Here’s the deal. NBC paid a whole bunch of money (just south of $1 billion) to broadcast the Olympics. The majority of those who watch the Olympics in the US don’t know squat about the sports, the competition, the great athletes from little countries in “minor” sports. NBC doesn’t care about the 1% of potential viewers who can name swimmers beyond a couple of US athletes and Laure Manadou. They never have and they never will. No amount of complaining will ever change this.
The key is to remember that NBC’s goal is not to produce the best coverage of the Olympics. Their goal is to produce the greatest number of eyeballs watching TV advertising. We are the product, and we’re being sold to the advertisers. Period. NBC will use every trick they think will maximise that number of eyeballs. Hyping the events and athletes they think, rightly or wrongly, will get more people to watch. “Up close and personal” bits. Familiar yet inexpert talking heads. “Plausibly live”.
The less revenue they expect from a given medium, the “better” the coverage for those who are more familiar with the actual competition. Hence, the availability of video and live streaming on the Internet, and the minor sports covered on cable networks like MSNBC and USA.
We, the typical ST denizen, are not the audience. The sooner you accept it, the less agita you’ll have.
We Canadians (and Americans that live close to the border) are lucky enough to get coverage on CBC and TSN that is so much better than the NBC coverage (and there is no Bob Costas … do you Americans really like that guy?). This morning I was watching field hockey, women’s basketball, and synchro diving for a while. There was also some badminton coverage. I love watching Olympic sports since there are so many interesting competitions that you don’t normally see. In contrast, when I flipped on the tv early Saturday morning, the Canadian channels were showing events and NBC was showing a repeat of team USA walking in for the opening ceremonies.
There has been coverage of a lot of sports on NBC’s sister stations. I watched water polo for a while yesterday (and not just the US match). But as I have flipped channels I have also seen bits of coverage for team handball (I think…I didn’t stick around that one very long), badminton, men’s volleyball (both sand and indoor), women’s sand volleyball, soccer, men’s and women’s road cycling, trap, weight lifting (some 17yr old Chinese kid won gold and set Junior world records in the process) and of course swimming and gymnastics.
I guess I think they’re doing OK. Could it be better, of course. Perhaps at some point we’ll have cameras and announcers for every single event and they’ll be webcast (for a fee) so we can watch everything we want to. Maybe London in 2012.
“(and there is no Bob Costas … do you Americans really like that guy?).”
No, we don’t but NBC doesn’t seem to care. He is recognizable to the masses and that is all they want. This backs up the OP about eyeballs and advertising dollars.
Right on Old and Haggard. That’s true about all television, not just the Olympics. The networks really don’t are about making the best possible entertainment. They care about getting the most possible eyeballs to watch, so they can sell it to advertisers. Very good point that we are the product.
& I am not sure why folks are complaining when they can watch so much Olympocics on NBCOlympics for example.
Just for the fun it, I watched some archery Korea/Brazil team event. I am not a big fan or archery, but this is the only time of the year (and every 4 years) I would watch some of it…
“(and there is no Bob Costas … do you Americans really like that guy?).”
No, we don’t but NBC doesn’t seem to care. He is recognizable to the masses and that is all they want. This backs up the OP about eyeballs and advertising dollars.
I can’t stand him, I call him " the midget". Matt Lauer was clowning on him during the opening ceremonies which was slightly amusing.
It looks like he is wearing a fairly decent toupe??? thoughts
I think Bob Costas is great and I would be surprised if most of the masses in the US would agree with your assesment of him. He has a very broad knowledge of sports, he’s not prone to the mind-numbing hyperbole that some of his peers fall back on (listen to Lampley or Trautwig for a few minutes) and I think he’s excellent in the interviews. If they had given that Bush interview to any of the other talking heads, it would have been endless questions about how the President was enjoying the food and how he is handling the heat. He’s about as close to Jim McKay as we have anymore.
I completely understand why a Canadian would dislike the NBC coverage, but it’s a US network and the point has been made that NBC is a business and the business is drawing viewers. They might get a hardcore sports audience if they were showing men’s handball, but most Americans turn in to see feelgood stories and US Athletes winning medals. In 2000, I was in the UK during the Summer Games and watched the BBC coverage. To be honest, it was only marginally less nationalistic. I watched a lot of rowing and equestrian events.
