Remember when it used to be Track & Field? Now NBC has cut it down to just "here's a bunch of races, mostly sprints", and we'll show you 30 second highlight of the field events. Coverign field evetns is harder on a live broadcast but I watched hte live feed of the men's long jump online w/no commentary - it was as compelling as it gets. It went down to the last 2 rounds with the lead chanign hands a few times Jeff Henderson winning it on his last jump, and that other American guy seemingly beating him by uncorking a huge jump on teh very last jump of the night but then getting it bumped down and finishing 4th because he brushed his hand on the pit first.
When I was younger it seems like they covered the Decathlon more, or maybe I am just not remembering correctly. But now there doesn't seem to be much Decathlon coverage at all on NBC, or I am just missing it.
The field events were very compelling this Olympics. I watched live online at nbc too, but my feed had commentary. It seemed every field event had some controversy, an Olympic record, or came down to the last attempt.
That was probably because of that Dan Vs. Dave marketing stuff and Bruce Jenner before that. Maybe Ashton Eaton, who has won the last 2 Olympic golds, is just not that interesting or marketable. I know he has endorsement, I don't think anyone could pick him out of a lineup though. NBC did show everything online though.
The online streams made this an Olympics worth watching. I really didn't pay much attention to 2000 and 2004 becuase, from what I recall, the broadcast went something like this: Show American competing in an event. Event ends. Cut to story about how that American grew up in some corn field in Iowa. Rinse and repeat. I get it - everyone has a story - but I just kind of want to watch the Olympics. I only tuned in to 2008's because China's opening ceremony was off the wall (as far off the wall as an Olympic opening ceremony can be).
i believe they introduced the online streaming back in 08 for the Beijing Olympics. It's the only way i watch the Olympics since. Just watch the events I want with no commercials and sometimes tune into the main broadcast if I wanted additional commentary on some of the major events.
I agree Online Streams were outstanding to watch all those niche sports you don't get to see on a national broadcast. I'm really surprised people don't care about the human interest pieces NBC puts together. How else are we supposed to know who these people are? It's not like this stuff is on television outside the Olympics. It's because of these stories you get invested and have some sense of who to watch. I watched the women's triathlon because of the stuff they put together on the USA athlete who won 13 straight triathlons after quitting her accounting job. I had no Idea who Centrowitz, the 1500m runner who won Gold, was before NBC did a story on him and his dad. And that South African guy who won the 400m with a world record; I know he came out of nowhere to win before, but I didn't know his coach was a 90 year old white woman from Zambia. etc. The stories add to my enjoyment. But that's just me.
i agree. they add to the enjoyment for me. i want to know about the person growing up in the iowa cornfield. it adds a connection that is often important for sports to matter. and makes you want them to win it for the US even more. otherwise it's just watching someone you've never heard of swim in a pool or run on a track. now you can still be in to it because they're american, but it adds something. and if they aren't american, it can really add something because you'd probably never root for the person otherwise.
This is entertainment so you need a story otherwise noboby cares. They can't just go straight to the ending for drama even in the millennial age and for those with a short attention spans. I just think NBC should focus less on the sob stories and come up with a wider spectrum of plots and themes as well all get sick of that. Take some artistic liberties and give me more of that.
Hope LA can get the 2024 games. I'm planning on going to Tokyo for 2020, but it would be nice to have something on U.S. soil again. LA really has a great chance against Paris IMO.
This is the other one I recorded, also very good. Similar. <iframe src="https://vid.me/e/FMfp?stats=1" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen scrolling="no"></iframe>
There's been a lot of backlash online about the way NBC has presented the games, but I just can't see it changing. The biggest is just that the time differences aren't going to allow it, at least not in the next couple of Olympics. Unless the Tokyo organizers move prime events to the morning hours for the sake of American TV, just about everything shown in prime time in the 2020 games will be tape delayed. It's also going to be a bummer, on a personal note, that I won't be able to stream sports in 2020 like I did this time around because my peak streaming hours (the afternoon hours here) are in the middle of the night in Tokyo. The same issue will come up in the upcoming Winter Olympics in South Korea. The bigger thing to me, though, is that as much as the sports internet (myself included) groans about tape delay, the over-emphasis on American athletes, and the human interest video packages that take screen time away from actual competition, we're not the target audience for Olympic prime-time coverage. The Olympics are sports packaged neatly for the non-sports fans, and I still think a plurality of viewers are best served by the way that NBC broadcasts the Olympics, for better or worse.
You can bet that NBC is going to lobby to have swimming done in the morning in Tokyo so that it is live in primetime here in the states. They did the same thing in Rio and the IOC granted it. Same goes for 08 in Beijing. They also were able to lobby for gymnastics finals to be in primetime for the states in 08 also.
I would think that Swimming is just as pop in Austrailia and they are only 1 hour behind Japan. With no Phelps, they could win that battle. Or we could make the aussies get up at 8am to watch their fish.
I don't think there's anyway Australia is going to win out a battle vs NBC if the IOC even considers moving the time again. Beijing is only one hour behind Tokyo. I have a hard time believing Australia's networks have the money to really out do NBC. I'm sure NBC will just use Ledecky and any other up and coming U.S. swimmer for 2020 as reasoning. http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/rio-olympics-nbc-late-races-1.3715538 NBC even requested the IOC to have the order of the opening ceremonies in English so that the U.S. would appear towards the end like they normally do though that got denied. Kinda crazy how much pull NBC has over everyone else in the world. http://thebiglead.com/2016/07/28/nb...ed-states-would-appear-near-end-of-broadcast/
Empty seats weren't a problem exclusive to Rio. Greece, and to a lesser extent London, faced the same issue. Didn't China bus in people to fill the venues to avoid empty seats? Aside from the green pool, what other venues were trash? The water didn't seem to bother the athletes much when the competition began. Opening and closing ceremonies may have been a bit underwhelming compared to Beijing and Sochi, but the problem is comparing it to them in the first place. Not many cities, if any, are going to want to match the money spent putting together those lavish productions. Rio had its problems, but ultimately the games turned out fine.
Many people have complained about NBC coverage on various outlets and forums. Many of it is justified. But the main issue is that here are two many events going on all hours of the day concurrently. And most people need to work/sleep and can only watch during "prime time". And thus maximizing prime time ratings is always going to be the primary goal. A lot of people complain about tape-delay and condensed coverage. But if you DON'T tape delay, then people on the West Coast will miss out because they are at work. Furthermore, what about concurrent events? Everyone complained about NBC cutting into gymnastics coverage but there was live swimming to show. If they kept on with gymnastics in prime time and tape delayed swimming, people would complain that they taped delayed swimming. No win situation. Also not everyone wants to watch really long events like decathlon non-stop from beginning to end. While I think NBC's field events coverage is awful, I also think most people don't want to watch 5 hours nonstop of individual field events either. Instead, something like the diving broadcast is ideal. Show the competition but condense it but don't reduce it to just a 5 minute highlight showing like three competitors either! The point is that while NBC coverage can be improved, you still have to solve the issue of many events going on throughout the day (or night if in Asia), many events too long to show in its entirety and most people only being able to watch in prime time which is where the revenue is. There's no perfect solution. Bottom line is if you were NBC and your goal was to maximize revenue (which means maximizing viewers in prime time basically) while minimizing viewer criticism and complaints how would you do it? The answer is that you'd do it more or less how NBC was doing it even though you could say that you'd tweak it here and there.
