2012 Summer Olympics - London, England (1 Viewer)

[Sam Posten]

Guess what's trending on twitter this weekend?
#ShutUpMattLauer
ALL of NBC's commenters need to take a breath.

 

[Jay H]

And if you thnk Al FishHairpiece is bad, he should stick to Gymnastics as he tends to do some of the cycling and Iron Man events (outside the Olympics) for NBC as well... I cringe when I hear his voice..
Jay

 

[Steve_Tk]

Some thoughts after watching the prime time coverage for Day 2...
1. Congrats to Brendan Hansen, who is from the Philly area, for winning a medal and finally beating his rival, Kitajima, after losing to him in the last 2 Olympics.
2. How strange was it that the outcome of the 4x100m relay in London, ended up being reverse of what happened in Beijing. At least Phelps won't come away empty-handed, but still, I thought the US would have this in the bag, with Lochte being the anchor.
3. I smell another controversy in gymnastics. This time, the rule being only 2 competitors from each country allowed in the all-around final, thus preventing Jordyn Wieber from making it, even though she scored really high.

3. Yeh, total garbage. So they don't REALLY want the top 24 gymnist in the world to compete for the all around. I guess they don't want the US or Chinese a chance to sweep the medals in the all around, give others a chance? All they've done now is allow some others to squeek in who are not good enough.
2. Lochte is a total douchenugget. Phelps had the fastest leg except for the anchor for France. Glad Lochte gets to be brought down to earth and read some articles about how he gave up such a huge lead.

 

[Jason Charlton]

Originally Posted by Sam Posten /t/322614/2012-summer-olympics-london-england#post_3955638
Guess what's trending on twitter this weekend?
#ShutUpMattLauer
ALL of NBC's commenters need to take a breath.

I can believe it. I tuned into the opening ceremonies by accident (forgot they were on) and couldn't stand more than 10 minutes of it.

It's like watching a 3-hour Superbowl Halftime Show... and who watches the Superbowl Halftime Show? Vapid, inane, and just gratingly painful to watch.

 

[Walter C]

Originally Posted by Steve_Tk /t/322614/2012-summer-olympics-london-england#post_3955660
3. Yeh, total garbage. So they don't REALLY want the top 24 gymnist in the world to compete for the all around. I guess they don't want the US or Chinese a chance to sweep the medals in the all around, give others a chance? All they've done now is allow some others to squeek in who are not good enough.

And no shot for a medal at all. As much as I don't like seeing one country sweeping the medals in any event, this is definitely going about it the wrong way. What, they hope that someone from a "small" country would come out of nowhere to win a medal, as unlikely as it would be?

If it ended up being a sweep, the other countries will just have to suck it up and find ways to beat them the next time around.

 

[Malcolm R]

Some thoughts after watching the prime time coverage for Day 2...
3. I smell another controversy in gymnastics. This time, the rule being only 2 competitors from each country allowed in the all-around final, thus preventing Jordyn Wieber from making it, even though she scored really high.

It does seem contrary to what the Olympics are supposed to represent, being a showcase for the best of the best. I read that of the 24 qualifiers for the women's all-around, 21 of them had lower scores than Weiber. I don't know how anyone can defend a restriction that actually PREVENTS the best athletes from competing.
They may as well start limiting quantity of overall medals (you've won enough, Mr. Phelps, you're disqualified from further competition.) or limiting the speeds on the sprints (you're too fast, Mr. Bolt, you're disqualified in order to give the slower runners a chance.).

 

[Sam Posten]

NBC appear to be jackasses:
http://deadspin.com/5930153
http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/30/critic-of-nbc-olympics-coverage-has-twitter-account-suspended-for-posting-execs-email/

 

[Patrick_S]

He violated the EUA by posting private information. A pretty amateur mistake in this day and age.
TechCrunches flimsy rationalization is just that, a rationalization.

