NBC's Olympic blunders...

[Kevin M.]

Let us start a thread for all the things NBC will do wrong in its
coverage of London 2012 games. First, right out of the gate, NBC's
online team posted a tweet from the official Olympic Twitter account
containing a link for viewers to watch a bootleg live feed of the
opening ceremonies. One would think if NBC wanted viewers to watch it
live, they'd have broadcast them on their network as they happened.
Seems odd that NBC would intentionally redirect viewers away from the
network and towards a rival.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/27/nbc-olympic-opening-ceremony/

--
Kevin M. (RPCV)

[PGage]

At first I thought you meant that NBC had posted the link themselves, but as I read the article I see you mean just that they allowed someone else to post the link on their feed. From what I have seen the twitter posts are pretty much real time, though I suppose NBC could have deleted it (can they do that?). In any case, I don't think that is the mistake here - as the author of the article points out, the mistake was that NBC was itself  giving a blow by blow description of the event, even while keeping most of its US audience, who cared enough to follow the tweeting, waiting to watch until primetime. I also agree that a much better move would have been to show the damn thing live, and then show it again in primetime.

But I would rather compliment NBC for basically following this strategy with the actual events for the rest of the games. I don't give much of a damn about the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. I will probably have it on while doing other things, but I would watch the synchronized swimming semi-finals over the Opening Ceremonies if given the choice. But I am very much looking forward to being able to watch so many events live (or, at least, time shifted under my own control via DVR, no matter how clunky and inconvenient that process is going to be). It will be very interesting to compare NBC's primetime ratings with previous years in which the coverage was delayed.

[Dave Sikula]

Allow me to add the absence of the moment of silence dedicated to the victims of the 7/7 attacks (which, if I remember the BBC commentary correctly, came the day after London won the games). The Peacock decided a softball interview with Michael Phelps was more important.

http://deadspin.com/5929778/heres-the-opening-ceremony-tribute-to-terrorism-victims-nbc-doesnt-want-you-to-see

[David Bruggeman]

Let's not sugarcoat this.  It was an interview of Phelps by Seacrest.

As for other moments of silence, Meredith and Matt could have said much, much less during the ceremony.  They used the right amount of graphics along the bottom for the athletes march, but nothing during the preceding jaunt through British history.

Speaking of which, it's likely my favorite Danny Boyle film to date.

David

---

From: Dave Sikula <dsi...@yahoo.com>
To: tvor...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2012 2:47 AM
Subject: [TV orNotTV] Re: NBC's Olympic blunders...

[PGage]

Not exactly a blunder, but I was a little disappointed last night (I guess, early this morning) when I started watching events live online that they don't have any announcers. At least this was true for events like badmitten and the shooting events that I watched. I guess this is understandable, in that they would have to have a hell of a lot of announcers to have some at every single event, but while I don't really need announcers for football or basketball or baseball, I do for most of the (to me) arcane Olympic sports (and the main point of the Olympics is to watch arcane sports).

Then I found that the NBC Sports channel, which had the monster 13 hour or so feed that I recorded overnight, had many of the same events, with announcers. Why not make them available online? The shooting in particular made a lot more sense one I was able to hear the announcers explain things. In any case, it looks like my main Olympic TV strategy will be to record one or both of the main overnight feeds, which covers most of the day time activity in London except the main events they will show on the prime time show. Then I guess I will FF through that feed during the day as I have time to watch whatever strikes my fancy, supplemented by watching events live that are shown during the day here in the PT zone, and maybe watch a few premium events live online during the day - though I think in many cases I will be happy to just watch the primetime package for that - for example, rather than go through the effort to watch all of the men's gymnastic stuff, I decided to just watch the package tonight.

Michelle Beadle seems to be handling a lot of the anchor duties on the overnight show - I guess I have been out of the loop, as I did not realize she had left Bristol. I find that a little of her goes a long way, though she can be amusing.

[Kevin M.]

The Tour De France iPad apps featured different announcers than the
usual trio (one barely awake guy who is possibly not sober).
Ultimately, it comes down to a licensing deal. There is NBC coverage
of events, then there is coverage sold internationally or for online
consumption by multiple outlets (which sometimes NBC uses and adds its
announcers over). Just as there are pool photographers at White House
press conferences, they do the same at sporting events, too. At day's
end, NBC has no interest in sweetening online content, preferring you
watch one of their channels instead. I would also guess there are some
instances when the announcers do not record live as events happen, so
the live web feed couldn't include them.

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--
Kevin M. (RPCV)

[PGage]

On Sat, Jul 28, 2012 at 11:11 AM, Kevin M. <drunkba...@gmail.com> wrote:

(SNIP)  I would also guess there are some

instances when the announcers do not record live as events happen, so
the live web feed couldn't include them.

