olympic themed season of programmes.
I was partially right. They have a London theme of programmes running across BBC Two and BBC Four at the moment. Actually some interesting stuff in there. :)

[Moderator Edit: Comments about taxation and the monarchy have been split into a separate thread http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... =22&t=2137 ]

Re: London 2012 Olympic channels

Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 8:46 am
by tommo
are there new freeview hd channels now for the games? I really hate returning as I have to disable about 100 advert/junk channels.

Re: London 2012 Olympic channels

Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 10:00 am
by mark1234
Yes!

I'd missed this, but checked before answering, and there is an extra HD channel coming to Freeview for the Olympics.

So, Freeview HD will have BBC One HD and BBC HD simulcasting with the SD versions of BBC One and BBC Three, and a new red button service on channel 304 will simulcast with the existing SD red button channel 301.

If you've got a dish then Freesat is getting all 24 Olympic channels in HD.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/rogermosey/2 ... r_bbc.html

Re: London 2012 Olympic channels

Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 4:00 pm
by milli260876
@tommo I'm sure you'll just be able to scan a transponder. Surely it'll only be one or two carrying these channels...

Re: London 2012 Olympic channels

Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 10:08 pm
by holidayboy
milli260876 wrote:@tommo I'm sure you'll just be able to scan a transponder. Surely it'll only be one or two carrying these channels...
You can definitely do that for Freesat.

If you have the background periodic scan enabled (as it is by default), then additional Freeview stations will show up automatically - as the new Freeview HD feed has done on one of my setups.

If you have disabled the background (opportunistic) DVB-T (and -T2) scanner then you'll need to do a manual scan for additional DVB-T (and -T2) services on all transponders / frequencies, which may find items that you don't want, depending on tuner hardware, additional nearby transmitters, +/-167kHz offsets etc!

One of my hopes for 8MC was more scanning options for DVB-T (and -T2) signals - like the ability to scan a certain transponder, like we can for DVB-S signals.

I know - I could always use DVBLink to get better tuning control...........