105 replies to this topic

[Fratboy]

Was the downhill broadcast on an affiliate network in the afternoon? Or was it on NBC? I'm not complaining about all the live figure skating - perhaps that's your *real* beef - but I envision a day where they have wall to wall coverage on the internet, and you can hook it up to your HDTV for your viewing pleasure. I'd be willing to drop some coin for that, but also if I could access the replays on demand.

[Tony the Pony]

but I envision a day where they have wall to wall coverage on the internet, and you can hook it up to your HDTV for your viewing pleasure.

Welcome to 2010

[Fred not Lynn]

Was the downhill broadcast on an affiliate network in the afternoon? Or was it on NBC? I'm not complaining about all the live figure skating - perhaps that's your *real* beef - but I envision a day where they have wall to wall coverage on the internet, and you can hook it up to your HDTV for your viewing pleasure. I'd be willing to drop some coin for that, but also if I could access the replays on demand.

In my opinion, it would be a good idea for IOC to look at a MLBAM type setup and take the broadcast partner middle-man right out of the equation. Remember, NBC is operating on a business model developed when they bid for and won these rights. I don't think the next broadcast agreement will be even close to the same.

[Fratboy]

Welcome to 2010

NBC has live coverage on the Internets?

Then what the fuck is everyone complaining about, just that it's not on TV?

[Bongorific]

Was the downhill broadcast on an affiliate network in the afternoon? Or was it on NBC?

Neither. Skiing fans had to find "illegal" feeds online being broadcast from Canada or Europe. 8 of the 45 racers were shown on tape-delay during prime time on NBC.

[shawnrbu]

Was the downhill broadcast on an affiliate network in the afternoon? Or was it on NBC?

The downhill was covered on tape delay on NBC after 9 P.M. Eastern.

[Bongorific]

NBC has live coverage on the Internets?

Then what the fuck is everyone complaining about, just that it's not on TV?

The only thing being shown live online is curling and hockey. NBC actually took a huge step back. For Beijing, 2,200 hours of live footage was streamed. For Vancouver, it's only 400 hours. So if you want to watch skiing live or see every competitor race it's impossible in the U.S. Unless you do so illegally.

Cnet story regarding NBC Olympic internet streaming

[dwightinright]

For Beijing, 2,200 hours of live footage was streamed. For Vancouver, it's only 400 hours.

That makes sense. After all, one city is, you know, right here, and the other is halfway around the world. I mean, there really shouldn't be an issue with streaming just about everything live because of the time.

Wait, what?

Edited by dwightinright, 18 February 2010 - 04:25 PM.

[Spacemans Bong]

NBC can't even do the non-sports shit better than Europe. I love this theme, it's a blast to watch.

That's what makes NBC so annoying, they don't make up for screwing people with tape delayed coverage with great editing and segments. It's all hamfisted crap.

Edited by Spacemans Bong, 18 February 2010 - 05:19 PM.

[dolomite133]

A general media critique. I hear too many talking heads complaining about 'safety issues' at the Olympics. NOT ONCE have I heard anybody say "we wanted our athletes to go faster, and now we're paying for it." Not once. Really I don't blame Vancouver, I blame an audience which increasingly DEMANDS video game level action out of its athletes. So we put them on crazy fast luge tracks. On faster, crazier alpine and ski cross courses. In huge half pipes. Listening to ESPN, CSN, etc. sports 'personalities' trashing Vancouver for these accidents is intellectual laziness.

[Haunted]

Totally! I'll look again tonight, but neither were listed on Comcast's page or my guide.

I'm fully open to the possibility that I'm just retarded, but I'm 98% sure that I'm not. In this case.

So I just called Comcast after confirming the channels aren't on my guide - sure enough, I don't get them. I pointed out that I'm paying the same rate as people who do get these channels and that's... shitty. But, of course, nothing could be done, blah blah blah. Alas.

So no US-Canada hockey in HD for me.

[TheYellowDart5]

NBC has live coverage on the Internets?

Then what the fuck is everyone complaining about, just that it's not on TV?

