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London 2012 Olympic Media Updates


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That's a great find, Barc. Well done. So there answers a question about NBCSN. I thought they'd come up a little earlier than 6am every day. But it should put them over the 200 hour mark in terms of total coverage. Where those extra hours (if that does in fact happen), remains a mystery. But definitely a good piece of info to have.

My guess is that MSNBC will have any live coverage before 6am Eastern. I could see MSNBC's coverage running from 2-6am Eastern, with a 2-3 hour break for "Morning Joe" at 6am, and then their coverage will continue from 8 or 9am to 5pm. MSNBC also did an "Olympic Update" show in 2008, but I can't see them going past 5pm as they won't want to pre-empt their political shows right before the conventions. CNBC will probably pick up the coverage at 5pm with their usual 5-6 hour slate of boxing and various other sports. I don't know when Bravo will have coverage--maybe in the late afternoon from 4 or 5 to 7pm (like Oxygen in 2008) and in late night.

So that leaves us with NBC's coverage. I assume they'll have the traditional primetime (8pm-midnight) and late night (12:35-2:05am) slots. It remains to be seen what they're going to do with the daytime coverage--will they have afternoon (12:30-4pm) coverage like 2004 or late morning (10am-1pm) coverage like 2008? Or maybe the extra hours for NBC will come during the daytime coverage and they'll do something like 10am-3pm or noon-5pm. Of course, any "live" daytime coverage during the week will probably be live in Eastern time only, with 1-3 hour delays in all other time zones, which is annoying. I'm sure more details about the coverage will start leaking out over the next few months. Overall, this is shaping up to be NBC's best Olympic effort to date.

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My guess is that MSNBC will have any live coverage before 6am Eastern. I could see MSNBC's coverage running from 2-6am Eastern, with a 2-3 hour break for "Morning Joe" at 6am, and then their coverage will continue from 8 or 9am to 5pm. MSNBC also did an "Olympic Update" show in 2008, but I can't see them going past 5pm as they won't want to pre-empt their political shows right before the conventions. CNBC will probably pick up the coverage at 5pm with their usual 5-6 hour slate of boxing and various other sports. I don't know when Bravo will have coverage--maybe in the late afternoon from 4 or 5 to 7pm (like Oxygen in 2008) and in late night.

So that leaves us with NBC's coverage. I assume they'll have the traditional primetime (8pm-midnight) and late night (12:35-2:05am) slots. It remains to be seen what they're going to do with the daytime coverage--will they have afternoon (12:30-4pm) coverage like 2004 or late morning (10am-1pm) coverage like 2008? Or maybe the extra hours for NBC will come during the daytime coverage and they'll do something like 10am-3pm or noon-5pm. Of course, any "live" daytime coverage during the week will probably be live in Eastern time only, with 1-3 hour delays in all other time zones, which is annoying. I'm sure more details about the coverage will start leaking out over the next few months. Overall, this is shaping up to be NBC's best Olympic effort to date.

I had been thinking that MSNBC might use the same schedule they had from Beijing and just go 5am to 5pm every day. But ya know what.. I think you many be right on the money there with MSNBC. I forgot that was 1 of their primary windows from Vancouver doing late night curling. So that might be it, going until 6am when NBCSN hits the air, picking back up at 9am and taking it until 5pm (potentially followed by Olympic Update). And that I look at the schedule.. the early boxing session of each day begins at 8:30am ET. Might be a good time for MSNBC to come up. And let CNBC handle the late boxing session (which typically begins at 3:30pm ET).

I was looking at the breakdown of hours from the last 2 Olympics. We have...

Athens: NBC - 226 hours, MSNBC - 133 hours, Bravo - 122 hours, CNBC - 111 hours, USA - 49 hours.. total hours of English language coverage - 641

Beijing: NBC - 225 hours, MSNBC - 175 hours, USA - 165 hours, CNBC - 95 hours, Oxygen - 20 hours.. total hours of English language coverage - 680

So let's say we're looking at around 750-800 hours, not including Telemundo. I don't think NBC's number can go up too much unless they expand the afternoon block which I don't see them doing, so let's assume they stay at 225. NBC Sports Network we now know will probably be good for about 225 (14 hours a day times 16 days = 224). So that leaves 300-350 hours left between MSNBC, CNBC, and Bravo. Take the MSNBC and CNBC numbers from Beijing, give Bravo a handful, and you have it.

