While it is the 11th Olympics for Nine veteran journalist Damien Ryan, producer and sports presenter at 2GB Sydney Spiro Christopoulos is making the trip to Paris for his very first games.
Speaking to Mediaweek, Christopoulos, who is a producer and sports presenter on Ben Fordham‘s breakfast show, says this will also be his first time covering an international sporting event.
“It’s super exciting and it’s a great honour and privilege to be able to be there in person in Paris to cover it,” he says.
Christopoulos will be in Paris across the whole fortnight and says that while it’s about the sport, “it’s also about the city.”
“There’s no sport we won’t be covering. If there’s a medal chance in the archery or even something like breakdancing, we’ll be there to tell the stories of our athletes in Paris.
“We will take our listeners up the Eiffel Tower as well as through the historical streets of Paris. While the focus is of course sport and our Olympians, we want to highlight what an amazing city Paris is.”
Spiro Christopoulos
Used to an early wake-up, Christopoulos says he’s looking forward to the time difference.
“We’ll be on from 9:30pm to 1am compared to my usual 5:30am to 9am, so I’m looking forward to not clocking on at 3:30am every day.
“I’m excited to make the most out of our days though, because we can just get out and watch as much sport as possible, see the athletes in action and then report on all of it from the Trocadero come nightfall.”
Ryan is also used to a time difference or two and says that reporting on an Olympics comes down to how much access you have.
“You’ve got a front-row seat when you own the rights to the games,” he said.
“When you don’t own the rights, you’re a little bit limited and I think that makes the work harder because there’s rules and regulations that go with your accreditation.
“In that case, you are always thinking outside the circle because the days are so long and arduous no matter where the Olympics are being held.”
Ryan won’t have to think “outside the circle” this year, or for years to come as Nine owns the exclusive Olympic broadcast rights from Paris in 2024 through to Brisbane in 2032.
Nine spent $305 million to acquire the Olympic broadcast rights from Seven.
See also: Nine will bank $135 million in ad revenue for Paris Olympics: Mike Sneesby
“I’ve never seen Paris look so clean and the Olympics just have that effect,” Ryan said.
“This will now be my 11th Olympics and I think out of all of them, this will be the most spectacular.
“You have these pop-up stadiums with the backdrop being some of the most extraordinary landmarks in the world. It’s going to be so beautiful to watch.”
Nine has reported the Sunday 28 July broadcast of the Olympics (up until 2am Monday AEST) secured a National Total TV Reach of 10.7 million across Channel 9, 9Gem and 9Now. It gave the network its highest-reaching TV ratings day in VOZ history.
A total of 13.4 million Australians have tuned into Nine’s broadcast of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 to date, representing half of the country’s population.
However, Nine’s coverage has been impacted by the ongoing Nine Publishing journalists strike, set to end tomorrow morning. While radio and TV coverage has been unaffected, a team of 15-20 print journalists sent to Paris had to choose between doing their jobs or joining the strike, which began the day of the Opening Ceremony.
Striking journalists have also called upon CEO Mike Sneesby – derided by staff for holding the torch in Paris while ‘torching’ journalism – and his executive team to forego their bonuses this year and next year instead of cutting 70-90 jobs.