Paris 2024 Media updates

[Quaker2001]

14 minutes ago, Sir Rols said:

I understand the commercial imperatives of spoonfeeding the coverage for prime time consumption, but I do feel it’s a pity US viewers have largely missed out on the live experience. Part of he magic of watching he games IS in getting up at some god-awful hour to watch a live event on the other side of the world (I’ll be getting up at 3:30am for the Paris OC - yikes!). We still always get prime time replays too, but it isn’t the same by the time the networks have finessed it into a local heroes tribute.

It's very much a pity.  The Opening Ceremony for Rio was delayed 1 hour so that it could fit into NBC's primetime window.  They couldn't be bothered to show it live because business told them otherwise.  The only advantage of that was that it allowed them to play around with the commercials and show more of the US team entering the stadium.

We're so used to start times of games being ideally slotted for optimal viewing that some of the audience here expects that to happen with the Olympics.  That's some good old fashion US nationalism right there!

And I've told the story before, I may have even said it to you when I was in Sydney.. I was a senior in college during the 2000 Olympics, so I was back at school since they were in September.  My school for some unknown yet wonderful reason brought in CBC from Toronto.  So I was up at 3:45am and watched the Sydney opening live (I fell asleep before the torch lighting, but thankfully I had my VCR rolling to run it back).  And then if memory serves, I went home for the weekend to watch the ceremony a 2nd time.

[FYI]

7 minutes ago, Quaker2001 said:

When Dick Ebersol was in charge of NBC Sports, his contention was that people would gather for primetime Olympic coverage even if it was on tape.  And for the most part he was right as evidenced by strong viewership from London 2012.

Exactly, I just made a comparison in the previous post of primetime being more like an *event* rather than just a "replay". Cause not everyone that you know is goingto wake up in the wee hours of the morning to watch a sporting event/program, etc. even if it IS the Olympics. Some of them will look at you like you're (GB's) crazy. lol

11 minutes ago, Quaker2001 said:

And this being the Olympics, all day every day for 17 straight days, it's a lot of commercials we're going to see over and over and over again!

Ugh, as long as it's not those gawd-awful drug commercials!!! 

[sebastien1214]

35 minutes ago, FYI said:

The "primetime hack" made sense for them 30, 20, even 10 years ago. But now, NBC is starting to realize that it doesn't really pay for them to do that anymore, especially with so many streaming viewing options these days or other ways of viewing, that they prefer not lose too much ad revenue, even if the opening starts in the middle of the day here in the U.S. rather than waiting 'til prime-time to actually show it, when many will have already seen it by then anyway.

I'm sure they'll still repeat it on prime-time. though, live they've been doing with the closing for years now (to get those left-over ad-revenue bucks from the ones who couldn't catch the afternoon showing). Plus, the fact that it's in Paris this year, is likely bringing even more anticipation.

 

23 minutes ago, Sir Rols said:

I understand the commercial imperatives of spoonfeeding the coverage for prime time consumption, but I do feel it’s a pity US viewers have largely missed out on the live experience. Part of he magic of watching he games IS in getting up at some god-awful hour to watch a live event on the other side of the world (I’ll be getting up at 3:30am for the Paris OC - yikes!). We still always get prime time replays too, but it isn’t the same by the time the networks have finessed it into a local heroes tribute.

Either way, I can't imagine the indignation of the American public if NBC didn't broadcast the OOC live. Especially in today's era where we can have access to everything, live, anywhere around the world. Obviously for London it had aroused a lot of indignation (I may be wrong, not being American, but that's what I thought I understood), I do not dare to imagine with the concept of this OOC which, on paper, is the most existing ceremony since ... always ? So I think that for their image, NBC perhaps had no choice. (afterwards this is no longer a new thing on their part to braodcast live the OOC, I think that in any case even if it took place in a stadium NBC would have broadcast it live).

Concerning the location of the Today team, I can't imagine them being installed on a bridge where there is already public planned. Firstly because it would take up a lot of space (especially for the technical installations), also because I don't think that NBC will be the only broadcaster to have authorization to set up on a bridge during the ceremony; it would be incomprehensible (and almost scandalous) if France Télévisions, at the very least, could not have this right. So maybe we will have a bridge entirely dedicated to television channels?

1 minute ago, Quaker2001 said:

It's very much a pity.  The Opening Ceremony for Rio was delayed 1 hour so that it could fit into NBC's primetime window.  They couldn't be bothered to show it live because business told them otherwise.  The only advantage of that was that it allowed them to play around with the commercials and show more of the US team entering the stadium.

