Some More Olympic Tv Updates

[pacey988]

I've been a crackhead since 2000. Glad to see I'm not alone. I will be using three VCRs to tape the Games, perhaps my most extensive effort ever. For me, personally, the Summer Olympics have been the best times I've had in terms of taping. The 2002 and 2006 Winter Games did not go well for me, especially 2006. I did not have a DVD recorder, nor did I have satellite or digital cable, and aside from the cable coverage, the local NBC affiliate in Baton Rouge was one of the poorest-run, poorest-engineered stations anywhere, at times either coming back late from commercial breaks or missing the start of an event. During the men's gold medal hockey game they accidentally ran a commercial break during play! I had to get a replacement, and when I went back to look at the tapes a year later during transfer to DVD, some of them wouldn't play (they were recorded in EP and I could not fix the tracking). As mentioned, I am missing a few things, but I am happy to have what I have, and it is always fun to compare and contrast different Olympics and how things were between then and now. I am sure that for me, at least, this year will be much better, and as in the past, I will have a complete Olympics.

[baron-pierreIV]

Other than Opening and maybe Closing, I'm NOT taping anything else in-between. Is that a revolutionary idea or what?

[Quaker2001]

Other than Opening and maybe Closing, I'm NOT taping anything else in-between. Is that a revolutionary idea or what?

Not record everything??!? Who would do such a thing!! Then again, who would tape everything. Oh wait, that's right.. me and several of us on this board. Insanity at its finest.

Yeah, being a West Coaster had it's advanatages. Getting full coverage of the Olympic Park Bombing live (my local news had a booth right under the stage, so they were on the air posthaste) and actually getting the news about Michelle Kwan withdrawing from Tornino LIVE while most everyone else on the Right Coast was in dream land.

Ah, those were the good old days.

Selfishly, I'm really hoping Chicago gets 2016 as that will make things loads easier for broadcasts and decent bedtimes. Rio would be the same though.

Anyway, really kind of surprised NBC doesn't really know yet what the plan is. You'd think by now!

I think part of the issue with that is that not all of the competition schedules have been finalized, especially in the team sports. We all know that NBC will wield their muscle with a lot of the schedule as best they can to get US teams in favorable timeslots (especially in sports like basketball where the US team is a big draw). And it will make things more interesting that there are at least 3 more US teams That said, here's a few notes and nuggets I've gotten by going through the schedules thanks largely to the good folks at Wikipedia...

Basketball - The times aren't set, but the matchups all are for the preliminary round. And if Athens is any indication, the US teams will have a consistent timeslot, 1 for the weekend and 1 for weekdays. Game times each day are (this is Eastern time).. 9pm, 11pm, 2:30am, 4:30am, 8am, 10am. The 2 biggest games the men's team has in the first round are Sunday 8/10 against China and Saturday 8/16 against Spain. If I were a betting man, I'd bet the farm that the US-China game is the last game of the day (10pm local time, 10am here in the US), just like the US-Greece game was in Athens, and it'll allow NBC to come up at 10am Sunday morning with the game. I could see the Spain game getting similar treatment. Tough to tell where other games will fall. Also look for the women's final to appear on NBC, that's at 10:30am on Saturday 8/23.

Boxing - Not surprisingly, the CNBC schedule seems to closely coincide with most of the live boxing from Beijing (the early session for most days is 1:30am-4:30am ET while CNBC has an on-air block from 2am-4:30am. There's also a 2nd boxing session from Beijing, look for that one to be taped and shown in the 5-8 block. Overall, boxing fans are probably going to get even more from Beijing than from Athens.

Soccer - Preliminary round matches are set. The US Women open August 6 against Norway (7:45am ET, so we know that'll be live on MSNBC) and the US Men on August 7 against Japan (5am ET, no doubt MSNBC will have that live as well). The other prelim games are in those same time slots, we'll have to see if the plan is for MSNBC to come up at 5am with soccer on days there is a game or if USA Netowrk is in fact for all the big US games are shown. The men's final is at Midnight on August 23rd, no doubt that's a live broadcast on both CNBC and Telemundo.

