OT-NBC Olympic Coverage

[huskerfan1414]

Wondering people's thoughts about NBC's olympic coverage, especially Prime Time coverage. Ratings seem to be down substantially but that could be for a host of reasons.
I have my own opinion but I'd rather put this out there and hear from those that watched to see if anyone is noticing the same thing I am.

 

[swissticuffs]

The coverage is fine....the Olympics just suck. IOC can jump off a bridge.

 

[chicolby]

I'll say from my end, I have no idea what time or when the "big" events are being played, so I don't know when to tune in, but when I do flash over, I see some players I don't care about playing tennis, or beach volleyball, or water polo, so I disengage and switch the channel.

I missed Phelps win his 19th Gold medal last night because I didn't know it was on.

 

[timnsun]

Wondering people's thoughts about NBC's olympic coverage, especially Prime Time coverage. Ratings seem to be down substantially but that could be for a host of reasons.
I have my own opinion but I'd rather put this out there and hear from those that watched to see if anyone is noticing the same thing I am.

Not sure what you might be referring to... It's on enough channels that, for the most part, I can find some event I want to watch. Unless you're speaking about NBC exclusively, and not the other channels in the NBC network.

They seem to be showing what most people want to watch, swimming, gymnastics, etc. so I'm not sure what you are talking about... Can you give us a hint?

 

[litespeedhuskerfan]

After being teased with a Michael Phelps camera shot, my wife and I watched for a little while, then a little while more, then some more, then I said Eff it and went to bed. Not sure when they finally aired it, but it was a lot longer than what they made it seem like when they originally focused the camera on him. Overall I am not a summer Olympics guy so there really isn't much they could do in covering that sport that would make me care.

 

[schuele]

I'm not a big Olympics watcher either, but I was at the gym Saturday evening and they had NBC on all the TV sets. After about 10 minutes of riveting table tennis coverage, I begged the staff to switch one TV over to a baseball game. I suppose there are people who will watch table tennis, but it seemed like an odd choice for the main network.

 

[Hoosker Du]

I'm not a big Olympics watcher either, but I was at the gym Saturday evening and they had NBC on all the TV sets. After about 10 minutes of riveting table tennis coverage, I begged the staff to switch one TV over to a baseball game. I suppose there are people who will watch table tennis, but it seemed like an odd choice for the main network.

I suppose it just depends what you find entertaining. I would take watching ping-pong over watching baseball on TV every time.

 

[GretnaShawn]

I usually love the Olympics, but the IOC makes me not want to watch. I did watch some of the beach volleyball and will probably try and catch the womens indoor volleyball and when Burrows wrestles. But other than that, I am showing my displeasure with the IOC the only way that I can, by not watching.

 

[Huskerfan2112]

Too many commercials.

Too much focus on backstories and drama. I want to see more of the games. They should put all of the drama on Lifetime

Too much Bob Costas. Cant stand the guy but I used to like him a lot. His "try to imagine what it must be like in Nebraska" after Tom won his first title was a perfect cap to that game. He has devolved into more of an opinion guy than a sports guy in recent years. Sort of an Olberman lite.

 

[CameronKrazie86]

Aside from the extreme amount of commercials and misleading start times, I find it incredibly annoying that they keep switching between live and tape-delayed. I can find the results on twitter hours before they air, what incentive is there to watch after it's already happened?

 

[jrhuskerdad]

After being teased with a Michael Phelps camera shot, my wife and I watched for a little while, then a little while more, then some more, then I said Eff it and went to bed. Not sure when they finally aired it, but it was a lot longer than what they made it seem like when they originally focused the camera on him. Overall I am not a summer Olympics guy so there really isn't much they could do in covering that sport that would make me care.

I get what you're saying about leading people on, because we too were waiting to see the relay. In NBC's defense, though, they aired it live, so only so much they can do.

 

[nebcountry]

I tried watching the opening ceremony, I turned the tv off before 5 minutes was up.

As for the games, I would rather watch more competition than the stories and dialogue.

 

[huskerfan1414]

Too many commercials.

Too much focus on backstories and drama. I want to see more of the games. They should put all of the drama on Lifetime

Too much Bob Costas. Cant stand the guy but I used to like him a lot. His "try to imagine what it must be like in Nebraska" after Tom won his first title was a perfect cap to that game. He has devolved into more of an opinion guy than a sports guy in recent years. Sort of an Olberman lite.