I am not sure if I have seen that delayed commentary (which I absolutely hate; NBC used to do that a lot when they first got the Olympics), but it does seem like they are still doing some of having live announcers doing commentary remotely, I suppose from the US to video feeds (at least that is what it seemed like for the shooting). I don't like that very much either.

Beadle did do that thing that I also hate when the anchor knows the result of the coverage they are about to throw to - basically spoiling what would have been a more interesting storyline to the Men's Swimming Medley (I think that is what they call it). I really don't understand that. She is anchoring a show at 3:00 in the morning (or whatever it was), she is introducing the first event with the most visible American athlete at the games. I don't think she needs to pimp it any more, as if someone stayed up all night watching handball and air rifle, and then at the last minute says "well, I think I won't watch the next 8 minutes with Michael Phelps, I'll just go to bed now".

[Joe Hass]

Mashable nails the fact that NBC and the IOC have effectively decided
that, if you didn't actually watch the Opening Ceremony, you're shit
outta luck.

http://mashable.com/2012/07/27/nbc-ioc-share-olympics/

[Bob in Jersey]

PGage, in part:

Not exactly a blunder, but I was a little disappointed last night (I guess, early this morning) when I started watching events live online that they don't have any announcers.

Did that last Games, too.
 

Then I found that the NBC Sports channel, which had the monster 13 hour or so feed that I recorded overnight, had many of the same events, with announcers. Why not make them available online?

Too costly.
 

Michelle Beadle seems to be handling a lot of the anchor duties on the overnight show - I guess I have been out of the loop, as I did not realize she had left Bristol. I find that a little of her goes a long way, though she can be amusing.

For some effin' reason I can't make a shortcut, so go read my post about it from upfront season:

https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!topicsearchin/tvornottv/michelle$20beadle/tvornottv/g4nTe5OfG9c



--
BOB

[Bob in Jersey]

Some media and sports types take to social sites to b!tch about the non-live opening ceremony:

HuffPost



--
BOB

[PGage]

On Sat, Jul 28, 2012 at 2:30 PM, Bob in Jersey <bob.in...@juno.com> wrote:

PGage, in part:

Michelle Beadle seems to be handling a lot of the anchor duties on the overnight show - I guess I have been out of the loop, as I did not realize she had left Bristol. I find that a little of her goes a long way, though she can be amusing.

For some effin' reason I can't make a shortcut, so go read my post about it from upfront season:

https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!topicsearchin/tvornottv/michelle$20beadle/tvornottv/g4nTe5OfG9c

I actually remember your post on this now that I read it, but I guess I focused on the Andrews part...

[David Bruggeman]

To pile on, I opted to tape the overnight repeat, which was roughly two hours shorter than the original airing.  I expected that the parade of athletes would be mostly gone for time, and it was.

What pissed me off were two things.  The inclusion of that lame Michael Phelps interview (if you're cutting for time, non-ceremony stuff should be top of list).  The cutting of everything after the Chariots of Fire segment but before the parade (including the Tweet referenced in the Mashable piece).  

I am assuming Macca played more than the closing bars of The End and a pretty toothless Hey Jude.  If so, it was missing from the overnight airing.

What video NBC is making available from the ceremony is just clips.  And while it's via YouTube, good luck finding those clips on YouTube.

David

---

From: Joe Hass <hassg...@gmail.com>
To: tvor...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2012 3:54 PM
Subject: Re: [TV orNotTV] NBC's Olympic blunders...

[PGage]

On Sat, Jul 28, 2012 at 3:59 PM, David Bruggeman <bru...@yahoo.com> wrote:

(SNIP)

I am assuming Macca played more than the closing bars of The End and a pretty toothless Hey Jude.  If so, it was missing from the overnight airing.

If he did, NBC chose not to show it on the primetime show.

[Adam Bowie]

He didn't. Pretty much what you heard.

But there was a wonderful rendition of Abide With Me, and "cycling doves" which is sounds you like you missed at a minimum.

Incidentally, I've yet to find a Brit who didn't love the opening ceremony. Nobody could ever "top" the Beijing opening, so Danny Boyle had to go with character, and I think he did in spades.

Adam

PS And getting the Queen to take part is simply staggering. Yes the US President might play along with things occassionally, but the Queen *never* does! Extraordinary!

[David Bruggeman]

I am just guessing, as most of the cuts for the overnight airing seemed to happen in the second half of the program.

David

---

From: PGage <pga...@gmail.com>

Subject: Re: [TV orNotTV] NBC's Olympic blunders...

[PGage]

On Sat, Jul 28, 2012 at 4:15 PM, Adam Bowie <adam....@gmail.com> wrote:

He didn't. Pretty much what you heard.