Softball - The full schedule was released a couple of months ago. Perhaps coincidentally, 6 of the 7 preliminary games for the US team are at noon Beijing time (midnight on the east coast here). Possibly a regular slot to be put on CNBC before they head over to boxing? We shall see.

That's all I've come up with so far. Again, I think we won't get a formal announcement from NBC for at least another month or so, until more of the competition schedule is finalized. Can ya tell I need my Olympics fix here!

[Durban Sandshark]

US men's and women's volleyball will undoubtably be on the late night segments, but it won't appear in its entirety except online.

Since field hockey isn't a major draw for the Americans, the US women will play when the TV time is more favorable for its opponents.

I did not know there are no East or West HD channels. I live in the US Central Time Zone, which means I would be with the East feed since CST is an hour behind the Eastern Time--as a rule I always mention the Central Time Zone unless otherwise indicated.

Why don't we get our Canadian, Australian, Brit, South African, and Kiwis if possible in this, irregardless of different video systems? in the case of the last ones, we will have to go with just DVDs

[mattperiolat]

Three? Well, technically, I used 4 for Torino and I think, what, 4 or 5 for Athens? I'm crossing my fingers and going on three for Beijing. Probably won't be enough, hence hoping my friends here will bail me out if I get in trouble.

I have not reviewed all of Torino yet, but if I can help, I will. It's all Left Coast feed, but I got all but one day of NBC's coverage. Cable? Dunno yet.

I've been a crackhead since 2000. Glad to see I'm not alone. I will be using three VCRs to tape the Games, perhaps my most extensive effort ever. For me, personally, the Summer Olympics have been the best times I've had in terms of taping. The 2002 and 2006 Winter Games did not go well for me, especially 2006. I did not have a DVD recorder, nor did I have satellite or digital cable, and aside from the cable coverage, the local NBC affiliate in Baton Rouge was one of the poorest-run, poorest-engineered stations anywhere, at times either coming back late from commercial breaks or missing the start of an event. During the men's gold medal hockey game they accidentally ran a commercial break during play! I had to get a replacement, and when I went back to look at the tapes a year later during transfer to DVD, some of them wouldn't play (they were recorded in EP and I could not fix the tracking). As mentioned, I am missing a few things, but I am happy to have what I have, and it is always fun to compare and contrast different Olympics and how things were between then and now. I am sure that for me, at least, this year will be much better, and as in the past, I will have a complete Olympics.

[mattperiolat]

We are NOT insane... we're just very passionate about what we do.

I'm actually interested in the basketball coverage given our last "Dream Team" laid an egg in Athens (Much to my pleasure, I was getting sick of both the egos and the USA making every other basketball team in the world look bad). Interested to see if it will be as wall-to-wall as it was in the past.

CNBC LOVES it some boxing and what I saw from Athens really made me happy, especially since they showed other countries. Looking forward to this very much.

Soccer is a given for MSNBC and the mega-deluxe broadcast blocs they have.

I'm hoping that baseball gets a bit more love this time around and hopefully with Oxygen joining the team, more rythmic gymnastics and trampoline.

So, who's going to get BMX? NBC?

Not record everything??!? Who would do such a thing!! Then again, who would tape everything. Oh wait, that's right.. me and several of us on this board. Insanity at its finest.

I think part of the issue with that is that not all of the competition schedules have been finalized, especially in the team sports. We all know that NBC will wield their muscle with a lot of the schedule as best they can to get US teams in favorable timeslots (especially in sports like basketball where the US team is a big draw). And it will make things more interesting that there are at least 3 more US teams That said, here's a few notes and nuggets I've gotten by going through the schedules thanks largely to the good folks at Wikipedia...

Basketball - The times aren't set, but the matchups all are for the preliminary round. And if Athens is any indication, the US teams will have a consistent timeslot, 1 for the weekend and 1 for weekdays. Game times each day are (this is Eastern time).. 9pm, 11pm, 2:30am, 4:30am, 8am, 10am. The 2 biggest games the men's team has in the first round are Sunday 8/10 against China and Saturday 8/16 against Spain. If I were a betting man, I'd bet the farm that the US-China game is the last game of the day (10pm local time, 10am here in the US), just like the US-Greece game was in Athens, and it'll allow NBC to come up at 10am Sunday morning with the game. I could see the Spain game getting similar treatment. Tough to tell where other games will fall. Also look for the women's final to appear on NBC, that's at 10:30am on Saturday 8/23.

