Ready for some fresh NBC outrage? Just wait until tomorrow, when Oregon discovers that the broadcast for USA Hockey's quarterfinal doesn't start until three hours after the actual game does. I understand hockey really comes to life on the radio.
Many Americans were quite peeved when Sunday's game against Canada was assigned to MSNBC, denying folks without cable or (or an MSNBC HD feed) a prime viewing experience. The network heard those cries, however, and will broadcast the USA's next game on the NBC mothership. Unfortunately ... none of NBC Classic's Olympic programming gets broadcast live on the West Coast. It appears that the game will be shown at 3:00 p.m. in the both Eastern and Pacific time zones. So, if you don't want to know what happens, put a bucket over your head for three hours. Maybe bang it with a wooden spoon just to be safe.
This one you can blame on affiliates. Local noontime news programs are essential to their operations and not something they enjoy preempting for a silly kids game. Of course, if the match were moved back to MSNBC, showing it live across the entire country probably wouldn't be an issue. You can relish that irony while you're following the game on Twitter.
(Or you can move to Guam. It will be live there too.)
The good news is that NBC's Olympic ratings success has temporarily moved them out of fourth place among the major broadcast networks. Hooray, to not being the worst media company in America this week! Bronze medals are almost as good as gold!
UPDATE: As of right now, the Gold Medal hockey game, the last event of the Olympics, taking place on a Sunday afternoon, when no other sports are being played anywhere in Vancouver, is scheduled to be shown on tape delay on the West Coast. Up yours.
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On with the hate....
Richard W.:
I would like to echo Anomie M's comments about NBC's coverage, though without the profanity. I agree the coverage is awful, though it's always been this way (by NBC), but the profanity is really unnecessary.
I seriously considered timing the coverage, that is: 30 seconds for intro title, 30 seconds of host blather, commercial, commercial, other NBC show bumper, Olympic event to come bumper, host blather, commercial, commercial, actual event coverage for 60 seconds, commercial, commercial, etc etc ad nauseum — but to what avail? NBC is certainly not listening. Could this be why NBC is in last place?
Actually, the Wall Street Journal did this. They found that in one 3.5-hour primetime broadcast, NBC aired 53 minutes of actual sporting action, a little over 25% of the evening. That's about 3 minutes less than the time they spent on commercials. Bob Costas only got 17 minutes, the poor thing.
It doesn't say how much time was devoted to Mary Carillo kissing that moose.
Notsmes:
here's hoping(demanding?!) to see an article slamming nbc for its obvious hatred of sports and sportsfans. last night [Sunday] they not only didn't show the men's downhill skiing combined live—okay they are never going to show skiing live, but this!?—but saved the skiing for their primetime show and scheduled it for exactly the same time as the hockey game between usa and canada! EXACTLY THE SAME TIME!!!
what asses! how about a more than well deserved slam against the petty spiteful scheduling of nbc who made it impossible to watch the usa play canada AND watch bode miller win his first gold medal, while finishing 3rd after 2 other americans in the slalom portion of the race.
nbc really hates sports and sports fans, don't they?
To be fair, even in a 100% live Olympics, events will always conflict. That's why Isaac Newton invented picture-in-picture.
Ben:
Tonight Show Part Two: NBC does it again! After promoting USA/Canada hockey game forever, here in New Hampshire, where comcast has long ago dropped MSNBC, the biggest event of the Olympics was not able to be seen. Why on earth, of all events, was this hockey game not on local NBC stations? Of all things, they come on AFTER the game to tell me what transpired out of my sight. (I only happened to turn back to NBC for this after viewing my recorded reruns of Conan - that superior final week.) The usual NBC management ineptitude.
