It'll Be Alright on The Night, or Will It?

Oh dear, little more than 24 hours to go until the start of the Olympics, and there has been a bit of glitch with the Greek TV coverage.



It seems that Greek state, TV ET1, screwed up a transmission covering one of the opening Olympic events last night. The result being that John Kalimeris, a senior executive, had to bite the bullet and resign.



In what should have been a simple "bread and butter" task oftransmitting a football match between South Korea and Greece, ET1 managed to severely annoy their viewers; by transmitting sound only during the first half, and picture only during the second half.



As the hackneyed saying goes, "It's a game of two halves".



Unfortunately, in a decision that doesn't seem to have any intellectual, commercial or technical logic whatsoever; ET1, the smallest and least capable of the Greek TV companies, has been given sole transmission rights for the Games.



The reason for the "glitch" is unclear; some blame the holiday season.



How very comforting!



It seems that gremlins were not just at work in the TV studio, but also on the net.



It is reported that ADSL stopped working for over 30 minutes in most parts of Athens, and South Greece yesterday. That is before the 11000 media posse, from around the world, attempt to send their reports and thoughts down the wires.



Rumours and speculation abound as to the likelihood of the mobile phone system collapsing as well. I understand that the percentage of dropped calls has been steadily on the increase.



It would be a sad irony for the Greek authorities, that the Games go off without a hitch; but, that owing to transmission failures and the like, the rest of the world would not know about it.