AUSSIE VIEWERS LEFT CONFUSED OVER CHANNEL SEVEN OLYMPICS MIX-UP

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Australian viewers were left confused when they tuned in to watch the hotly-anticipated 2024 Paris Olympics on Saturday.

The Olympics got off to a flying start with the star-studded opening ceremony airing at 3.30am AEST, with Celine Dion and Lady Gaga taking to the stage.

After repeats of the epic ceremony aired throughout the morning on Saturday, the day one live coverage then kicked off again at 7pm AEST.

Aussies tuned in to watch the country's Olympians compete in the swimming pool, including in the women's 3m synchronised diving final and the men's 100m breast heats.

However, many were left confused as they switched on Channel Seven on Saturday evening only to find a repeat of Whoopi Goldberg's hit movie Sister Act playing.

In a huge TV shake-up, the Olympic coverage is instead airing on Channel Nine this year after the network won the rights to air the sports spectacular along with Stan.

Commenting on the change, one viewer wrote on X - formerly known as Twitter: 'Is it too late for Channel 7 to take over the Olympics. Channel 9 you are ruining the games and it's only been on for 5 min.'

Seven didn't manage to secure the rights to the 2024 Paris Olympics in a huge change, after it became the well-known home of the event Down Under.

Seven first broadcast the Olympics in 1956 but briefly lost the rights for the 2010 Winter Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics, before signing an exclusive deal from 2016 until 2020 to air the event.

However, this year, Nine reportedly offered in excess of $300million for the broadcast rights to the Olympics, $100million more than Seven West Media.

Nine already owns the rights to the Australian Open and also pays around $100million for the free-to-air NRL rights.

It was previously reported that Seven lost around $50million covering the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The shake-up saw Bruce McAvaney make a shock defection to the ABC to cover the Paris Olympics after spending 30 years as one of Seven's biggest stars.

Regarded as the voice of footy for his work calling the AFL, Bruce, 71, is also fondly remembered for calling major Olympics moments like Cathy Freeman's gold medal run in Sydney.

He is now once again calling the games, working on the ABC Radio commentary team alongside Aussie Olympics stars including ex-sprinter Melinda Gainsford-Taylor and swimmer Sarah Ryan.

'I’ve always thought the Olympics was the ultimate event for an Australian broadcaster. To be given this opportunity by the ABC means a great deal to me,' Bruce previously shared.

2024-07-27T12:36:15Z dg43tfdfdgfd