Sochi 2014 Olympic Media Updates

[Quaker2001]

Yes, the live figure skating coverage will have commentary by Terry Gannon, Johnny Weir, and Tara Lipinski, while the primetime coverage will have commentary by Tom Hammond, Scott Hamilton, Sandra Bezic, and Tracy Wilson. I'm thrilled for the live coverage simply so I'll have an alternative to the usual screeching and idiocy by Scott and Sandra, who have absolutely no understanding of the new scoring system and talk like the sport is still in the 1990s.

When NBC first announced that they might show some major events live during the day, I thought they'd probably show the alpine skiing events live. It's very easy to show the entire event live and then package the top 10 plus Americans and crashes for primetime. I guess NBC figured they wouldn't gain much viewership for NBCSN by showing live skiing at 3am, so they decided to go with live figure skating, which they know will draw lots of viewers, at the expense of sports like hockey and curling. I also expect them to repackage any bobsled events they show live on NBCSN since the U.S. has strong medal chances in all 3 bobsled events. If they are going to double up on a number of events, I don't know why they couldn't add more hours on MSNBC to handle the events that are getting bumped from NBCSN.

That's the thing here.. I'm not expecting NBCU to go the Canada route and have 3 or 4 networks showing nothing but Olympics close to 24 hours a day. Having the 1 straight stream throughout the day on NBCSN (which will primarily be live) is obviously a huge improvement over past Olympics. But you're absolutely right that because it's just NBCSN and the other networks are only hockey and curling (not to mention NBC cutting back on coverage), there will be events that won't be televised live since NBC is doubling up on figure skating (and probably some other events). Doesn't seem like the most efficient use of time. That's what is the drawback to this set-up from this timezone, especially with a Winter Olympics where there will be some dead spots in the schedule and sports that will see less coverage this time than they did from Vancouver. I'll withhold final judgment until I see the schedule, and more importantly unless I see NBCSN's coverage in action, but I still get the sense my overall impression of the schedule will be "this is great, but it could have and should have been better." They'll be able to help their cause a lot if the online coverage not only is working, but isn't as heavily embargoed as it has been in the past in terms of archiving.

[ofan]

Yes, I'll eat my crow over that one as I was dead wrong. However, 2 things worth noting.. only 2 of the 3 games are on days where figure skating is held, so 1 of those wouldn't have conflicted (and 1 of them is also a weekend game that could have fit very nicely into NBC's schedule). And to be fair about how correct you were, you said "Of course there won't be any meaningful figure skating live on tv, but It will all be online live." So yes, the US hockey games were scheduled around figure skating, but that's because they are in fact airing on the same network, not simply so the 2 wouldn't be held at the same time.

Ah, fair enough, I should have looked back more closely at what I posted. However, I do think it's interesting that all Team USA games are at 7:30am or earlier. Why wouldn't they try an schedule them at a more convenient time like 12 EST if figure skating is only a conflict once?

[Barcelona_'92]

That's the thing here.. I'm not expecting NBCU to go the Canada route and have 3 or 4 networks showing nothing but Olympics close to 24 hours a day. Having the 1 straight stream throughout the day on NBCSN (which will primarily be live) is obviously a huge improvement over past Olympics. But you're absolutely right that because it's just NBCSN and the other networks are only hockey and curling (not to mention NBC cutting back on coverage), there will be events that won't be televised live since NBC is doubling up on figure skating (and probably some other events). Doesn't seem like the most efficient use of time. That's what is the drawback to this set-up from this timezone, especially with a Winter Olympics where there will be some dead spots in the schedule and sports that will see less coverage this time than they did from Vancouver. I'll withhold final judgment until I see the schedule, and more importantly unless I see NBCSN's coverage in action, but I still get the sense my overall impression of the schedule will be "this is great, but it could have and should have been better." They'll be able to help their cause a lot if the online coverage not only is working, but isn't as heavily embargoed as it has been in the past in terms of archiving.

They wouldn't necessarily have to go the Canada route to show the hockey and curling events that are getting bumped for figure skating--just a few additional hours on MSNBC or CNBC (which could desperately use the viewership anyway) to handle the overflow. I'll be most disappointed if we end up getting huge amounts of snowboarding and freeskiing coverage on NBC while more traditional events are neglected. I understand the appeal of snowboarding for younger viewers, but it's hard for me to accept "slopestyle" events in the Olympics, and I don't like the inclusion of these "made-for-TV" events just to increase the U.S. medal count.