Overall, I’m satisfied with the NBC coverage and am really enjoying watching. Last night’s 400 relay is something I’ll always remember. Amazing.
I guess who i feel sorry most for with NBC’s coverage is the American Athletes who stand no chance of winning. They toil and work hard, but it seems American media likes to cover winners over and over and over again. I forget which Olympics it was where Johnson won the 200 metre gold. Traditionally the 100 metre race is thought of as the race to see who is the fastest human being. That year there was no American that was going to win gold. Therefore the 200 metre race was promoted as the “BIG RACE” to determine the fastest human.
I just spent a week in the USA on business and watched some of the coverage. Now I am back home and was very excited to find out that: a) there are other countries competing in the Olympics other then USA; and b) Athletes who are not considered a gold favorite get some coverage as well.
This kind of media coverage kind of reminds me of how the Eastern European countries used to cover world affairs to their masses back in the days when they were all communists. Propganda is still alive and well!!!
I agree with you. To be frank and honest it’s about numbers and the numbers that NBC can deliver to their paying advertisers.
I think what I find odd about it all is that for some reason NBC has decided that the American TV viewer is very different than any other TV viewer in the world. Most other major networks around the world tend to show events live and more or less in full when and where they can - with good credible commentary by the best commentators in that particular country and balanced coverage of other sports, athletes and countries. NBC now rarely does this. Even , “Live” is not live anymore.
Hey I’m happy they show the womans beach volley ball which is almost as good as watching cinemax…
you got girls in bikinis in sand jumping up and down and hugging each other… Couldn’t be better well could be but imagination is a powerful thing…
Beside thats what DVR’s are for anyway I don’t care if it’s live or not so much going on I’d have to watch it taped anyway so who cares…
Recording it all in HD is takeing quite a bit of disk space though had to delete some of my Direct TV Adult Channel recordings…dang…
Will just have to record those on my old SD tivo…
FWIW I’ve enjoyed the coverage, it never ceases to amaze me that I’m amazed when I see things like the chinese men gymasts during the ring competition, those guys have some serious core strength, amazing (see it still amazes me)
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I think the coverage is excellent. If you can not find anything to your liking on the 5 different channels they have for coverage, then the live internet feed is excellent. Not only is the internet video high quality and better than any other source (including CBC), they are broadcasting sports I never seen before.
Has anyone ever seen handball? I only knew of the American version on a handball court with 2 people. NBC broadcast the game live on the internet.
No doubt we have the same gripes, and the same observations every four years. I can remember living in Munich in 1992 during the Barcelona games and reading a 2-column screed in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung about how inferior the American TV coverage was, how it all centered on American athletes, etc. Of course, the German coverage was non-stop equestrian events and other sports in which Germans stood to do well, but that’s how it goes.
I have been ready to dump on NBC, but since the games started there has been something showing every time I turned on the tv–badminton, team handball, beach volleyball, soccer, etc. My boys apparently watched archery this morning. I’ve seen a lot that has featured no Americans at all.
I can’t imagine what people want/expect. Go to NBCOlympics.com and plug in the sport you want to see. They’ll tell you which of their many stations are going to cover it or when it will be viewable online. The online video quality has been stunningly good. OK … I’ll give them a few tenths of a point deduction for some of the inane commentary and I don’t care for Bob Costas or Al Trouthead, either one. But I think they’re doing an amazing job. I couldn’t stay awake for the 4x100 relay swim last night. I turned on my computer this morning and it took all of about 10 seconds to find complete coverage including video of the full race and follow-up interviews and commentary.
I agree with you. To be frank and honest it’s about numbers and the numbers that NBC can deliver to their paying advertisers.
I think what I find odd about it all is that for some reason NBC has decided that the American TV viewer is very different than any other TV viewer in the world. Most other major networks around the world tend to show events live and more or less in full when and where they can - with good credible commentary by the best commentators in that particular country and balanced coverage of other sports, athletes and countries. NBC now rarely does this. Even , “Live” is not live anymore.
Not odd. How much did the CBC pay for the rights? NBC paid over $800 million.