Fortunately, Paris made the choice to set the time of the opening ceremony based solely on artistic criteria (and it is still a very nice idea to have a ceremony both during the day, with the sunset and night, especially when it takes place in the heart of Paris), and not because of the demands of a television channel that is not French, regardless of the billions they give to the IOC.

[Quaker2001]

1 minute ago, FYI said:

Exactly, I just made a comparison in the previous post of primetime being more like an *event* rather than just a "replay". Cause not everyone that you know is goingto wake up in the wee hours of the morning to watch a sporting event/program, etc. even if it IS the Olympics. Some of them will look at you like you're (GB's) crazy. lol

Ugh, as long as it's not those gawd-awful drug commercials!!! 

That you mention it..

LA Olympics chair Casey Wasserman: NBC treating Paris Games ‘like reality show’

He's not wrong and it may be worse this time around.  But that's how the audience looks at the Olympics.  And that's not necessarily NBC's fault.  How many people care in the least about Katie Ledecky when it's not the Olympics?  They need to spice it up to make it interesting.  At least all the big finals will be in the middle of the daytime here rather than the last 3 Olympics when they were the middle of the night and NBC would often wait 12 hours to show them if they didn't happen in primetime.

[Quaker2001]

1 minute ago, sebastien1214 said:

Either way, I can't imagine the indignation of the American public if NBC didn't broadcast the OOC live. Especially in today's era where we can have access to everything, live, anywhere around the world. Obviously for London it had aroused a lot of indignation (I may be wrong, not being American, but that's what I thought I understood), I do not dare to imagine with the concept of this OOC which, on paper, is the most existing ceremony since ... always ? So I think that for their image, NBC perhaps had no choice. (afterwards this is no longer a new thing on their part to braodcast live the OOC, I think that in any case even if it took place in a stadium NBC would have broadcast it live).

You only have to go back to 2018 for when NBC didn't broadcast the Opening Ceremony live.  It was only streamed then.  As I noted for Rio, there was no live coverage.  8 years certainly wasn't that long ago!

It's not a matter of having a choice or not.  Again, if the advertisers say this is how to do it, they'll listen.  And from what I've read, financially the ad sales are doing well for them so far.  So I guess this seems to be working for them.

5 minutes ago, sebastien1214 said:

Fortunately, Paris made the choice to set the time of the opening ceremony based solely on artistic criteria (and it is still a very nice idea to have a ceremony both during the day, with the sunset and night, especially when it takes place in the heart of Paris), and not because of the demands of a television channel that is not French, regardless of the billions they give to the IOC.

I can all but assure you that when we get to 2028, so much of the schedule - the ceremonies and a lot of the competition - will be fully dictated by NBC's wants and needs.  Much moreso than in Atlanta where NBC went with their "plausibly live" strategy.  That won't fly in this day and age where so many people are on social media.

[Guilga]

45 minutes ago, Quaker2001 said:

The television business is different in the United States than elsewhere.  Our TV networks don't have government backing.  They run on advertiser revenue and broadcast fees.  Plus there is a network of affiliates which aren't all owned by NBC.  So they need to make decisions that are in the interests of making money rather than doing their best to serve their audience.

Funny that in my country has a very similar style, due to television being first brought here by private interests; our first ever channel was TV Tupi from Assis Chautabriand, in the fifites, way before the regular joe could even dream of buy a telly, especially in a country with so many historical and present inequalities. Our networks also use the same affiliate system of independent entities getting a deal with a national network, altough they here have less freedom to meddle in the tv listings than in the US in general; Tv here is more centralized by the main channels, with some spots to regional programming which can vary according for the situation, time zone, etc. There are exceptions to this rule, but those are rare. They also have to think a lot about making money, but this may be hard if you are a free-to-air network not named Globo, nor backed by a mega church like Record. If our business man and woman are able to do this without messing it all up or degrading the programming to ludicrus levels it's another story, but i guess that's the same for everywere, i guess.

Circling back to Paris: You have to wonder why no one asked the IOC a pie of the free-to-air rights in Brazil when it was non-exclusive from the get-go, sharing with Globo. Well, let's just say we doesn't seem to bother change channels at all, everything Globo does, most of the time, is number one in audience on the nation because people stay on the station by osmosis. They have Olympic rights, but even if they didn't, i guess they would be #1 on IBOPE (our Nielsen) just by showing telenovelas, regional and national evening news and a random movie. Seriously.