As someone already mentioned, that's only applicable for hockey and curling. And NBC.com requires you to enter your cable or satellite provider and enter your username and password before you can watch, which means that anyone with internet access but no cable account can't watch online (neither live events nor replays). That's also true of anyone with a cable company that doesn't have an online arrangement with NBC.

[mabrowndog]

So I just called Comcast after confirming the channels aren't on my guide - sure enough, I don't get them. I pointed out that I'm paying the same rate as people who do get these channels and that's... shitty. But, of course, nothing could be done, blah blah blah. Alas.

So no US-Canada hockey in HD for me.

Bear in mind that in some parts of the country, cable content is negotiated with local governments as a condition of using municapal- or county-owned utility lines and poles to run their wire and transmit signals. Here in Falmouth, Comcast agreed to provide three local access channels at the behest of the board of selectmen. That meant removing three channels from each of the various service tiers.

Bottom line: Comcast sucks, but certain elements of the suckage aren't entirely their fault.

Edited by mabrowndog, 18 February 2010 - 08:36 PM.

[mpjc]

posted this in the figure skating thread but it belongs here:

in the "coming up!" preview of men's long program, they talked about Plushenko, Lysecek, and Daisuke Takahashi, but showed video of: Plushenko, Lysecek, and ... another Japanese figure skater, Kozuka Takahiko.

[Maalox]

So we put them on crazy fast luge tracks. On faster, crazier alpine and ski cross courses.

Crazy alpine courses are fun. You don't hear the athletes complaining. You hear fat old people complaining. Fuck them.

So far the alpine events (as opposed to NBC's coverage of them) have been among the most exciting I've ever seen.

[Saturnian]

"A domestic Olympics cries out to be telecast live across the entire country as previous U.S. games have been," he said. "I am emphatic that delaying our primetime Salt Lake coverage is a mistake." - Dick Ebersol, 2001

Ok, now that that's sorted...

[Sausage in Section 17]

Piling on further: NBC's sins are most egregious is on the West Coast, where even events that are shown live on the East Coast are pushed back 3 hours til it's prime time here. This creates a scenario where people who live in Seattle could drive to Vancouver in less time than they have to wait to see the events on TV. Fortunately those in Washington who live within an hour of the border probably get the Canadian broadcast.

[Fratboy]

Chad Finn disagrees with all of you.

Look, NBC wants to create a story, a narrative, which is what will reel in the most eyeballs. It makes sports more palatable to women, and men will watch anyway because it's sports, or because shawty wants them to watch with them and it's a bonding moment the guy can trade for poonanny later.

For me, the best solution is BOTH. You can still have the recap/narrative at night along with live programming women will want to see (FIGURE SKATING!!), and live feeds online, replayable for $14.95. Everybody wins, and IOC/USOC/broadcast partner of the quadrennium makes a BOATLOAD of coin.

[Maalox]

Chad Finn disagrees with all of you.

Look, NBC wants to create a story, a narrative, which is what will reel in the most eyeballs. It makes sports more palatable to women, and men will watch anyway because it's sports, or because shawty wants them to watch with them and it's a bonding moment the guy can trade for poonanny later.

For me, the best solution is BOTH. You can still have the recap/narrative at night along with live programming women will want to see (FIGURE SKATING!!), and live feeds online, replayable for $14.95. Everybody wins, and IOC/USOC/broadcast partner of the quadrennium makes a BOATLOAD of coin.

The world is full of reasonable, supportable arguments that are wrong. In fact, most reasonable, supportable arguments are wrong. (They lose out, usually, to other reasonable, supportable arguments.) That NBC has a reasonable, supportable argument for the way it covers the Olympics is conclusive, irrebuttable proof that NBC has a reasonable, supportable argument for the way it covers the Olympics - and quite possibly of nothing more.

[86spike]

jesus christ... follow the money!

Again, the reason NBC is culling everything and hoarding for prime time is due to the ratings guarantee to advertisers. Everything else is bullshit meant to deflect from the fact that they felt forced to make shitty business deals to sell ads and now have to manipulate their broadcast to protect against (more) financial losses.

