How does NBC justify tape delaying the Olympics? Pretty easily
By Richard Lawler 
posted February 20th 2010 6:19PM
posted February 20th 2010 6:19PM
2001 - "A domestic Olympics cries out to be telecast live across the entire country as previous U.S. games have been," he said. "I am emphatic that delaying our primetime Salt Lake coverage is a mistake."
2008 - "...the viewers have repeatedly told us that the vast majority of them, well in excess of 80 percent, want to see the Olympics when they're available to see the Olympics. They don't want to see the key events of the day happening at 4 or 5 o'clock their time."
Meanwhile NBC CEO Jeff Zucker a.k.a. the guy who keeps Heroes on the air appears completely pleased by the ratings results in this video interview with CNBC embedded after the break. Whether it's still the local affiliates who are to blame or simply a silent majority of tape delay loving Luddites, it doesn't appear NBC plans on changing course for any reason. Still, feel free to drop by their message boards and let them know how you really feel about it, and hope ESPN nabs the rights for future Games.
I am praying ESPN gets the rights...
Summer 2008 - NBC pushes Usain Bolt's 100m race to primetime. IT WAS NINE SECONDS. NBC couldn't replay a nine-second long event in primetime AS WELL as airing it Live?
I had to watch via a live internet stream...as a Jamaican living in the US it really made me mad that I couldn't watch it Live in HD.
Thank God ESPN has the rights for the World Cup and not NBC!
Summer 2008 - NBC pushes Usain Bolt's 100m race to primetime. IT WAS NINE SECONDS. NBC couldn't replay a nine-second long event in primetime AS WELL as airing it Live?
I had to watch via a live internet stream...as a Jamaican living in the US it really made me mad that I couldn't watch it Live in HD.
Thank God ESPN has the rights for the World Cup and not NBC!
That statement from 2008 is rediculous. No one is suggesting NBC change its primetime coverage. There is no (non-monetary) reason not to show the major events that occur outside of primetime live and again during primetime. I know NBC fears it'll affect the ratings but I believe otherwise.
I just don't understand why they don't show all events live and replay any of the exciting ones later?
Everyone knows the results which ruins it for many of us
I know the ratings are high but wouldn't they be higher if nobody knew what was going to happen?
simple matter of economics. They play it during the day when only housewives watch it, then they don't get paid. They play the same thing at 8pm, they will get their ratings. Money talks.
@KevinQ
"simple"? your comment is unfair and inflammatory. as a matter of fact, past data has shown that the *majority* of olympics viewers are women. it's pretty obvious that they prefer seeing things live, just like everybody else. you might consider that shows like "ellen" are syndicated to local affiliates, who stand to gain very little by giving up their entire schedule. as for cable-only coverage, that doesn't seem like a great idea to me. OTA viewing is on the rise in southern california, and doubtless other areas of the west coast as well.
anyway, as bad as things are now, it could be much worse: it took at least a decade before CBS and NBC managed to get us to even this level of competence after ABC's lose of interest. the BBC does a really nice job, i have to say: the prime time coverage is pretty similar to what we have, but nothing on this side of the atlantic compares to their daytime simultaneous broadcast of full events, without commercials on their various OTA channels.
Sorry. As a Canadian, I'm seriously enjoying this misery. Not in a bad way... well, yes. In a bad way. For a long time, Canadians coudn't (and still can't) view shows from Hulu or the US network sites without some trickery so I just look at this as an example of the existence of karma.
Not only in Canada are the network broadcasts streamed online, every event is as well (even if it isn't being shown on TV). And to top if off, if you have a good enough connection (the quality adjusts automatically), the web coverage is offered in HD. That's right: Live, HD coverage available for free online without limitations regarding your internet or cable provider. O Canada.
ESPN Covering the Olympics, you guys are NUTS. They might cover some things well, but they are really starting to eff up just about everything they are doing. Plus If they cover the games, your cable bill is going UP!!
