Comments on: Wants head-to-head duels in International O-Champs

By: Jan Kocbach

Jan Kocbach — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:49:46 +0000

@Rob: I’ve also thought about the World Rally Champs related to orienteering broadcasts, and I think that this type of format (I’ve typically seen 30-minute broadcasts in the evening) could be very good for orienteering if you throw in GPS-tracking, interviews etc.

@J: I still haven’t seen the NORT final as there was no big screen on the event and I traveled directly to Spain, but I am looking forward to watching it when I get back.

By: JJ

JJ — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:15:16 +0000

Great comment from Rob. I haven’t yet seen ANY *really* good tv productions of orienteering. Many of them had been interesting for o-fanatics, but the real drama of o-sport has not been shown. I think that we need a really good screen writers who can implement shows almost like Jukka I described.

By: .j.

.j. — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:13:52 +0000

With all due respect, I watched the videos from the NORT final and was impressed. That is good entertainment:
http://www.nrk.no/nett-tv/klipp/647480
http://www.nrk.no/nett-tv/klipp/647481

By: ROB CRAWFORD

ROB CRAWFORD — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 22:32:16 +0000

I also do not necessarily agree that head-to-head duels are the way of the future … if anything what Stockholm showed is it doesnt matter what concept you use, a bad TV production is a bad TV production.

Whenever I think of O and TV, I think of the World Rally Championship – another sport with staggered starts and a race aginst the clock. WRC has a huge global audience – the difference being of course everyone knows how to drive a car and can appreciate the skill of the rally driver.

The problem with Orienteering is only a small part of the population can understand and appreciate the talent of the elite orienteer. The challenge for TV orienteering is to present the action of an intricate and technical sport in a way that can be understood by a general viewer. Not easy. But in some respects that has nothing to do with race concept. Until there has been experience of good TV productions of traditional formats you can make no judgement of how good or bad our traditional formats are for TV.

Whether a sport is “boring” or “interesting” is not the only thing for TV sports. What I have seen from South Africa makes me wonder at the irony that one of the most boring sports to watch on TV is also the most popular.

Orienteering is not boring, it is not understood. That is the problem that needs to be solved, and changing race formats (Micr-O anyone?) is not necessarily the answer.