 

[Nelson Au]

Just a few thoughts off the top of my head. The opening ceremony was probably a lot more meaningful to the British. I thought it was okay. And I liked how it tried to tell a story. I agree the bit with the girl and guy and the lost cell phone was seemingly out of place.
As for Sir Paul, what went through mind is that most of the athletes probably didn't know who he was! Except some old codger whose singing an old song. And I am a Beatles fan, so I'm not slamming him. I thought he did look older then in recent performances, but he did do a good show. He's so used to packing them into concerts, I have to wonder if this stadium is even bigger then his earlier gigs. Like New York a few years ago.
My guess on Michael Phelps is his heart isn't into it anymore. Though he did put in a good run in the relay last night. I'll be curious to see how he does this week. Perhaps he'll get his head back in the game.
I'm a cyclist, though not competitive on any level! I thought the mens road race Saturday morning was great, very exciting.Too bad the British rider could not get a medal. But the woman's road race on Sunday was a real nail biter! I kept hoping the rider for England would have been able to pull out fast enough at the last minute to take the gold. I'm glad she still got a silver.
In watching the NBC coverage, it was nice to see they invited Meredith Viera back. She did a good gig with Lauer in both recent Olympics in China and the winter games. I can't help but feel really bad for Ann Curry. I never watch The Today Show, but I see it from time to time. So she must have been really disappointed to not only get kicked off of The Today gig, but not going to England too as she went the last few times. I am assuming she's not there. Tough, these morning shows.

 

[Jay H]

As a morning person I caught part of the mens and women's cycling road races and the rain on the narrow course on sunday was fairly exciting. I only watched the beginning of both races as I would wake up (here on the east coast) and turn on the telly and poof, cycling! Even got to see a "pee break" on the men's coverage which you like never see on any of the big tours throughout the year so that was different.
Jay

 

[Joe Wong]

I know there's already outrage...but I wish the main NBC coverage was live...like it is in many other countries around the world...

 

[Kevin Hewell]

I know there's already outrage...but I wish the main NBC coverage was live...like it is in many other countries around the world...

What would NBC show in prime time since it's 1 am in London at that time?

 

[Nelson Au]

As a morning person I caught part of the mens and women's cycling road races and the rain on the narrow course on sunday was fairly exciting. I only watched the beginning of both races as I would wake up (here on the east coast) and turn on the telly and poof, cycling! Even got to see a "pee break" on the men's coverage which you like never see on any of the big tours throughout the year so that was different.
Jay

Here in the west coast I didn't catch the races till they were 1/2 or 2/3 into it. It was really hard to stop once I started!
I was cringing when the lead pack entered those turns in the wet, especially when they hit white road markings. I ran over one once and my back wheel slipped out from under me!

 

[Joe Wong]

What would NBC show in prime time since it's 1 am in London at that time?

They can show whatever they like in prime time. All I'm hoping for is live TV coverage when the event is actually on. For example, the swimming finals start at around 2:30pm EDT, right in the middle of the day. I'm sure there'd be a sizable audience who would watch it live, just as there would be for baseball games and golf tournaments that are played during the day.
While I can stream the event live, the quality so far hasn't been good (lots of buffering, etc.).
I was most infuriated 4 years ago when the men's 100m sprint (featuring Usain Bolt) was not shown live on a Saturday morning. Instead they were showing the same early round men's basketball game on 3 different channels. WTH??

 

[Walter C]

Originally Posted by Steve_Tk /t/322614/2012-summer-olympics-london-england#post_3955660
Glad Lochte gets to be brought down to earth and read some articles about how he gave up such a huge lead.

And now, he can read about how he came away empty, finishing in 4th place, and losing to the same French guy, Agnel by a wide margin.

Here's hoping the women's team in gymnastics can pull it off today, unlike the men, who just choked big-time.

 

[Jason Charlton]

Originally Posted by Joe Wong /t/322614/2012-summer-olympics-london-england/30#post_3956057
They can show whatever they like in prime time. All I'm hoping for is live TV coverage when the event is actually on.