With ad time sold out and NBC almost certain to make a profit from Sochi, I guess they feel as though they can experiment a bit with the coverage this year. The next three Games will be mostly live Games in primetime, but perhaps NBC will use the results of the Sochi coverage to determine how much they will push to have certain marquee events live in primetime in 2018 and 2020. For example, do they push to have figure skating start at 10am in Korea so it can be shown live in primetime, or do they show it live at 4am on NBCSN and repackage it for primetime? I could see something similar for 2016--perhaps they would show the gymnastics finals live in the afternoon and then repackage them for primetime after live swimming finals so that the two sports don't overlap like they did in Beijing.

I've noticed that NBC has been pushing the live internet coverage much less for Sochi than they did for London. Perhaps that's just because it's not new this year, and people now expect it, but NBC's advertising seems much more focused toward pushing people to the NBCSN coverage this time. I did read an article about a month ago that said major events would be embargoed until after primetime, and no other networks can show clips from the figure skating events until after they air on primetime. We'll see if they ramp up promotion of the internet coverage over the next month or if they continue to focus on the TV coverage--they probably expect less interest in the streaming coverage this time anyway since a lot of the major events will be between 3-8am Eastern.

[Quaker2001]

Ah, fair enough, I should have looked back more closely at what I posted. However, I do think it's interesting that all Team USA games are at 7:30am or earlier. Why wouldn't they try an schedule them at a more convenient time like 12 EST if figure skating is only a conflict once?

They wouldn't necessarily have to go the Canada route to show the hockey and curling events that are getting bumped for figure skating--just a few additional hours on MSNBC or CNBC (which could desperately use the viewership anyway) to handle the overflow. I'll be most disappointed if we end up getting huge amounts of snowboarding and freeskiing coverage on NBC while more traditional events are neglected. I understand the appeal of snowboarding for younger viewers, but it's hard for me to accept "slopestyle" events in the Olympics, and I don't like the inclusion of these "made-for-TV" events just to increase the U.S. medal count.

With ad time sold out and NBC almost certain to make a profit from Sochi, I guess they feel as though they can experiment a bit with the coverage this year. The next three Games will be mostly live Games in primetime, but perhaps NBC will use the results of the Sochi coverage to determine how much they will push to have certain marquee events live in primetime in 2018 and 2020. For example, do they push to have figure skating start at 10am in Korea so it can be shown live in primetime, or do they show it live at 4am on NBCSN and repackage it for primetime? I could see something similar for 2016--perhaps they would show the gymnastics finals live in the afternoon and then repackage them for primetime after live swimming finals so that the two sports don't overlap like they did in Beijing.

I've noticed that NBC has been pushing the live internet coverage much less for Sochi than they did for London. Perhaps that's just because it's not new this year, and people now expect it, but NBC's advertising seems much more focused toward pushing people to the NBCSN coverage this time. I did read an article about a month ago that said major events would be embargoed until after primetime, and no other networks can show clips from the figure skating events until after they air on primetime. We'll see if they ramp up promotion of the internet coverage over the next month or if they continue to focus on the TV coverage--they probably expect less interest in the streaming coverage this time anyway since a lot of the major events will be between 3-8am Eastern.

The funny thing is that NBC brass has said the priority is still primetime and protecting that show, but this schedule tells a different story. I think it's absolutely about propping up NBCSN and driving viewership there. To Barcelona's point, I don't even think it's about NBC experimenting because they've sold primetime so well already. This was their plan all along and in that regard it's an experiment, but I think they were a little disappointed with NBCSN's performance from London and that it didn't do much to showcase that network. This is another push (and perhaps the biggest one possible) to showcase that network, especially where a lot of events will take place while people are still asleep. And it's probably not a coincidence that NBCSN is getting all of the US hockey games, as opposed to putting a couple of them on NBC on the weekend which they could have easily done with the Russia game and the Slovenia game. Those 2 could have gotten slotted perfectly at Noon ET on NBC, but they kept them on NBCSN, just like in London where all of the men's basketball games were on NBCSN, as opposed to from Beijing when they put the 2 weekend games and the semifinal on NBC.

