While NBC's seemingly endless coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics relieves viewers of the tedious task of channel-surfing, it has inspired a wave of disapproval from both casual viewers and the press, who are upset by the lack of live telecasts of Olympic events.
Even my parents living in Seattle which happens to share a time zone with Vancouver are not treated to the luxury of live programming. Over the weekend, they were disappointed when an Internet news outlet reported the results of the 1,500-meter men's short-track speed skating finals.
More upsetting were the Internet spoilers about the crash between two South Korean skaters that led to those results. After all, the appeal of watching an event unfold on television lies in seeing how unexpected moments such as the speed skating crash shape the outcome of the competition.
From a business perspective, waiting until primetime to air footage may make perfect sense, despite being an annoyance for viewers. Advertisements during the primetime block generate significantly more revenue than daytime ads do an important consideration for NBC, which has announced that it expects to lose $250 million on its Olympic coverage.
Moreover, NBC has guaranteed its advertising clients a minimum of 14 million viewers. Airing Olympic events live would limit the number of viewers available and decrease the chances of meeting the promised rating, as most programming would air outside of prime viewing hours.
Other programming choices by NBC have also frustrated viewers. Anna Niedbala '12, a self-proclaimed avid fan of the Olympics, explained that the barrage of studio-produced content inserted into the telecasts live or pre-recorded adds insult to injury.
"What [bothers] me [is] showing features of certain athletes, showing silly animations and having the anchors talk unintelligently, rather than trying to show as much as possible. I spent 10 minutes listening to the NBC anchor talk to Dick Button while other couples were skating," Niedbala said.
NBC has nearly doubled its amount of Olympic coverage since 2006's Games. Yet, all that time will remain unappreciated as long as NBC continues to delay events and replace footage with unrelated features. NBC would do well to focus on actually covering the Olympics, leaving the segments on polar bears like the one from this weekend to National Geographic.
