Can Olympics Closing Ceremony Save BBC’s 3D Campaign?

It might have been raining medals for Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics, but the number of British viewers who watched the BBC’s 3D coverage could at best be described as a trickle. According to figures obtained from BARB (Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board) through data processing bureau Attentional, the average audience on the BBC HD channel dropped to as low as 4,000 viewers when extra-dimensional content was aired.

BBC London 2012 Olympics
Can Olympics closing ceremony save BBC’s 3D campaign?

Last week, we reported that less than 0.5% of BBC viewers watched the opening ceremony of this year’s Olympic Games in 3D. There’s no sign of any improvement in this trend; if anything it has gotten worse. Only 66,000 out of more than 20 million viewers tuned into BBC HD to watch Usain Bolt win the men’s 100m final, equating to a 3D-to-2D viewing ratio of below 0.35%.

The data on TV audience for the nightly one-hour tri-dimensional highlights programme further exposed the underwhelming pulling power of even free 3D content. From the 30th of July to the 7th of August, only an average of 10,460 Brits watched the show each night on BBC HD, with the number plunging to as low as 4,000 on the 4th, 5th and 6th of August.

Several reasons have been put forward to explain the disappointing viewing figures, ranging from low penetration of 3D-capable HDTV sets among UK households to lack of promotion on the part of the Beeb. What hasn’t been discussed much is the quality of the 3D programming itself.

While 3-dimensional coverage of the opening ceremony was excellent, watching the men’s 100m final in 3D did not provide a satisfying viewing experience: 3D depth during the race itself left a lot to be desired; the camera perspectives were limited to the extent that we couldn’t truly appreciate the margin by which Bolt retained his title (in 2D there was an overhead aerial view); and the commentary was not of the same standard as that delivered in 2D. Having bothered to put on our active-shutter glasses and engaged 3D mode on a Panasonic GT50 plasma, we really wished we could turn back time and relive the historic moment “flat” instead.

All is not lost however: tonight’s closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games has every potential to be as spectacular as the opening ceremony in terms of 3D broadcasting. As per throughout this past two weeks, extra-dimensional coverage can be accessed on BBC HD (Freeview channel 54; Freesat 109; Sky 169; and Virgin 187), starting at 8pm with an Olympics review programme, followed by the closing ceremony at 9pm, and then capped off by highlights of the final day of these Games. Let’s hope we go out with a bang.

48 comments

  1. I watched it on Sky 3D. Thought it excellent. Perhaps if the BBC had told viewers where their 3D coverage was and what was included more people would have been aware of it. Could it be that the BBC doesn’t wish to broadcast 3D programs? I have seen that it would encroach on their HD channels but Sky seem to manage.

  2. Only realised there was 3D coverage when saw the 3D cameras at the athletics stadium. Couldn’t find the 3D name for the programme when searching off the TV guide. Only found out how to record the programme by this blog. No wonder noone is watching it.

  3. I missed the opening but having found out that the closing ceremony is in 3D on BBC HD tonight. I will definitely give it a go. I just hope more people get to hear about it so that we can have more of the same. I say to the Beeb. Come on, advertise it more!!

  4. fantastic 3d needs more advertising people dont know its there and its free

  5. duncan johnstone

    found the opening ceremony on bbc 3d brillient well done hope to see more in time to come..again well done bbc

  6. 3d coverage was good quality, only 2 observations 1) it was on quite late at night with no catchup on the iplayer that I could find 2) The presenters/commentary was predominantly US based, not the household BBC names…… That said the BBC should bring it all out on a 3d blu-ray.

  7. I also watched it in 3don saturday night. 6x of us on my projector, it was amazing. Boyle had clearly filmed it with 3d in mind. One of my mates had seen it the night before and said it was entirely different. Really think 3d projected is that much better than on a tv, more immersive. I did it on the cheap, makes much more sense than a tv. Gutted my sky box appears to have lost the recording. If anyone happens to have it stored in some way, I’d love to get a copy. Oh well. Amazing as I said…

  8. I am currently trying to find the BBC 3D coverage of the closing ceremony, so far without luck !
    Can’t find any ref. on the BBC web site !

    No wonder few are watching !!