Boxing - Not surprisingly, the CNBC schedule seems to closely coincide with most of the live boxing from Beijing (the early session for most days is 1:30am-4:30am ET while CNBC has an on-air block from 2am-4:30am. There's also a 2nd boxing session from Beijing, look for that one to be taped and shown in the 5-8 block. Overall, boxing fans are probably going to get even more from Beijing than from Athens.

Soccer - Preliminary round matches are set. The US Women open August 6 against Norway (7:45am ET, so we know that'll be live on MSNBC) and the US Men on August 7 against Japan (5am ET, no doubt MSNBC will have that live as well). The other prelim games are in those same time slots, we'll have to see if the plan is for MSNBC to come up at 5am with soccer on days there is a game or if USA Netowrk is in fact for all the big US games are shown. The men's final is at Midnight on August 23rd, no doubt that's a live broadcast on both CNBC and Telemundo.

Softball - The full schedule was released a couple of months ago. Perhaps coincidentally, 6 of the 7 preliminary games for the US team are at noon Beijing time (midnight on the east coast here). Possibly a regular slot to be put on CNBC before they head over to boxing? We shall see.

That's all I've come up with so far. Again, I think we won't get a formal announcement from NBC for at least another month or so, until more of the competition schedule is finalized. Can ya tell I need my Olympics fix here!

[pacey988]

Matt,

I can help you with the men's hockey final from 2002. I was able to reclaim most of the coverage from those Games, and here is what I have as of now:

2002:

Day 1: Opening ceremony

Day 5: MSNBC and CNBC coverage, NBC afternoon, NBC primetime

Day 7: MSNBC coverage, NBC afternoon and primetime

Day 12: NBC primetime coverage

Day 13: NBC primetime coverage

Day 14: CNBC afternoon coverage, NBC afternoon coverage, NBC primetime coverage

Day 15: NBC primetime coverage

Day 16: NBC afternoon and primetime coverage

Day 17: Men's hockey gold medal game and closing ceremony

2004:

Day 1: Opening ceremony

Day 2: NBC primetime coverage

Day 6: NBC primetime coverage (from overnight replay)

Day 7: NBC primetime coverage (from overnight replay, missing first 20 minutes)

Day 16: NBC primetime coverage

Day 17: NBC afternoon and primetime coverage

2006:

Day 1: Opening ceremony

Day 2: USA morning and NBC primetime coverage

Day 3: NBC primetime and late night coverage

Day 4: NBC primetime coverage

Day 5: USA morning, NBC afternoon, primetime and late night coverage

Day 6: NBC afternoon and primetime coverage

Day 9: NBC primetime and late night coverage

Day 10: NBC primetime coverage

Day 11: Women's hockey bronze and gold medal games

Day 12: NBC primetime coverage

Day 14: NBC primetime coverage

Day 15: NBC primetime coverage

Day 16: Men's hockey bronze medal game, NBC primetime coverage

Day 17: Men's hockey gold medal game, NBC primetime coverage

[Durban Sandshark]

Remembered this: The reduction and redistribution of hours on standard TV is not just confined to NBC (226 to 150). CNBC will see a decrease in Olympic TV hours from 111 in Athens to at least 100 for Beijing. Spanish network Telemundo--I thought it'll earn an increase in hours--will go from 169.5 to 150. Not too much of a decrease with 19.5 hours removed. With (but not limited to) Bravo gone and their 122 hours gone from Athens, many of those hours are redistributed as MSNBC (from 133.5 hours to 150) and USA (49 to 175) will get major boosts in coverage. Of course, a good deal of those hours will head online as part of those 2200 hours. No word yet for at least a Spanish language cast.

