Lack of TV time spoils Tokyo Paralympics' big opportunity

Outside of NHK, live coverage of the Paralympics moved to Japanese commercial TV for the first time, but until the Paralympics get equal national and international television coverage to the Olympics, the brand equity gap will remain.

No mention of how many hours of coverage by Japanese commercial TV. I can say I saw ZERO when I was flipping through channels!

Like I have written before, these paralmpics are a feel good time for Japan and it makes it look like things here have changed, but sadly after the games are over, these athletes have to go back to the discriminatory BS Japan that still permeates here!

I thought there was more coverage on the internet and in the newspaper for the Paralympics than the actual Olympics. Perhaps I'm biased, but I couldn't care less about the Paralympics. It's the same reason I don't watch high school sports, pro women sports, or learn Japanese from junior high kids.

In the UK, Channel 4 had TV broadcasts on 4, repeated 1 hour later on 4+1, with additional coverage of lengthier sports on More 4. Live coverage with catch ups ran through to the middle of the afternoon. Highlights were screened in the early evening with an additional audience-led show late evening. Live footage then began when the games began again, around midnight. This was supplemented by online feeds. I've had the TV on all morning and watched anything I could when not working.

That was a bit less than the Olympics on the BBC, but the BBC have more TV channels.

The time difference made it difficult as a lot of stuff happened when everyone was asleep, but the coverage was good, with screentime for disabled presenters and guests.

NHK has had to face a lot of anti-Olympic sentiment. In the UK, we've had two awful years courtesy of the Covid response and Brexit, three lengthy lockdowns, lost jobs, closed shops, shortages and bans on visiting family, on holidays and even on attending funerals. With little new TV being made, live sport has been a welcome alternative to repeats and endless BBC News broadcasts.

We had12 hours a day and it awesome and inspiring to watch these athletes compete. Bring on Paris 2024

No interest whatsoever, and that was true for the proceeding superspreader event as well. Zero interest.

So many of the apologists for the Paralympics said this would help Japan accept the disabled, even though that was not the case the last time it was held in Japan. Well, we can say that it failed to move the needle on this social cause once again. People choose not to watch at all.

I don’t have a TV and while there was an excellent website available for the Olympics, there was no way to watch the Paralympics live.

Very sad.. We had fantastic coverage in Australia. For me I wonder why we dont simply have the Olympics.

There's a reason there was little to no TV coverage. (people don't want to watch.)

Personally I feel its all just a little too contrived to gain sympathy. If it didn't come as a set with the "real" Olympics, no country would want to hold it in its present extended form. Just being honest!

Sadly, you are 100% correct.

The Olympics is the pinnacle of sport. The best athletes in each event. The Paralympics on the other hand is the best athlete with a disability. There just isn't the same interest. Personally I feel its all just a little too contrived to gain sympathy. If it didn't come as a set with the "real" Olympics, no country would want to hold it in its present extended form. Just being honest!

The Paralympics always played second fiddle to the Olympics. Just the way of the world.

In comparison to the Olympic coverage, it was poor in terms of coverage and hours of coverage. Such a wasted opportunity this was to really show a variety of sports and athletes who have overcome so much adversity to be here.

One good thing though was they actually had presenters who had participated in the Paralympics before and who had great knowledge of the sports and different classifications.

Avoided these Olympics/Paralympics like a plague!

Plus,… also ‘curiously absent’ from digital media’s daily coverage’s comments sections where some of those big proponents who vehemently touted the benefits of hosting these Paralympic Games despite the potential risks?

Also, some media no longer hosted and updated a daily’s medal count? It was ‘conspicuously absent’ in the wake of the extensive Olympic coverage.

One of my university friend was competing in fencing. It was not broadcast.. Could not see him

Personally, I think when a nation wins the rights to host the Olympics/Paralympics it should be set in store the Paralympics go ahead first. Second, they receive the same amount of broadcast time, and the channels that wish to broadcast the Olympics must also broadcast the Paralympics (the exception being when the Paralympics and events are actually shorter due to less competitions). It was pretty disgraceful to know the Paralympics were being held and you couldn't watch events because some stations were busy broadcasting high school baseball (which was postponed for the Games, was it not?), or replays of skateboarding or judo golds.