  9. I’m enjoying the 3d coverage right now. got to say, the audio was well dodgy at first though!

  10. Missed the opening in 3D ….nobody mentioned where to find it!!!!! presenters just said 3d was available…….had to google how to get 3d Olympics before discovered channel 54…… managed to catch last half , close ceremony in 3d ….Why wasnt message on screen “for 3d go to 54” how hard would that have been…..

  11. Margaret McQueen

    The presenters on the closing ceremony,Colin Jackson and Paul Dickinson were not the best. They talked over most of the first hour including most of the songs. The talk was complete drivel, eg, the fact that Paul lived near someone who won a medal. Paul, I don’t care. I want to watch a bit of history not hear who your neighbours are. Also, I was watching on 3d so there is probably an assumption that I can see what is going on. Paul commented that the ‘flame was out’. I can see its out but now I can’t hear the crowds reaction to it going out. Honestly this rubbish spoiled the closing ceremony for me. I won’t watch anything major on the 3d channel if it means sub standard commentary

  12. The closing ceremony in 3D was utterly amazing. We had a sitting room full of unexpected visitors who popped up almost on our laps, and will be sweeping up confetti from the carpet for weeks. But the commentary…after virtually continuously brilliant coverage by the BBC throughout the Olympics, the 3D commentators did a poor job. Colin Jackson appeared to be having a go, while his ‘partner’, Paul Dickenson, seemed totally underwhelmed and sounded as if he would rather be somewhere else. How sad that he chose to comment negatively on Jacques Rogge’s speech and particularly that M Rogge did not say the London Games were the ‘best ever’, even stating that there was a “palpable sense of disappointment” in the stadium. Such nonsense. What criticism would have been levelled at Mr Rogge if he had said such a thing, and what better comment could he have made than that our games were “happy and glorious”? Gold medal for mealy-mouthness, out-of-touchness and a resounding “Booooo” for Mr Dickenson. Such important and joyous events are clearly not his bag, so please don’t give him another one to spoil, particularly on BBC 3D, which is already struggling for viewers.

  13. Really wanted to watch the Olympics closing ceremony in 3D on the BBC – pictures were awesome, but could not bear the commentary! Lasted about 30 minutes before I gave up and continued to watch in HD instead. The pointless chatter was incessant and soon began to spoil the whole thing. Clearly a man who is used to giving a running commentary on everything and forgot to shut up and let the amazing pictures speak for themselves. Shame, wonder how many other viewers 3D lost because of this?

  14. Was having trouble watching it on side by side 3d, and then realised it was on ‘BBC HD’ and not ‘BBC 1 HD’ lol

  15. I was unable to record the opening ceremony so had to watch it in 2D on iplayer. I watched quite a number of 3D evening summaries but they were too late and I was too tired to wait up some nights. I began to watch the closing ceremony last night but was two tired after a couple of hours and went to bed leaving my recorder (not HD so only 2D) running. I’ve watched all I got this morning but it seems it over-ran significantly because it stopped after 160 minutes and recorded ‘Live at the Apollo’ for just 14 minutes which was actually the tail end of the ceremony. I got as far as the Royal Ballet with Darcy Bussell running to the cauldron and then missed the extinguishing so I’m gutted. I do hope the BBC are going to release the opening and closing ceremonies on 3D blu ray because the quality was superb and I’d love to see it all again. Overall I thought the BBC did a magnificent job but I would have loved more 3D transmissions as all the ones I saw were fantastic.

  16. We watched both the opening and closing ceremonies in 3D which were great. However, the commentary for both was absolutly dire. The commentators seemed to think they had to state the obvious, and worse did so over some key moments. Example, in the opening ceremony they spoke over the start of the Shakespear speech performed by Ken Branagh!The pictures spoke for themselves and did not require inane comments. I would rather have listened to the announcements in the stadium itself.

    The commentary was not only drivel and intrusive, it was often just wrong. Example, in the closing ceremony Colin Jackson showing off his ‘knowledge’ of music attributes the John Lennon song ‘Imagine’ to Lennon & McCartney!! They spoke over the entire performance by Elbow giving ‘analysis’ of the best Olympic performances – something which had already been done throughout the day.

    I was really hoping that after the poor standard of commentary in the opening ceremony Jackson and Dickenson might have been taken in hand by the programme director.

    These were important events and many of us were disgusted at the poor performance of the BBC commentators.

