Login / RegisterCTV still not planning to broadcast Vancouver Paralympics closing ceremony live
UPDATE: CTV decides to broadcast Paralympic closing ceremony live
CTV doesn’t plan to broadcast the closing ceremony of the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games live.
The official Canadian broadcaster for the 2010 Games initially didn’t plan to air the opening ceremony live tonight (March 12), but changed its mind after many viewers expressed outrage about the decision.
Starting at 6 p.m. Pacific time, CTV British Columbia will show the opening ceremony live from B.C. Place in Vancouver. Viewers in other provinces will have to wait for the repeat broadcast on Saturday (March 13) at 2 p.m.
But CTV hasn’t changed its plans for the closing ceremony, which will take place at the Whistler Medals Plaza on March 21 at 7:30 p.m.
In B.C., CTV is scheduled to show Human Target and The Amazing Race instead of the closing ceremony.
In response to a request for a comment on CTV’s decision not to air the closing live, a representative sent the Straight a statement noting that Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium will give the Paralympics a “record” 57 hours of coverage in English and French.
Last month, millions of Canadians tuned in as CTV aired both the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Winter Games live across the country.
A news item on the International Paralympic Committee’s Web site describes the closing ceremony as “an intimate open air event that will include breath-taking entertainment and the parade of Paralympians from around the world as they march into the amphitheatre”.
Tickets for the event cost $60 or $85.
ParalympicSport.tv, the International Paralympic Committee’s official Internet channel, will offer live video coverage of both the opening and closing ceremonies of the Paralympics.
You can follow Stephen Hui on Twitter at twitter.com/stephenhui.
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seriously, try and do some real journalism instead of complaining about everything
the straight needs to get RID of stephen hui
Charlie Smith
Editor
Georgia Straight
No comparing the paralympic torch relay to Hitler?!
Where are this city's social justice activists when you REALLY need them?
Because CTV managment seems to only understand crass, short sighted commercialism (which should be the antithesis of the paralympics) I suggest that we collectively punish them in the only manner they seem to understand.
Shame on you CTV, managment should now do the right thing, publicly apologize and resign!
Shane
If idiot shows like "etalk" and "access hollywood" and a frivolous show like amazing race is what supplants a ONE-TIME honoring of paralympic athletes for a few hours, then I am truly ashamed of the level (complete lack thereof) of taste, culture, education and class in the nation. Or, more likely, that is how the advertisers and CTV's bigwigs see the Canadian viewership as. Prove them wrong.
By the sounds of it there is certainly no reason to unblock.