[slidingsideways]

Chad Finn disagrees with all of you.

This is utter crap: "... it only slightly taints the viewing experience to know the outcome hours in advance. The thrill of victory is still the thrill of victory, even if you know it is coming." I don't want to know the outcome hours in advance. I carefully avoided every possible spoiler to watch the women's downhill without knowing the result, and it was far more exciting and enjoyable. But better still would be to see the race as it happens and not have to worry that I'll accidentally see the results while checking the weather.

I don't see why they couldn't air the women's downhill on another NBC family channel live, then air the highlights in prime time for all those folks who don't mind knowing the outcome.

I know why they do what they do and it's still not okay.

[Spacemans Bong]

I agree, that's the argument of someone who has very, very little experience watching tape delayed sporting events.

[mabrowndog]

OK, has there ever been a creepier national sports broadcaster than Fred Rogan? The way he keeps his head bowed forward, peering at us with his pupils just beneath his eyebrows, is a classic serial killer look.

Couple that with his halted vocal delivery, and I'm convinced he's got a few dismembered bodies in his crawl space.

[ColoradoJack]

OK, has there ever been a creepier national sports broadcaster than Fred Rogan? The way he keeps his head bowed forward, peering at us with his pupils just beneath his eyebrows, is a classic serial killer look.

Couple that with his halted vocal delivery, and I'm convinced he's got a few dismembered bodies in his crawl space.

I just imagined him in a bloody clown suit so, yea, thanks for that.

[Buckner's Boots]

The most egregious transgression of this Olympics has been the bobsled ass-cam. I don't know if that's an NBC innovation or if it's from the Olympic feed, but it shouldn't exist. And these bobsled drivers: is there another group of "athletes" that doesn't belong in spandex any more than these guys? Maybe curling, but even most curlers are more fit than the bobsled drivers. My god.

[mabrowndog]

The most egregious transgression of this Olympics has been the bobsled ass-cam.

Wrong.

I hereby submit to you the fifty-yucks-a-minute human interest/comedy segment they just showed with Mary Carillo going through training at the fucking Royal Canadian Mounted Police academy.

Jesus Everlasting Gobstopping Christ.

Edited by mabrowndog, 20 February 2010 - 10:50 PM.

[cwright]

Wrong.

I hereby submit to you the fifty-yucks-a-minute human interest segment they just showed with Mary Carillo going through training at the fucking Royal Canadian Mounted Pollice academy.

Jesus Everlasting Gobstopping Christ.

Yeah, that was easily the worst thing I've seen so far on NBC (and the coverage hasn't been impressive, to say the least).

[shawnrbu]

OK, has there ever been a creepier national sports broadcaster than Fred Rogan? The way he keeps his head bowed forward, peering at us with his pupils just beneath his eyebrows, is a classic serial killer look.

Dude looks creepier than Kenny Albert. In the field of sports broadcasting, that's an accomplishment.

[Buckner's Boots]

Wrong.

I hereby submit to you the fifty-yucks-a-minute human interest segment they just showed with Mary Carillo going through training at the fucking Royal Canadian Mounted Pollice academy.

Jesus Everlasting Gobstopping Christ.

But in my defense, that abortion hadn't been plopped onto our televisions at the time I wrote that initial post. I have to agree, the RCMP piece was one of the shittiest pieces of shit I've ever seen. But I digress, back to ass-cam of Steve Holcomb. I'm still pretty sure that's one of the nastiest things I've seen since I last saw myself in bike shorts.

[DannyHeep]

Wrong.

I hereby submit to you the fifty-yucks-a-minute human interest/comedy segment they just showed with Mary Carillo going through training at the fucking Royal Canadian Mounted Police academy.

Jesus Everlasting Gobstopping Christ.

If you looked closely, there were two polar bears in the background.