Between the TV coverage and the promise of live streaming of every event, this is definitely going to be an Olympics like we've never seen before in the United States. I've said since 2005 that this timezone is about as perfect as you can get for their cable coverage, and I'm sure it will be everything we hope it will be!

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Despite the Australian Federal Court allowing Optus TV Now to proceed in its landmark ruling, the IOC remains committed to protect Nine's (and FOXTEL's to a lesser extent) Olympic TV rights. But you know the IOC is not thrilled about this development on their newfound lucrative markets of pay-TV, tablets, and cell/mobile phones

http://news.investors.com/Newsfeed/Article/140950155/201202051938/Games-rights-will-be-protected.aspx

http://www.zdnet.com.au/more-tv-now-may-mean-less-tv-later-339331185.htm

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CCTV-5 boss Jiang Heipeng announces that CCTV's sports channel will send a team of 400 to cover the London Olympics under the "London Action" initative, including two dozen of those who already there months before the OC to send reports from London. If you click on the video (news report in English from CCTV's English channel), it doubled as a fashion show for what the CCTV team will be wearing. What's with the 361 degrees?

http://english.cntv.cn/program/sportsscene/20120107/112513.shtml

BBC's new-look Olympic website too had a facelift, but there are plans to add more features as the BBC goes along. It may go all flash due to the budget constraints the BBC and, largely, Britain's economy could hold, as one feedback poster suggests.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2012/02/bbc_sport_olympic_page_launch.html

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I'm very interested in how the BBC will cover the torch lighting in Olympia on May 10. Will there somethings that was never covered before by previous host nations broadcasters like Seven, ERT, and CCTV? What channel in the BBC family will have that honor? Likely either BBC One or BBC Three since both are the TV channels that will cover the London Olympics. We all should know Greek national broadcaster ERT will do it as always since it is in the home of the Olympics. How will say NBC Universal or CTV, among other Olympic networks will do it here?

While we're on the upcoming torch relay, the BBC announced the coverage of the torch relay live all over Britain through the Internet with the help of Mobile Viewpoint's VMT on the BBC's national and regional channels.

http://broadcastengi...-olympic-torch/

http://opensource.sy...om/node/2155035

I'm still planning to research what kind of coverage Mexico's Televisa will perform for the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games soon and whether will it spread across its channels. Apparently, it will only be Televisa without TV Azteca this time, but we'll see for sure. For now we got two promos for its coverage under the Televisa Deportes banner. The first is over two minutes long and is hilarious that features a few of the top Mexican Olympians going mano e mano in various sports with Televisa Deportes personalities. If you know anything about the Mexican coverage of the Olympics in recent times, they tend to significantly add humour and irreverence in that to attract a broader TV audience. It will be no different this time, judging from them, but apparently there will be a stronger sports angle. The commercials feature former Mexican sprinter Ana Guevara, Marisol Gonzalez, Vanessa Huppenkothen, Eugenio Debrez, and Elsa Garcia. Both promos has Queen's legendary jock anthem "We Are The Champions" as Televisa's Olympic theme song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIiqGl0sFXE

Here's the Televisa Deportes Olympic team all over London (Londres) at the famous city spots and icons and mingling with Prince William, David Beckham, and Queen Elizabeth II lookalikes singing that same song...and rocking the guitar like Brian May.

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NBC has already sold more than $900 million in ads for the London Olympics, which exceeds its sales for Beijing:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/sports/olympics/nbc-is-looking-for-big-payoff-on-olympics.html?_r=2

They're still about $300 million short of the $1.18 billion rights fee that they paid for the Games, but I think they'll come much closer to making a profit on London than they did on Vancouver.

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I think NBC will reach its goal as soon as Team USA takes greater shape in the coming months and perhaps make a profit.

NBC and Google will research and survey the complex Olympic viewership awaiting them on the multiple platforms is offered when London is televised starting in July:

http://www.variety.c...222?refCatId=14

Nine Network's first promo apparently featuring the London Olympics that aired in December and early January to get Aussie viewers into the new year. Just isn't about London in Nine's sports stable but NRL rugby league, State of Origin (NSW and Queensland duking it out), World Series of Cricket, and Wallabies and their hated rivals Rugby World Champs the All-Blacks.

