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NBC: Fail
Ok, it's really almost a tradition by now: NBC gets the rights to broadcast the Olympics; NBC manages to screw up the Olympic broadcast, by not showing live events, skipping here there and everywhere, pausing to show us Interesting Things About the Host Country, which are invariably Never Interesting and always happening while NBC could be showing us, you know, athletes, failing to show most of the most popular events live, and showing only tidbits of some of the bizarre sports that we only get to see at the Olympics.
Even by these standards, however, NBC managed to sink to new lows last night. How low? Let's review:
1. NBC decided not to cover the Opening Ceremonies live, on the basis that They are complex entertainment spectacles that do not translate well online because they require context, which our award-winning production team will provide for the large prime-time audiences that gather together to watch them.. (Canada, meanwhile, managed to show both the live Opening Ceremonies and an edited version for primetime, apparently in an effort to make more Americans ignore the bitter bitter cold and decide to head up to Canada to live anyway.)
2. NBC also blocked United States ISPs from live streaming from international coverage. (Despite this, I should note that certain employees of Universal Studios, Florida, which is currently partly owned by NBC/Universal, were watching an apparently excellent live feed from Costa Rica. Fail. Other people at SeaWorld got a hold of a BBC feed, but, to be fair, SeaWorld isn’t an NBC property.)
That would have been fine – after all, NBC did pay millions for the rights to show this, except --
3. NBC then failed to show the entire opening ceremonies. Missing were what the BBC calls a moving dance tribute to terrorist victims, complete with a rendition of "Abide With Me," (NBC cut into this with an inane interview with an uncomfortable looking Michael Phelps who clearly just wanted to leave, like, now); several parts of the history of British music number; bits of the Arctic Monkeys, and bits of the Parade of Nations. So, NBC refused to allow Americans to watch the Opening Ceremonies elsewhere and then refused to show Americans all of the show. Yay.
4. But even that was dwarfed by commentary that was, even by NBC's standards...jaw droppingly awful, prompting the immediate #NBCfail twitter tag. And which meant that instead of noticing much about the ceremony, I found myself snarking about NBC's coverage instead.
( What I thought of NBC's commentary, live. Cut to save some of you from having to endure it a second time. To get a real sense of how bad it was, skip to the bits about the Parade of Nations. )
Ok, it's really almost a tradition by now: NBC gets the rights to broadcast the Olympics; NBC manages to screw up the Olympic broadcast, by not showing live events, skipping here there and everywhere, pausing to show us Interesting Things About the Host Country, which are invariably Never Interesting and always happening while NBC could be showing us, you know, athletes, failing to show most of the most popular events live, and showing only tidbits of some of the bizarre sports that we only get to see at the Olympics.
Even by these standards, however, NBC managed to sink to new lows last night. How low? Let's review:
1. NBC decided not to cover the Opening Ceremonies live, on the basis that They are complex entertainment spectacles that do not translate well online because they require context, which our award-winning production team will provide for the large prime-time audiences that gather together to watch them.. (Canada, meanwhile, managed to show both the live Opening Ceremonies and an edited version for primetime, apparently in an effort to make more Americans ignore the bitter bitter cold and decide to head up to Canada to live anyway.)
2. NBC also blocked United States ISPs from live streaming from international coverage. (Despite this, I should note that certain employees of Universal Studios, Florida, which is currently partly owned by NBC/Universal, were watching an apparently excellent live feed from Costa Rica. Fail. Other people at SeaWorld got a hold of a BBC feed, but, to be fair, SeaWorld isn’t an NBC property.)
That would have been fine – after all, NBC did pay millions for the rights to show this, except --
3. NBC then failed to show the entire opening ceremonies. Missing were what the BBC calls a moving dance tribute to terrorist victims, complete with a rendition of "Abide With Me," (NBC cut into this with an inane interview with an uncomfortable looking Michael Phelps who clearly just wanted to leave, like, now); several parts of the history of British music number; bits of the Arctic Monkeys, and bits of the Parade of Nations. So, NBC refused to allow Americans to watch the Opening Ceremonies elsewhere and then refused to show Americans all of the show. Yay.
4. But even that was dwarfed by commentary that was, even by NBC's standards...jaw droppingly awful, prompting the immediate #NBCfail twitter tag. And which meant that instead of noticing much about the ceremony, I found myself snarking about NBC's coverage instead.
( What I thought of NBC's commentary, live. Cut to save some of you from having to endure it a second time. To get a real sense of how bad it was, skip to the bits about the Parade of Nations. )