Could the Television Coverage of the Olympics Be Better?
February 12, 2006 by admin
Filed under Sports Rumors
As I sit here on Sunday morning, I wonder to myself why every NBC channel is not broadcasting Olympic events non-stop? Being in two Olympic Games (2000 and 2004), I did not experience this “tape-delayed” effect. In Salt Lake City, it was irrelevant because the games were on my home soil, but now as I sit here watching infomercials and the Coral Ridge Hour on NBC and USA Network, I wonder what NBC is waiting for to broadcast the games to us viewers. Surely there are others who are wondering this same thing and I am curious how stations across the world cover the Olympics?
In the UK, the BBC provide reasonably extensive coverage of the Olympics. Being in Europe means that for us things are on at sensible times. It’s not wall-to-wall coverage, but it’s good.
For some reason, NBC is doing a lousy job at coverage this year. The network has been really good at sports coverage in the past, but this Winter Olympics is inexcusable.
Hi scottg! What part in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics were you involved with?
CBC up here in Canada has been great. Naturally, it’s VERY Canadian oriented towards their events and schedules and interviews with our athletes, so it probably isn’t even worth asking if you can get it nor would I recommend it as an alternative.
What do you think of the NBCOlympics.com website? Between that, the CBC.ca/olympics/ and the torin2006.org sites … it’s almost better than T.V.! Plus – you get google videos (We don’t)
I swam in Sydney and Athens Olympics. Certainly there is tons of info when and where you want it, but there is something to be said for being able to watch it on television when it is happening, not 12 hours later.
Without a doubt. NBC has four channels covering the Olympic Games and a good percentage of the time they are either showing non-Olympic coverage or rerunning previous coverage. NBC seems, for this Olympic Games, to be taking the stance that the Games revolve around Figure Skating between 8pm and 11pm. I appreciate that they are actually showing Hockey in the early AM. But, when it is day time in Turin they are not showing anything or just replaying the prime-time 8-11pm coverage.
Please, NBC, use at least one of the FOUR channels to show some live coverage – Turin time.
I’ll admit I’ve not been watching the Winter Olympics that closely so far, but the French television (the publioc channels at least) seems to be doing a great job so far. They had extensive coverage over the weekend even though there were other big sport events (rugby, Davis Cup in tennis).
I’ve just discovered they offer video on demand :
http://jeux-olympiques.france2.fr/hiver/turin-2006/video/?
Unlimited access to all channels is 20 euros for the duration of the Games. I’ve not yet tested the service and cannot tell whether it’s worth it.