Quote: SmokeyTA "455 really isnt an awful lot considering there are 306 events in 28 sports over 16 days often simultaneously that need to be presented not only on tv, but radio and web too.
People think most of them will be presenters, commentators and pundits out there getting paid a fortune for a jolly, the reality is that most of that 455 will be cameramen, technicians, directors, producers, engineers etc, as well as freelance journalists.
Its an absolute myth that the BBC is the incredibly wasteful behemoth put about by free market ideologues who hate the fact that there isnt a profit to be snaffled up by making the product poorer and more expensive. For a comparison that 455 is 40% less than the number at london 2012, and about 10% less than Beijing 2008. NBC from the free market utopia that is the US will send more than 2000 staff, will screen less live coverage and will have that coverage interrupted by commercial breaks.'"
True. Comparing the number of BBC staff to competitors is slightly flawed. In some events you're only going to have 1 British competitor but of course it takes a team of people to provide the coverage both in front of the camera and behind it.
I mean how many support staff/coaches are going over with the athletes? That's their version of crew that you don't see on screen just like the presenters and pundits have theirs.
It should be how many British athletes AND coaches/staff/officals are going over and compare it to BBC staff, but I doubt that number makes for a sensationalistic story.