We just now got a major official announcement regarding Germany's upcoming ZDF/ARD's Olympic TV coverage for Peking (the Germanic world still calls Beijing Peking) with, among other things, 300 hours combined from a crew of 500 people in tow. Harald Schmidt, Johannes B. Kerner, Monica Lierhaus, Michael Antwerps, Reinhold Beckmann, and Waldemar Hartmann are all back! It seems there's a decrease in coverage, but there will be additional coverage of 600 hours on the four digital channels (two from ARD and two from ZDF like in Athens) and online (auf Deutsche).

ZDF Olympia 2008 Fernsehen Plans

ARD (Das Erste) Olympia 2008 Fernsehen Plans

[Durban Sandshark]

We are NOT insane... we're just very passionate about what we do.

I'm actually interested in the basketball coverage given our last "Dream Team" laid an egg in Athens (Much to my pleasure, I was getting sick of both the egos and the USA making every other basketball team in the world look bad). Interested to see if it will be as wall-to-wall as it was in the past.

CNBC LOVES it some boxing and what I saw from Athens really made me happy, especially since they showed other countries. Looking forward to this very much.

Soccer is a given for MSNBC and the mega-deluxe broadcast blocs they have.

I'm hoping that baseball gets a bit more love this time around and hopefully with Oxygen joining the team, more rythmic gymnastics and trampoline.

So, who's going to get BMX? NBC?

I was hoping the US men will get Australia (aka the Boomers) in group play again like last time in preliminary basketball. Not gonna happen!

Baseball should get more love now that the USA has qualified. That was why we failed to get a lot of it. Shouldn't NBC have aired Canada, Japan, or Australia instead to focus. Wouldn't it be the same but...

BMX on NBC? Maybe so.

[Quaker2001]

We are NOT insane... we're just very passionate about what we do.

I'm actually interested in the basketball coverage given our last "Dream Team" laid an egg in Athens (Much to my pleasure, I was getting sick of both the egos and the USA making every other basketball team in the world look bad). Interested to see if it will be as wall-to-wall as it was in the past.

CNBC LOVES it some boxing and what I saw from Athens really made me happy, especially since they showed other countries. Looking forward to this very much.

Soccer is a given for MSNBC and the mega-deluxe broadcast blocs they have.

I'm hoping that baseball gets a bit more love this time around and hopefully with Oxygen joining the team, more rythmic gymnastics and trampoline.

So, who's going to get BMX? NBC?

I remember seeing in some of the promos that BMX will go being going live in NBC primetime. The timing works out perfectly, the elimination rounds go from 8:45am to 10:30am in Beijing, so those all fit perfectly for NBC primetime. And we should be getting some baseball coverage this time around, helps that the US team actually qualified (still can't believe they didn't make it to Athens.. would probably have made life a lot different for Roger Clemens, he had really wanted to play in the Olympics that year).

And Durban.. that reduction in coverage on NBC might mean the elimination of the primetime replays, that would explain a lot of the missing hours this time around.

[baron-pierreIV]

When are synchro swimming and rhythmic gymnastics?

[pacey988]

In 2004, I never really had a chance to watch all of the coverage, and there were a lot of things I missed out on, such as boxing, tennis, team handball, table tennis, taekwondo, badminton, sailing, and other things. Hopefully that will change this time around. I will try to get as much of this year's coverage as I can, and if anyone needs anything from me, not just from this year but from what I listed before, I will be glad to contribute.

[Durban Sandshark]

Could very well be no more encore primetime coverage at late night, Matt.

I'm now seeing new stuff pertaining to NRK in Norway and SVT in Sweden on their websites. I'll get to those tomorrow. I will say that SVT HDTV is involved for "OS" coverage.

Is First Media, formerly KabelVision, will get into this again in Indonesia? What about NTV+ in Russia?

[Quaker2001]

In 2004, I never really had a chance to watch all of the coverage, and there were a lot of things I missed out on, such as boxing, tennis, team handball, table tennis, taekwondo, badminton, sailing, and other things. Hopefully that will change this time around. I will try to get as much of this year's coverage as I can, and if anyone needs anything from me, not just from this year but from what I listed before, I will be glad to contribute.