But there was a wonderful rendition of Abide With Me, and "cycling doves" which is sounds you like you missed at a minimum.

Incidentally, I've yet to find a Brit who didn't love the opening ceremony. Nobody could ever "top" the Beijing opening, so Danny Boyle had to go with character, and I think he did in spades.

Adam

PS And getting the Queen to take part is simply staggering. Yes the US President might play along with things occassionally, but the Queen *never* does! Extraordinary!

Abide With Me was the 7/7 memoriam which was cut from the NBC telecast for the Phelps  "interview", mentioned earlier. The cycling doves was on the primetime show. Frankly, while I do think NBC should have shown it, I didn't think the Abide With Me was all that beautiful.  On the other hand, I thought the "Jerusalem" was really outstanding.

And the new Bond Girl was cool.

The Walk of Nations is actually my favorite part of any Opening Ceremonies, this was one brisk enough that we did not get bogged down too much. Costas said it was the fastest Walk he had ever seen, and speculated that it may have been to get the Queen to bed at a reasonable hour?

[David Bruggeman]

Yeah, no Abide With Me, no Tim Berners-Lee, no Bowie (outside of when Great Britain's athletes arrived).  I loved the literature bits of the ceremony, and I'm pretty sure I'd have enjoyed that bit as well.

I'll just go ahead and say it.  I found Matt and Meredith particularly awful.  But I've never been fond of the commentary during the ceremonies.  It makes some sense for the Walk, but when you have Costas at hand for that, you really don't need someone else in the booth. 

David

---

From: PGage <pga...@gmail.com>

Subject: Re: [TV orNotTV] NBC's Olympic blunders...

[Dave Sikula]

I recall that, in Olympics past, NBC has used live studio commentators describing an earlier event that was on tape and long-since over.

--Dave Sikula

[JW]

> Not exactly a blunder, but I was a little disappointed last night (I guess,
> early this morning) when I started watching events live online that they

> don't have any announcers. At least this was true for events like badmitten
> and the shooting events that I watched. I guess this is understandable, in
> that they would have to have a hell of a lot of announcers to have some at
> every single event, but while I don't really need announcers for football
> or basketball or baseball, I do for most of the (to me) arcane Olympic
> sports (and the main point of the Olympics is to watch arcane sports).

I think Kevin had this right. The IOC makes a clean feed of everything
available to all of its licensees, who can then show whatever they
want, and add whatever commentary they want. Since NBC pays tons of
money, I'm sure they have the ability to put their own announcers and
a couple of cameras at major events, but there isn't room for 100
national broadcasters to each put their own people in most venues.

And rather than put together a roster of announcers to call every
badminton match, it's easier for NBC to put that clean feed on the
net, and then add announcers (whether they're at the media centre in
London or back in the States) to whatever they choose to broadcast. I
remember seeing stories from previous Olympics about how some
announcers for events like table tennis were back in an American
studio basing their call on the video.

Today, the main point of the Olympics seems to be selling sponsorships
and TV rights. For some viewers, it's about watching arcane sports.
For many others, it's about the big events.

[Adam Bowie]

You'd be surprised how much space there is. As I type this I'm watching Brazil v Australia men's basketball in the arena and there are in fact around 100 media spots each with room for two people. As this is a preliminary round, just over half are empty...

http://moby.to/qwo44n

Patrick Mills had and shoulders the best player, but Brazil leading currently...

Adam

[PGage]

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/2012-olympics-opening-ceremony-most-watched-ever-for-nbc-more-than-40-million-tune-in_b139482

For the record (already widely reported), NBC's ratings for the Opening Ceremonies were the highest in Olympic history (in the words of the linked note): "the 40.7 million average is higher than the 1996 Atlanta games, which had held the previous ratings record with 39.8 million viewers. Beijing 2008 drew 34.9 million viewers, and Athens 2004 drew 25.4 million." Another source said it was the highest rated US telecast since the Grammys and Oscars (which each were around 39M as I recall, so I guess that article was using an earlier, somewhat smaller rating for the OC). NBC is arguing this justifies their strategy of delaying the broadcast in the US, or, as they say "driving the audience to our primetime telecast).

Saturday night's primetime show also had great ratings (http://news.yahoo.com/overnight-ratings-first-night-134619586--oly.html) "the highest ratings for the first evening of an Olympics competition outside of the United States" - up 8% over China 4 years ago.

I actually think NBC is getting close to the perfect formula now - at least for my habits. I am recording the overnight coverage on the cable members of the family, watching them as I have time and inclination during the next day. For the most part this does not include the premier events, but does get me engaged, and interested in watching the primetime show (which I am able to watch with enough of a buffer to FF through all commercials and most of the "up close and personals", which I mostly detest). I may watch some premier events live online as we go, as I did have one unfortunate spoiler (the first Phelps swimming event), or I may try to impose a more rigorous medial blackout on myself. In any case, I think making more events available during the day will have the net effect of increased viewership to the primetime show, which many critics have been arguing for a long time.

