It was a wonderful weekend for the Irish Paralympic team who celebrated four gold medals through Bethany Firth and Darragh McDonald in the pool and Jason Smyth and Michael McKillop on the track.  Both the latter set new world records and Jason Smyth can now lay claim to being the fastest Olympian in the world.
There were medals also at the Velodrome from Catherine Walsh and Fran Meehan, and in Equestrian for Helen Kearney and the Irish team.
This haul of seven medals has already smashed the target of five medals of which three were to be gold and sees Ireland lying in 13th place in the overall medals table, an incredible achievement with a number of more medal prospects to come.  These include Michael McKillop who goes for the Blue Riband gold of 800 and 1500M at 20:47 this evening.
The victories will be great reward for sponsors of individual athletes such as Topaz Energy with Smyth and Vodafone with McKillop whose support has enabled better preparation for the Games but also a greater platform to enter the hearts and minds of the general public.
The advertising breaks on Channel 4 and Setanta Sport have been causing frustration within social media but commerce makes the coverage and indeed the events possible.  The breaks allow sponsors to sell their wares and it is perhaps because of the ad free coverage of the BBC throughout the Olympics, as well as the need for live as opposed to time shifted viewing that has added fuel to the comments.
Frustration has not resulted in turning off though.  Channel 4 announced over the weekend it was clearing its schedule to cover the Paralympics from 7am to 11.15pm on the main channel from today.
An interesting aside to the broadcasting of the highlights on Channel 4’s website is the length of the mandatory advertising that precedes each view.  This runs to one minute and 11 seconds and cannot be skipped, guaranteeing that the messages will be seen.
Given the increasing importance of online in broadcasting, this may see ‘big’ advertising fight back from the blows of recent years inflicted by fractured audiences and especially the fast forward button on plated back content.
Online advertising will be one of the themes covered in the November Sport for Business Round Table on Broadcasting of Sport.  Contact us today if you would like to secure one of the limited number of places at this event.
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