NBC's Olympic coverage

[DrLeftover]

[font=times new roman,times,serif]I have been a professional observer of sports at all levels for longer than I want to think about. I've been in the press box at Big 10 games, watched NASCAR for fun and profit from pit road, been to playoff games in more sports than I can count, and so on.



I will say this about NBC's Olympic coverage.



When they are good, they are VERY good. Excellent in fact.



And when they are bad.... they stink on ice on par with Congress.

 

[Evil Eye]

Do I dare ask what's wrong with it?

Yes.

What's wrong with it?

 

[DrLeftover]

No problem.



1. Prime Time coverage spending more time 'chatting' with athletes and their families/friends/coaches/high school teachers/etc than covering major events.



2. Commentators babbling like idiots on topics that have nothing to do with the event at hand.



3. Having guest 'celebrities' in from NBC shows that prattle on about shows we'll never watch.



4. Hosts airing their own political views during lulls in the action.



5. Missing major incidents during live coverage because some talking head had found a celebrity in the stands and was jabbering on about what they had for dinner last night and they didn't cut away from it. (Twice now, and the Olympics are only half over)



6. The Close Captioning during the Prime Time coverage, which is by definition delayed by At Least five hours, being an absolute goat screw at times. Understandable during Live Coverage. Inexcusable with a tape delay of that magnitude.



How's that for a short list?

 

[Fatal Dawn]

I have to concur with your first and second points.

 

[DrLeftover]

But again, when they are good, as with the Williams Sister's gold medal match this morning in doubles, they are very good.



The camera work during the shooting events (such as where you could see the pellets hitting the clay pigeons during trap) as well as the analysis and commentary was excellent.



Same with swimming and diving.



The overall coverage of things like indoor volleyball, fencing, and boxing has been very good as well.



I'll wait until after the track and field to rate the overall production of the event in total.

 

[Evil Eye]

How's that for a short list?

That sounds absolutely horrible.

Why would that draw people?

 

[DrLeftover]

Why?



1. There is no other reasonable viewing option as the Online coverage is even worse.



2. It is still the Olympics.



3. There is nothing else on worth watching.



4. There are some people who watch for the 'show' instead of the sports. They WANT to see the piece about how the athlete's dying grandmother begged them to go to practice instead of coming to her funeral. These are also the people who watched every minute of the opening ceremony and won't turn on anything else until the closing.

 

[DrLeftover]

From the BBC text coverage

Ben Dirs, BBC Sport at the synchronised swimming



First impressions of the synchronised swimming? It's a bit like dressage. Except with two ladies instead of horses. And under water. I salute their indefatigability but I'd rather see two women having a punch-up. But that's just me.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19084043

 

[DrLeftover]

I guess it was too good to last.



While Olympic events are happening this morning. NBC has elected to air informercials until 0700 on their 24 hour sports channel today.



Oh, well, I'll see if I can get the BBC online.

 

[Evil Eye]

I guess the only way to get decent coverage is to be there...

 

[DrLeftover]

The second week of NBC's coverage went downhill fast.



They quit showing anything live before 0700 Eastern where they had been going live at 0500. (by seven, I'd already been at work for half an hour).



Their prime time coverage basically went to hell. It was more about 'celebrities' and 'inspirational features' and promoting NBC shows than the sports. In fact, one night, they talked about upcoming events, but didn't show any sports at all for the first hour in prime time.



Their commentators at the boxing venue were told to shut up at ringside by the Boxing Federation.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/11/us-oly-boxi-nbc-day-idUSBRE87919Q20120811



NBC did not air one minute of sailing coverage, instead, they relegated it to online only, and then it worked only marginally well unless you paid for access.



The NBC website continued to suck swampwater through a straw with poor organization, a lousy selection of video clips, and totally forgetting about updating for some sports.





BUT! Their Taekwondo coverage, especially in the medal rounds was excellent.



Their coverage of team handball and field hockey remained very good.



And their views of the mountain biking and race walking events were quite nice as well.





Going into the final day... it's a decidedly mixed bag.



We'll see how it comes out.

 

[DrLeftover]

And tonight, on the last night of NBC's Olympic Coverage....



They turn into The History Channel with an hour of WWII coverage.



Why?

 

[Evil Eye]

Why?

Maybe they didn't like the closing ceremony.

 

[DrLeftover]

No, that was Saturday night. The Closing Pageant was on Sunday.





At least the network didn't interrupt the broadcast to air the premier of a show that ended up with a longer run than it deserved before it was canceled because it was so godawful that people had to watch it a couple of times just to be sure that that was the real show and not some sort of really bad taste joke.



To NBC's credit however. They are airing taped events this week on the sports network. So far, I've seen a couple of things that I missed live.



So... they'll get extra credit on that.