2008 Olympics (Opening Ceremony + Other Discussion)

[StreamOfTheSky]

Argh, i'll never stop getting annoyed at the total and utter focus on the U.S. team, to the ridiculous exclusion of all other countries on NBC. I thought in the internet age, someone somewhere would be able to load up a danged video of events, but alas it's basically only nbcolympics.com, and that means little chance of seeing other countries compete unless you're on at the exact right time and you hit the lucky ~2% chance nbc deigned to stream the event live. I've been lucky with badminton and gotten to see some chinese, japanese, british, taipei, korean, and other teams, but other sports...not so much. Now here it is I REALLY want to see the china vs. china beach volleyball match (man would it be awesome if the upstart young team won and got to take their amazing serving skills into the final against may/walsh), and...nope. Not worth airing online or prime time/live. I've discovered that it will be on USA network in my area, sometime between the hours of of 2 a.m. and 9 a.m. That's just great, seeing as how I have to go to work in the morning... Is it so much to at least say when each event in the block's going to air if it's freaking taped anyway?

Seriously, can we just give the camcorders over to a bunch of teenagers to post on youtube next olympics?

/angry rant

 

[drothgery]

Argh, i'll never stop getting annoyed at the total and utter focus on the U.S. team, to the ridiculous exclusion of all other countries on NBC.

There are a lot of things worth getting upset at NBC about in their coverage. This isn't one of them. There's way too much going on in events where Americans have real shots at medals for them to spend much time in events where team USA won't do much, or on second-tier matches when the Americans are heavy favorites -- no one in the US cares about the Angola-Germany basketball game.

Much more annoying things about NBC's coverage
- The 'psuedo-live' coverage here on the west coast. Either start the evening session at 5pm Pacific (and the morning at 7am), or cut and edit things (and show swimming and gymnastics first, then go to basketball highlights -- you know that's what people really want to watch)
- Bizarre choices on secondary events to cover. What's exciting about the first 3/4ths of a marathon or the cycling road race? Or synchronized diving, period?
- No evening session on most of the secondary channels (which at least show some things live here)

Seriously, can we just give the camcorders over to a bunch of teenagers to post on youtube next olympics?

In Vancouver 2010 or London 2012? Sure. Sochi, Russia 2014? Maybe not. Chicago 2016 (assuming the IOC's not brain-dead)? Certainly.

 

[Orius]

Yeah, there's so much to cover at the Olympics that NBC is largly going to cover the American team, because you know it's an American network watched by mostly Americans (I pity the poor Canadians close to the border who might be picking up the signal) interested in the American team. That brings up a point, does Canada have a network covering the games on their own or are they stuck with NBC's crap?

Doesn't help that they like to pack in tons of coverage on biased "sports" like gymnastics and stuff that I won't bother to watch. Some of the more obscure sports might be enteraining, but they (maybe the networks as a whole) don't cover them much at all.

But I agree that the way NBC handles the airing sucks, and it always has. They don't just screw up the Opening Ceremonies.

 

[D.Shaffer]

An American network, catering mostly to watchers in the US, choses to focus on the US teams and the sports Americans tend to find interesting? Color me surprised. Somehow, I doubt this is going to be a problem for most of their viewers.

 

[drothgery]

An American network, catering mostly to watchers in the US, choses to focus on the US teams and the sports Americans tend to find interesting? Color me surprised. Somehow, I doubt this is going to be a problem for most of their viewers.

It'd be different if this was, say, a major tennis tournament (where CBS, NBC, ESPN, and USA have taken a lot of well-deserved flak for focusing on Americans too much, and have dialed that back a lot lately) where you're only covering one sport and many of the top competitors in that sport are not Americans.

Or if despite being a large, rich country with a diverse population, the US was only competitive in a small number of events. But that's not the case; NBC could fill its prime-top slots entirely with footage of Americans competing in events they will medal in, and not fit it all in.

I'm sure Chinese television showed a lot of badmitton and table tennis and even weightlifting. And that countries which had fewer home-grown stars to show just focused on the few locals and then went to things they think have general interset.

 

[Darth Shoju]

That brings up a point, does Canada have a network covering the games on their own or are they stuck with NBC's crap?

We have the CBC. Their coverage is alright.

 

[Mistwell]

no one in the US cares about the Angola-Germany basketball game.

You chose a poor example actually. The German team has two U.S. players, including my favorite U.S. team (LA Clippers) center, Chris Kaman. I very much wanted to watch that game, and had to read reports from others on the play by play.

 

[drothgery]

You chose a poor example actually. The German team has two U.S. players, including my favorite U.S. team (LA Clippers) center, Chris Kaman. I very much wanted to watch that game, and had to read reports from others on the play by play.

Bah.

It was a lopsided game between the two worst teams in the group that played out exactly as expected (well, I'd take Germany over China in a best of 7, but that's not what happened when they played). Maybe Croatia-Iran was less compelling to American viewers, but not by much.

 

[Klaus]

An American network, catering mostly to watchers in the US, choses to focus on the US teams and the sports Americans tend to find interesting? Color me surprised. Somehow, I doubt this is going to be a problem for most of their viewers.

I find it odd that the US stations are listing the medal board ranked by total medals won, instead of the usual gold medals won, just so the US be ahead of China.

The Organization of the games *lost* one of the 10 poles of the Brazilian competitor (Fabiana Murer), who was at the time ranking 3rd in the event. Since the poles are adjusted to specific heights, she tried to make do with another pole but missed all three jumps.

On other news, the crew in the Beijing Airport drove a cart over the equipment bag of the Brazilian fencing competitor, breaking all of her gear. She was reimbursed and had to buy equipment on the rush.

 

[drothgery]

I find it odd that the US stations are listing the medal board ranked by total medals won, instead of the usual gold medals won, just so the US be ahead of China.

As long as I can remember, they've always listed the medal count by total medals won (or why Germany's been ahead of the US at the Winter Games lately, and the Soviet Union/Unified Team was in the past). The 'gold medals won' count is Chinese spin.