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Just a little aside on this football blog, but does anybody else have a problem with NBC's Olympic coverage. In the afternoon, when the biggest American story of downhill skiier Lindsey Vonn is culminating in a gold medal, we get curling, cross country, and hockey. Then they show Vonn on tape delay at night.
What's wrong with showing it live in the afternoon and then re-running the tape at night? Everybody knows who won by then, anyway.
Stupid.
EP
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In today's day and age, tape delay is a ratings killer. How NBC doesn't understand this is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteWhat makes sports great, and this is especially true of the Oympics is the fact that the outcome is unknown. Once you know the outcome it isn't nearly as exciting.
NBC gets an "F" in my books. Truly horrible.
Chris B.
Part of the problem is the IOC. When a network bids on the Olympics, they are required to show a certain number of "lesser" sports. Add onto that, the US team actually won a medal in curling last time (amazing those dudes didn't get their own Wheaties box. Nothing says elite athlete like curling!) and you're stuck with curling in the afternoon. Bringing it back to the NFL, what year will it be that the NFL realizes we're in the 21st Century and allows us to access any game, anywhere from our laptops? I hate business trips during the season because I'm usually stuck in an airport just when the Giants game is on. I can get the replay (for $$, of course, on NFL.com), but as Chris points out, all the fun is gone if you know the end result. The pirate satellite TV websites (how does the NFL NOT know about these?) are close to useless. Horrible picture and, usually, the Giants game is the one with a broken link or gets shut down. Beyond frustrating!
ReplyDeletethe IOC isn't entirely to blame. over here, the BBC managed to show most of the women's downhill live and still managed to show the 'minority' sports.
ReplyDeleteBeyond just the non-drama of showing it tape-delayed, did anyone else get the feeling that the delayed coverage was completely manipulated? When a non-American skier was shown, I knew there was about a 90% chance that they were going to crash! The whole thing felt totally fake.
ReplyDeleteI'll say this though - taped delayed downhill skiing is still better than 4 hours of figure skating!
It is not 1986. I am sooooo pissed!!!!! NBC SUXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX!!!!!!!! They are arrogant... I dont need to raise my blood pressure.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the tape-delay. It makes no sense. You have three NBC stations -- NBC, USA and MSNBC. Among those three stations, you can't air all the live events? Is there that much else going on?
ReplyDeleteAnd onto dweez's point about the NFL. I agree dweez, it's rediculous. However, if you don't mind forking over a one-time fee of 200 bucks, I have the perfect solution to your problems:
The Sling Box.
I purchased it about a year ago and it's great. It hooks up to my home TV and I can access it on my computer no matter where I am. The quality is surprisingly good (and trust me, I do not have state-of the-art technology) and it's not really ever choppy.
My friend has it hooked up to an HD TV and the quality is even better. I know it's not the perfect solution, but it works pretty well. You should check it out, the technology used to get it operational is pretty impressive. They have a device that turns your wall outlets into wireless routers.
Anyway, that's the route I would go.
Dan - does the sling box work while you are out of state and can you get it live? I'm looking for something that give me the Giants game live if I'm stuck in some God forsaken airport like Houston or Detroit (not that NY's airports are enjoyable, but I KNOW the Giants game will playing somewhere in those airports).
ReplyDeleteAs for Spacey! - The BBC is held to a different standard because it is a publicly supported broadcast, as opposed to the US networks, which are strictly profit driven. Also, the audience is just a bit smaller in the UK! Where in the UK are you? I studied in London and have family in Derby.
I would like the downhill live, but not at the expense of "lesser" sports. Frankly, I watch the Olympics for a lot of the lesser sports... if I wanted hockey or basketball or tennis I would just turn them on any old time... but I can't say the same about luge or curling or the cross country skiing etc. That said, the men's downhill was basically Bode plus a few other runs... not nearly enough time to get into the sport. Overall I don't really have much of a problem with the quality of coverage, but rather the amount... if I want to watch downhill, I want to watch 20 runs.
ReplyDeleteYou actually like to watch curling? Is it the suspense of two guys sweeping the ice or the drama of one guy pushing a flattened bowling ball with a handle down the ice? Maybe it's because I have ADHD, but I've attended funerals that were more entertaining than curling. It's cool that they actually have a fan, though. I imagine it's pretty easy to get their autographs and the memorabilia has got to be really cheap.
ReplyDelete