Should the Paralympics Closing Ceremonies be televised?

[ozonemania]

I was looking through at the paltry TV coverage for the Paralympic games. Looks like we're getting some sledge hockey matches and the rest are edited highlights of the other sports:

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/paralympic...?cid=sbctvpara

I looked for some coverage for the Closing and saw none. Incomplete schedule? Here's some food for thought, courtesy of the Vancouver Sun:

Paralympians deserve a nationally broadcast finale
By Miro Cernetig, Vancouver Sun

If the job is to shoot yourself in the foot, look hard-hearted and show you don't quite get the true spirit of the Olympics, CTV's bean-counters take the gold.

On Friday, the national network's executives made the decision not to broadcast the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games across Canada. No particular rationale was stated. But it's pretty clear someone didn't want to give up time on the network's lucrative, prime-time slot to a show that featured the disabled.

The calculation was that Canadians wouldn't watch such an event in the numbers that tuned in for the Olympics. After some reflection -- likely coming after someone inside screamed, 'Do you have any idea how bad this will look?' -- the network executed a sloppy backflip.

It would broadcast the opening ceremony live, after all, it announced, though only in British Columbia. Everyone else would get to see a truncated, heavily edited version that was broadcast nationally on Saturday.

"The decision to air the Paralympic Games opening ceremony on CTV British Columbia was made due to the huge local appetite for the Games," Tom Haberstroh, vice-president and general manger of CTV British Columbia, said in a news release. "Vancouver is extremely engaged in the Games and we felt there was enough interest to air the ceremony twice in this market."

Gee, thanks, CTV.

We didn't know that Vancouver was a special zone for Canadians with an affinity for the disabled. I'd always been under the impression the entire country, weened on the heroics of Terry Fox, shared the same interest in watching people triumph over blindness, paralysis, loss of limbs and birth defects to become Olympians in the truest sense of the word.

But since we here in Vancouver have, as CTV puts it, a supposedly "huge local appetite" for the 2010 Paralympics, perhaps we might offer some primers from the land of Rick Hansen (possibly the next governor-general.)

As you know, we filled BC Place Stadium for the Olympics, as everyone expected. If you had allowed Canadians to tune in Friday night for the Paralympics opening ceremony, they would have seen we did the exact same for the Paralympic athletes.

This was not out of pity, though it's hard not to get a bit emotional by people overcoming some of the toughest barriers life can throw at you. And we weren't in BC Place because we had nothing else to do on Friday night. We filled the stadium out of respect and the collective sense that these world-class amateur athletes should be accorded the same honours as their able-bodied counterparts.

If Canadians had been allowed to tune in on Friday night with us here in British Columbia, they would have noticed Prime Minister Stephen Harper agreed. He stayed for the opening ceremony. So did our premier, Gordon Campbell, along with John Furlong, who spearheaded the Vancouver Games and Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee.

Why did they stick around? Because they knew anything less would have been unseemly. We don't put the Olympic cauldron on half-burn for Paralympians.

Nobody is pretending the Paralympics is a TV mega-event on the scale of the Olympics. There are no celebrity Paralympians raking in the millions or pro athletes dipping their toes into amateur sport to go for the gold.

But when it comes to stories of human tenacity, athleticism and sheer grit, most of us agree the Paralympians deserved -- even for a half-hour of prime time -- the national spotlight as they marched into BC Place.

Nobody is suggesting the Paralympics will be a money-maker. Then again, who knows? Ten years ago, who would have dreamed women's hockey, or curling, would grab the national imagination and ratings as they did in the 2010 Olympics?

There is one way for the execs at CTV to rectify their unfortunate slight of the world's Paralympians: On March 21, when the Paralympics ends, forget showing us The Amazing Race, as planned. Amaze us by broadcasting a real reality show, the closing ceremony of the Paralympics, to the country, live. [emphasis added by ozonemania]

You all may be surprised by how many people will tune in, if Canadians are given a chance. After all, this is the nation that watched an unknown one-legged cancer survivor run across the country to raise money for others, and in that selfless act, find part of our national identity.