A very beautiful, "emotional", and lengthy 2+ minute London Olympic promo from Sky Sport Italia last year. It captures some of the most notable and legendary Summer Olympians ever to grace the stage up to Beijing 2008 with an Italian bent with the likes of Frederica Pelligrini, Yuri Chechi, Valentina Vezzali, Pietro Mennea, Paolo Bettini, and Giulia Quintevalli, Interesting there's no Sara Simeoni in the footage.

[media]

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NBC has already sold more than $900 million in ads for the London Olympics, which exceeds its sales for Beijing:

http://www.nytimes.c...mpics.html?_r=2

They're still about $300 million short of the $1.18 billion rights fee that they paid for the Games, but I think they'll come much closer to making a profit on London than they did on Vancouver.

Those numbers seem a little fishy. From this article.. NBC readjusts Games sales goals, they have NBC as having sold $1.1 billion in advertising from Beijing which seems more in line with the rights fees. Maybe the $900 million is only for NBC and doesn't include the cable nets or online stuff? Either way, if London is out-pacing Beijing by this much already, perhaps the outlook is a little brighter than it was for London. We shall see.

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The Beeb confirms what their 3D Olympic coverage plans are. No surprise that both ceremonies and the men's 100m final are the selected ones, for they are the apex of lots of people's attention to the Olympics. BBC's 2012 Olympic Director Roger Mosey adds there will be a nightly Olympic news report on 3D in addition to all being aired on BBC HD (acting like a BBC 3) "to minimize the loss of HD that is a consequence of our 3D service" in an experimental phase after all the live action is complete, so as not to interrupt any of that major live action. But Mosey isn't sure exactly how much of the ceremonies will be shot on 3D cameras. I'd say all of them. With the men's 100m, it's just going to be around just 10 seconds of it, if not the leadup and pomp and circumstances afterwards. This is like what NBC did when it delayed its new HD Olympic coverage in Athens 2004 24 hours after that day's events were over.

http://www.digitalsp...live-in-3d.html

http://www.techradar...1063597?src=rss

http://www.bbc.co.uk...t-arts-17049246

http://www.bbc.co.uk...nd_100m_fi.html

As for NBC, we still don't know what its 3D coverage plans are and they may be more widespread than what the BBC will offer. Perhaps it will take in a nightly Olympic news show themselves. But what about the newly-christened NBC Sports Network (formerly Versus) and make possible the 3D coverage there? Could it do the coverage that way and round the clock after competition is over? Since apparently the USA is ahead of 3D TV compared to the UK, it could make the coverage simulcasted on the 3D versions. Don't know.

Nien and FOXTEL hasn't announced what, if at all, plans for 3D Olympic plans they have, but with local Australian interest in 3D broadcasting all but dead, I wouldn't count on it in time for London down under.

http://www.gizmodo.c...s-abandoned-3d/

Argentina's premier sports channel TyC Sports surely has the Summer Olympics as the anchor event to watch as indicated here. But it also has other sports programming for the year 2012 lined up as actor Carlos Rivkin passionately announces in the streets of Buenos Aires.

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Just uploaded days ago. The latest promo in a growing series of CTV's Believe in 2012 Olympic campaign. This multilingual and colorful one captures the spirit of Believe sweeping through Portugal, Italy, and Poland. You may recognize some of these shots from the commercials Canadiansports linked to earlier in this thread when the campaign started during Super Bowl week. Don't forget those languages will be used for the multilingual coverage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFox8NMEx8U

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The BBC have got their 3D plans spot on - it would have been suicidal to lose a second HD channel for little watched 3D coverage of the game, especially when we've already lost a couple of interactive streams to make way for the HD channels.

NBC looks like it's doing exactly what we expect of NBC. Having watched opening ceremonies and live action at all times of day or night here on the BBC for as long as I can remember I still can't comprehend the idea of delaying it all till primetime, especially in the world of Twitter and the internet, but London was never going to be the games that changed that - though it would be great to see NBC experiment with daytime live action at the weekend of events like the 100m final.

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I'm very curious as to who will call the French-Canadian language coverage of basketball for RDS and RDS INFO.

Basketball isn't all that popular among the French-speaking portions of Quebec (NBA and college hoops weren't broadcast in French until this season). Mathieu Jolivet and Bernard Côté do college hoops on RDS; they will probably do the Olympics as well.