As matt suggested, I think we're all just going to be each other's backups. With as much coverage as there is out there, we're all bound to miss a few things here and there. And depending on where everyone is in the country, I'm sure there's other stuff out there to record (i.e. Olympic Zone, the Today Show, the MSNBC Olympic update shows). I'm sure we'll wind up having a thread somewhere on here devoted to what everyone has managed to record or not record.

[pacey988]

I think, realistically, that it will be impossible for me to tape everything, even with three VCRs. I think this time will be no different than before, at least for me. I would like to tape whatever I feel I would like to tape. I'm not in any way setting out to create what one might consider the official video record of the Games, but I would at least like to create a plan that works for me and would make for ideal viewing.

As matt suggested, I think we're all just going to be each other's backups. With as much coverage as there is out there, we're all bound to miss a few things here and there. And depending on where everyone is in the country, I'm sure there's other stuff out there to record (i.e. Olympic Zone, the Today Show, the MSNBC Olympic update shows). I'm sure we'll wind up having a thread somewhere on here devoted to what everyone has managed to record or not record.

[mattperiolat]

You're so going to hate this response, but I am still working my way through my collection just trying to get a clean record of all I have. Right now, I've got clear records of Albertville and working on Barcelona. Once it's clearer, we'll start working on it.

Suffice to say, if you want more, I think I can help you substantially.

Matt,

I can help you with the men's hockey final from 2002. I was able to reclaim most of the coverage from those Games, and here is what I have as of now:

2002:

Day 1: Opening ceremony

Day 5: MSNBC and CNBC coverage, NBC afternoon, NBC primetime

Day 7: MSNBC coverage, NBC afternoon and primetime

Day 12: NBC primetime coverage

Day 13: NBC primetime coverage

Day 14: CNBC afternoon coverage, NBC afternoon coverage, NBC primetime coverage

Day 15: NBC primetime coverage

Day 16: NBC afternoon and primetime coverage

Day 17: Men's hockey gold medal game and closing ceremony

2004:

Day 1: Opening ceremony

Day 2: NBC primetime coverage

Day 6: NBC primetime coverage (from overnight replay)

Day 7: NBC primetime coverage (from overnight replay, missing first 20 minutes)

Day 16: NBC primetime coverage

Day 17: NBC afternoon and primetime coverage

2006:

Day 1: Opening ceremony

Day 2: USA morning and NBC primetime coverage

Day 3: NBC primetime and late night coverage

Day 4: NBC primetime coverage

Day 5: USA morning, NBC afternoon, primetime and late night coverage

Day 6: NBC afternoon and primetime coverage

Day 9: NBC primetime and late night coverage

Day 10: NBC primetime coverage

Day 11: Women's hockey bronze and gold medal games

Day 12: NBC primetime coverage

Day 14: NBC primetime coverage

Day 15: NBC primetime coverage

Day 16: Men's hockey bronze medal game, NBC primetime coverage

Day 17: Men's hockey gold medal game, NBC primetime coverage

[mattperiolat]

Remembered this: The reduction and redistribution of hours on standard TV is not just confined to NBC (226 to 150). CNBC will see a decrease in Olympic TV hours from 111 in Athens to at least 100 for Beijing. Spanish network Telemundo--I thought it'll earn an increase in hours--will go from 169.5 to 150. Not too much of a decrease with 19.5 hours removed. With (but not limited to) Bravo gone and their 122 hours gone from Athens, many of those hours are redistributed as MSNBC (from 133.5 hours to 150) and USA (49 to 175) will get major boosts in coverage. Of course, a good deal of those hours will head online as part of those 2200 hours. No word yet for at least a Spanish language cast.

And also Oxygen is picking up 20 hours also, although that will be minor, to say the least. Suffice to say, my biggest concern is in possible overlap. I can do maybe two channels at once, but beyond that? Trouble. Especially given I'm on a dish now and was on cable for all previous games.

[mattperiolat]

In 2004, I never really had a chance to watch all of the coverage, and there were a lot of things I missed out on, such as boxing, tennis, team handball, table tennis, taekwondo, badminton, sailing, and other things. Hopefully that will change this time around. I will try to get as much of this year's coverage as I can, and if anyone needs anything from me, not just from this year but from what I listed before, I will be glad to contribute.

