Olympics To Hit The Big Screen

deasine · #1 Posted **Dec 9, 2009, 10:11 PM**

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The Vancouver Games are coming to the big screen, with an announcement expected today that CTV's Winter Olympics coverage will be shown live in high definition in cinemas across much of Canada.

Continuing the trend of live broadcasts at theatres - from New York's Metropolitan Opera to National Hockey League games - 61 Cineplex theatres will present CTV's broadcast feed for the 17 days of the games, while three cinemas in Quebec will show French-language feeds from the RDS sports network.

Logistically, this means that the theatres will open earlier in the morning and stay open throughout the day's coverage, depending on the schedule of events. Audiences can buy one-day tickets or 17-day passes for the entire games.

"It is the first time that daily coverage of the Olympic games will be available to Canadians in movie theatres across the country, so it's a true first," said Cineplex spokesperson Pat Marshall. "We will play all the broadcasting live from start of coverage during the day to end of coverage."
However, Cineplex doesn't have a presence in Atlantic Canada, so the theatre broadcasts won't spread east of Quebec. Dan Cimoroni, vice-president of business development for the CTV-Rogers consortium broadcasting the games, said that there are no plans for a similar deal with Empire Theatres, the major theatre chain in Atlantic Canada.
Also, because of local sporting-event blackout restrictions, no cinemas in Vancouver itself will host the broadcasts, although cinemas in various Vancouver suburbs, including Richmond, will carry the games.
For theatres that can carry the games, coverage will be tailored to local interests. For instance, theatres in Quebec, where speed skating is popular, will probably show more of the preliminary heats and quarter finals, Cimoroni said.

Because so many networks are providing video feeds for the games, the consortium's central control can shape broadcasts for different communities and then send those signals live to their theatres.
Because this is CTV's live feed, it will include commercials and promos, just as on TV. The difference is that they'll be cinema-sized and in surround sound.

Research showed that Canadians want to congregate with others to watch the games, Cimoroni said. The option of showing some of the games on screens in hockey arenas was also explored.

"You might still see some [broadcasts shown] in some of the arenas. We're talking to certain people about those sorts of things. But they are harder. I'm not a technical person, but the logistics of getting the right HD feed on big screens and having the right seating just becomes difficult." he said.
The cinema broadcasts aren't expected to eat into TV ratings, as new ratings systems can monitor television programs watched away from viewers' home TVs.

Marshall noted that live broadcasts are good business for the theatre chain. Now in its fourth season of Met opera broadcasts, the number of Cineplex theatres showing the opera has grown from 24 cinemas to more than 100. Many Cineplex theatres also carry the opera broadcasts on more than one screen within the same multiplex, with all screens selling out.

"It's been tremendous, and our audience has really been our best advertiser," Marshall said. This has led Cineplex to expand what it calls "alternative programming," showing broadcasts of The Nutcracker ballet at Christmas and live theatre from the Stratford Shakespeare Festival and a four-part series with London's National Theatre. Cineplex isn't showing NHL games any more, though, due to the inability of some teams to provide HD video feeds of their games.

Via CTV