Olympics rant

[Pandamonium]

A friend of mine (Canadian citizen who's lived in Canada for less than a year) recently pointed out how TV coverage of the Olympics is heavily skewed. Only the events in which the US athletes are favored are given any serious airtime. So my friend finds Canadian coverage rare.

I've only noticed it own my own in terms of sports. Last night's men's team gymnastics final coverage included airtime of the gymnasts walking to each event area. Tonight's coverage of the women's saber final included 5 or 6 bouts - the coverage of the national anthem lasted longer than actual video footage of the finals. Each of the bouts ended in less than 5 seconds- no longer bouts were shown. Moreover this was an event in which US women took the gold and bronze!

I know the US Fencing Association is trying to expand fencing's popularity, and a bit more coverage (especially of better bouts) would surely help pique the American public's interest in the sport. While it isn't NBC's responsibility to promote a sport, NBC ought to at least show quality coverage of what it chooses to broadcast....

 

[minendo]

Why would they show crap that the majority of viewers don't want to see?

 

Yes more events on TV would be nice but ad money runs this "historic" event now.

 

[Furyline]

Bravo carried the semis and the bronze medal match of women's fencing in their entirety tonight. I've never watched it before and it was actually interesting. I was very disappointed after switching to nbc to only see 5 or 6 bouts like you said. That was just lame. They should show more sports and just cut out all their crappy "heartwarming" pieces that nobody likes anyways.

 

[cronos]

look at Bravo, MSNBC, and CNBC for more complete coverage, and sometimes Live too. NBC only shows tape delayed and full of pre-made short video crap in prime time.

 

[Gooberlx2]

I need digital cable (or even just regular expanded cable for espn/espn2)...maybe there'd be decent coverage of something then. I really wanna see the judo competitions, but it's never aired....or atleast I haven't seen it aired (or covered at all).

Where's a 'net cast of the events?

 

[Pandamonium]

Originally posted by: minendo
Why would they show crap that the majority of viewers don't want to see?

From my NBC intern friends, I've learned that they show what they think the public would like to see. This is an example of a media giant essentially deciding American society's interests.

The other part of the rant was covering certain events half-assed. It does little for the viewer- although my perspective may be skewed since I'm a fencer, I hardly see how someone could be entertained by a 5 second bout replayed 5-6 times. It shows no progression of each athlete's strategy, technique, or style. I'd say their coverage of the women's saber finals was analagous to showing a diver jumping off the board and skipping to the diver's splash- you miss all the good stuff in between.

 

[silverpig]

American networks will show American events. That's obvious. But yeah, the coverage does suck, especially the CBC's right now.