I don't want to harp on about the bad NBC coverage of the Olympics over here. But I will. (There's a special hashtag on Twitter - #NBCFail for that very purpose.)
For a start, even though we get some "live" coverage in the mornings, NBC insists on merging it in with their regular morning show "The Today Show", so we keep cutting to bloody Jamie Oliver cooking segments and learning how to toss a salad in under 30 seconds. I like the chap but, there's a time and a place.
And even though they've been there for a week now, the presenters are still calling it "Bucking-Heyam" Palace". Grrr. Do your homework people.
What coverage there is is very arbitrary. Yesterday (Monday July 30th) when Zara Phillips made her first equestrian appearance, they did a brief three minutes on her position in the Royal Family and then moved back to the Men's Team Gymnastic debacle. We won't be seeing any equestrian competition till Tuesday evening for some reason.
And talking of the ridiculous scenario when the Japanese gymnastic team somehow managed to persuade the judges that they had all made a mistake, the guy didn't really fall off the Pommel horse, and please-could-we-have-our-silver-medal-back-please, NBC said "While they're sorting this problem out, we'll go to commercial", as if the whole thing wasn't pre-recorded and had been "sorted" about 7 hours previously. What the what?
But wait, what's that you say? They're showing live tennis over on the Bravo channel? Oh - there is a god!
Do you get NBCSN channel? Like Bravo it's so much better than nbc. They showed the Eventing live yesterday and today, including non-American athletes! Also a variety of other sport events from 4am daily. I can't stomach Costas or that Today lot but stumbled upon this and a dedicated channel.
ReplyDeleteSorry...should be 'and a dedicated Olympic football channel'.
ReplyDeleteThe whole thing is a sorry mess - the four hour long, tape delayed evening show doesn't tell you what's being shown when, or even add any added-value commentary, which might have been a benefit of tape delay. It's just one guy sitting in a studio.
ReplyDeleteApparently even some of the US swimmers' parents have complained that events are not being shown live. NBC need to get with the program (as they say here) and realise that if they want TV to remain the dominant medium, they have to cater to an audience who is used to digital media, live events and real-time commentary, with interactivity that lets you choose the event YOU want to watch. As it is, they have probably sounded the death knell for network coverage of the Olympics.
Anon - will have a look. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteNVG - It's bad enough when we get crap Wimbledon coverage, but this is terrible. You'd think with all these feckin' channels, one of them would be able to cover live Olympics all day!
I dislike the way they are acting like it isn't recorded in parts. I've taken to watching it online through their channel - much easier and live.
ReplyDeleteJamie... a real tosser. Sorry, just couldn't resist.*
ReplyDelete*for the record, I really like Jamie O.
Their soccer channel is great, but I've pretty much missed everything else.
ReplyDeleteWhen they have the exclusive rights they have little interest in improving the broadcasting, they're still getting the ratings they need.
Yes, Gladly, it's true. They say their ratings are not down, but that's because we all have it on as background noise, in the vain hope that something will come on that's worth watching!
ReplyDeleteMM - Ha ha. Nice one. And yes, he's a sweetie, except when I'm trying to watch sport!
Could you get BBCiplayer on the Internet? They show loads on it and I think you can pick what you want to watch...slightly biased of course towards TeamGB but we like a good final whoever is in it!
ReplyDeleteNo Tats, it's blocked. You can circumvent it with a few illegal downloads off the Internet that give you a British-looking IP but I nearly crashed my computer the other day when I tried it.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry. The coverage here has been great. Mostly. Just wondering if you have seen this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.funnyordie.com/articles/a0322d2251/realistic-descriptions-of-nbc-s-olympic-coverage
Ha ha ha. That's hilarious. Thanks.
ReplyDelete