It will be interesting to see how much NBC (or any other network) will be willing to pay for TV rights the next time around. NBC paid a billion freaking dollars for the exclusive rights - hoping to recoup their outlay via the advertisers that pay big bucks for that prime-time audience (I read 20 minutes out of every hour of Olympic programming - 33% - is commercials) - outrageous.

With the world more connected than ever, the idea of tape-delaying events is already pretty ludicrous. Over the next 4 years, that prime-time audience is going to shrivel up something serious, I think.

The 2016 games are going to be held in Rio De Janeiro - 1 hour ahead of the east coast. Still, that will make live prime-time programming virtually impossible (how many big events are scheduled for 9PM local time or later?), and once again - forcing the same issues.

 

[Walter C]

Originally Posted by Jason Charlton /t/322614/2012-summer-olympics-london-england/30#post_3956159

It will be interesting to see how much NBC (or any other network) will be willing to pay for TV rights the next time around. NBC paid a billion freaking dollars for the exclusive rights - hoping to recoup their outlay via the advertisers that pay big bucks for that prime-time audience (I read 20 minutes out of every hour of Olympic programming - 33% - is commercials) - outrageous.

With the world more connected than ever, the idea of tape-delaying events is already pretty ludicrous. Over the next 4 years, that prime-time audience is going to shrivel up something serious, I think.

The 2016 games are going to be held in Rio De Janeiro - 1 hour ahead of the east coast. Still, that will make live prime-time programming virtually impossible (how many big events are scheduled for 9PM local time or later?), and once again - forcing the same issues.

Well, you won't like the fact that NBC will continue to have the next 2 Summer and 2 Winter Olympics, up until 2020. And considering where they are (or will be), it will continue to be the same old thing. Though, I doubt that any other network would be better.

Rio should be an interesting case, as I wonder if NBC will pull the same stunt of only live coverage for half of the country and the other half will be all tape-delayed (even though it says "Live"). But I can see them getting the organizers to get some of the swimming finals to air live on prime time, and I'm sure most of the track events will be as well.

 

[Ockeghem]

Here's hoping the women's team in gymnastics can pull it off today, unlike the men, who just choked big-time.

Walter,
It is going to be a lot of fun watching the women's gymnastics team event tonight.

 

[Josh Dial]

I am certainly not envious of the American feeds. I have at minimum three live feeds--four if you count the local cultural channel that shows really fun sports like badminton and table tennis, as well as non-headlining soccer matches (the only "problem" is I can't understand anything the commentators are saying). The CTV coverage isn't anywhere as good as the CBC coverage, but they don't, in general, make the same poor choices NBC makes. However, CTV's coverage of the women's team artistic gymnastics final was quite good today. They showed 100% of the Canadian, American, Chinese, Russian, and Romanian rotations, and a lot of the rest.

I wish the CBC was still handling the Canadian coverage, but this is better than the alternative. At least there's a strong likelihood that the CBC will win the bid for Sochi and Rio.

 

[Jason Charlton]

Originally Posted by Walter C /t/322614/2012-summer-olympics-london-england/30#post_3956230

Well, you won't like the fact that NBC will continue to have the next 2 Summer and 2 Winter Olympics, up until 2020. And considering where they are (or will be), it will continue to be the same old thing. Though, I doubt that any other network would be better.

Rio should be an interesting case, as I wonder if NBC will pull the same stunt of only live coverage for half of the country and the other half will be all tape-delayed (even though it says "Live"). But I can see them getting the organizers to get some of the swimming finals to air live on prime time, and I'm sure most of the track events will be as well.

Yeah, I have no doubt that there will be a continued mix of live and tape-delayed streams at future games. However for these London games, online viewers see a lot fewer ads than their TV-watching counterparts. The previously mentioned 33% of prime time programming being devoted to commercial breaks is simply unbelievable. I think it's safe to say that next time around, the online experience will be significantly different (read: worse) than it is now.

I can imagine a lot more ads on the video streams, or some sort of "premium" paid mechanism to skip ads (or see fewer of them). No matter where folks go to get their fix, the advertisers will follow.