[sebastien1214]

13 minutes ago, Quaker2001 said:

I can all but assure you that when we get to 2028, so much of the schedule - the ceremonies and a lot of the competition - will be fully dictated by NBC's wants and needs.  Much moreso than in Atlanta where NBC went with their "plausibly live" strategy.  That won't fly in this day and age where so many people are on social media.

I do not doubt for one second ; but I find it understandable given that these will be games at home. For me it is much more disturbing when it is a foreign broadcaster who sets constraints on another country.

In any case, NBC would never have been able to impose such crucial requests as the time of ceremonies in Paris. Because I think that our French pride means that we would never have accepted it and that it would have caused a scandal if it had leaked.

As for the rest of your discussion, it's funny to see how different the history of television is between the United States (and Brazil?) and France (and Europe?). In our country, the first private television channel dates from 1984 (and even then it was paid, you had to wait until 1986 for the first free one), before that it was a public monopoly.

[baron-pierreIV]

Kelly Clarkson and Peyton Manning.  Lord,   how low can NBC go?  Clarkson makes me barf on her Wayfair TV ads and Manning is as dull as doornail on College Bowl.  Why couldn't they have gotten at least a Franco-American?  Oh well, it's just going to be a travelogue of Paris anyway.  I don't think there will be anything as originally jaw-dropping as a GIANT drone show or even great production numbers at the Trocadero site.  There's really not much you can do there.  

[FYI]

1 minute ago, baron-pierreIV said:

Kelly Clarkson and Peyton Manning.  Lord,   how low can NBC go?  Clarkson makes me barf on her Wayfair TV ads and Manning is as dull as doornail on College Bowl. 

 At least I'd much rather watch Kelly's Wayfair commercials & even Mannings BAD Paris 2024 promo from last year, than those *despicable* pharmaceutical ads! Almost any other type of commercials is much better than those!! 

[Guilga]

7 minutes ago, FYI said:

 At least I'd much rather watch Kelly's Wayfair commercials & even Mannings BAD Paris 2024 promo from last year, than those *despicable* pharmaceutical ads! Almost any other type of commercials is much better than those!! 

I'm curious, how bad are those there? Here it's just regular ads for pharmaceutical stuff most of the time, like a pain relief or a aspirin.

[baron-pierreIV]

30 minutes ago, baron-pierreIV said:

 I don't think there will be anything as originally jaw-dropping as a GIANT drone show or even great production numbers at the Trocadero site.   

Actually, if it were me  YOU HEARD/SAW IT HERE FIRST!! -- when it's time for the Cauldron-Lighting moment, I would have a whole swarm of drones (dressed as doves) depart from the Eiffel Tower after the cauldron has been lit, doing formations as it crosses the Seine, to the Troc / Palais des Chaillot side carrying the "spirit of the Flame"!! 

[FYI]

11 minutes ago, Guilga said:

I'm curious, how bad are those there? Here it's just regular ads for pharmaceutical stuff most of the time, like a pain relief or an aspirin.

They’re very, VERY bad here!!! They’re on OTT all-day, everyday, 24/7!!!

Yeah, we also get the average OTC pain reliever commercials, too. Which those are fine. But I’m talking the *prescription* drugs that you need to get from a doctor. It’s like WTF, consumers aren’t doctors, so STOP trying to force-feed these drugs to people, via all these ads!

I kid you not, one drug commercial can be on, then u change the channel, & there’s another prescription drug commercial, & sometimes it’s the SAME drug commercial from the previous channel that you just switched from! It’s fricken awful! Between all the channels, there literally must be hundreds, if not thousands of these pharmeceutical drug ads here in the U.S.

And here are just some examples of it (& how many people here are now just fed up with them. I know it’s going a bit off topic, but you asked, & it’s how the IOC gets a lot of it’s money anyway from these networks):

https://www.latimes.com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-direct-to-consumer-drug-ads-20180410-story.html
 

 

[Guilga]

2 minutes ago, FYI said:

They’re very, VERY bad here!!! They’re on OTT all-day, everyday, 24/7!!!

Yeah, we also get the average OTC pain reliever commercials, too. Which those are fine. But I’m talking the *prescription* drugs that you need to get from a doctor. It’s like WTF, consumers aren’t doctors, so STOP trying to force-feed these drugs to people, via all these ads!

I kid you not, one drug commercial can be on, then u change the channel, & there’s another prescription drug commercial, & sometimes it’s the SAME drug commercial from the previous channel that you just switched from! It’s fricken awful! Between all the channels, there literally must be hundreds, if not thousands of these pharmeceutical drug ads here in the U.S.

