Okay, so I admit it. I am a winter Olympics junkie. Having grown up doing all the winter sports (skiing, skating, tobogganing, and even having tried curling and bobsledding) not far from the 1932 and 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, I always was engrossed in the Winter Olympics for as long as I can remember.
The first Olympics I remember watching as a child was the one with Peggy Flemming, I think in Grenoble. Later in college, I visited the Olympic sites in Grenoble, Oslo, and Innsbruck. I remember watching the Olympics live for the first time from Sapporo, Japan. As a child, it was strange to realize that we were able to see what was going on half way around the world, AS IT WAS HAPPENING. Occasionally the satellite would cut out and we would loose the picture, but it was amazing to have.
So for the last week, I have been watching the Olympics from Vancouver. My only complaint in the coverage came today. Rather than showing the US-Canada hockey game live on network TV, it was shown on cable. In addition, while I was able to access live streaming via internet from Beijing, I now am not allowed to do so as I do not subscribe to cable. This means I miss out on a number of events, including curling. I find this disturbing and misguided on the part of NBC. I would be more than willing to sit through a number of internet ads in order to have seen the US-Canada game or curling. I wanted to see the entire ski-cross...not just highlights and would have watched the advertising if I could have accessed it on the internet.
In fact, tonight was the first night I watched something else or clicked through the ads shown on the Olympics. Someone wasn't thinking, because I am sure there were a number of others that would have watched the US Canada game. NBC lost a lot of revenue tonight. I hope they will reconsider their media mix and offer better coverage through the internet.
In the meantime, I'll post again when the Olympics are done!
2 comments:
The BBC are pretty good with their coverage. Luckily, much of the best skiing has been shown live on TV in the evenings, though some of the best action has been in the middle of the night. These days, I think we increasingly access events like this through a range of digital and online platforms. I just wish they would show more ice hockey!
I must not have been the only one to complain because they showed the US/Switzerland and US/Canada game live on network TV.
For those of us in the "north country" where winter sports are followed, the winter olympics are great fun. In fact, many locals participated in the skiing, bobsled and speed skating events. However, I think the other half of the country is more interested in the ice skating and "extreme" sports which is what they covered mostly on network TV.
I understand, however, that curling was one of the stock market's favorite sports. Go figure.
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