I don't know what this will mean going forward. Pretty much every Olympics is unique because of the timezones, so what we see from Sochi won't be replicated until at at least 2022. I'm sure there will be lessons to be learned for future Olympics, but this is now Comcast's show for the first time. So we'll see how they play this going forward.

[Durban Sandshark]

Last chance Dutch Olympic and national speed skating championships and trials for Sochi going on right now since December 26 (Boxing Day) onto the 30th on NOS TV (Nederland 1?) and on live streaming

http://nieuwsuit.com/2013/nieuws-live-stream-schaatsen-kwalificatie-olympische-spelen/

[Barcelona_'92]

The funny thing is that NBC brass has said the priority is still primetime and protecting that show, but this schedule tells a different story. I think it's absolutely about propping up NBCSN and driving viewership there. To Barcelona's point, I don't even think it's about NBC experimenting because they've sold primetime so well already. This was their plan all along and in that regard it's an experiment, but I think they were a little disappointed with NBCSN's performance from London and that it didn't do much to showcase that network. This is another push (and perhaps the biggest one possible) to showcase that network, especially where a lot of events will take place while people are still asleep. And it's probably not a coincidence that NBCSN is getting all of the US hockey games, as opposed to putting a couple of them on NBC on the weekend which they could have easily done with the Russia game and the Slovenia game. Those 2 could have gotten slotted perfectly at Noon ET on NBC, but they kept them on NBCSN, just like in London where all of the men's basketball games were on NBCSN, as opposed to from Beijing when they put the 2 weekend games and the semifinal on NBC.

The Comcast execs had to be pretty angry when Fox Sports 1 launched in August and was immediately carried as a main-tier channel by almost all major providers. Comcast has been in the game for years with Versus/NBCSN, but they still can't get carried by some providers, and most providers who do offer the channel offer it as part of an upper-tier or sports package, so a lot of people still don't have access to it. The Olympics is the biggest event that Comcast has to get people to subscribe to the channel or call their providers and demand it. I actually think NBC did quite a bit in 2012 to promote the NBCSN coverage--they put all of the USA men's and women's basketball games there, plus the semifinals and finals of women's soccer, which drew over 7 million viewers. Plus, a lot of the athlete interviews that used to be part of the NBC daytime coverage were on NBCSN instead. Now they're taking the next step and putting one of the most popular sports on NBCSN. I doubt they'll get 7 million viewers for live figure skating, but I wouldn't be surprised if they get 3-5 million daily since they won't be competing with any coverage on NBC this time around.

I just saw a commercial on NBCSN advertising the network as "Your LIVE home for the Sochi Olympics." The commercial included clips of hockey, figure skating, bobsled, cross-country skiing, and skicross. It seems that live curling may not be a focus this time, and people will have to watch live matches online to supplement the daily taped coverage on CNBC.

[Quaker2001]

The Comcast execs had to be pretty angry when Fox Sports 1 launched in August and was immediately carried as a main-tier channel by almost all major providers. Comcast has been in the game for years with Versus/NBCSN, but they still can't get carried by some providers, and most providers who do offer the channel offer it as part of an upper-tier or sports package, so a lot of people still don't have access to it. The Olympics is the biggest event that Comcast has to get people to subscribe to the channel or call their providers and demand it. I actually think NBC did quite a bit in 2012 to promote the NBCSN coverage--they put all of the USA men's and women's basketball games there, plus the semifinals and finals of women's soccer, which drew over 7 million viewers. Plus, a lot of the athlete interviews that used to be part of the NBC daytime coverage were on NBCSN instead. Now they're taking the next step and putting one of the most popular sports on NBCSN. I doubt they'll get 7 million viewers for live figure skating, but I wouldn't be surprised if they get 3-5 million daily since they won't be competing with any coverage on NBC this time around.

I just saw a commercial on NBCSN advertising the network as "Your LIVE home for the Sochi Olympics." The commercial included clips of hockey, figure skating, bobsled, cross-country skiing, and skicross. It seems that live curling may not be a focus this time, and people will have to watch live matches online to supplement the daily taped coverage on CNBC.