@fivehole
Agreed. It would be terrible for Olympics coverage to be on ESPN. It should remain on a broadcast network, as it always has been. If it was restricted to pay TV subscribers, that would reduce viewership and support for the athletes.
@chumley
you do realize that ESPN is owned by ABC right? I'm sure they will coordinate airing time with abc to maximize viewership on the prime events and sister networks like ESPN2 for curling. Just like what NBC is doing utilizing MSNBC, CNBC, USA for the non popular events.
In the age of TIVO and DVRs, delay... don't delay, whatever. TV executives haven't figured out that there's a portion of us that don't care when they air stuff. That being said, it TRUELY sucks to read about it first on the internet several HOURS before it finally does air.
Living on the west coast, I am pretty upset that I have to wait to watch things at 10-11pm when I could be watching them live throughout the day. My vote is for Fox.
@Quiglag - I really hope your vote is given as a sarcastic remark. Fox is the worst sports coverage anywhere. Poor picture quality, ugly banners and graphics and the worlds most awful commentary.
@(Unverified) Nope. My impression is based off of what I see watching Fox NASCAR and Hockey coverage. Maybe they do a better job on some sports then other. I have never had a problem with poor picture quality and I am still using SD.
What's wrong with Heroes?
@drgoodier
The better question is: What's right with Heroes?
:)
@drgoodier I still like Heroes. It could be a lot better though.
@drgoodier
It's still on.
this is insane, they're tape delaying the us/can hockey game over 2 hours, then shuffling it off to msnbc (who isn't showing olympics during the actual game time, just regular broadcasting) and nbc proper is showing the czech/rus game while the us/can game is going on
really? what kind of idiotic decision is that...
@av8or But didn't you see the 27 seconds of the end of the game that they broadcast on NBC? They dumped a bobsleder in the middle of his run to show those crucial seconds, and then treat us to about another 10 minutes of commentary about the game.
Forget live, the coverage of the events they show in prime time is abysmal to begin with.
Exercise some self-control and don't visit sports sites or watch ESPN until you watch your events off the DVR. It's tough people and they'll try and get us spoiled wherever possible (NBC Olympics TV Listings site is a good example). Stay Strong!!
I'm disappointed in DirecTV's coverage usually during like Wimbledon they have 8 channels going at once on the "mix" channels but now we only get 1-2 channels at most?
As for "LIVE" shows on the weekends I can see it but who can watch TV during the week bored housewives? Some of us have to work. If you don't want to be "spoiled" then don't look at the results online DUH!! The only problem I have is they are on so late (11-12pm) I wish they would cut out some of the crap like ""curling"" (LAME) and end the broadcasts more like 10-11pm not effing midnight some of us have to work in the morning. Actually I wish they could start at 6-7pm but the simple fact is NBC gets PAID to put on those "Entertainment Tonight" shows they are not going to preempt those shows.
It would be nice if they used ONE of their many channels and had live coverage as it happened, and then regular NBC for the delayed stuff.
I kind of think it would make sense to air some of the "big" finals events where people race in a group against each other (e.g., speed skating), but for events with only one person/team going at a time (e.g., skiing, bobsled, figure skating, and lots of other things), it seems like its better edited. I assume we don't quite see all the competitors on TV for those events, nor do we have to experience the full delay between competitors.
That being said, if NBC aired everything live, who would really be able to see a lot of things? If practically everyone that watches a big event is going to watch it during the replay during prime-time, why even bother airing it during the day?
I can't wait for Jeff Zucker to get fired, he has proven himself time and time again to be totally disconnected from any form of reality.
@iPaul
Unfortunately, "being totally disconnected from reality" is pretty much a requirement for being a TV (or Big Media in general) executive.