[JimD]

Only in the mind of an NBC executive does it make sense on a Saturday afternoon to show all 50 competitors in the Men's Ski Jumping Final - an event which did not include a single American - and relegating coverage of the far more popular Women's Super G with breakout stars Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso to an abbreviated tape-delayed spot hours later.

[mascho]

Wrong.

I hereby submit to you the fifty-yucks-a-minute human interest/comedy segment they just showed with Mary Carillo going through training at the fucking Royal Canadian Mounted Police academy.

Jesus Everlasting Gobstopping Christ.

If I understand correctly, she spent most of 2009 traveling through Canada, shooting footage and putting together these stories.

Just imagine the comedy gold that must be lying on the editing room floor over at NBC.

[cwright]

If I understand correctly, she spent most of 2009 traveling through Canada, shooting footage and putting together these stories.

Just imagine the comedy gold that must be lying on the editing room floor over at NBC.

We can only hope that they send her to Russia to prepare for 2014, and that she gets lost in Siberia.

[mabrowndog]

We can only hope that they send her to Russia to prepare for 2014, and that she gets lost in Siberia.

I'd rather she becomes a week's worth of meals for a mother Grizzly and her cubs.

[gaelgirl]

I really like Mary Carillo's tennis commentary, but this filler shit she's doing here is so lame it's beyond infuriating. Almost everything NBC does with the Olympics is beyond infuriating. I am really angry about not getting live skiing coverage anywhere. Anybody who's going to spend an afternoon watching skiing is likely a huge sports fan and wouldn't mind seeing the six or seven races they show on prime time. UGH.

My dad missed the US-Canada hockey game today because he didn't realize it was on, what, MSNBC? He apparently just kept checking ESPN crawls for score updates. He's not tech-savvy and they've got hundreds of channels on cable. NBC has to do a better job of promoting this shit, but it seems they are loathe to tell you during the NBC coverage what's happening on any of their other networks. They can talk about the fucking stuffed moose for days on end in lame-ass semi-scripted forced banter, but not where you can find what you want to see.

[Fratboy]

This all may be true, but I bet they determined their targeted casual sports fans (i.e., most, but not all women) totally ate it up. That said, I'll enjoy the occasional fluff piece about the host country/city, their culture, unique and interesting stuff, but this stuff is bad.

Next up: Mary goes on an E trip at a Vancouver night club!

But I digress, back to ass-cam of Steve Holcomb. I'm still pretty sure that's one of the nastiest things I've seen since I last saw myself in bike shorts.

You're awfully fixated on this. Just sayin'.

[Nuf Ced]

My dad missed the US-Canada hockey game today because he didn't realize it was on, what, MSNBC? He apparently just kept checking ESPN crawls for score updates. He's not tech-savvy and they've got hundreds of channels on cable. NBC has to do a better job of promoting this shit, but it seems they are loathe to tell you during the NBC coverage what's happening on any of their other networks. They can talk about the fucking stuffed moose for days on end in lame-ass semi-scripted forced banter, but not where you can find what you want to see.

They can't be bothered to put the women's gold medal hockey game on NBC Thursday. The gold medal game. They can't suck enough.

[The Four Peters]

They can't be bothered to put the women's gold medal hockey game on NBC Thursday. The gold medal game. They can't suck enough.

Even hockey fans won't watch that game. That'd be suicide to put that on primetime on a Thursday night.

[Buckner's Boots]

This all may be true, but I bet they determined their targeted casual sports fans (i.e., most, but not all women) totally ate it up. That said, I'll enjoy the occasional fluff piece about the host country/city, their culture, unique and interesting stuff, but this stuff is bad.

Next up: Mary goes on an E trip at a Vancouver night club!

You're awfully fixated on this. Just sayin'.

Yeah, maybe I'm repressed or closeted or something. I really liked it when they referred to his pusher as "a bear" the other night. They just made an already homoerotic sport all the more homoerotic.

It's just not a really flattering angle on that specific shot, especially for Holcomb. Now for the brakeman on Germany 1, if I was built like that I wouldn't be embarrassed a bit to have that camera there. But Holcomb? No.