D-Bone:
So about an hour ago (4:30ish Pacific) I turn on my local NBC HD channel, 707, and they're showing the Russia-Czech hockey game instead of the big ticket America-America, Jr. matchup. Weird, right? Not sure why they'd prioritize an Eastern Bloc grudge match in front of the battle for North America. So then I do some more looking around, and find our game in standard def on MSNBC, channel 39. Sweet, I'll just go to the MSNBC HD channel on 739 and... oh, wait, either my cable provider (Cox, San Diego) doesn't carry that channel in HD, or it doesn't exist. Alright, this is retarded now. But wait! There's an auxiliary NBC HD channel on 774 that shows more Olympics! I switch over to that, and inexplicably, it is identical to what's being shown on the regular NBC HD channel. Why in the flying fuck would they have identical HD feeds going on two different channels? But my optimism wasn't dead yet - they're gonna move America v. Canada over to the HD channels as soon as the Czechs and Russians are done, right? FUCKING WRONG. So if you're keeping score, I currently get to choose between Al Michaels' Lake Placid Nostalgifuck, which is playing simultaneously on both the HD channels, or the hockey game EVERYONE WANTS TO SEE on one shitty standard-def feed that looks like it's being streamed illegally off Youtube. I'm not entirely sure if this is NBC's fault or Cox's fault, but someone deserves a violent skullfucking for this bullshit.
Keith W.:
Are you guys getting a fuck ton of email about this? Why would NBC show downhill instead of this hockey game? I'm not really a hockey fan even still, fucking what? Downhill? Figure skating? What the fuck!!!
Ben R.:
Jimmy Roberts just did a segment about Norway's disappointing performance so far in Cross-Country Skiing. In the piece, he interviewed a member of the Norwegian media, who said that apart from skier Petter Northug, the Norwegian team was crap. This wouldn't be noteworthy, except for the fact that NBC bleeped the word 'crap'. Crap. This is the United States, right? And it is 2010? And this is the same network that bombards us with commercials for The Biggest Loser that include morbidly obese men with man-boobs standing on a scale with nothing but shorts on. That is considered decent, but someone saying 'crap' is not?!?!?!
M. J. Menne:
I used to love watching the Winter Olympics. At age 65, though, I have to watch my blood pressure, so I've decided to boycott NBC's coverage this time. The network's pre-digestion and subsequent time-delayed regurgitation of only those bits of action it deems necessary for the American public's olympic experience is so infuriating that I simply can't watch it. Yes, I want to celebrate the accomplishment of American athletes and yes, I want to enjoy the successes of athletes from around the world. Sadly, those opportunities have been taken away from us by NBC's paternalistic and patronizing coverage. Our athletes and our country deserve better. Is it possible to coordinate a nationwide protest by the American people to protest this travesty?
Now it's time for a Sentimental Olympic Athlete Profile. Meet Dmitri Meleshko, of HOMETOWN, Belarus.
Thanks to Randball for the pic. Now back to the screaming:
Adam P.
I don't understand why people think that NBC ought to give every sport equal time or some such nonsense; it only makes sense that an American network will show sports that are popular in the United States or at least sports where an American is contending. I'm betting Speed Skating gets more coverage in the Netherlands than Ice Hockey, and Short Track might get more attention in South Korea than Biathlon.
My problem, though, is with the tape delay business. ANY live event should take precedence over ANY taped event. If what's on at 8pm is Denmark vs. Norway Women's Curling, that's what you show. The ONLY time you should see ANYTHING tape delayed is when there is NOTHING else to show. I don't care if that is a money loser or not, NBC should put the integrity of sport first.
But, if NBC has 2 live events to choose from, I can't blame them for choosing the one that Americans are expected to do well in, or at least the one that is popular in the United States. I just wish that they would hold themselves to broadcasting live events exclusively.
Matt M.:
Could you please e-mail Dick Ebersol and his NBC crew for allowing us to see 1 of the 3 goals so far in the Canada vs. Switzerland game. Not only do they feel the need to put a product THEY HAVE A CONTRACT WITH ALL YEAR on their sister stations that nobody can find, but they also have continuously come back from breaks late and force us to miss goals in the games. I really hope that these Olympics are the event that bring that piece of shit network to its knees. I am hereby declaring that I will watch no shows on NBC(except for the Penguins, let's not get crazy). I will from now on wait until it is made in to a torrent file, and illegally download it. That will show 'em.
Chris M.
