Comments on: NBC’s Olympic Coverage on Pace for Most-Watched Olympics in History with 114 Million Total viewers

By: Visitor

Visitor — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:07:58 +0000

Being from Spain I´ve seen other olympic games there broadcast by the local TVE. Normally they introduce all the competitors, they don't shout, they concentrate on the event and they cover a variety of events. It's a pleasure to watch.

But I've seen these games in the States and this is my assessment of NBC's coverage: soap operas, mushy stuff, silly stories that have nothing to do with the Olympics, stupid guys running around a fountain, too many opinions, too much irrelevant meta-information, few events, the irritating beach voleyball (not a real sport), too much political manipulation (the story of the paraolympic who got paralyzed in Iraq "for defending his nation", yeah right!), TV speakers out of control, yelling like monkeys, because Phelps finished 1 millisecond before the next guy.

Disgusting. I don't want to watch another Olympic games like that even if I have to travel to the worst country in this planet. It can't be worse than this.

By: William

William — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 20:34:42 +0000

The Olympic Games are first and foremost about bringing people together. The athletes become for a time the ambassadors of their respective nations to the world. The wonderful thing about The Games is that they allow people from around the world to extend their hands to one another against the tapestry of international sports despite the realities of national policies and conflicts. There are always controversies at the Games to be sure, but the tears in the eyes of athletes during the medal ceremonies says to me that the Spirit of The Games is what matters most.

Its obvious to me from watching NBC's coverage of the Beijing Olympics, that network television is more concerned about ad revenues than content. The coverage has gotten so narrowly focused during the televising of The Games that only a dozen or so sports receive any substantial attention. Many specific events and their participants are recycled ad nauseum in order to make room for still more advertising opportunities. Human interest stories about the little know competitor can do much for ratings too. Why? Because they speak to the hearts of the viewing audience. A viewing of the film “Seabiscuit” speaks directly to what I'm talking about. NBC and the other networks need to get over this aversion to speaking to people's hearts, or viewership will continue to decline, despite the current Olympic spike. Now, I realize that the Oympics are very costly to air, but what happened to the Spirit of The Games? Over two hundred nations send their athletes to compete, but only about 15-20% of them are seen. I am particularly distressed by NBC's lack of coverage of equestrian and sailing sports. On the other hand, I feel the network's scheduling of a ratings gold mine like the USA Men's Basketball final for 2:30 am, downright laughable. Talk about the squandering of opportunity! Finally, why is it that we never see a wonderful color commentator like Dwight Stones on camera, or that an accomplished broadcaster like Jim Lampley is always so dead-pan? Kudos to Bob Costas, and to Mary Carrillo for her enjoyable forays among the people and customs of China.

By: A. Commentator

A. Commentator — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 15:39:45 +0000

This was the worst coverage of an Olympics ever. Last time was bad, but this was awful. Vast coverage of semi-sports like Beach blanket volleyball, and silly affairs – they are not sports – like synchronized swimming. More diving and women's gymnastics than I care to watch, and they showed the ENTIRE Mens and Womens marathon! yet very little coverage of many traditional sports. The IOC need to seriously pare down many of these non-sports. NBC gets an F and I wish some other station would pick it up .

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:54:10 +0000

There's quite a bit of historical data on the summer games (for US viewing) going back to 1968 here:

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/08/08/historical...

By: aeraj

aeraj — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:41:31 +0000

Does anyone know of site where I might be able to find historical viewership for Olympics coverage? Obviously, Beijing is putting up great numbers, but I'm interested to see if there is a comparison to all of the Olympics by year thus far.. With this Olympics we should also consider the great deal of investment NBCU has put into marketing the event and driving viewers online through their promo spots

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 16:08:04 +0000

Kaleb, I'm with you on the Women's Marathon, which seemingly covered every step for over 2.5 hours!

By: Kaleb Wayne

Kaleb Wayne — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 16:05:23 +0000

This is absolutely the worse coverage of the Olympic games I have ever seen. If I never see another beach volleyball game again it will be way too soon. Yesterday we were treateated to 2 1/2 hours (??????) of the women's marathon when they could have been switching between the marathon and other events. These are the Olympic “GAMES”!!!!!!! Not the “Olympic ONE-OR-TWO SPORTS”. What absolutely miserable coverage. Shame on you NBC

By: billnj60

billnj60 — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 11:23:45 +0000

NBC and media is turning this into the “Phelps Olympics”…granted he is greatest swimmer of all times….but enough …there are plenty of other great stories and athletes to cover. Costos keeps asking if he is greatest olympian ever?….Who is to say if any one individual in one event is greater than someone in many events in track and field or long distance i.e Flanagan 10,000 m……by paying to much attention to Phelps you are doing a big injustice to other athletes.

By: Covegirl

Covegirl — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:35:01 +0000

I, and many of my friends, are really disappointed that NBC has decided to use OXYGEN for televising a majority of the equestrian events. Many of us do not have OXYGEN as part of our cable packages. I realize that there are many events to cover, but it seems to me that equestrian events are just as interesting to many of your viewers as the events being televised on standard NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, and USA. Not all people have computers to access these events in that manner. I hope you will consider this when planning for other olympic years. Other than that, coverage has been great. Thank you!

By: delmarco

delmarco — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:36:16 +0000

Tell the chick announcing synchronized swimming to SHUT UP!

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:04:03 +0000

TVa, I agree with your analysis. Setting + economy are big factors. Having so many outlets on cable airing content helps as well, though the other broadcast nets (save perhaps CBS) would have been able to do similar multicasting.