There's a reason for that though. Actually, 2 reasons. 1.. don't forget that Fox Sports 1 wasn't technically a brand new channel. It was essentially re-branding SPEED as a new network. Not quite like the Versus-to-NBCSN transition which was essentially the same network with a new name. 2.. Fox was trying to hold out for higher subscriber fees prior to launch. When they couldn't get it, they offered up FS1 at a much lower price (essentially what they had previously charged for Speed) in hopes of bringing them on board now and then eventually charging higher rates once the network has some traction. And Fox also has a higher profile of events than NBCSN does.. FS1 has some big time college football and college basketball, and starting in April they'll have MLB games as well. Aside from hockey and their soon to be new addition of NASCAR, a lot of what NBCSN has in their portfolio is niche sports like IndyCar and EPL soccer. Plus, because Fox was launching a new operation rather than rebranding an old one, they put a lot more effort into promoting that network than Comcast ever did.

As for the coverage, remember that the number NBCU floated was 230 hours of coverage. Divide that by 16 and you get 14 1/2 hours per day, more than that when you figure the last couple of days will have less coverage. They said most days will be 3am-3pm eastern, but I have a feeling most of those Midnight ET curling matches will make their way onto NBCSN because I don't know where else they'll get the hours from. They have some college basketball and college hockey games scheduled in primetime during the Olympics, so it won't be there. Depending on how accurate the tentative schedule is, USA will handling a lot of the curling, especially the 5am ET slot, and MSNBC is a lot more hockey than curling. I'll be curious to see how accurate those tentative schedules are and if the final schedule does in fact match what got announced from each network. And also to see if that 10am ET curling session does in fact get live coverage or if it gets the standard CNBC treatment and gets held for 5pm ET. I really hope it's the former.

[Barcelona_'92]

I expect to see a number of (possibly significant) changes from the tentative schedule. I remember when NBC put out a tentative schedule a few months prior to the 2008 Games, and there ended up being several changes when they released the final schedule. I'm guessing that at least some of the primetime broadcasts will end up stretching to 4 hours, in addition to the extra hours that you mentioned for NBCSN.

[ofan]

What's the reason that NBC doesn't go the "Canada" route and show the Games nearly 24 hours a day over a few networks?

[Quaker2001]

I expect to see a number of (possibly significant) changes from the tentative schedule. I remember when NBC put out a tentative schedule a few months prior to the 2008 Games, and there ended up being several changes when they released the final schedule. I'm guessing that at least some of the primetime broadcasts will end up stretching to 4 hours, in addition to the extra hours that you mentioned for NBCSN.

I hope you're right. It does seem odd that they announced the CNBC/MSNBC/USA portion of the coverage more than a month before everything else and did it before the curling schedule was finalized (at the time, they didn't even know if the American men would be in Sochi). And the tentative NBC schedule did seem very vanilla and ripe for some additional tweaking. I could live without the extra half hour on the primetime show if it meant more coverage on the weekends. Maybe it's wishful thinking that we'll get that, let alone that more of it will be live, but I've tempered my expectations in that regard.

What's the reason that NBC doesn't go the "Canada" route and show the Games nearly 24 hours a day over a few networks?

There's a lot reasons for that. Especially when it comes to the Winter Olympics, it goes without saying there's stronger interest from Canada than there is from the United States. Canada's 2 national sports both shut down for the Olympics so unlike the United States where there is wall-to-wall basketball, among other things to follow, Canadians (as well as many other countries) will focus on the Olympics more than Americans will. NBC also has its affiliates to deal with. They can't take over programming 24 hours a day (or close to it) the way it's been done on CBC and CTV. And because of the business element of television here in the United States, there's always the need to focus on primetime in order to maximize profits. Worth noting that CTV/Rogers lost $20 million (on a $93 million rights fee payment) on the Vancouver Olympics.

The other big thing.. Canada really only has 2 networks big enough to bid on the Olympics. And beyond them, there's Bell Media (who owns CTV and TSN) and Rogers (who has Sportsnet) to handle the cable end of things. So unlike the United States where there are multiple sports channels out there, all owned by different parent companies, Canada has the benefit of using multiple sports networks to cover the Olympics, largely without competition. That's not possible in the United States. Even if ESPN had won the bid and could use all their sports channels, those networks have other commitments like college basketball. Even NBCSN has some college games during the Olympics.

