NBC's Salt Lake City Olympic Coverage To Be Delayed on West Coast (1 Viewer)

[Rob Willey]

I suppose we're all accustomed to Olympic coverage being broadcast on tape delay when the Games are staged half way around the world as they were in Sydney last year.
Next February, the Winter Games will be staged right here in Salt Lake City. NBC has announced they will provide live coverage in prime time in the Eastern, Central, and Mountain time zones, but will broadcast on a two and a half hour tape delay here in the Pacific time zone.
I, for one, am appalled that we won't get live coverage of the Olympics when they are being staged a few hundred miles away. My view is that sporting events are best viewed as they happen and they should be televised that way whenever feasible.
I hope NBC will reconsider this boneheaded decision thus accomodating real sports fans ahead of some (potentially) misguided assumption about how to maximize viewership.
Rob
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"That suits me down to the ground."

 

[Jason Seaver]

Actually, I think the original plan was to air them live, but NBC's west-coast affiliates protested.

 

[MickeS]

I think we'll get it here without the tape delay (we have MST in the winter, PST in the summer), but that does indeed... well, suck. I was appalled that they didn't show the summer Olympics of last year live, even though the time difference was so that a lot of the events could have been broadcasted when they were happening.
But network TV is down the drain anyway, it's just a matter of time before all they show is "paid advertising"...

/Mike

 

[Joel Mack]

Do they actually show sports during the Olympics anymore, or is it just the human interest stories?
I hope NBC takes a giant bath on this. They've ruined the Olympics.
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[Bill Catherall]

Anybody know if you can get the Salt Lake City local NBC channel from DISH Network if you live in California? I'll probably have DISH by then and right now NBC is not offered in my area as a local-to-local satalite feed. There are some contract conflicts. I know that DISH offers local feeds from 2 cities for only a couple more dollars/month. So could I get San Francisco AND Salt Lake City locals?
(I know this seems like a question for the DBS forum, but this would be my solution to this delayed broadcast for all DISH owners.)
Bill
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[Craig S]

I hope NBC takes a giant bath on this. They've ruined the Olympics.

You nailed it, Joel. Does anybody here remember the glory days of ABC's Olympic coverage? I'm thinking of Mexico City 1968, Munich 1972 (triumph & tragedy), and my favorite Olympics of all time, Montreal 1976. Jim McKay, we need you back!!
And yes, tape delaying the Salt Lake City games in a time zone one hour away is the height of stupidity.
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[MikeAlletto]

I don't watch the olympics anymore. They blocked being able to stream stuff live online, they hardly show any events anymore, and the broadcasters are just plain aweful. Although the winter ones are the best (hockey, skiing, bobsled), but still what are the odds of them actually SHOWING the games?
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Michael Alletto
Mike's DVD List

 

[David Oliver]

Actually, the end of the Cold War killed the Olympics, IMO. NBC is just throwing dirt on the grave.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Luckily, living in the Detroit area, we have access to a CBC affiliate out of Windsor. Their Olympic coverage blows away anything NBC has done since the peacock started broadcasting The Games. While they focus more on Canadian athletes (imagine that), they show a lot more of the events, and have much more live coverage -- even when the Games are halfway around the world.
IMO, all of NBC's sports coverage is a joke.
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[Graeme Clark]

The only good thing about NBC is you can sometimes see things you missed when CBC showed it live. But you've gotta sit through the whole "Here's the American that should win it"

 

[Dan Paolozza]

Being out west, that's rotten news. I can't understand why they'd do that, especially since Salt Lake is closer to the west coast than the east!
On the other hand, being in Canada, I get the CBC, so it'll just mean one more reason not to bother with NBC.
This was the same story last go-round. There were a million articles and reports after the games about how anyone who could get even mediocre reception of the CBC in the northern half of the States tuned out of their local/national coverage.

 

[Peter_A]

Yeah, up north here we the olympics on two networks, CBC and TSN. No delay here!

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Peter
"If rubbin' dirt in your crotch is wrong, hey I don't wanna be right" - Futurama

 

[James_A]

Does anyone know how one could manage to get a CBC feed? I live in NY, but not close enough to a border. I loved their Olympic coverage from Nagano, and wanna see it again! Curling here I come . Of course, that was because I was at college and Canadian TV is considered cultural. Maybe get it from Satellites? Dish or DirecTv?
Jim
Though, gotta admit that live events are way cool! Where are the next summer ones? Which time zone?
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[Glenn Overholt]

How did they come up with 2 and 1/2 hours? - Oh, and they should get blasted with emails about this.
Glenn

 

[Christopher P]

Zzzzzz......hum, what...did somebody mention the Olympics? Didn't think anybody cared about the Olympics anymore. Unless of course you like talking about scandals, drug allegations, stories of bribery, and basically anything else other than sports {and when talking about the Olympics, I use the term "sports" loosely}.
Chris

 

[PienSavaca]

How did they come up with 2 and 1/2 hours? - Oh, and they should get blasted with emails about this.

Eastern/Central viewers will get the live events 8-11:30pm, pushing late news back an hour.
If west coast went live, it would be 5-8:30pm, killing their evening news and leaving a huge programming hole to fill until 11pm. So in February sweeps, their prime time line-up would consist of syndicated reruns and 'tabloid' shows(!!!) Not exactly what they'd want to set their ad rates to.
Delaying 2.5 hours allows them to have their local news, national news, olympics, and then late news. The olympic lead-in will have many NBC stations crowing "most watched newscast" for the folowing few months.

 

[LarryDavenport]

If I watch at all I'll watch the Vancouver, BC CBC affiliate. NBC Sports has sucked since they lost the AFC and Baseball.
My only fear is that there is a threat that our NBC affiliate (KING-TV) will ask AT&T (our main cable outlet) to block out the CBC's Olympic coverage (the Fox affiliate makes AT&T block the CBC when the CBC shows Simpsons reruns in the afternoon, and Fox Sports makes them block out ESPN when ESPN has Mariners games).
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[Graeme Clark]

I forgot that TSN was doing them now too. I thought it was great how the two networks worked together during the Aussie Olympics.
The next Summer Olympics are in Athens +2 GMT (+10 Pacific, +7 Eastern). Live stuff would be on early morning - afternoon in North America.