That TSN London 2012 promo featuring Indian boxer Mary Khan had me seriously wondering if women's boxing will appear on TSN, as it assumes and very likely on the ATN networks since for the Summer Olympics, they focus more on the athletes and sports that appeal to the South Asian community in Canada. On that note, based on what we saw in the Believe 2012 campaign so far, we're going to see OMNI, APTN, and ATN finally get their turns for promos aired in their networks.

Women's boxing will air wherever they have room for it. Sportsnet and TSN will show some of it for sure. Canada has Mary Spencer, one of the best boxers in the world. I don't think you can read too much into the ads. CTV/TSN are trying to introduce Canadians to athletes they haven't heard of before.

I also don't think anyone of the channels except for CTV/TSN will show the I Believe promos. Even Sportsnet hasn't shown any yet. There are fractures in the consortium that weren't there in 2010. Outside of the 17 days of competition, the respective networks seem to be doing their own thing.

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NBC looks like it's doing exactly what we expect of NBC. Having watched opening ceremonies and live action at all times of day or night here on the BBC for as long as I can remember I still can't comprehend the idea of delaying it all till primetime, especially in the world of Twitter and the internet, but London was never going to be the games that changed that - though it would be great to see NBC experiment with daytime live action at the weekend of events like the 100m final.

To be fair to NBC, this is the Olympics that they have pledged to show everything live online. That probably has more to do with new management than anything, but NBC is doing more than we expected of them. Whether or not that translates into changes in their TV coverage remains to be seen.

As for the delays.. the United States is different from other countries when it comes to the Olympics. At the end of the day, it's a business and the networks have to do what's in their best interests. That means not showing the best action in the middle of the afternoon when few people are in front of their television as opposed to in primetime when audiences are higher. That's why NBC can pull in the ratings they do for primetime, even when all the action is on tape. Twitter and Facebook and whatever other social media you can think of are not going to scare off viewers. This is the Olympics, not a football game. In spite of the money they lost from Vancouver (which has little to do with how they covered the games.. and I'll remind the peanut gallery again that CTV lost money as well), they know what they're NBC. And now that they've pledged to show everything live online, hopefully that will start to put to bed the incessant complaining from people who tell us how much they hate NBC's Olympics coverage, watch it anyway, and expect that they're going to change their ways.

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I cannot understand NBC. If there was an Olympics where the BBC refused to show the opening ceremony or 100m final live - no matter what time of day - there would be outrage. I had no idea this sort of thing went on.

Again, American television is a different animal from other countries. There is outrage, but then those people still watch anyway. I compare it to someone going to a restaurant, complaining about the food and then eat it anyway. So what responsibility does NBC have to placate those customers? They will get more viewers by tape-delaying things like the Opening Ceremony than if they show it live. Now I'm sure someone is thinking "well why can't they do both like CBC/CTV does?" It's not a smart business decision to do that. You're wasting 4 valuable hours of programming on what essentially is a re-run. I know those of you in foreign countries look at how American television networks show the Olympics and think it's crazy, but it makes business sense to do things that way here. That's why it's done the way it is and has been for decades now.

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Yeah, I understood the explanation you gave the first time. I just don't understand why people put up with it.

Because we have no other option? At least this year (and in the future), we'll be able to see everything live on the internet. The bottom line is that NBC's strategy delivers the most eyeballs to advertisers in primetime.

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Not to get into an NBC bash, or criticism of US Olympic viewing habits – as a few US posters have said, that's the way you're used to it, and when you're paying so much for the broadcast rights, NBC has to try and maximise their return.

But it does mystify me, and dare I say most of the rest of the world – that you all are so accepting of it, or prefer it that way. Okay, getting up at 3am in the morning (and especially in the middle of winter when the SOGs usually are down here) is not much fun unless you really are keen to see a particular race, but otherwise I think you guys miss out on a lot of what I think makes the Olympics so fun and compelling.

One of the great joys of Olympic time down here is most workplaces and offices will have TV sets set up around, and come an important final or event in the middle of the working day (swimming down here more often than not, of course), everyone in the office will gather around the set, cheer on the local lad or lass, have a lot of fun, and in some measure spread the Olympic spirit and fun in the workplace with some banter and quick breaks from the routine. I think you miss out on a lot of that when you don't really get to see anything except at home with maybe just the odd family member with you (if that). I just think it makes the games more of a communal thing down here, rather than just another solitary viewing event at home, and adds to the appeal. And the broadcast network will of course repeat highlights in the evening anyway (and it doesn't seem to affect the ratings too much that a lot of people will have watched, or know the result, already).