I cant like this enough.
Exactly! Dunno how much I'll watch with this format.
I understand live swimming but they could have shown gymnastics instead of backstories and non-factor swimmers.

 

[schuele]

I suppose it just depends what you find entertaining. I would take watching ping-pong over watching baseball on TV every time.

Fair enough, but the baseball game I switched to wasn't on a national network, with advertisers shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars per minute. That's what I found particularly odd about seeing two middle-aged guys playing ping-pong - that they somehow landed on the big network.

 

[jedihusker]

NBC's coverage is okay from my perspective. For the most part, they do pretty good at covering the sport themselves, though they aren't always great about really laying out what's coming up. I knew what was going on with swimming stuff last night, because I kept track of the schedule online, but they would kinda just say stuff is coming up without really saying when.

The fluff pieces do get a little over done after a while. From what I was reading the other day, apparently the reason we get so much of that stuff is NBC's research shows women are more interested in the Olympics than men, and their research shows women are more interested in the story surrounding stuff, than the events themselves. Not sure how true that is, but that's why.

My biggest annoyance with NBC's coverage, is I think they spend too much time on fluff pieces about the host country, and completely gloss over problems. I haven't seen one piece talking about the numerous issues leading up to, and still going on, with the venues and Olympic Village and such; but I've seen a least 2 or 3 fluff pieces on how great Brazil is.

If anyone has trouble following what's going on, or wants a good schedule or anything, just search rio 2016 on Google, and there's an excellent thing that comes up with schedules of all the events, links to different sports and athletes, etc... I use that to keep track of what's going on, and so I won't miss anything live that I care to watch.

 

[Larry Hagman's Liver]

I don't care about playing tennis, or beach volleyball, or water polo, so I disengage and switch the channel.

What's wrong with beach volleyball?

 

[bigboxes]

I tried watching the opening ceremony, I turned the tv off before 5 minutes was up.

As for the games, I would rather watch more competition than the stories and dialogue.

It's paparazzi crap that America loves. As I understand it, watch the Canadian coverage as it's more substance, less fluff. My mother lives near Montreal and has the Canadian networks on her cable. I tried to watch it over the internet, but it wouldn't allow me since I was out of region. I found a free VPN called Windscribe that allows me to establish a VPN tunnel. I chose Canada and away I go. I just had to configure an account (username/password) and if you verify your email account they give you a 10GB allowance, as opposed to 2GB for the free account. Now, 10GB probably won't go far for live streaming, but it's an option if you want to check out a certain event that isn't covered or covered well by the NBC.

 

[Hoosker Du]

Fair enough, but the baseball game I switched to wasn't on a national network, with advertisers shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars per minute. That's what I found particularly odd about seeing two middle-aged guys playing ping-pong - that they somehow landed on the big network.

True. Usually you would think that sport would be on one of the secondary channels. I enjoy watching them pound the ball back and forth though. How they can return some of those shots is amazing.

 

[marteau]

After being teased with a Michael Phelps camera shot, my wife and I watched for a little while, then a little while more, then some more, then I said Eff it and went to bed. Not sure when they finally aired it, but it was a lot longer than what they made it seem like when they originally focused the camera on him. Overall I am not a summer Olympics guy so there really isn't much they could do in covering that sport that would make me care.

Exactly my sentiments.---only thing i wanted to watch was the Phelps and ledecky swim events and a) they wouldnt tell me when they would come on and b) they must have pushed them to the end of the evening, past my bedtime

 

[timnsun]

Exactly my sentiments.---only thing i wanted to watch was the Phelps and ledecky swim events and a) they wouldnt tell me when they would come on and b) they must have pushed them to the end of the evening, past my bedtime

I don't understand why this is a surprise to some people. This is how it works all the time. Every single time. If they just showed the two events people want to see right from the start, no one will watch the rest. Is this seriously a complaint?

I get the frustration with the fluff pieces and the political ads already showing up, but if you want to watch the big names, of course they're gonna push them later to maximize viewership throughout the night.

 

[jedihusker]

None of the swimming events were "pushed" anywhere for time. The 4x100 relay was shown live, the Women's 400m Freestyle for some reason wasn't shown quite live as they were in commercial when it started, but they started showing it before it then finished. If you search Rio 2016 on Google, like I stated above, you can find a very easy to read schedule of when events are going to occur, and most of the major ones that occur in prime time have been, and will be, shown live.