More than anything though, the United States is a country of over 300 million people. People have varied interests, so it's hard to commit so many hours on 1 network, even a sports network, to that 1 event. When ABC had the `84 Olympics, the first time there was extensive all day coverage of an Olympics, even then they had to leave a 2-hour break from the Olympics (in addition to time normally reserved for affiliates) because the afternoon soaps didn't want to go hiatus for 2 weeks. Similarly, there are people who watch MSNBC for news and don't want the network taken over for the Olympics. Ditto for CNBC.. that's why you never see Olympic coverage there during business hours.

So that's the long answer to your question. A lot of people want to compare coverage here to what you guys get in Canada, but what works for a country of 35 million people isn't going to be the same in a country of 300+ million. The economics of the 2 are vastly different. Whereas CBC/CTV and their cable partners are much more free to operate as they please, NBCU and Comcast have to look at the Olympics differently, not just because of the immense rights fees they pay, but because of how they fit into a much different television landscape than CBC has up north.

[ofan]

Based on what you said Quaker, I'm interested as to what you think NBC's operation would be like for a OG hosted in the US (more so Summer) in this day and age?

[Quaker2001]

Based on what you said Quaker, I'm interested as to what you think NBC's operation would be like for a OG hosted in the US (more so Summer) in this day and age?

We'll get a good sense when we get to Rio in 2 years. Not quite a North American-friendly timezone, but close enough. As a hypothetical, let's say the 2016 Olympics had been awarded to Chicago..

NBC's network coverage would look just like it did for London. There would be the Today Show from 7am-10am ET. Olympic coverage would start at 10 ET (9am local time in Chicago) and continue to 5pm (on the weekends it would likely be 10am-6pm, maybe even a little earlier depending on if an event like the marathon was taking place early). Primetime probably would be from 8pm-Midnight, maybe they'd come on at 7:30 depending on the schedule. Since NBC would have a lot of control over the schedule, I'm sure all of the marquee sports would be suited to NBC's needs, both with afternoon coverage and in primetime.

Not sure what the cable coverage would be. NBCSN and MSNBC would probably both start at 10am. If they had Bravo to cover tennis, that'd be something like Noon-8pm ET. Maybe USA would enter the fold. CNBC would have their boxing in the evening. Clearly the cable coverage would be on against NBC's primetime coverage. Don't think they'd get any marquee events, and I have a feeling games involving the US teams (soccer and basketball, most notably) would be scheduled to avoid primetime.

So the short answer.. what the coverage looked like for London except with the cable nets' hours pushed back later is what I think you'd get for an Olympics here.

[Barcelona_'92]

I hope you're right. It does seem odd that they announced the CNBC/MSNBC/USA portion of the coverage more than a month before everything else and did it before the curling schedule was finalized (at the time, they didn't even know if the American men would be in Sochi). And the tentative NBC schedule did seem very vanilla and ripe for some additional tweaking. I could live without the extra half hour on the primetime show if it meant more coverage on the weekends. Maybe it's wishful thinking that we'll get that, let alone that more of it will be live, but I've tempered my expectations in that regard.

Another difference that I noticed from past Olympics--the tentative schedule doesn't include extended daytime coverage on NBC on Presidents' Day. That's been a staple of Winter Olympic coverage in the U.S. since 1988. Since that's the day of the free dance, which is likely to be the only individual U.S. medal in figure skating, I wouldn't be surprised if there's no extended coverage on NBC in order to drive the largest possible audience for NBCSN. Still, it's disappointing if we don't get those extra hours.

We'll get a good sense when we get to Rio in 2 years. Not quite a North American-friendly timezone, but close enough. As a hypothetical, let's say the 2016 Olympics had been awarded to Chicago..

NBC's network coverage would look just like it did for London. There would be the Today Show from 7am-10am ET. Olympic coverage would start at 10 ET (9am local time in Chicago) and continue to 5pm (on the weekends it would likely be 10am-6pm, maybe even a little earlier depending on if an event like the marathon was taking place early). Primetime probably would be from 8pm-Midnight, maybe they'd come on at 7:30 depending on the schedule. Since NBC would have a lot of control over the schedule, I'm sure all of the marquee sports would be suited to NBC's needs, both with afternoon coverage and in primetime.