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/2...317/story.html


Needless to say, I was surprised to see there would be no televised coverage of the closing, taped or live. Disappointed too. I was disappointed with the Paralympic opening too... the regular schedule on CTV between 18:00 and 20:00 is really nothing special at all, no real rating-busting TV shows for that slot as it was... why for-go the live coverage for that?

[deasine]

Well of course CanWest can say such a thing... but that being said, yes I do agree. It was incredibly disappointing to see CTV's minimal broadcast for the Paralympics. I understand that it is something much smaller, but I expected a lot more because it was on home soil. Just to throw it in here, Italy has 5 HD channels dedicated for the Paralympics. Having watched the opening in person, the Paralympic Opening on CTV cut many parts.

I'm hoping to see the closings live.

[Yume-sama]

They cut many parts of the Olympic ceremonies, too.

Which is good for the TV audience, because my God did they drag things on for 10 minutes too long as CTV took their marathon commercials.

But, anywho, yes it should be televised! I enjoyed the Opening Ceremony.

I also was somewhat disappointed to find they only showed highlight clips, and none of the actual competition, other than Sledge Hockey.

[officedweller]

NBC cut the Paralympic Opening ceremony down to 1 hour.
Off the top of my head, they cut out the Sumi sequence, the deaf girl making flowers, the official speeches, the BMX/wheelchair sequence and the Rick Hansen tribute.

[CPE]

Is there anywhere online where i can watch the opening ceremonies for the paralympics? I missed it.

[ozonemania]

If you're insterested at all in seeing the closing ceremonies televised, which currently will not be, probably a good idea to email CTV: programming@ctv.ca

Here's what I wrote:

To whom it may concern:

I strongly suggest you consider televising the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony, live, across the nation on Sun March 21.

As it is right now, you dishonour the Paralympic movemement, and its athletes from around the world but especially our athletes, their families and their friends across the country.

You also dishonour the Canadian public, underestimating the spirit and the support that we have for our athletes.

Thank you.

[johnjimbc]

Thanks Ozonemania, good information and great suggestion.

I've already sent CTV one email, just expressing profound disappointment with the last-minute decision to cover the opening in BC and then the last-minute shift of time in the replay.

I saw the opening in person, and it was great. But since we couldn't find any guidance that they would show the opening on TV, we didn't record it. Then we missed the first half-hour of coverage on Saturday due to them changing times at the 11th hour.

It was just such a casual cluster. I think people get that the Paralympics won't have the demand of the Olympics, but it is here and remains a tremendous event. I think CTV really missed an opportunity by treating it as casually as they have. They could have worked to build an audience from the momentum of the Games. Instead, there every move has made it clear that they don't consider it a worthy event . . . not exactly a winning formula for appealing to a potential audience.

[johnjimbc]

CTV to air Paralympic Closing Ceremony Live: http://www.ctvolympics.ca/paralympic...+ceremony+live

guess they heard from the viewers.

[Distill3d]

I haven't watched any coverage of the Paralympics simply because it hasn't interrupted any regularly scheduled programing. I will say that I'm a little disappointed, but at the same time I'm kind of all Olympic-ed out after the main games. I think that feeling may be the same as a lot of Canadians, as save for a the fact that these games are on home soil don't really have the same interest in the Paralympics. Also, I feel that there is a great deal of the confusion in that the Paralympics and Special Olympics are one in the same.

That being said I think CTV needs to do more to promote and broadcast these events in order to show Canada what this is. So, the closing ceremony should be broadcast live.

[Waders]

Great! Finally there is a TV program worthy of watching on Sunday night.

[ozonemania]

Wow, this is most excellent news!

I agree that there is a bit of the post-Olympic anti-climax feeling out there. If VANOC had planned out its communication strategy better it would have been actively building up promotion of the Paralympics while the Olympics were on. The audience is engaged, hungry for information and in a good mood. Getting networks on board to help promote the Paralympics in addition to promotions about the Paralympic movement would have gone a long way to seed more energy with the arrival of the Paralympics.

I can see the IOC being concerned/opposed to doing that though. Which might have tied the hands of Paralympic organizers.