Yet Again, NBC has terrile Olympics Coverage

[Crazed Rabbit]

Oh, how I so loath their coverage. Here on the West Coast, where I am mere hours of driving away from the Olympic events themselves, I can't watch events live. Oh no, they've got the west coast on tape delay.

And there coverage of events like downhill skiing is very formulaic; show all the Americans, show the races of favored to win athletes, show the races of those who get medals, and the races of those who crash.

So what if it's only 6 out of 30 races total? They've got more important things, like showing on-air clips of NBC Universal movies about 'viking snowboarding', or lengthy feature interviews with Americans who won medals the day before, or a feature on frickin' polar bears. I kid you not.

The winter sporting event that happens once every four years, and they cut out the sports to show polar bears.

I used to be able to watch the CBC for the Olympics. Sadly, with the new cable TV package I can't anymore.

CR

[Megas Methuselah]

CBC's real nice, my friend.

[HoreTore]

Well.

At least you don't have to stay up all night to watch.....

[Centurion1]

plus i just dislike nbc so its like a doublestab to the heart......

[Gregoshi]

I was complaining about the very same thing last night CR. A story on Polar bears? Cut me a break. I couldn't believe it...no, wait, yes I could. And they played that stupid Viking/snowboard piece twice yesterday - the first time during the day while showing the time trials for the snowboard cross event. I guess NBC has to make as much money as they can. They've got 3-4 hours during prime time to show the major events during the day and they waste so much of it on fluff. Save it for the web! During the day yesterday they showed the entirety of the men's 15km cross country race (not really my kind of event but it was nice all the same), but the premier events like the men's downhill that they save for prime time get butchered to a highlights reel.

[KukriKhan]

I used to be able to watch the CBC for the Olympics. Sadly, with the new cable TV package I can't anymore.

Yeah. All we get here are clips on CNBC. I saw a commercial last night for our local (monopoly) cable company: apparently fuller coverage is available, but at a premium; pony up $65.99 to subscribe and you get an extra TV channel up in the 400 range, with feeds from CBC. That reminds me of the NFL Channel's Thursday Night Football fiasco.

[Strike For The South]

I hear they are blacking out some hockey games for figure skating.....This is upsetting

[Csargo]

I hear they are blacking out some hockey games for figure skating.....This is upsetting

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Well, with things like downhill skiing do you really want to see all 20 guys go down the same course?

The short track skating was by far the best event.

[drone]

Well, with things like downhill skiing do you really want to see all 20 guys go down the same course?

If you like skiing, yes. I love the Winter Olympic sports, much more interesting than the Summer Games, but the coverage of both leave a lot to be desired. I want to see downhill skiing/boarding, luge/skeleton, bobsled, hockey, nordic, biathalon, and speed skating. Ice dancing is only good for the babes, figure skating is rigged, and curling is just bar shuffleboard on ice. Fluff pieces just waste time, if the announcers were worth their salaries they could read those sob stories as they show the event.

USA network, MSNBC, and CNBC are also doing coverage, mainly hockey and curling. Why curling gets so much airtime I will never understand.

[HoreTore]

I was complaining about the very same thing last night CR. A story on Polar bears? Cut me a break. I couldn't believe it...no, wait, yes I could. And they played that stupid Viking/snowboard piece twice yesterday - the first time during the day while showing the time trials for the snowboard cross event. I guess NBC has to make as much money as they can. They've got 3-4 hours during prime time to show the major events during the day and they waste so much of it on fluff. Save it for the web! During the day yesterday they showed the entirety of the men's 15km cross country race (not really my kind of event but it was nice all the same), but the premier events like the men's downhill that they save for prime time get butchered to a highlights reel.

Something's wrong with your priorities, Gregoshi.

15km cross country is one of the most important events of the games.

[Ironside]

Something's wrong with your priorities, Gregoshi.

15km cross country is one of the most important events of the games.

Beaten by 3 Swedes and 2 Finns, who didn't do very well? You're losing it.


On topic, 17 hours live, 5 hours reruns and 1 hour summary today on two channels. They're showing a lot of sports right now.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Meh. Who cares about girlie men in girlie outfits performing their ballerina skating routines.

And as for the non-hockey Olympic events, they too fade into insignificance compared to the might of the Six Nations which is currently on.

[Megas Methuselah]

And as for the non-hockey Olympic events, they too fade into insignificance compared to the might of the Six Nations which is currently on.

Huh? Iroquois don't play in the international lacrosse championships until, like, July or something.

[Crazed Rabbit]

I love the Dutch. You tell that NBC *****.



Also, an article.

6. Do you care that sports fans from coast to coast are furious at you? How do you factor this into your long-term brand-value calculations? I, personally, hate you for this. It's possible that I'm alone, but based on the feedback I've received, we doubt it. That can't be good for the value of the company, can it? Especially when you make no effort to explain to people like me why you're doing this.

As an additional question, I doubt that there's unanimity within NBC on this decision. I imagine, in fact, that there are hundreds of employees who are appalled by NBC's decision to wreck the Olympics for millions of sports fans, along with its refusal to directly explain to Americans why they may be the only country on earth forced to watch the Olympics on tape delay. If so, I would love to hear from some of the dissenters, as well as from those who can explain the real logic here (because whatever NBC says publicly almost certainly won't). Thanks in advance. hblodget@businessinsider.com.

CR

[aimlesswanderer]

Channel Nine is showing the Olympics on free to air here, and the coverage has been pretty crap, from what little I have watched and what I have heard from others. Not only are they showing hardly anything, many of the commentators have been roped in from other unrelated sports (cycling and cricket!). Not to mention that until yesterday, we'd only won a single silver medal, and that guy's performance was repeated every 10 minutes or so. Now thankfully our Anointed Golden Girl has won a gold, so they will proceed to repeat that every 5 minutes along with lots of footage of her smiling and looking attractive.

And the main host Eddie Mcguire tried to get several people to say "we wuz robbed" after our silver medal. That was pathetic, and our medalist was sensible enough to say that the winner had performed better. It's funny but sad when our commentators rave and drool about performances by our athletes, who then proceed to get crap scores. Half the time the commentators don't seem to have any idea what they are talking about either.

Not unexpected and rather sad, really.

[Megas Methuselah]

... smiling and looking attractive.

Well, is she hot?

[spmetla]

I know I'm tired of curling taking up so much time, it'll go from an exciting hockey match (who else watched that great Slovakia vs. Russia match!) to people cleaning the ice as something is slid across it. I love watching the downhill and cross country skiing and thankfully they covered the biathlon. This morning they wasted more time with the Tiger Woods speech as well! If only they actually tried to cover as many events as possible instead of just a weak coverage of a few filled with too many interviews.

[Lehesu]

How much money do networks stand to make off of the Winter Olympics anyway, given the cost to get coverage?

[Sasaki Kojiro]

They announced a month or so before it started that they'd already lost $200 million.

[Lehesu]

They announced a month or so before it started that they'd already lost $200 million.

Well, I suppose that might temper your broadcasting enthusiasm.

[aimlesswanderer]

Well, is she hot?

Not bad, I'd say. But Channel 9 is practically drooling over her and is hyping her ever minute or so, in a desperate attempt to gain publicity. Torah Bright pictures

Examples of the kind of quality coverage we are getting

[Sasaki Kojiro]

So how big is that Tuitert guy winning the skating gold for the netherlands? They made it sound like a pretty huge deal.