And here are just some examples of it (& how many people here are now just fed up with them. I know it’s going a bit off topic, but you asked, & it’s how the IOC gets a lot of it’s money anyway from these networks):

https://www.latimes.com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-direct-to-consumer-drug-ads-20180410-story.html
 

 

OH MY... I will just say that's messed up. A lot. Hope you all are lucky enough to not be as bombarded by these in games-time. (Actually, imagine watching a sport event when drugging yourself is actually cheating and be greeted to a ad telling you to do the job of your medic. The IOC should ban these.)

[FYI]

4 minutes ago, Guilga said:

OH MY... I will just say that's messed up. A lot. Hope you all are lucky enough to not be as bombarded by these in games-time. (Actually, imagine watching a sport event when drugging yourself is actually cheating and be greeted to a ad telling you to do the job of your medic. The IOC should ban these.)

No kidding! How ironic, right?!

Plus, a lot of them can sometimes be like informercials, that are like 2-3 minutes long. Telling you how marvelous this wonderful drug is, while in the next breath, they list a ton of other possible side effects. It's like really? Next thing you know, you'll need prescription anxiety pills to taper off your anxiousness just from listening to all that crap! It's a vicious pharmeceutical circle, which is of course what those greedy, despicable pharma companies want. 

You feel sick, go to a doctor, plain & simple. Don't let these prescription pharma TV ads dictate to you what "they" think you might have. That's what a doctor is for & why they went years to medical school. 

[Sir Rols]

Lol! US pharmaceutical ads! I’ve heard of the plague of them, but have largely avoided them. About the only live TV I’ve ever watched in the States was when I was there just in time for the reveal episode of The Simpson’s “Who Killed Mr Burns” saga!

Our Olympic coverage is usually saturated with ads for the major sponsors - usually Qantas, a major bank, major supermarket etc - and they’re usually special Olympic-themed ads. But by the end of the games you’ve seen them hundreds and hundreds of times and are ready to throw a brick at the TV when they come up. I got annoyed during Tokyo that one of the very high rotation ones was for Ladbrokes online betting - I have a particular hatred of online betting and gambling - not a gambler myself usually, but seen a few people’s lives destroyed by it. 

[Sir Rols]

1 hour ago, sebastien1214 said:

Concerning the location of the Today team, I can't imagine them being installed on a bridge where there is already public planned. Firstly because it would take up a lot of space (especially for the technical installations), also because I don't think that NBC will be the only broadcaster to have authorization to set up on a bridge during the ceremony; it would be incomprehensible (and almost scandalous) if France Télévisions, at the very least, could not have this right. So maybe we will have a bridge entirely dedicated to television channels?

Likely the individual broadcasters will have some of their own cameras around the place, but the bulk of the coverage will be the official OBS feed. Opening ceremony broadcasting is usually highly pre-choreographed around the ceremony, so that all viewing angles, shots and what to focus on and when are all planned and pre-determined. In Paris’ case, this may be a bit free, considering the difficulties in doing a full rehearsal of the event, but as litle will be left to chance as possible.

[FYI]

23 minutes ago, Sir Rols said:

Lol! US pharmaceutical ads! I’ve heard of the plague of them, but have largely avoided them.

Lucky you. But unfortunately, on U.S. TV, regardless if it's old-fashion rabbit ears or cable, they are totally unavoidable (unless of course if you just don't watch anything then). They're even starting to run on Peacock now, & what's really unfortunate there, is that I can't really change the channel or fast forward them to avoid them when they're on. You are actually FORCED to watch them. All I can do in that instance is just mute my tablet, ugh. And yes, by a certain time of *trying* to avoid all those damn pharma ads, I absolutely want to do this:

27 minutes ago, Sir Rols said:

But by the end of the games you’ve seen them hundreds and hundreds of times and are ready to throw a brick at the TV when they come up. 

 

29 minutes ago, Sir Rols said:

I got annoyed during Tokyo that one of the very high rotation ones was for Ladbrokes online betting - I have a particular hatred of online betting and gambling - not a gambler myself usually, but seen a few people’s lives destroyed by it. 

Yes, exactly. I can understand this example. Cause I think all these Pharma ads here are doing the exact same thing. They're supposedly promoting 'well-being' with their so-called miracle drugs. But what all these pharma ads are really doing is just making people SICK of watching them over & over again. Totally the oxymoron of what their supposed intent is for.

