Fans await chance to watch Murphy

Sports fans disappointed at the absence of opportunities to witness sailing’s medal hopeful Annalise Murphy in action at the Olympic Games will have to wait until Monday before the Dubliner appears on their screens.

TV coverage for the Games is provided by the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), an agency of the International Olympic Committee, which serves as host broadcaster to all global rights holders, including the Irish national broadcaster.

Each of the sailing classes is given race coverage on one day of the preliminary rounds. Murphy’s third and fourth races were shown on RTÉ’s live web stream on Tuesday, although the others were not made available to the station.

The remaining classes on any given day are covered on a single camera but that material is not made available to broadcasters until 10pm that evening. It is also not permitted for any broadcaster to arrange for their own multi-camera coverage of any Olympic event. OBS have already been criticised for their coverage of the men’s cycling road race, held last Saturday, when lack of on-screen timing graphics — including the time gap between the breakaway and main peloton — almost spoiled the event for viewers.