LIVE FROM THE PAST: The world-beating geniuses at NBC are at it again. This time, they've decided to tape-delay the Olympics on the West Coast -- the coast where the games are actually happening -- although they'll show them live on the East Coast. Just to rub it in, they'll call it "live" in both markets.
It may well be that tape-delay is the superior ratings strategy, and any little bit helps when you're busy losing $200 million. But if that were true, why wouldn't they time-shift all football games (and MLB and NBA playoff games, and March Madness) so that they show up in prime time on both coasts? We've established that I'm not the typical consumer of television (I watch Better Off Ted), but given how often I had to choose between going to bed and staying up for the last couple of hours of (delayed) Summer Olympics coverage, it's a viewer-suppressing decision for me.
I will, however, stay up as late as necessary to watch my favorite winter sport, Full-Contact Superhero Entropy, also known as short-track relay.
Yeah, that sucks. The Michael Phelps run in 2008 would not have been nearly as much fun on tape delay.
ReplyDeleteMonaco has yet to announce its 2010 delegation, but Albert Grimaldi '81 has retired from bobsleigh. Explaining his switch a few years ago from competing in both the 2- and 4-man to just the latter event, he said "the older you get, the easier it is to have more people push you."
Oh, thank goodness, I was worried the West Coast would miss Days of our Lives!
ReplyDeleteIf you're going to be losing hundreds of millions of dollars on this endeavour, why also piss off all of the actual fans of these sports? Instead of trying to squeak out another few tenths of a ratings point through showing sports in primetime, why not build up goodwill with the actual fans by showing the broadcasts live, and then, for the West Coast, going back and showing a couple of hours of highlights of morning/afternoon events.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the Comcast/NBC merger will be the best thing to happen to the network, as it might force out the apparently incompetent NBC management.
They've always done that. In fact, during the Salt Lake games, NBC made organizers change event time so that they would start for the East Coast. Tape delay for the West.
ReplyDeleteThey did it during the 1996 Summer Olympics game. Hence, I knew about the US women's gymnastics team winning gold before it happened. Why, yes. I am still bitter.
ReplyDeleteSure there's precedent, but the only precedent for tape-delaying something that's actually occurring in this time zone is the Oscars. You could actually leave an event in Vancouver, drive to Seattle, and watch it "live" on NBC.
ReplyDeleteto add further insult for seattleites, we won't be able to watch the canadian broadcast to avoid nbc's tape delaying shenanigans due to a different canadian company winning broadcast rights this time around. suck-o-rama.
ReplyDeleteadmittedly, i can't be too upset on the day king felix gets resigned. woohoo!
Re King Felix, the anticipation last night after learning it was a "multi-year deal" but before finding out this morning that it is a perfectly reasonable (for both sides) 5/78, was tortuous and entertaining.
ReplyDeleteagreed. yesterday was my bday and this was the best gift i received by far!
ReplyDeleteUgh. This stinks. I'll have to avoid the internet or get spoiled on the events. And if I know the outcome, I'll only watch if my wife makes me.
ReplyDeleteAt this point, with the Lee pickup, the Felix and Guti extensions, the ability to get anything at all of value (especially something as high-upside, albeit high-risk as Bradley, in a way that fits a hole for us) in exchange for Silva, and the magical and improbable trade of Betancourt, it's hard to imagine that there is any GM in baseball as beloved by his team's fans as Zduriencik is by Mariners fans. People are actually buying jerseys that say "Zduriencik" on the back and giving him ten-minute standing ovations at fan events. Is this unprecedented?
ReplyDeleteAnd even the Oscars are live (the actual live, not "live") in all time zones now! NBC can bite me.
ReplyDeletecertainly in seattle...and likely anywhere if it's just for offseason moves. i would think you would usually have to win a championship first.
ReplyDeleteIt was easier to avoid the results back then, but even the Miracle On Ice game was tape-delayed. We'd just moved to Minnesota so I was able to listen to the game live on the radio.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the few times that being a sports fan on the West Coast stinks.
ReplyDeleteWell realistically probably not due to border crossing clusterfuck, but theoretically and a decade ago, yes.
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