Viewers around the world last night shared New Zealand’s Commonwealth Games opening ceremony advertising breaks, which provoked a flood of complaints.
Four receptionists at TVNZ’s Auckland Television Centre were flat out this morning answering calls, and two-thirds were complaints from viewers about the advertising breaks.
But public relations manager Aline Sandilands said there were fewer ads than usual for prime-time television, and the schedule had been drawn up for all countries receiving live relays.
There were no breaks in the first half-hour, and thereafter two-minute breaks every 10 minutes. Income was lost through this, she said.
The schedule had been carefully drawn up to ensure viewers did not miss important parts of the ceremony, and designer Logan Brewer had taken into account that it was a television spectacle, Ms Sandilands said.
“They built in some time for commercials and thought about how they could break reasonably. People around the world missed very little. If anybody feels that they missed anything, they didn’t. The whole production was done taking these factors into account.”
The schedule for advertising was agreed on by all broadcasters present at the games, and the broadcast would be interspersed with commercials in their own countries.
TVNZ would reassess the policy for the closing ceremony. “Of course it will be discussed whether there’s any way we can’t have advertisements. But we are a commercial organisation now and we have to take that into consideration.”
TVNZ had applied to the Broadcasting Commission for funds to televise the ceremony, but this had been unsuccessful, she said.
Advertisements during events would be on a floating schedule to avoid disruption of exciting moments.
Deaf people were incensed when a television commentator at the opening last night referred to an athlete as “deaf and dumb.”
Association of the Deaf spokesperson Jenni Bedford said her telephone ran hot this morning. The commentator remarked on the deaf people in the massed choir who were signing the words of the songs and then said an overseas male competitor was “deaf and dumb.”
“That’s an inappropriate comment to make. Deaf people have their own culture and way of life. They are not dumb,” Ms Bedford said.