I've been thinking about what NBC's coverage is going to look like for Rio. I agree that we'll get the extended 10am-5pm daytime window again like we did from London. Since Rio is 1 hour ahead of Eastern time, I wonder if NBC primetime might be 7-11pm Eastern instead of 8pm-midnight. Or maybe it will be 7:30pm-midnight like it was in 1992 and 1996. If they stick to showing only swimming, gymnastics, track, diving, and beach volleyball in primetime, I don't know what they'll do with the last hour of primetime if they go to midnight. If NBC wants to show the major events live, I do think something will be scheduled to finish at midnight Rio time. In 2004, the gymnastics finals were held from 9pm-midnight in Athens, so I could see the gymnastics finals being scheduled from 9:30 or 10pm-midnight in Rio, with the swimming finals starting at 8 or 8:30pm. The other option is to have the gymnastics finals in the afternoon and show them on tape after the live swimming coverage, which is what NBC did in 1996. I think NBCSN will run from 8am to 10 or 11pm Eastern, and MSNBC will probably run from 8 or 9am to 5pm Eastern, with CNBC picking up the live boxing coverage at 5pm. Essentially, I do expect that they will have 3 channels running continuously for much of the day, with a 4th channel covering tennis and the Golf Channel covering the golf events. That will be pretty similar to what the Broadcast Media Consortium offered in Canada in 2010 and 2012.

[breathesgelatin]

Another difference that I noticed from past Olympics--the tentative schedule doesn't include extended daytime coverage on NBC on Presidents' Day. That's been a staple of Winter Olympic coverage in the U.S. since 1988. Since that's the day of the free dance, which is likely to be the only individual U.S. medal in figure skating, I wouldn't be surprised if there's no extended coverage on NBC in order to drive the largest possible audience for NBCSN. Still, it's disappointing if we don't get those extra hours.

Re: Free Dance, I think NBC thinks (perhaps rightly) that no one in the US cares about Ice Dance. Personally, since the Code of Points reforms, Ice Dance has rocked to being one of my favorite figure skating disciplines. But judging from NBC's Grand Prix coverage, which was EXTREMELY light on Ice Dance (I think they showed V/D and D/W a total of once each??), I don't know how hard they will be pushing Ice Dance in Sochi. It's a real shame, because the US is so strong in the field these days.

[ofan]

I think the US will be pushing ice dance for sure since Davis/White are a very heavy favourite. The US really only has outside shots in women's and pairs, so why would they put less attention on an event with potential US medalists?

Also, I just wanted to ask if you guys, as big time Olhmpic fans, are envious of the coverage we get in Canada. I mean, not to be stuck up about it, but you must be, when you look at what NBC delivers.

[Barcelona_'92]

Re: Free Dance, I think NBC thinks (perhaps rightly) that no one in the US cares about Ice Dance. Personally, since the Code of Points reforms, Ice Dance has rocked to being one of my favorite figure skating disciplines. But judging from NBC's Grand Prix coverage, which was EXTREMELY light on Ice Dance (I think they showed V/D and D/W a total of once each??), I don't know how hard they will be pushing Ice Dance in Sochi. It's a real shame, because the US is so strong in the field these days.

I wouldn't use the Grand Prix coverage as a measure of how much NBC will emphasize ice dance during the Olympics. D&W have been featured prominently in NBC promos, and if they win, it'll be the first U.S. gold in ice dance. Interest in ice dance is much greater than it used to be when the sport was dominated by the Russians--not only is the U.S. very strong in the discipline, but I think shows like Dancing with the Stars has helped to develop more interest in ice dance as well.

Also, I just wanted to ask if you guys, as big time Olhmpic fans, are envious of the coverage we get in Canada. I mean, not to be stuck up about it, but you must be, when you look at what NBC delivers.

While NBC's coverage has improved a lot over the past decade, I certainly was jealous of the coverage you got in 2010 and 2012. I have the complete coverage of figure skating and gymnastics that you got from the last two Games, and it was vastly superior to NBC's coverage of those events. It'll be interesting to see if you get that level of coverage again this year, as I've been told that CBC is spending very little on the Sochi Games.

