NBC Olympics Coverage Off to Gold-Standard Start
The elements that could have been most problematic for NBC’s coverage of the XXIX Summer Olympic Games – the 12-hour time difference, the sensitive political issue of China as the host country – turn out, so far, to have made the TV coverage of these games even better.
After the first weekend of this Olympiad, NBC is on the broadcast equivalent of a world record pace. And broadcast’s just the tip of the iceberg, because the family of Universal’s cable networks, and NBC’s Internet sites, are prominent players as well.
While computer diehards may be frustrated by NBC’s attempts to squelch unauthorized video of events held for delayed broadcast, the network has served its prime-time broadcast audience well.
Give the Chinese credit for a mesmerizing Opening Ceremony – easily the best yet. That set the stage for something special, and so did another ingredient supplied by the host country: the architecture of the primary venues. The Bird’s Nest was an immediate hit as the primary Olympic stadium Friday night – and already, the Water Cube building that houses the aquatic events ranks as a visually gorgeous structure, breathtaking from every angle, inside and out.
And Sunday night, when the U.S. men’s swim team stole the gold medal from heavily favored France in the 4×100m freestyle relay, it was the capper to a weekend of fabulous Olympics coverage. In that race alone, the TV technology was used to great effect to make things clear and exciting: the computer-generated graphics showing which swimmers, and countries, were ahead at each lap, as well as the superimposed world-record-pace line and all the underwater and overhead camera angles.
The U.S. swimmers did the rest, and this first weekend, in both ratings and reviews, should get NBC off to a monster start.
xpu commented:
Either the comments on this blog were made by anti-NBC critics, or those who didn't watch the Olympics. But, NBC's coverage was superb, entertaining, and gave an interesting look into changing China. Parts of the Olympics rated higher than NFL Playoffs for crying out loud. No one is perfect, but all in all, if you find the coverage to be depressing and uninspired, then you probably were watching with a pessimistic and critical eye. As for biased American coverage -- what do you expect? They did cover other countries on MSNBC or other networks. If you were disappointed that the Netherlands vs. Germany field hockey match wasn't on during primetime, than I'm sure NBC apologizes.
AceCoach commented:
Amazing. NBC spends 2 weeks praising to to rafters the wonderful Chinese nation, one of the most brutal and oppressive in history. Yet the only complaint I hear is that NBC covers American athletes for their viewers, who are...duh..Americans.
Unreal.
NBCisracist commented:
Why does NBC refuse to show any Hispanic divers? We watched the platform diving several nights and they show the divers from all the other countries except for Latinos. The Cuban, Mexican, and Colombian divers all finished or were ahead of the Americans that they showed over and over. Yet they never showed the Cuban, Mexican, or Colombian diver once! What gives????
Mother of All commented:
I agree. It has been terrible… incredibly USA-biased. Furthermore, they are covering obscure sports and not showing anything live (although the show the “Live” sign on the screen--if you go to a non-American website, you can get the live results). It has been so terrible that I got to tune in the Spanish channel if I want to watch a decent sport.
Dr. Brown commented:
NBC's covearge of the olypics is depressing. I am a sports addict and I must say that I will try my best not to be in the US for the duration of the next summer olypics. OK, I can't live without sports and Jay Leno. If none of these programs are on NBC I will never watch it again.
costasisaknob commented:
Ask anyone who lives near the Canadian border what proper olympic coverage should look like. The CBC does promote thier athletes, but overall it gives a more balanced coverage of the olympics. NBC with their 'only prime time' coverage really shortchanges their viewers. The CBC has at least 12 hours a day coverage (most of it live). Also, Bob Costas is a knob!!!
disappointed commented:
hopefully ABC/ESPN gets the rights and show all the other countries not just the U.S and all the sports and cut down the fluff.
cincysportsfan commented:
I also agree that the NBC olympic coverage is really bad. Where there only two countries competing in gymnasitcs. No coverage was show of any other gymnists, except for U.S. and China. I can only pray that ABC will obtain rights to cover future Olympics.
Another disappointed sports fan commented:
I second the comments above. NBC's coverage could not get any worse. Even from a U.S. point of view, the coverage is spotty and misssing many important LIVE events. Just a quick example: right now, the U.S. voleyball team (M) is playing Gernamy, and NBC is showing endless tapes of classification runs of women's track and field that took place this morning. Pretty ridiculous.
Dave commented:
The NBC Olympics coverage is the worst coverage I have seen of any sport, anywhere. They only show events involving US athletes, they show hardly anything live, they fill hours with pointless fluff, the commercials are every 10 minutes, they repeat themselves over and over whenever the US wins anything, and the commentary is ridiculously poor. Is this really the best TV has to offer in an advanced nation??