I certainly don't mind GOOD (repeated) commercials (I know some people who don't like ANY commercials), but when they're so much in-your-face & when it's mainly for the advantage of the advertiser, that's when it starts to go into despicable territory. Another set of annoying, bombarding commercials here is also all the damn personal injury lawyer commercials. But at least with those SOMETIMES, are made in an amusing or mindful manner. Not so much the Pharma ads, though.

[FYI]

Also, just to give an example of the ridiculousness of the prescription pharma ads here, there's one that came out last year (which still airs now), where the scene is a town square somewhere. And then the crowd that's there just starts singing & dancing outta nowhere, like some sort of musical, about how "great" that drug is. I just had to fricken  when I saw that one for the first time.

[baron-pierreIV]

17 minutes ago, FYI said:

Also, just to give an example of the ridiculousness of the prescription pharma ads here, there's one that came out last year (which still airs now), where the scene is a town square somewhere. And then the crowd that's there just starts singing & dancing outta nowhere, like some sort of musical, about how "great" that drug is. I just had to fricken  when I saw that one for the first time.

So, just switch channels or get up and get a drink!  It's a country with an aging population and there are all these alternatives available.  Whaddya expect?  

[FYI]

2 minutes ago, baron-pierreIV said:

So, just switch channels or get up and get a drink!  It's a country with an aging population and there are all these alternatives available.  Whaddya expect?  

LIke I said, you switch channels & there's ANOTHER damn drug commercial on the next channel! And for as many times that these damn drug ads run a day, that means getting drink after (alcoholic) drinks throughout the day.  Do you work in the pharma industry, perhaps! 

[baron-pierreIV]

1 minute ago, FYI said:

LIke I said, you switch channels & there's ANOTHER damn drug commercial on the next channel! And for as many times that these damn drug ads run a day, that means getting drink after (alcoholic) drinks throughout the day.  Do you work in the pharma industry, perhaps! 

No, I don't but I grew up with it.  My late mom was a GP/MD, so she had all these pharma salesmen coming.  I know the Jardiance one is getting ridiculous.  But I've learned to tune them out or just MUTE the TV.  

[Quaker2001]

2 hours ago, sebastien1214 said:

I do not doubt for one second ; but I find it understandable given that these will be games at home. For me it is much more disturbing when it is a foreign broadcaster who sets constraints on another country.

In any case, NBC would never have been able to impose such crucial requests as the time of ceremonies in Paris. Because I think that our French pride means that we would never have accepted it and that it would have caused a scandal if it had leaked.

As for the rest of your discussion, it's funny to see how different the history of television is between the United States (and Brazil?) and France (and Europe?). In our country, the first private television channel dates from 1984 (and even then it was paid, you had to wait until 1986 for the first free one), before that it was a public monopoly.

NBC once got an entire country to go to Daylight Savings Time for their benefit.  And that was early in their relationship with the IOC.  They'll get the sports federations to bend for them.  But the ceremonies are sacred.  They're best served finishing past sunset.  Which will make the LA opening interesting because they'll want to start it probably no later than 5pm so it can be 8pm on the East coast.  Fortunately, sunset in LA that time of year is just after 8pm, so they'll be able to finish that after sunset

[FYI]

2 minutes ago, baron-pierreIV said:

No, I don't but I grew up with it.  My late mom was a GP/MD, so she had all these pharma salesmen coming.  I know the Jardiance one is getting ridiculous.  But I've learned to tune them out or just MUTE the TV.  

Well, I'm obviously not the only one who's annoyed with them, judging by the links I provided earlier (& there's plenty more where those came from).

And yes, pharma sales reps. visited the doctors before to promote the pharma meds. But that's different, cause they're actually *doctors*, but consumers are NOT.  But now, since they're allowed to advertise on U.S. TV, they no longer have to really send in the reps. to the medical offices, cause it's way more effective for them how they do it now.

But even the doctors are getting fed now, cause some patients go in to their offices saying, "hey, I saw this drug on TV for whatever ailment. I think this is what I have, so just give me the prescription for it". Again, consumers are not doctors, so they shouldn't be going in there telling doctors what they "think" they need simply based on some drug ad they saw on TV. Don't use the doctors ad your drug pimp.

And I no longer have a mute bottom on my TV, cause it's been WORN out already by all the fricken drug ads. 

[FYI]

6 minutes ago, Quaker2001 said:

NBC once got an entire country to go to Daylight Savings Time for their benefit. 

Lol, which country/& Olympics was that/for?

[Quaker2001]

2 minutes ago, FYI said:

Lol, which country/& Olympics was that/for?

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