 

[maplesyrup95]

As long as NBC doesn't go political on us and just shows our awesome athletes competing for the USA, I'm peachy!

 

[ThereIsNoPlace]

What's wrong with beach volleyball?

What's wrong?...your mom keeps walking in front of the camera

 

[bigredtank72]

The coverage on the other Universal stations have been okay. The broadcasts on NBC itself is (break for commercial) okay at (break for commercial) best. I'm more of an action guy (insert back story here) than a (insert follow up by "reporter" here) interview guy unless (break for commercial) it is 30 for 30 (insert random Michael Phelps highlight) broadcast or something (GYMNASTICS!) like that.

 

[walnut creek]

I just keep thinking about the huge cost to put this show on and the eventual run down and unused former Olympic site. Maybe it is time to put this event on at four or five permanent cities and just rotate.

 

[litespeedhuskerfan]

Couldn't help but read all the anti America sentiment/hate in regards to the USA swimmer calling out the Russian cheater, then kicking her ass when it mattered. Social commentary is priceless sometimes. Apparently most of the world thinks we're "ugly"....I say they hate us cause they ain't us.

 

[vic.valiant]

God bless the man who invented DVR.

I can't imagine slogging my way through all the crap in NBC's presentation to get to the actual event.

I've always liked Rowdy Gaines analysis and personality at the swimming events.

Go Red White & Blue!

 

[Larry Hagman's Liver]

What's wrong?...your mom keeps walking in front of the camera

She does that sometimes when she's on a real bender.

 

[Nebraska Fan]

For me I have lost almost all interest in the Olympics. I am ok just reading results.

 

[Hoosker Du]

What's wrong with beach volleyball?

"Just been watching Olympic women's beach volleyball, and there's already been a wrist injury... But I should be OK by Monday."

-Will Ferrell

 

[mwulf]

I love the Olympics but living on the west coast nothing in prime time is live so every night I have to watch live swimming on my laptop....the rio website is pretty easy to follow and if there is something you are interested in its not too difficult to find

https://www.rio2016.com/en/schedule-and-results

 

[grayhairedfreak]

When NBC went to commercial on set point of set 4 of USA-Netherlands women's VB, I knew I wasn't watching NET or BTN...

 

[inWV]

I'll say from my end, I have no idea what time or when the "big" events are being played, so I don't know when to tune in, but when I do flash over, I see some players I don't care about playing tennis, or beach volleyball, or water polo, so I disengage and switch the channel.

I missed Phelps win his 19th Gold medal last night because I didn't know it was on.

Streaming and televised schedule can be found on http://www.nbcolympics.com/. I found the T&F schedule of events as a Google list, and might catch some races that are streaming. Not particularly interested in anything else.

 

[huskerbux]

Looks like I'm in the minority. Love the Olympics and not just for the big names and big sports. Obviously swimming and T&F will get most of the coverage but I'll watch the archery, table tennis and anything else that's on when I can. I grew up with dreams of running in them and so I can appreciate the dedication, skill and work it takes for these athletes to compete at that level.
The least I can do is watch! To win a medal, any medal on that stage would've been enough for me.

 

[huskerfan1414]

Looks like I'm in the minority. Love the Olympics and not just for the big names and big sports. Obviously swimming and T&F will get most of the coverage but I'll watch the archery, table tennis and anything else that's on when I can. I grew up with dreams of running in them and so I can appreciate the dedication, skill and work it takes for these athletes to compete at that level.
The least I can do is watch! To win a medal, any medal on that stage would've been enough for me.

I like all of the Olympics..what I dislike are commercials, Bob Costas, story lines that are endless, commercials, and showing events America doesn't have a chance in instead of showing the tape delayed gymnastics. Oh and commercials.
I get it they need to make money but making commericals exclusive and raising price will accomplish the same thing.

 

[HuskerLivInTN]

Looks like I'm in the minority. Love the Olympics and not just for the big names and big sports. Obviously swimming and T&F will get most of the coverage but I'll watch the archery, table tennis and anything else that's on when I can. I grew up with dreams of running in them and so I can appreciate the dedication, skill and work it takes for these athletes to compete at that level.
The least I can do is watch! To win a medal, any medal on that stage would've been enough for me.

I'm with ya. Love the olympics. Beach Vball, Swimming and Track/Field is my favs...