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Without going into a mile long explanation, so I know I have that in me, here's the best explanation I can give to foreigners who remain baffled at American television coverage of the Olympics. And Sir Rols, especially to you because from what I read of Australian coverage of the 2008 Olympics, there were a lot of less than happy viewers who were expressing a lot of the same concerns we hear about NBC in the States...

The simplest explanation is that the Olympics are not as big of a deal here as they are in many other countries. Michael Phelps may be a household name, but most Americans barely know what he does aside from a week every 4 years at the Olympics plus maybe another big meet here or there. As opposed to Australia where you follow the sport a lot more closely than we do here and would gather together for an Olympic final in the middle of a work day or late at night. Same thing for a sport like bobsled where the world championships are going on, in the United States no less. That's probably a big deal in a country like Germany, but not at all here. That an American won didn't even register on the American sports radar.

So when the Olympics comes along, it's sports and athletes that Americans largely aren't familiar with. And there are so many prominent sports leagues in this country, it's difficult to draw attention away from those and onto an event like the Olympics that's here and gone pretty quickly. You can't count on getting a big audience for a ski race in the middle of the afternoon on a Wednesday or track final late at night. Yes, it short-changes the Olympics to slice and dice coverage and package it into primetime (although as Barcelona pointed out, live streaming of every event is going to be a permanent mainstay from now on), but that's also going to maximize the number of people watching. The business side of things for NBC aside, what purpose does it really serve to show something live if more people are going to watch it later on tape. It's not just about drawing attention to the Olympics, it's about drawing it away from other sports and interests.. football, baseball, basketball, hockey, golf, auto racing, tennis, soccer. That's why I always laugh at the "Americans have no choice but to watch the Olympics on NBC" claims, because it's not like there aren't other things to watch if you're a sports fan. And the difference there is that a football game is 3 hours long. A tennis match or a golf final round are even longer. An Olympic swim final is usually less than 2 minutes. It's easier to take something like that and package it for primetime, especially when it's a part of a 17 day long sports extravaganza with dozens of events going on simultaneously. It's not the Super Bowl which is 1 game on 1 night that everyone can focus on with few other distractions.

Now for me, personally, I would love to have everything live because I care enough to rearrange my schedule and my television viewing that I'd be up in the middle of the night to watch the Olympics. I've long said that 1 of the great television experiences of my life was being able to watch the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney games live on CBC, even though it required being up at 3:45 in the morning (I was in college then, so that made it easier). But most Americans aren't like that. Given the choice between that or watching a baseball game in the evening like they do all the time, which are they going to choose? That's why NBC has to bring the Olympics to the viewer rather than the viewer automatically being drawn to the Olympics. It's not just about maximizing their profit margin. And at the end of the day, if more people are willing and able to watch a taped Olympics in primetime than they are a live Olympics at other hours (and that's pretty much a fact), it's hard to fault NBC for doing what they do, even though there are people out there complaining, especially when there's far fewer of those types than they'd like to give themselves credit for.

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I cannot understand NBC. If there was an Olympics where the BBC refused to show the opening ceremony or 100m final live - no matter what time of day - there would be outrage. I had no idea this sort of thing went on.

I think the last time Americans saw a live Opening Ceremony was Salt Lake 2002 and Atlanta 1996 before that... I live in Arizona and we did not get Vancouver's Ceremony live...

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I understand that Quaker. Just think you guys are missing out on what is some of the great Games viewing experience that we enjoy in the rest of the world. But, yeah, business is business.

One question to the US members, though. How do the other networks who aren't showing the games handle results and highlights coverage. Of course in this day of the net, it's impossible to keep results under wraps unless you really try to make an effort not to find out a(nd even that's hard, someone, or some outlet usually lets the cat out of the bag). But we have a system here where non-rights holders for the games still have reporters in the respective host cities (though usually not allowed to broadcast from within “official” Games precincts), and news bulletins are limited to (I think it is) two minutes of highlights clips in their evening new bulletins – which of course usually contains any local medal winners _ before the host broadcaster's evening package. How does NBC handle the likes of ABC or CBC or Fox or whatever broadcasting the results in their news bulletins? Or are they not allowed?