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/02/21/usa-vs-canada-hockey-on-msnbc-instead-of-nbc-the-conspiracy-theory/42535?utm_campaign=WP-TWITTER&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter
USA vs. Canada Hockey on MSNBC instead of NBC: The Conspiracy Theory
DO you tape delay :
NBA Finals
World Series
College Bowl Games
March Madness
SUPERBOWL
You can stream whatever you want live on their website. Having to verify your cable, satellite or IPTV is just plain retarded. No one would not buy a pay TV service just because they can stream the Olympics live.
I don't have an issue with tape delaying, since their coverage is pretty worthless without DVRing it anyways. Who has time to spend a full tiem job's worth of time watching olympics?
What I have a big problem with, however is how they put a ridiculous amount of certain sports, like figure skating, on the main broadcast, but put curling on CNBC only, and they barely show some of the biathalon, cross country, etc. It is even worse in the summer with Kayaking, Canoeing, and sailing, where there is little to no coverage, in sailing's case on TV at all.
They should give equal air time to every sport. Certainly no one wants to watch sailing live, its takes forever, but editing a race down to a couple of minutes with commentary would be great.
The other problem I have is that they do way too many soft news feature pieces about athletes, interviews, anchor chitter chatter, and junk like that, instead of showing the actual sports.
@(Unverified) I'll take that first part back: their site isn't working right now on a computer running a fully updated and patched OSX 10.6.2 with Firefox 3.5.8 on a 4mbit connection (university LAN). Oh yeah, and what's with Silverlight? Can't they be normal and use HTML5 with H.264? Or Quicktime with H.264? Or Flash? Or something halfway normal?
@(Unverified) Actually nbcolympics.com DOESN'T stream the most popular events live online (even once you get past the cable provider verification process).
The most popular events are NOT streamed live.
Only AFTER the heartwarming Bob Costas primetime clip-a-thon each night, does the website post the full replays.
@MrPaul Interesting. The funny part though is, that the best sports probably are streamed live lol. (Curling :) )
Now I see why Heroes is still on air. Bury that show already, it died a long time ago and just doesn't know it. And one other thing, who's Ideal was it to keep J Leno on the air???
@Sgt Cell NBC has way too much reality shows. Bury those first.
The majority of Americans could care less about the olympics. As long ad they see some 5 sec clip of the US winning everybodys all "Go USA Everyone else sucks!!!!"
Superbowl, NBA, march madness are all live cuz it's domestic. Americans don't really care much for international things cuz countries other than the home country participates.
Sad but true
This jeff zucker guy is a complete tool.
There was absolutely no excuse for not cutting in to the USA vs. Canada hockey game earlier than they did. Thankfully it was live, but it went to a network where many cannot receive in HD.
I too am ready for ABC/ESPN to open up the pocket books and grab the rights to the Olympics.
The argument that ESPN may raise the cable fee is a valid one. However, I would gladly pay for ala carte service (i.e. dump the shopping, religious, and kiddie channels).
People are confused! Even once you fully authenticate your cable provider on nbcolympics.com....
NBC still DOESN'T allow us to stream many popular events live!
Only AFTER the heartwarming Bob Costas primetime clip-a-thon each night, does Uncle Zucker allow full replays to be posted for the most popular events.
The only live coverage they provide for the more popular events online is LIVE BLOGGING! Yes text-based blogging of results! NBC's own site is plastered with real-time scores and medal info....just no way too actually WATCH many of the most anticipated LIVE events!
So we're left to wait for Uncle Zucker's nightly highlight reel....and to avoid spoilers during the day we should avoid NBC's own Olympic website, Twitter, all news sites...hell we should just disconnect from the internet.
Jeff Zucker is such a nitwit. But after pissing off the affialites with the Leno debacle, Zucker's doing everything he can to avoid any affialte accusations that he diluted the primetime audience lead-in.
The idiotic thing, is that if full unencumbered streaming of live events WERE made available online, it would serve to ramp up the daily buzz via real word-of-mouth and result in MORE watching in primetime. The nightly taped show could be even more broad and fast-paced...NBC could really load it down with only the guaranteed ratings winning moments and personalities that would pull in even more of the coveted younger viewers.