I've kind of stayed out of these discussions since I get a rather good package of Olympic events from the BBC. But I must say that the way the BBC covers these and has covered other recent games in unhelpful timezones - like Beijing - seems to work well.
There's live coverage for those who want it at whatever time of day or night the proceedings occur. Then the big evening programme is 3 hours from 7pm to 10pm. That assumes you don't know the results from earlier in the day. But there's no messing around, and we get a nicely produced package of the key events Brits want to know about (i.e. the ones we've done well in, or failed to do as expected). Now obviously because these games take place in our own timezone, there's live coverage to drop in - of the swimming and so on. But it seems like a good compromise. The news programme that's gone before will have announced all the winners - indeed the Olympics has been the top headline every day so far. It's going to take something really bad happening elsewhere in the world for them to be dislodged. The reality is that most people aren't available to view outside of prime time anyway. So there's no real reason to hold back swimming from live coverage. You can still neatly package it up for prime time. Indeed as an aside, the swimming is so efficiently organised that there's barely any time to get post-race interviews in, and a bit of a set-up for the next race before its on again. I don't think there'd be physically time for NBC to squeeze commercials in without missing some action! And I'd argue that if you know that the Phelps v Lochte race is awesome, you'd be more likely to tune and see it. Sadly, I suspect that nothing's going to change while NBC is getting record breaking ratings, and making more money than it expected. Adam On Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 11:43 PM, Mark Jeffries <[email protected]>wrote: > Which brings me to another point--as some people pointed out, ABC did the > same exact things when they made the Olympics the TV spectacle that it is. > There were complaints, but not to the extent that NBC receives. Outside of > the fact that at least in the 60s and 70s, the whole idea of the coverage > was new to viewers, I am wondering if the greater criticism of NBC is > because people don't like Costas the way they did Jim McKay. Costas is one > of the best broadcasters around, but he doesn't have the folksy manner or > likability that McKay possessed--and I wonder if a lot of people just don't > like him. > > On Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 5:32 PM, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> On Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 1:15 PM, Bob in Jersey <[email protected]>wrote: >> >>> Going back through that online media guide NBCO posted just prior to the >>> Games, much of the basketball and soccer is being called from 30 Rock, and >>> ostensibly most of Telemundo's staff are there as well. >>> >> >> Bob Fitzgerald, who is the play by play guy for the Golden State Warriors >> here in the Bay Area, is doing USA Olympic basketball. I am pretty sure he >> is actually in London (at least, the local stories about him have suggested >> he was going to England), and I would be shocked if his color analyst, Doug >> Collins (and professional USA Olympic Basketball whiner) was not in London >> too, if for no other reason so that he could give the team his quadrennial >> bitter tale of woe of how the commies stole the gold medal from him. But >> there may be announcers doing some of the non-USA BB games who are calling >> them from New York. >> >> Again, I would not mind the off-site stuff so much (though I don't like >> it) if they would just inform the viewer clearly in each case, for reasons >> Kevin explained so well. >> >> I should also note that while I have seen some critics go after Bob >> Costas in particular, this seems especially misplaced. The time shifting >> seems to make his job much more boring (plus the show that begins at 8:00 >> pm ET is starting at what, 1:00 am London time? So he is up all night >> basically just reading a script). Meanwhile the anchors on the other shows >> are having fun actually whipping around to live events and giving some >> breaking news. That has got to be a lot more fun. >> >> ** >> >> -- >> TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >> Groups "TV or Not TV" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected] >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected] >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en >> > > -- > TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "TV or Not TV" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en > -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
