KEY POINTS:
TVNZ has apologised for a glitch which meant thousands of viewers up and down the country missed out on seeing Kiwi swimmer Moss Burmester's epic effort this afternoon in the men's 200 metre butterfly final at the pool in Beijing.
After setting out hard early, Burmester ran out
of steam on the final leg, finishing fourth in a race that saw American Michael Phelps winning his record 10th individual Olympic gold medal.
But TVNZ never got out of the starting blocks at all.
A switching failure at the TVNZ headquarters in Auckland meant that viewers receiving the broadcast via satellite - either through SKY or on Freeview - missed the race.
Viewers with analogue transmission in the South Island were also affected.
Live streaming on tvnz.co.nz - which uses a satellite feed - was disrupted.
The satellite outage lasted for about six minutes, and the South Island analogue viewers lost reception for about eight minutes.
The race itself lasts about two minutes.
TVNZ said it "greatly regrets that a technical failure has interfered with New Zealanders' appreciation of Moss Burmester's tremendous effort.
"All broadcasters undertaking technically complex transmissions run the risk of occasional switching failures, but the company says everyone involved is distressed at the timing of the glitch", said the network.
A raft of comments from angry viewers streamed into the nzherald.co.nz In Box after the dud broadcast.
Hodda said: "So was it just me or did the whole nation just miss out on watching Moss Burmester swimming in the 200m butterfly final thanks to some technical glitch at TVNZ? Brilliant! The most anticipated event in the Olympics so far and we all got to watch a blank TV."
Kay was unimpressed: "So disapointing missing Burmester's final. TVNZ, we didnt get to see the most anticipated NZ event so far; ridiculous and what a joke!"
Povi added: "I was one of the lucky ones to see the whole race live!"
Chch girl had no sympathy whatsoever: "TVNZ, you should be bloody embarrassed with what happened today just before Moss Burmester's final. It just shows how incompetent the state broadcaster really is. Sack them all!"
EB called for a new official broadcaster: "TVNZ's coverage has ranged from poor to embarrassing. Ad breaks in between finals that last only 57 seconds, the loss of Moss Burmester's race and a TVNZ 'reporter' asking Olympic gold medallist/World record holder Natalie Coughlin about Michael Phelps straight after becoming the first woman in Olympic history to defend her Olympic title in swimming. The sooner Sky gets the coverage the better."
That sentiment was echoed by Kieran: "So TVNZ manages to balls up the coverage of Moss Burmester's race for a big part of the country, leaving us to wait for the replay 45 minutes later. Not good enough. I'm somebody else that was also beginning to enjoy the woman's road race toward the end, and was very disappointed TVNZ never cut back for updates, or even told us who won. Bring on London 2012 with coverage by Sky Sport. I'm sick and tired of the substandard job from TVNZ."
The race was replayed on TV ONE shortly after 3pm, and is now available for viewing on tvnz.co.nz, the broadcaster says.
