2000 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony - Television Coverage

Television Coverage

• Seven Network: Australia - Seven Network Australia's live and exclusive broadcast of the Opening Ceremony began at 6.30pm (AEDST) with half an hour of preparations live at the stadium. The official countdown concluded at exactly 7.00pm. Hosts and commentators included Bruce McAvaney, Gary Wilkinson and Sandy Roberts. The commentator for the Indigenous segment "Awakening" was Australian Indigenous actor and TV personality Ernie Dingo. The only cut to an ad-break was during the Marching Band segment.

• NBC: United States - NBC cut the Tin Symphony segment out of its broadcast, plus the James Morrison portion of the Anthem segment.

• TVNZ: New Zealand - TVNZ viewers experienced a technical problem with their satellite feed during the "Prelude" and "Welcome" segments and therefore did not see the Countdown live.

• BBC: United Kingdom - BBC Television covered the ceremony from 9am BST. BBC1 showed the coverage until 1.00 when the coverage moved to BBC2 due to the overrun coverage. Steve Rider and Sue Barker hosted and Barry Davies was the commentator for the ceremony.