Quaker2001 Posted March 8, 2014 Report Share Posted March 8, 2014 Whether or not you're sympathetic to cord cutters is irrelevant. Although I'm sure NBCSN has been great for Comcast. No matter how you frame it, I still give kudos to CBC for embracing cross-platform coverage. Ubiquitous content is important for young adults/students. They are a key demographic for the Paralympic/Olympic movement, and these people are moving increasingly towards digital media/mobile streaming and away from the cable bill. The time difference this year has only exacerbated this trend. I'm part of that demographic. It's not just that they don't have cable. They live on campus, apartments; they have Netflix, Apple TV or Roku, they follow sports on their laptop/smartphone/tablet, they do Twitter/Instagram, they like to stream. To reach that demographic, CBC has done a great job. They made all of the live feeds and TV simulcasts open to everyone, they hired developers over the summer to push out apps for Android and Windows Phone (up until now, CBC had favoured iOS only). They had zero requirement for a login or authentication. And the deals they signed with Yahoo, YouTube and MSN are unprecedented. No matter how you frame it; NBCSN hasn't been nearly as accessible. It came with a bill. No it didn't. I can frame it in reverse.. my cable subscription came with access to a lot of Olympic coverage. And I'm paying that bill when it's the Olympics or not, so from my point of view (along with tens of millions of people who have cable), we didn't pay a extra cent for that Olympic access. Again, to the demographic that chooses not to pay for cable for whatever reason they choose, don't bitch and moan that you're not getting something FOR FREE that the rest of us are paying for. Yes, I know things work differently in Canada. Not taking anything away from CBC for their efforts on the Olympics. Not letting NBC off the hook for making business-driven decisions that aren't always viewer and consumer friendly. But that's the reality of 1 market versus the other and why it's unfair sometimes to compare them directly. That plus this is hardly something we only see in this country with NBC and the Olympics. ESPN's highly lauded online streaming service requires authentication. On the TV side, many major events have been shifting from over-the-air TV to cable TV. Maybe it's because there isn't a basis of comparison with other countries for events other than the Olympics, but it amazes me how much outrage is directed at NBC and not anywhere else in what are similar situations. And as for the demographics argument.. yea, I know all about changing viewing trends. But "moving increasingly towards digital" is still a vast minority compared to the numbers of people who still pay for cable. Sure, they don't want to pay the increasing costs for cable, but I can tell you 1 thing for sure.. the last holdouts from cutting the cord will be sports fans, because a lot of that content can't be easily found elsewhere. Live sports and streaming don't generally mix. The Olympics are different because the are so many events going on simultaneously, so online streaming is very important. But we are a long ways off from where that type of media delivery, particularly for live sports, supplants television viewing. Well, the CBC doesn't have a tradition of providing horrendous Olympics coverage like other networks do, so we can cut them some slack this time around. Horrendous is a little bit of an over-statement IMO, less people have too high of a standard for how the Olympics are covered here. That's certainly nothing new. But right now, as I type this, I'm watching a live television broadcast from the Paralympics. Up in Canada, you don't have that. So for all the times Canadians have been able to gloat about how much better you have it for the Olympics, forgive me for being excited that for once, we have it better than you do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mau2010 Posted March 8, 2014 Report Share Posted March 8, 2014 Here in Costa Rica IPC's Youtube channel events are blocked! Yesterday I complained in IPC's Facebook page, I'd understand if it's a local channel, but it's an International Organization! Why would they block the streaming to another countries? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brekkie Boy Posted March 8, 2014 Report Share Posted March 8, 2014 I do think in the IPC's case it isn't wise to geo block the Youtube channels - they need to distribute it as much as better and frankly the viewers lost from the host broadcaster site to Youtube would be fairly negligible. Although I've yet to get a live stream to play on C4's site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLishere Posted March 9, 2014 Report Share Posted March 9, 2014 Here in Brazil you can watch paralympic games on youtube. Here's the full list of countries with access to live IPC streams on YouTube: Austria Belgium Brazil Bulgaria Canada China Croatia Czech Republic Finland France Germany Iceland Ireland Japan Kazakhstan Netherlands New Zealand Serbia Slovakia Slovenia South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey NBC (US), ABC (Australia) and Channel 4 (UK) hold exclusive rights and didn't grant access to IPC streams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLishere Posted March 9, 2014 Report Share Posted March 9, 2014 But right now, as I type this, I'm watching a live television broadcast from the Paralympics. David I know you've worked for NBC in the past, including a few Olympics? NBCSN had live coverage of the Paralympic OC, but didn't show the Olympic OC live - is it because they thought the Paralympic OC would generate more viewership/revenue in daytime vs. primetime? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quaker2001 Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 David I know you've worked for NBC in the past, including a few Olympics? NBCSN had live coverage of the Paralympic OC, but didn't show the Olympic OC live - is it because they thought the Paralympic OC would generate more viewership/revenue in daytime vs. primetime? Didn't realize we were on a first name basis here. So that's a little strange. No, I only worked at 1 Olympics, Salt Lake in 2002. It's been a while since i was last there, although I know more than a few people that were in Sochi last month, mostly freelance technicians. To answer your question.. no, that's not why they showed the Paralympic OC live. NBCSN had a live basketball game on their schedule Friday night, so it wasn't an option for NBCSN to show it in primetime. Had absolutely nothing to do with the potential of viewership in the afternoon versus showing it at night, especially on a Friday which tends to be a pretty bad TV night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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