NBC's Coverage of the Olympic Games

In recent weeks, I've been watching the Olympic Games.  Why not? They only happen every four two years.  Well ... each event is every four years. But there are Olympic Games every two.

I'm probably the only person out there who will say, "I don't mind the opening ceremonies being tape-delayed in the US."  Because I don't.  It meant I could watch them at the same times as my friends and family.  But I do think that a live online stream would have been nice.

I also think NBC should have given us an alternate audio track.  Seriously.  At times, I thought I was watching Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, with all the ridiculous inane commentary we have come to expect, wherein they tell us what we can plainly see. The worst example of this was the Voldemort puppet.  It appeared (which was awesome). Then it shot sparks from its wand (again: more awesome).  Ten seconds later, I heard, "And there is a 100-foot-tall Voldemort puppet. Its wand can even fire!"  Because, you know, I hadn't been watching.

The worst of it is, all of their opening ceremony gaffes could have been easily done away with.  Seriously.  NBC has about sixteen stations (NBC, CNBC, NBCSports, Bravo ... ). How hard would it have been to put Olympics Opening Ceremonies For Dummies on NBC (like they did), and then given us a version without commentary on one of the other stations?  Seriously.

I know they can do "without commentary."  I've been watching Fencing via their website. Live.  And yes: that does mean I've been up at 2 and 2:20 AM. And it's worth noting that some commentary would be welcome for some events.  I used to fence, years ago, but I've forgotten so very much. Like many of the right-of-way rules for foil and saber fencing.  A refresher would not go awry.

The tape delay also allowed them to insert commercials. Again: I'm okay with it.  I understand and acknowledge that NBC has to pay their bills.

One of my co-workers is irate about the online coverage. He doesn't have TV at home, so he's locked out of watching online without using a proxy to watch the BBC feed.  I have a number of friends who have cut the cords are are watching TV exclusively via Hulu or other (legal) online methods.  I even have friends who watch TV over-the-air.  But if you won't have a cable (or satellite) provider, you can't watch online.

Also of note: if they plan to air something on television later, you can watch it live online, but then you can't watch the replay until after it's aired.  If I want to re-watch this morning's fencing matches, I can. If I want to re-watch this morning's basketball game, I can't.  Not that I'm likely to watch a basketball game in the first place.

And I keep stories like this one, where NBC manages to ruin any sort of surprise for an event bare moments before it airs.  Very much a product of tape delay.

NBC, by the way, has announced that their ratings are so good that they won't be changing much (if anything) for next time.  To which I might quietly suggest that, if it were the only thing available, I'd eat at Taco Bell. Maybe NBC should take a look at a few of their critics - #NBCFail has been trending off-and-on over in Twitter-land since the opening ceremonies.

Their coverage is bad enough that even journalists in other countries have noticed and spoken up.

So yes. It's that bad. And it's likely to get worse.