[ofan]

Well CBC is planning about 21 hours a day, so it should still be very extensive.

[breathesgelatin]

I think the US will be pushing ice dance for sure since Davis/White are a very heavy favourite. The US really only has outside shots in women's and pairs, so why would they put less attention on an event with potential US medalists?

Also, I just wanted to ask if you guys, as big time Olhmpic fans, are envious of the coverage we get in Canada. I mean, not to be stuck up about it, but you must be, when you look at what NBC delivers.

Well, I hope they will push ice dance. We'll see.

I'm not sure that we have even a remote shot in pairs or men. Maybe an outside shot at some color medal in women's.

As to the jealousy question: yes! Especially as a figure skating fan, anything would be better than listening to Scott Hamilton's screeching. ANYTHING.

I wouldn't use the Grand Prix coverage as a measure of how much NBC will emphasize ice dance during the Olympics. D&W have been featured prominently in NBC promos, and if they win, it'll be the first U.S. gold in ice dance. Interest in ice dance is much greater than it used to be when the sport was dominated by the Russians--not only is the U.S. very strong in the discipline, but I think shows like Dancing with the Stars has helped to develop more interest in ice dance as well.

I agree, you would think that Dancing with the Stars and the like would give American audiences a much better understanding of ice dance. Hopefully you are right that they will be pushing ice dance and the Grand Prix coverage isn't the writing on the wall! Honestly, while I personally I enjoyed the compulsory dance, but I'd have to guess that eliminating the compulsory dance only helps to make ice dancing catch on in the US. That is new since the last WOGs too.

[Quaker2001]

Another difference that I noticed from past Olympics--the tentative schedule doesn't include extended daytime coverage on NBC on Presidents' Day. That's been a staple of Winter Olympic coverage in the U.S. since 1988. Since that's the day of the free dance, which is likely to be the only individual U.S. medal in figure skating, I wouldn't be surprised if there's no extended coverage on NBC in order to drive the largest possible audience for NBCSN. Still, it's disappointing if we don't get those extra hours.

It took me a while after scanning the schedule to realize that coverage isn't there this time around. Which is a shame because since NBCSN will be on figure skating, it would have been a great spot for live coverage on NBC. There's the 2nd women's hockey semifinal (which presumably will be on MSNBC) starting at Noon ET as well as team ski jumping also starting at Noon. Thank goodness at least for live streaming, but again, this is 1 of those areas NBC could offer a little more, but probably isn't going to. Which is a shame since it'll break a pretty cool long-standing tradition.

Re: Free Dance, I think NBC thinks (perhaps rightly) that no one in the US cares about Ice Dance. Personally, since the Code of Points reforms, Ice Dance has rocked to being one of my favorite figure skating disciplines. But judging from NBC's Grand Prix coverage, which was EXTREMELY light on Ice Dance (I think they showed V/D and D/W a total of once each??), I don't know how hard they will be pushing Ice Dance in Sochi. It's a real shame, because the US is so strong in the field these days.

It's figure skating. They'll push it. It'll get the usual primetime treatment we'd expect for figure skating.

Also, I just wanted to ask if you guys, as big time Olhmpic fans, are envious of the coverage we get in Canada. I mean, not to be stuck up about it, but you must be, when you look at what NBC delivers.

When I was in college, for some reason the dorms there pulled in CBC from Canada. So I got both the Canadian and American coverage from the `98 Olympics in Nagano and the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, which was an interesting comparison since CBC had all sorts of overnight coverage that NBC didn't. Especially in 2000, I think I had Olympics on just about 24 hours a day. Obviously CBC was very Canadian-centric (probably even more jingoistic than folks like to accuse NBC of being), but they had a lot more coverage than NBC did and it was almost all live. This being the days before online streaming and extensive cable programming, it was a nice alternative to have. To this day, I still say 1 of the great television viewing experiences of my life was being able to watch the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney Olympics live at 3:45am ET, something only a handful of Americans were able to experience. I get why NBC operates the way it does because they're a business trying to make money, but yes, I am definitely jealous of what you guys get north of the border.