  17. I watched the opening ceremony in 3D and felt it lacked something, but was unable to decide what. Then I watched the 2D HD version on the iplayer next day and realised what I had missed….decent commentary, loads of camera angles, whole sections of activity and performances, explanatory shots and cuts of details vital to the story etc etc. I decided to avoid 3D for large scale events again and changed my initial 7 out of 10 for the opening ceremony to an 11!

  18. Interesting to read so many other people that had problems with the commentary on the BBC’s 3D feed. We managed with 3D until the commentators began talking over the entire Elbow performance with inane babble. It became apparent that they did not regard the music as something worth listening to but rather just background to be nattered over. We ended up watching the No Commentary option and then having the TV push that into 3D which was less dramatic. I thought the BBC commentators did a relatively poor job on the opening ceremony (especially the banal Trevor Nelson) but it stood head and shoulders above their efforts at the closing ceremony.

  19. What a great job the BBC did with its 3D Olympic coverage. Both the opening and closing ceremonies were fantastic. The nightly highlights was very good in that it broadcast many other sports and the 3D perspective was excellent. I agree with previous reviews that 3D is still and expensive item but coming down all the time so therefore people are taking advantage and also more films are becoming available. I do feel the BBC need to advertise it more but after all is said and done the BBC made a very memorable event even more memorable with their coverage.

  20. Watched the Closing Ceremony in 3D on BBC HD last night and while techincally it was excellent, it was spoiled by both poor camera coverage and really dire commentary. There were frequent occasions when other cameras wandered in from of the 3D ones and it made you wonder if there was any direction from the BBC or if they had to just take the direct feed. We gave up and watched on 2D HD which had a much better commentary and more camera angles It was the same with the Opening Ceremony and it is a shame the BBC did not learn lessons. This wasa great opportunity for the BBC to show what could be achieved and it fell flat for me.

  21. I agree with George. I watched half last night live and the rest this morning (on a Humax HD PVR). There seemed to be too many close-ups at inappropriate moments, performers not being shown in their relationship with the whole. The BBC also seems to have a problem with fireworks, cutting away rather than letting viewers see the entire display. As for the commentary, I did not notice any credits at the beginning or end of the programme, but I was convinced it was Alan Partridge.

  22. The 3D coverage of the Olympics was absolutely brilliant except the terrible commentary of the closing ceremony which detracted from the enjoyment.
    Would like to see much more 3D TV and would have liked to have an informed commentary of the closing ceremony. Maybe Colin Jackson and Paul Dickenson should stick to just commentating on the races, they didn’t add anything when it came to music and culture.

  23. Watched the opening and closing ceromony in 3d, and the closing ceromony was terrrible in it, howeever the opening ceromony was great. We found that in the closing ceromony there was not that many close ups of the performers and team GB was barely shown by the camera, also other camermen often walked in front of the camera, therefore giving them in 3d, not what was actually happening. I have since watched parts of the opening ceromony on bbc iplayer this morning, and found that the coverage was much better and there was less comentry throughout, meaning you could actually enjoy the ceromony. However the opening ceromony was brilliant in 3d, but the bbc let its self down last night,

  24. The “commentary” by Paul Dickenson was absolutely infuriating. I didn’t know the direct BBC telephone number, so couldn’t ring to try to stop him ruining the ceremony. Instead I found myself shouting at the TV “shut the **** up”.
    To have a David Coleman clone giving us his Olympic events summary at a concert was truly bizarre and irrelevant. He completely drowned out Elbow.
    Agree with Karen Hall. Dickenson’s comments expecting the IOC president to say that that these were “the best games ever” were a ridiculous and depressing. How on earth could Jacques Rogge say such a thing without appearing to insult the previous Olympic hosts ?
    Let’s hope the BBC don’t feel the need to enhance their 3D broadcast of the “Last Night at The Proms” with a Dickenson voice over.

  25. Just a note – the 3D coverage was supplied by the host broadcasting service and as such we had no say about the camera positions or shots. It was a shame to see (literally) so many 2D close-up cameras covering the event, obviously have “priority” over the 3D cameras. Still that’s not an issue for Planet Dinosaur this coming Sunday!

  26. The picture quality of bbc coverage in 3d of the closing ceremony was excellent but I had to change channels I could’nt stand the constant chatter of paul dickenson,I’m sure he called Prince Harry Prince Henry at one point.

