Olympic Coverage

[Dottore]

We are traveling in the land of the free and the home of the brave for a while, and have been trying to catch a bit of the winter games on TV from time to time.

It's really remarkable how bad the NBC coverage is. I have never seen Olympic coverage quite so bad before.

First the commercials! Crikey, there are more commercials than coverage. The mind numbing repetition of these endless commercials is truly appalling. Then the relentless focus on American athletes—no matter how bad—to the exclusion of everyone else. Geezus this is tiresome. We know more about every American snowboarders pets and favourite fast food than we know about who they're competing against. Bizarre.

And there are never any summaries or recaps or overviews. Only whatever swarmy little issue NBC has chosen to focus on that evening.

Ah, the Bizarro world of American television....

[gprsh924]

Yes

[herr_oberst]

What he said. Un-watchable.

[legion]

This is NBC's approach to covering EVERYTHING.

Oh, and the Olympics are on?

[jpachard]

I just got back from Vancouver and the TV coverage there was awesome. No adverts etc.

Big downer was the games were very, very badly organized, specifically the ticketing component. We tried to get tickets to some events at the door only to be told they were "sold out". Went back to the bar to watch the "sold out" event only to see roughly 30% of the seats were vacant, WTF??!!! Plus the ticketing booths had no idea what they had for sale in respect to events and couldn't give us an honest answer if we could get tickets.

[Dottore]

Originally Posted by jpachard

I just got back from Vancouver and the TV coverage there was awesome. No adverts etc.

Big downer was the games were very, very badly organized, specifically the ticketing component. We tried to get tickets to some events at the door only to be told they were "sold out". Went back to the bar to watch the "sold out" event only to see roughly 30% of the seats were vacant, WTF??!!! Plus the ticketing booths had no idea what they had for sale in respect to events and couldn't give us an honest answer if we could get tickets.

I have heard about the ticket fiasco and spoke to a friend of mine about it last night who is peripherally involved in this. The big problem (as always) are corporate sponsors who have taken large blocs of tickets as an incentive for their sponsorship. I was told VISA is the biggest culprit. They were going to distribute these tickets as part of some incentive scheme to cardholders, but never got this off the ground, with the result that virtually all of the tickets allocated to VISA are going unused. There are similar issues with other corporate sponsors.

But I have also heard the organization and distribution of tickets generally is a disaster and there are no excuses for this.

[Rikao4]

Costa's babbling will soon be an Olympic event..
a sort of Access Olympic..

Rika

[Monza_dh]

Originally Posted by Rikao4

Costa's babbling will soon be an Olympic event..
a sort of Access Olympic..

Rika

How about his hair??? WTF?? Isnt he 60? and he dyes it jet black? Why not go natural or at least a tad off the "I still think I'm 30" look.

I also think the coverage sucks, always has since its put out to bid. I talk with my relatives in Italy and they say the coverage is off all the events no matter who is in them, unlike the American coverage of only Americans. I also think they should run coverage 24/7 for all events and just do the sappy interviews and stories for pre prime time for the old ladies who like that shtt.

[s_morrison57]

Coverege in Canada is great, coverege from the USA stations is poor and very biased but its always been that way and I guess that's what sells in America. Poor NBC coverage is because most people in the states are'nt exposed to winter sports like the worlds northern countries, just notice the difference between Summer and Winter games.
I just left Vancouver to work in S America and there is nothing in the 4 local papers, direct TV had Football, Soccor to the rest of us, on the tube, like 5-6 different games but no Olympic games coverage. I'll tell you, if I have to listen to some anouncer yell Goooooooooooooooal ever again I'm going to lose it, its worse when they yell touchdown with the same drag out, makes you want to B slap the guys mom so enjoy what coverage you get, all I have is BBC and the net that is slower than the second coming of Christ
Yank coverage always sucks, just watch a telivised hockey game - the camera men can't even do it right, ya lets have another close up of the puck.
have never heard of the seat thing but in past I have noticed empty seats, reminds me of watching a Leafs game, and thats a bummer to the people that want to attend. The cost of being there is also a problem for most people

[dd74]

Dot - spot on. NBC has trashed the Olympics. They really should simply leave the network scene when it comes to sport.

ABC had much better coverage. The '84 games in L.A. are still memorable for me as some of the best because of the coverage.

And really, I hate Bob Costas. He's such a self-aggrandizing SOB.

[MikeSid]

NBC is losing something like $250M based on the difference in the cost of the rights to cover the games and the advertising revenue. NBC just wants to hang on to the rights. It doesn't care about the coverage because better coverage won't significantly increase ratings share and ratings drive ad prices. NBC is basically phoning it in. This type of management is enough to keep me from buying GE.

[Christien]

Canadian coverage actually seems crappier this year than in years past. I haven't watched much, but what I have watched seems to be sneaking in a pair of commercials whenever they can. Could be because it moved from CBC (crown corp) to CTV (private broadcaster), I dunno, but it's annoying. The real test will come when as we approach the finals in men's and women's hockey, when the viewer #s really get high.

[Seahawk]

Even my children have commented on how dismal the coverage has been...Costas and Patrick were borderline insulting to some of the athletes in their interviews with them.

Pity, really.

[Superman]

American Selavision is disgusting. But you know.......we believe in the "self-regulating markets" theory that whatever is good for corporate America is good for its citizens. The Olympic coverage you're discussing is an example of that.

[Por_sha911]

TWO solid hours of 15k cross country skiing and not a single minute on the hockey games. Its almost like they want to put you to sleep!

[kach22i]

The men's and women's snowboarding was awesome, coverage was just okay though.

[herr_oberst]

I just read in the paper that ratings are up compared to Turin?
Great - no incentive to improve, unfortunately.

[AFC-911]

Is there a way to watch the Canadian Olympics coverage on the net?

[jorian]

Thank god for the PVR.

[Rick Lee]

Dottore, you coming back through Phoenix soon? I'll be in San Fran. next week and Vancouver on March 13th is looking very likely.