[wibi]

Im done with paying for TV after finding out that the hockey game(s) yesterday were not on regular NBC but MSNBC has just confirmed my opinion that I will not be giving a dime of my hard earned cash to a TV company anytime in the future.

[The Four Peters]

Im done with paying for TV after finding out that the hockey game(s) yesterday were not on regular NBC but MSNBC has just confirmed my opinion that I will not be giving a dime of my hard earned cash to a TV company anytime in the future.

Well Czech - Russia was on regular NBC Sunday afternoon. And if USA - Canada had been on NBC, you realize there would have been an onslaught of commercials, right? Since there's no TV stoppages in international play, you'd have missed plenty of action, causing even more complaints. On top of that, NBC is broadcast tv, not cable, so you're not paying for that anyways. But really, keep up the good fight. Nice work.

Really, NBC's biggest mistakes were not using CNBC (so DirectTV would get HD) and not being proactive enough to let people know what channel the game was on. Other than that, I was fine with it being on a secondary channel, as it made for an outstanding viewing experience with almost no commercials or secondary crap.

But man, people love complaining.

Edit: You don't care enough to actually watch the games or find out what channel they're on before they're played, but you care enough to cancel cable because of that decision? What?

Edited by The Four Peters, 22 February 2010 - 12:24 PM.

[Fratboy]

They can't be bothered to put the women's gold medal hockey game on NBC Thursday. The gold medal game. They can't suck enough.

Instead of the Ladies Free Skate? That's programming suicide.

[Fratboy]

It's just not a really flattering angle on that specific shot, especially for Holcomb. Now for the brakeman on Germany 1, if I was built like that I wouldn't be embarrassed a bit to have that camera there. But Holcomb? No.

We should talk.

[Arroyo Con Frijoles]

I'm not even sure what to say about that Costas-in-a-plane intro. Ugh.

[Hendu's Gait]

This sea plane landing and docking on the water is very cute and all, but do you really need to waste 6 minutes of coverage for it?

[wibi]

Well Czech - Russia was on regular NBC Sunday afternoon. And if USA - Canada had been on NBC, you realize there would have been an onslaught of commercials, right? Since there's no TV stoppages in international play, you'd have missed plenty of action, causing even more complaints. On top of that, NBC is broadcast tv, not cable, so you're not paying for that anyways. But really, keep up the good fight. Nice work.

Really, NBC's biggest mistakes were not using CNBC (so DirectTV would get HD) and not being proactive enough to let people know what channel the game was on. Other than that, I was fine with it being on a secondary channel, as it made for an outstanding viewing experience with almost no commercials or secondary crap.

But man, people love complaining.

Edit: You don't care enough to actually watch the games or find out what channel they're on before they're played, but you care enough to cancel cable because of that decision? What?

I'm well aware of the fact that I dont pay for TV but I made an assumption (obviously faulty but by no means was I the only one to make it) that NBC would have broadcast USA v. Canada on NBC instead of MSNBC. It was an assumption but it goes to my point that paying for a channel that I will watch once every 4 years (maybe 2 if there is some summer olympic sport on I want to see) is futile.

I've already downloaded the game and will be watching it in HD tonight. I know the score but I still like watching good hockey and this game has the potential to be good hockey.

I enjoyed watching CZE v. RUS very much and assumed that because that game was on NBC that the host countries game would be on the same (main) channel.

[axx]

An interview with Michael Phelps? This is the Winter Olympics correct?

[jcd0805]

I know everyone hates the fluff, but this segment about the snowboarder who suffered the traumatic brain injury a couple months ago was really, really moving.

[Fred not Lynn]

For what it's worth - the USA vs Canada hockey game on Sunday was the most watched TV program in Canadian history.

[Obscure Name]

For what it's worth - the USA vs Canada hockey game on Sunday was the most watched TV program in Canadian history.

Pretty sure Canada changed the way their ratings work recently, so I'm not sure how much that means. This is like the third or forth thing I've heard being the highest rated program ever in like the past month.

Edited by Obscure Name, 23 February 2010 - 01:56 AM.