  27. (Colin Mitchell might like to know that Prince Harry’s name is, in fact, Henry.)
    I recorded the evening 3D highlights during the games and was constantly irritated by the inferior (generally US or Aussie) commentaries, which spoiled it for me.
    The opening ceremony was good in 3D, but I quickly became absolutely fed up with the hopeless commentary, particularly Paul Dickenson who was appalling. I wasn’t able to watch the closing ceremony in 3D and didn’t bother recording it because by then I had become too fed up by the commentators. On the whole, we are watching the same things as in 2D, so can we not have the same commentary dubbed on? I think the reactions above show how important it is, and that the advantages of 3D viewing are outweighed by the disadvantages of inferior commentary.

  28. I watched the opening and closing in 3D and it was excelent even a better expirence than most of the films I have watched in 3D. Thing is until I read it here I diddnt even know other events were shown in 3D and I diddnt even know the ceremonies were until it was mentioned at the start.
    If they wanted higher ratings maybe they should make a bigger fuss that its there!
    Also yes horrible commertary over everything did spoil it loads. I dot hope theres a 3D release as well when its all out.

  29. HI WILL THE OPENING AND CLOSING OF GAMES BE REPEATED IN 3D WHAT FURTURE PROGRAMS WILL BE TRIED FOOTBALL MAYBE THANKS

  30. We watched all we could of the BBC 3D coverage and enjoyed most of what we saw. I do agree with the other coments of the inferior comentaries. I also heard Prince Harry being called Prince Henry. But BBC more 3D programs please.

  31. I watched the beginning of the closing ceremony on TV but being elderly I recorded the program so that I could see the rest today. Imagine my disappointment when I found it had been recorded 3D and I have no way of being able to see this unless I watch the distorted figures on the split screen.
    I watched the opening ceremony the next day and enjoyed it. I feel there should have been more warning of the change. I feel very disappointed as I don’t know where I can get the required glasses or how much they will cost.

  32. Totally agree…. the 3D closing ceremony commentary was absolutely appalling.
    How ignorant to talk over the entire Elbow performance… thought they were voicing over a highlights package!
    Typical commentators attitude…. learn to shut up once in a while and stop thinking what they have to say is more important than people performing.
    Jacques Rogge – pronounced differently on BBC channels??? Not good enough.
    Oh, one final thing…. “He’s leading from the front…” well if I heard that once during these games, I heard it a thousand times. WHERE ELSE DO YOU LEAD FROM????

  33. I lived up to the moment that the well announced openingscermony was showed in 3D and WoW in was great. As a viewer in the Netherlands I was amazed by the depth shots in the swimming hall, the arena’s A great shot was at the steeplechase where the water splashed out of the screen. I think the horse jumping with the depth between the fences had been an better show for 3D than the 100 meter.
    The excercise of Epke Zonderland in 3D was amazing.
    The closingceremony in 3D was the greatest show on earth en for me the best 3d expierence ever seen. The confetti was just coming out of the screen.
    BBC thanks for your great job and I’m looking forward to see more 3D broadcast.

  34. Did 3D viewers have a different view than normal viewers? At times it felt like we were missing the main action ( of the closing ceremony )

  35. I enjoyed the 3D coverage everyday. Commentary was all over the place as expected. Watching the Closing Ceremony in 2D the next day using BBC Red Button on endless repeat (sky184) made me notice 2D camerman errors eg cut to a shot of the floor before Jessie J arrived to not showing the full length of her yellow dress which was shown in full in 3D. But, I agree the 2D commentary was superior by far. Also judging by the number of pubs with ‘sunglasses wearers’ crowding around one screen, viewing figures would obviously be lower than 2D viewers. DVD/Blu-Ray 3D will be out before Xmas according to Danny Boyle…

  36. We watched the Closing Ceremony through the Nine Network Australia’s 3D feed of the BBC coverage. We really enjoyed the beautiful pictures and didn’t mind the BBC commentary. Believe me, compared to the two Australian commentators on Nine’s 2D HD coverage of the Opening & Closing ceremonies (the egregious twit Eddie McGuire & air-headed muppet Leila McKinnon), Colin Jackson & Paul Dickinson weren’t too bad.

    It was also a really comfortable viewing experience over the whole 3+ hours as our brand new LG Cinema 3D LED HDTV uses passive technology in their lightweight glasses, so there is no annoying side flicker, unlike our first LG 3D TV which used heavier active shutter glasses and could be pretty tiring after a while.