Did you see the one piece Cris Collinsworth delivered two nights ago about how close downhill skiing can be? The whole thing consisted of him translating small amounts of time into other events, ie. .07 seconds = 3 flaps of a hummingbird's wings. That was the entire 3 minute segment. I felt infinitely dumber after sitting through the whole thing. We get that the races are close; I guess instead of using a clock, they should just have hummingbird handy and the winner would be the one that completed the race in the least amount of flaps. Collinsworth and Carillo, for that matter, are really getting to me.
Jo. B:
Singles figure skating coverage is particularly horrible. You don't get to see anything but the top few — anything good is topped off with Scott Hamilton yelling "nicely," "beautifully." Poor Scott — his vocabulary is so limited. Don't they have a thesaurus? What saved ice dancing was Tracy Wilson whose commentary is intelligent and explanatory. As old as Dick Button is, he would be better than Scott. The heavy gentleman who was with Scott and another skating expert is absolutely hideous. The two women who trot over to talk to the skaters are also the same — how did you feel when you started your routine — I actually can't remember the other questions now, but they're inane, simplistic, and always the same. The "interviews" of the skaters are not interviews in the least. This morning I watched the Today Show. They're just as bad.....
Wouldn't it be wonderful if someone at NBC had thought to provide a tutorial about the "new" rules and why people who fall on their faces are given better marks than clean skaters. "Edges" — who can see an edge? — who cares — what makes edges such an achievement? I could go on and on with the questions — and know I'll never get answers or explanations — especially not from NBC.
Rob. H:
NBC, on the other hand, is offering live blogs of most events, live streaming only of curling and hockey, and one-day-delayed full video. And then, only to those who use ISPs anointed by NBC as worthy. Fortunately, my ISP is "worthy" (because my ISP will soon *own* NBC). Unfortunately, NBC has done a crappy job with the live feeds, as they stop at random and you have to reload the page to restart them. Fortunately (damn, I'm bouncing around), some of their streaming has been of CTV's excellent coverage.
I don't get that. Why NBC is limiting live streams, and not streaming the world feed (or even just making a deal with CTV to allow Americans to see the world feed, but not the CTV feed), makes no sense. They're not protecting their televised coverage – the same people who AREN'T watching the soap-opera-style coverage on NBC primetime would be the ones who would watch live streaming. And, in case NBC doesn't know this, you CAN insert advertising into streaming coverage.
Clearly, as has been noted elsewhere, NBC is administering their Olympic coverage about as well as they run the rest of their network. I've been unemployed for 4 months, and Jeff Zucker still has a job. I tell ya, there's no justice in this world.
And the final unhinged rant of the day goes to Phil G.:
Amazed that anyone is still even watching the Olympics. I shut this crap off in 1988 after being forced to watch Roy Jones Jr. being literally gang raped by South Korean organized crime, the IOC and the cowardice of the American Olympic commitee. ... The Olympics has always been a steaming pile of excrement since the days of Nazi suckoff Avery Brundage, a bunch of thug krauts assisting commie pukes in stealing basketball gold in Munich when they took 45 minutes and 16 attempts to play the last second of the game, Jean Claude Killy getting three golds by the disqualification of not one but two skiers in front of him, the amazing fraud of awarding two gold medals in Salt Lake after telling Roy Jones that sorry, we cant change the outcome of a sacred Olympic event (except if it is an obvious fraud and a PR disaster, then we'll change it it thirteen seconds) . Do you believe in miracles? No, apparently not, as even US-USSR 1980 "Miracle on Ice" was shown on tape delay so that every douche jingoist media figure including aholes in San Antonio who have never even seen a hockey game could crow about the outcome and ruin the suspense hours before the game was shown. But gosh darn those fiendish Russkies, cause well, they invade Afghanistan and stuff because they are bastard people. Oh, sorry, a couple of GI's just burnt down some Pashtun trading post but at least now they can go back to Fort Cheneytard and watch and drink Starbucks and drown out the flashbacks and the screams from cells five floors below, cause, dude, it's the Olympics!! I wish Joe Stack had kept going all the way to Vancouver and made a beeline for the Ebersol luxury box, at least that might become the latest manufactured American olympic event (the half tube my ass, my dog can do that stuff blindfolded on a piece of plywood).