NBC shows ceremony 12 hours late, some viewers balk
Here's the thing about a certain newspaper that is covering the Olympics as if they are being staged at the corner of Eighth Avenue and 40th Street:
I know the fine folks over there are competitors of Newsday, but more important than that is (occasionally) sharing worthwhile Beijing-related stuff they produce with you, dear readers. (Me? I'm busy with Brett. Duh!)
Hence this interesting link about NBC's attempts to keep the opening ceremony genie in the bottle in the Internet era.
I hate tape delayed sports as much as the next guy, but I just don't think it's a big deal for a scripted show such as the opening ceremony. Things will get more serious now that the actual Games are underway, as tech-savvy Americans seek live video of major events before NBC is ready to show them in prime time.
This ultimately is a losing battle for the Peacocks. Thank goodness the 2010 Winter Games are in North America, allowing the big stuff to be scheduled for prime time here.
By London 2012, the idea of holding major events for prime time viewing will seem even more quaint than it is today.
(UPDATE: None of this seems to have hurt the TV ratings much. NBC said the overnight rating for major markets showed 21.7 percent of homes watched the event, the most ever for a non-American opening ceremony, surpassing the previous high of 18.5 for Sydney in 2000. Also, NBCOlympics.com had 70 million page views Friday, 10 times the number for the opening day of the Athens Games in 2004.)
(ANOTHER UPDATE: The official national rating for Friday night was 18.6, surpassing the 18.1 for the 1960 Rome Games to make it the highest rated opening ceremony ever outside the U.S. The 1984 L.A. Games scored a 23.9 rating, and Atlanta in '96 did a 23.6.)
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Comments (9)
Is NBC taking lessons from China on how to censor the internet? Or did Dick "XFL" Ebersol teach them?
As a (hopefully) "tech-savvy American," it drives me nuts that MSNBC has medal results on the front page of their site, often for events that are still being/have yet to be broadcast on one of the many NBC-owned channels covering the games. I'm surprised they don't have a "no spoilers" option for those that want it *and* want to keep up on the day's news.
Jon
Ps. The all-soccer HD channel and the all-basketball HD channel are the best two parts of the Olympic TV coverage for me so far. I could keep one or the other running all day.
As a (hopefully) "tech-savvy American," it drives me nuts that MSNBC has medal results on the front page of their site, often for events that are still being/have yet to be broadcast on one of the many NBC-owned channels covering the games. I'm surprised they don't have a "no spoilers" option for those that want it *and* want to keep up on the day's news.
Jon
Ps. The all-soccer HD channel and the all-basketball HD channel are the best two parts of the Olympic TV coverage for me so far. I could keep one or the other running all day.
Y'all should come visit, eh? CBC, carried on our basic cable here, covered the ceremonies live, as they do far more often and with far more international focus than Team USA, oops, NBC does. More on that, and the various places to see coverage in the NBCopoly, is in Alan Pergament's column du jour.
Not that I was watching them on either network, instead preferring to blog about not watchin....
Erm, sorry. Wasn't supposed to say that.
I can say "Erin Andrews," though. Pfft.
Neil - Live beats tape every time. The fact that NBC delayed coverage of the Opening Ceremony for twelve hours was a travesty.
Help! Help! I'm being repressed!
What a bummer! We in the USA were the only audience privileged to watch the most spectacular opening ceremony ever with a 12-hour time warp delay - all thanks to NBC. Instead, we were treated to the extraordinary talents of Hoda and Kathie Lee! Whupeee!
JP
I know opening night drew 35 million viewers but I pray to Buddha that the rest of these games tank in the ratings.
Neil,
you bring up a good point about 2010. LA is closer to Vancouver than NY but we on the West Coast won't AND NEVER get to see 99% of the Olympics LIVE
for crying out loud the 1984 LA Olympics were taped for Primetime out here
people need to quit whinning