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I understand that Quaker. Just think you guys are missing out on what is some of the great Games viewing experience that we enjoy in the rest of the world. But, yeah, business is business.

One question to the US members, though. How do the other networks who aren't showing the games handle results and highlights coverage. Of course in this day of the net, it's impossible to keep results under wraps unless you really try to make an effort not to find out a(nd even that's hard, someone, or some outlet usually lets the cat out of the bag). But we have a system here where non-rights holders for the games still have reporters in the respective host cities (though usually not allowed to broadcast from within “official” Games precincts), and news bulletins are limited to (I think it is) two minutes of highlights clips in their evening new bulletins – which of course usually contains any local medal winners _ before the host broadcaster's evening package. How does NBC handle the likes of ABC or CBC or Fox or whatever broadcasting the results in their news bulletins? Or are they not allowed?

In the U.S., no other media outlet is allowed to air footage of Olympic events until it airs first on NBC. Even then, the other outlets are limited to a couple of minutes of highlights. The other networks often announce the results of events and perhaps show a few photos, but they can't show any footage until after NBC's coverage.

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They report on the events American's win, and do medal counts, maybe send a reporter but other than that they ignore it mostly. No witholding results till primetime even if NBC withold the event coverage till primetime, even with that NBC will sometimes edit down events to only show the American and maybe the couple that are favored to place highly in the event.

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To add to Quaker's last post, most Americans simply aren't familiar with Olympic athletes and Olympic sports. Even Phelps and Bolt barely register in the U.S. outside of the Olympic year. Most Americans do not care enough about swimming or track to get up and watch a live final at 3am or take off work to watch a final at 1pm. If NBC aired the coverage live at that time, they'd be lucky to get 2-3 million viewers. By showing the coverage taped in primetime, they can get 15-20 million viewers, most of whom would not have watched live but have heard during the day that something amazing happened and thus want to watch the TV coverage. NBC's best hour of primetime from the Vancouver Olympics was the hour that they showed the women's downhill--about 8 hours after it happened.

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I understand that Quaker. Just think you guys are missing out on what is some of the great Games viewing experience that we enjoy in the rest of the world. But, yeah, business is business.

I won't argue with that for a second. I'm as big a baseball and football fan as anyone. But I'll gladly put that on hold for the Olympics because it in higher regard. But that's me. Most people who are that entrenched with baseball aren't going to focus on the Olympics. It will help thoughtif the TV coverage of it is made convenient to them, even if it isn't shown live.

One question to the US members, though. How do the other networks who aren't showing the games handle results and highlights coverage. Of course in this day of the net, it's impossible to keep results under wraps unless you really try to make an effort not to find out a(nd even that's hard, someone, or some outlet usually lets the cat out of the bag). But we have a system here where non-rights holders for the games still have reporters in the respective host cities (though usually not allowed to broadcast from within “official” Games precincts), and news bulletins are limited to (I think it is) two minutes of highlights clips in their evening new bulletins – which of course usually contains any local medal winners _ before the host broadcaster's evening package. How does NBC handle the likes of ABC or CBC or Fox or whatever broadcasting the results in their news bulletins? Or are they not allowed?

The broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, Fox) pay very little attention to the Olympics outside of the occasional report on the local news. They are embargoed from showing video until NBC is off the air with their primetime show, so they usually won't even bother to send reporters. I'm sure they're allowed, but from the standpoint of their sports coverage, it's not worth sending anyone for the TV side of things. Maybe the website folks will send some people. ESPN will have some people on site although similar to what you were describing, rarely are they positioned anywhere near the venues. They can air some highlights and they'll make it a part of their coverage, but it's largely very passive since they lack direct airs.

As for the results, they don't care. They never have. They're not afraid of others broadcasting the results and spoiling the show for them because even if they mention results, they can't show video. When CBS was the rights holder for the Winter Olympics in the 1990s, they routinely gave the results of events they were purposely saving for primetime later in the evening. I remember 1 very specific instance.. first day of competition during the `94 games in Lillehammer. CBS comes on the air at 9am and the first thing they report is that Tommy Moe won the downhill, even though that was a good 12 hours away from airing on television. That's the mindset of the American television networks and they have a point.. knowing the results does not mean people won't watch. And especially if it's a prominent American, often times it will drive people to the telecast rather than scaring people off. I know the prevailing theory would be to show it live and in the moment, but if more people will watch on tape, then whose interests are they really serving.

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