Many Australians were left confused when they tuned into the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Saturday morning.
The Olympics got off to a flying start with a star-studded performance that aired live at 3:30am AEST, with Céline Dion and Lady Gaga taking to the stage.
Replays of the ceremony aired throughout the morning, with coverage of the first day of the sporting competition commencing again at 7:00pm AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time).
Australians tuned in to watch Olympic athletes compete in the pool, including the women’s 3m synchronised diving final and the men’s 100m breaststroke heats.
However, many were left confused when they tuned into Channel Seven on Saturday night and found a repeat of Whoopi Goldberg’s film Sister Act.
In a major shift for television, Olympic coverage will air on Channel Nine this year after the network won the rights to show the sporting spectacular alongside Stan.
Commenting on the change, one viewer wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “Is it too late for Channel Seven to take over the Olympics? Channel Nine, you’re ruining the games and you’ve only been on for five minutes.”
Seven, Australia’s long-time Olympics host, has failed to stretch its budget to secure the rights for Paris 2024. This comes at a time when the broadcaster is facing serious financial problems and widespread job cuts.
Australian viewers were left confused when they tuned in on Saturday to watch the highly anticipated Paris 2024 Olympic Games (participants are seen gathered around the River Seine)
Instead of broadcasting the Olympics, Channel Seven aired a repeat of Whoopi Goldberg’s film Sister Act (pictured), after Channel Nine secured the rights.
Seven first broadcast the Olympics in 1956, but briefly lost the rights to the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2012 Summer Olympics, before signing an exclusive deal from 2016 to 2020.
However, this year, Nine reportedly offered more than $300 million for the Olympic broadcast rights – $100 million more than Seven West Media.
Nine already owns the rights to the Australian Open and also pays around $100 million for free-to-air rights to the NRL.
It was previously reported that Seven lost around $50 million covering the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The reshuffle prompted Bruce McAvaney to make a shock defection to the ABC to cover the Paris Olympics after spending 30 years as one of Seven’s biggest stars.
On Saturday, Australians tuned in to television to watch the country’s Olympians compete in the pool, including the men’s 400-metre freestyle heats (pictured: Australia’s Ariarne Titmus)
After Seven lost the rights to the Olympics, Bruce McAvaney made a shock defection to the ABC to cover the sporting event after spending 30 years as one of Seven’s biggest stars.
Regarded as the voice of football for his work calling the AFL, Bruce, 71, is also fondly remembered for calling key moments from the Olympics, such as Cathy Freeman’s gold medal run in Sydney.
She now returns to call the games and works on ABC Radio’s commentary team alongside Australian Olympic stars including former sprinter Melinda Gainsford-Taylor and swimmer Sarah Ryan.
“I’ve always felt that the Olympics is the most important event for an Australian broadcaster. To be given this opportunity by the ABC means a lot to me,” Bruce said earlier.