Sailing was actually a part of MSNBC's coverage in Athens as I recall, so it should be back this time. But credit to NBC, it was a wild thing to be drifting off to sleep watching Women's Air Rifle for the first time ever in '04!

Not kidding, I did enjoy it.

[Quaker2001]

And also Oxygen is picking up 20 hours also, although that will be minor, to say the least. Suffice to say, my biggest concern is in possible overlap. I can do maybe two channels at once, but beyond that? Trouble. Especially given I'm on a dish now and was on cable for all previous games.

Looking at the cable schedules as they stand now.. it looks like between MSNBC, CNBC, USA, and Oxygen, no more than 2 of those will be on air at the same time (I think from Athens there was only 1 time where 3 of the cable nets were on at once). But that's not counting Telemundo and NBC; it looks very probable that there will be a few spots where there 3 or 4 broadcasts on at once. Sounds like that could be somewhat of an issue for you.. and also why I'm very glad I've stuck with cable into of switching over to DirecTV.

[mattperiolat]

Looking at the cable schedules as they stand now.. it looks like between MSNBC, CNBC, USA, and Oxygen, no more than 2 of those will be on air at the same time (I think from Athens there was only 1 time where 3 of the cable nets were on at once). But that's not counting Telemundo and NBC; it looks very probable that there will be a few spots where there 3 or 4 broadcasts on at once. Sounds like that could be somewhat of an issue for you.. and also why I'm very glad I've stuck with cable into of switching over to DirecTV.

Indeed. If a storm rolls in, I could lose my signal. I'm working my options though so I won't end up in too much trouble, maybe ask a local family member to cover NBC while I do the cable. We'll see!

It'll all be clearer, probably in June or July.

[pacey988]

I have DIRECTV, but mainly by choice because the local cable company did not service my area after I returned home from Baton Rouge. About the only thing that could go wrong would be losing the signal, but hopefully it will not happen, if it does I won't fret. Overlapping coverage, though, is a concern, because if USA and either MSNBC or CNBC (depending on who has the coverage on weekdays and weekends of long form events) overlap, I will have to change tapes at the end of either 6 or 8 hours. If what was posted on the NBC Olympics message board is made official, my plans will be to tape coverage on NBC, USA (presumably where U.S. team sports will air) and CNBC (if they are the main boxing channel throughout the Olympics).

[mattperiolat]

I have DIRECTV, but mainly by choice because the local cable company did not service my area after I returned home from Baton Rouge. About the only thing that could go wrong would be losing the signal, but hopefully it will not happen, if it does I won't fret. Overlapping coverage, though, is a concern, because if USA and either MSNBC or CNBC (depending on who has the coverage on weekdays and weekends of long form events) overlap, I will have to change tapes at the end of either 6 or 8 hours. If what was posted on the NBC Olympics message board is made official, my plans will be to tape coverage on NBC, USA (presumably where U.S. team sports will air) and CNBC (if they are the main boxing channel throughout the Olympics).

MSNBC is usually team sports central, unless there is a shift this time around. Little doubt in my mind they'll keep boxing on CNBC since that seems to be their nitch. We'll see though.

[pacey988]

It all depends, to be honest. In Athens, I liked watching the equestrian events, I wanted to see the other sports like I mentioned, but it all depends on the schedule. I doubt I will be taping Oxygen's coverage since it runs only two hours each weekday, but everything else I will try to tape.

[Quaker2001]

My best guess is that USA is focal point of coverage on the cable side in Beijing, similar to MSNBC's role in Athens. If a US team is in an event that is going to be televised, that's where it's going to be (time constaints permitting, of course). Whereas MSNBC will likely take charge of events that don't necessarily involve US teams (i.e. other soccer matches, basketball games, etc.) By default, since their window is 5am-5pm, that means most of their coverage will be on tape, whereas most of USA can be live.

[pacey988]

If your prediction holds up, I will be taping USA, CNBC and NBC, though it would be good to get some of the finals of events that the U.S. is not involved in, such as team handball, etc.