[Quaker2001]

While NBC's coverage has improved a lot over the past decade, I certainly was jealous of the coverage you got in 2010 and 2012. I have the complete coverage of figure skating and gymnastics that you got from the last two Games, and it was vastly superior to NBC's coverage of those events. It'll be interesting to see if you get that level of coverage again this year, as I've been told that CBC is spending very little on the Sochi Games.

Well CBC is planning about 21 hours a day, so it should still be very extensive.

Considering how long it took before they put that deal together, they didn't have the years of lead-up a lot of broadcasters normally have. And after CTV lost a lot of money on Vancouver, they're probably being more conservative this time around, especially since it's not their home Olympics. No matter for them to offer up all those programming hours for the Olympics. What else are they gonna show?

[Barcelona_'92]

Considering how long it took before they put that deal together, they didn't have the years of lead-up a lot of broadcasters normally have. And after CTV lost a lot of money on Vancouver, they're probably being more conservative this time around, especially since it's not their home Olympics. No matter for them to offer up all those programming hours for the Olympics. What else are they gonna show?

CBC didn't get the rights to Sochi until after the deadline had passed for networks to apply for space in the International Broadcasting Center. I assume they'll have a small space there, but I wouldn't be surprised if most of their anchors are in Toronto, as they were in 2006. I'm not sure that CBC will be working in tandem with TSN and Sportsnet as CTV did in 2010 and 2012, so while CBC will have almost 24-hour coverage, I don't know that the three networks are going to work together to provide long-form coverage of almost every sport.

[Quaker2001]

CBC didn't get the rights to Sochi until after the deadline had passed for networks to apply for space in the International Broadcasting Center. I assume they'll have a small space there, but I wouldn't be surprised if most of their anchors are in Toronto, as they were in 2006. I'm not sure that CBC will be working in tandem with TSN and Sportsnet as CTV did in 2010 and 2012, so while CBC will have almost 24-hour coverage, I don't know that the three networks are going to work together to provide long-form coverage of almost every sport.

Didn't realize that about the IBC. Probably not the biggest issue.. if NBC can cover half of the Summer Olympics from New York like they did for Beijing and London, and if CBC has done this before, shouldn't be the biggest deal for them to do it again.

[ofan]

CBC didn't get the rights to Sochi until after the deadline had passed for networks to apply for space in the International Broadcasting Center. I assume they'll have a small space there, but I wouldn't be surprised if most of their anchors are in Toronto, as they were in 2006. I'm not sure that CBC will be working in tandem with TSN and Sportsnet as CTV did in 2010 and 2012, so while CBC will have almost 24-hour coverage, I don't know that the three networks are going to work together to provide long-form coverage of almost every sport.

CBC is going pretty full out in terms of personalities being in Sochi. CBC News Network will be there with a team of reporters, including Peter Mansbridge and their chief correspondent Adrienne Arsenault. They'll also have some radio guys heading out there as well. I would expect TSN and Sportsnet's coverage will originate from Toronto (they are being sub-licensed coverage)

And about space in the IBC, I'm sure the OC would leave space for one of the larger media delegations. I'm just hoping CBC can get some prime real estate with a view of the Olympic Park (if that's possible).

[Durban Sandshark]

Russia 1's Olympic broadcasts in Sochi won't be as large as Russia 2's outside of the ceremonies, but it will be at least 1-6 hours daily with the popular winter sports ice hockey, figure skating, skiing, and the final runs in bobsleigh and luge. Especially if Russia is involved.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://sport.business-gazeta.ru/article/78849/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dvgtrk%2Brussia%2B2014%2Bsochi%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D907

TVA Sports apparently is having an internal debate about whether it should take the English spelling of Sochi or use the French one (Sotchi) for its coverage. RDS went English for both Vancouver and London during its promotions for both with no changes to their cities' spelling on the logos. RDS is taking a much lower profile now--will get to that later--but I don't see any changes coming from TVA Sports with English being more widely used globally

http://tvasports.ca/paulrivard/sotchi-ou-sochi-26122013

[BTHarner]

At one time I would have been jealous of the Canadian coverage, especially Nagano since CBS was simply horrendous. Now most my viewing is online, I watch what I want when I want and it doesn't get any better than that.