    On the downside, we were disappointed (as others have noted) in the lack of camera angles compared to the 2D coverage (which we checked out later when Nine did an ‘encore’ presentation of the Closing Ceremony in prime time). Another big negative that nobody has yet mentioned, and I don’t know if it was just experienced here in Australia, was the extremely annoying audio problems with the 3D broadcast. For the first hour of the broadcast, the crowd noise track drowned out the musical performances. We could barely hear The Pet Shop Boys and Ray Davies singing Waterloo Sunset (who were we really looking forward to hearing) was almost inaudible. After a while, the sound technicians seemed finally to cotton on to the issue and turned off the crowd noise track during any performances or speeches. This was great for a bit but then we noticed this made the performances, as a result, seem a bit disconnected and hollow without ANY background noise at all, they were performing in a vacuum.

    So, while it was great to see something like this in 3D, it still needs some improvements to really make it a truly spectacular viewing experience for future Olympics.

  37. As said I watched on the sky 3d channel so don’t know if the BBC take this into account in there figures also we had lots of people over to watch are 3D TV so don’t think the figures show a true picture

  38. Couldn’t find it, where is it? Was watching freeview and pushed red button but still couldn’t get it

  39. I am so disappointed that I missed so much of this summers 3D broadcasts. I was the not aware of the programming and only found last saturdays coverage at the last minute. I am now looking for dates and time of the Planet Dinosaur 3D ( or have I missed that also ) on the web but no luck yet. Great Great ser vice BBC but please make it easy for us to find on our tellies. What about email alerts, that would be very useful to me, perhaps they already exist I don’t know.

  40. The 3D coverage was very enjoyable although I agree that some of the commentaries weren’t as good and that on the closing ceremony there was too much talking over the music (particularly the entire Elbow performance).
    Since 3D cameras are essentially 2 cameras fixed side by side, why cant one of these be fed to the 2D viewers so that you don’t need 2 sets of cameramen (getting in each others way) and then you could have the same commentary for both 2D & 3D?

  41. Why did the BBC insist on having commentary at the opening and closing ceremonies? Danny Boyle did not want it included. Huw Edwards was used to try and get both sides to compromise. The result was that a “no commentary version” was available on the Red Button, this only announced begrudgingly, as the programme started. Judging by the above complaints Danny Boyle was right.
    The ceremony was a theatrical masterpiece that said everything visually with a marvellous musical soundtrack. Adding commentary only detracted from the experience. I understand a DVD by Danny Boyle is to be released in the future.

  42. I watched both the opening and closing ceremonies in 3D together with most of the nightly 3D highlights programmes on the BBC HD channel and overall was quite impressed. 3D definitely gives a greater sense of depth and of being involved in the action in a way 2D doesn’t. However, I think the BBC needs to do it justice by giving the same audio quality, commentary expertise and variety of camera angles as with 2D. Was it me or did the Beeb seem afraid of using close-ups? During the closing ceremony I also found the intrusion of cameramen shooting the 2D pictures who seemed to be able to walk in front of shot at will quite distracting. Overall though a good effort and much better than the 3D Wimbledon.

  43. I had no idea that the BBC even broadcast 3d content untill today. I watched it all on Sky 3d.

  44. I watched a lot of the BBC 3d broadcasts and thought some of it was ok and some was brilliant. but as the BBC have said the 3d content put out so far are trials and they will improve.
    I hope the beeb do not give up on 3d its the way forward for television, as for the viewing figures i have seen totals quoted much higher than these.
    keep up the good work.

  45. Dear Michael Nelson – we would have loved more closeups unfortunately the 3D was provided by OBS and we (as did EuroSport) have to take what was on offer!

    Andy

  46. Dear Chris Grace – only a few cameras are SbyS. Currently the best 3D comes from mirror rigs unless you are doing big wide shots where artificial separation helps

    Andy

  47. So, will there be more BBC 3D output (having got a 3D set last month).

    I see the Strictly final is not in 3D this year .. a late-night repeat of last year’s wouldn’t go amiss

  48. I watched the opening ceremony on the red button…no commentary. Ah bliss. The ceremony spoke for itself with no commentary required. If I had a 3D TV I would have watched it in 3D but I didn’t. II have one now though.

    Peter