What Gives, NBC?
Feb. 13th, 2010 09:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaunthieI am in the same time zone as the Winter Olympic Games. And yet NBC insists on showing their "coverage" of said games (which is as far as I can tell 80% "commentary" and "schlock" and 20% actual sports/news coverage) on a 3-hour tape delay, or more.
I always knew there was an east coast bias in the broadcasting industry, but this is beyond ridiculous. The opening ceremonies were scheduled for the maximum convenience of the people in my time zone. But thanks to NBC's insistence on starting at 7:30 regardless of where you are, I didn't even see the start of the ceremony until it was actually OVER.
In prior years, I've always watched the Canadian coverage of the winter games (and usually the summer games too), as Canadian coverage was always superior in terms of timing (no artificial delay for the west coast), tone (much less opinion/emotional filler and much more focus on sport) and overall content (they actually show athletes from other countries who aren't major stars, imagine!). This year, unfortunately, CBC lost the rights to cover the games to another Canadian company (CTV), so that solution is not as easily available. And this year, unlike in the 2008 Summer Games, NBC is not livestreaming their coverage from their Web site. (I watched much of the summer games on my computer, as part of helping load-test the back-end. Yes, my company actually encouraged its employees to help stress-test the system, as we helped build an important part of the backend. Sweet!)
For most people, this would mean having to be content with what the NBC suits decided to dish out, be held hostage by their delaying the skating coverage, etc. And it's ridiculous. The technology exists to stream all events live in real time. There is no reason for the artificial time delay for this coast. It's infuriating and insulting. And on top of that, the quality of the coverage they are offering is abysmal.
Fortunately I'm not most people. I've let my affiliate know what I think of their knuckling under to the absurd dictates of NBC (the affiliate does have the option to choose to air the content earlier) and will either watch better alternatives (yes, I'm a geek), or simply not watch. I won't be staying up until midnight to watch NBC's "live" coverage of an event that ended three hours earlier. It simply does not make sense and I will not be a party to it.
Bah!
I always knew there was an east coast bias in the broadcasting industry, but this is beyond ridiculous. The opening ceremonies were scheduled for the maximum convenience of the people in my time zone. But thanks to NBC's insistence on starting at 7:30 regardless of where you are, I didn't even see the start of the ceremony until it was actually OVER.
In prior years, I've always watched the Canadian coverage of the winter games (and usually the summer games too), as Canadian coverage was always superior in terms of timing (no artificial delay for the west coast), tone (much less opinion/emotional filler and much more focus on sport) and overall content (they actually show athletes from other countries who aren't major stars, imagine!). This year, unfortunately, CBC lost the rights to cover the games to another Canadian company (CTV), so that solution is not as easily available. And this year, unlike in the 2008 Summer Games, NBC is not livestreaming their coverage from their Web site. (I watched much of the summer games on my computer, as part of helping load-test the back-end. Yes, my company actually encouraged its employees to help stress-test the system, as we helped build an important part of the backend. Sweet!)
For most people, this would mean having to be content with what the NBC suits decided to dish out, be held hostage by their delaying the skating coverage, etc. And it's ridiculous. The technology exists to stream all events live in real time. There is no reason for the artificial time delay for this coast. It's infuriating and insulting. And on top of that, the quality of the coverage they are offering is abysmal.
Fortunately I'm not most people. I've let my affiliate know what I think of their knuckling under to the absurd dictates of NBC (the affiliate does have the option to choose to air the content earlier) and will either watch better alternatives (yes, I'm a geek), or simply not watch. I won't be staying up until midnight to watch NBC's "live" coverage of an event that ended three hours earlier. It simply does not make sense and I will not be a party to it.
Bah!