[JW]

> You'd be surprised how much space there is. As I type this I'm watching
> Brazil v Australia men's basketball in the arena and there are in fact
> around 100 media spots each with room for two people. As this is a
> preliminary round, just over half are empty...

In that particular venue, I'm guessing that games involving the USA
will fill those spots, if only because every American reporter will
want to cover at least one game there. And I don't know how many of
those spots are designed for television commentators.

And something like the judo venue probably has less space for media as
well as spectators, even though more nations will be competing there.

[Adam Bowie]

I suspect you're right, although many of those spaces are for live media coverage rather than, say, newspaper reporters.

I was in the swimming venue today, but my position was such that I couldn't see the media positions. (No spoilers from me incidentally, but these were only heats).

I'm at the fencing later, so we'll see how busy that is!

Incidentally, you can't move for NBC folk. They and their guests have people with little signs to get them guided around the park. I believe they have nearly four times as many people here as the BBC!

And yes, I am making the most of these home games :-)

Adam

[Karla S. Robinson, Ph.D.]

THIS is ridiculous. I was on vacation last week, so I missed the opening
ceremonies. I figured with NBC's supposedly wall to wall video coverage,
I'd be able to watch it on delay.

No such luck. Only two or three short clips are available. Really?
Seriously? I would have watched it with commercials and all, it is a
once-every-four-years event. I just can't understand it.

-----Original Message-----
From: tvor...@googlegroups.com [mailto:tvor...@googlegroups.com] On
Behalf Of Joe Hass
Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2012 3:54 PM

To: tvor...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [TV orNotTV] NBC's Olympic blunders...

[Joe Hass]

Adding to this: NBC says the reason the Abide By Me segment was cut
was because "our programming is tailored for the U.S. audience."

http://deadspin.com/5930048/nbc-responds-we-removed-the-opening-ceremony-memorial-to-terrorism-victims-because-
the-tribute-wasnt-about-america

Why am I willing to bet every penny I have that the 2002 opening
ceremony, which was so heavily symbolic of the 2001 US terrorist
attacks including the World Trade Center flag, wasn't cut down like
this by any other nation?

Also, NBC really doesn't give a rat's ass about the complaining. So
much so the head of digital programming actually retweeted this: "the
medal for most Olympic whining goes to everyone complaining about what
happens every 4 yrs., tape delay.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/sports/olympics/nbc-olympics-delay-and-streaming-bring-complaints-on-twitter.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

"The Olympics! It's a movement, and everyone needs one, every day!"

[PGage]

On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 4:34 AM, Adam Bowie <adam....@gmail.com> wrote:

I suspect you're right, although many of those spaces are for live media coverage rather than, say, newspaper reporters.

I was in the swimming venue today, but my position was such that I couldn't see the media positions. (No spoilers from me incidentally, but these were only heats).

I'm at the fencing later, so we'll see how busy that is!

Incidentally, you can't move for NBC folk. They and their guests have people with little signs to get them guided around the park. I believe they have nearly four times as many people here as the BBC!

And yes, I am making the most of these home games :-)

So glad you are having a good time. I was a young student in Los Angeles during the 1984 Olympics. LA is a much different kind of city than London - so large and spread out that the Olympics made very little detectable footprint on every day life. As the saying goes there is no "there, there", and there was no Olympic village either. I lived in Pasadena, only blocks from the Rose Bowl, the center of the soccer matches. Even there, we only got a small hint of Olympic fever. By all reports it is much different in London.

My daughter has been to several events already, but says that even though there are empty seats (for spectators, not media) at many of the venues, it is not easy to buy them now. She said there is a bit of a controversy (at least among her set, which is to say poor, somewhat demanding college-aged students) about this, as it seems that the empty seats have mostly been purchased by large corporate groups, and to a large extent are just not being used until they get to high profile events.

My daughter took fencing this last spring term, and was keen to attend a fencing event. I guess she stubbornly kept hitting repeat on the Olympic site for several hours until she was able to score seats to the saber event  (which is her favorite),  I think quarter finals, this Thursday, so she is excited about that, and I think they only cost something under 20 pounds. Her seats in Cardiff for the Brazil soccer match turned out to be excellent - she was sitting very near the field and got to hang out and party with the Brazilian fans - in her pictures her face is painted in their colors, and she is having more fun than is comfortable for a father to see. She also reports that watching the events at the pubs with the locals, and with partisans from the various countries, is as fun in its own way as having tickets for the venues. I encouraged her to get up and go watch the cross country bike races over the weekend, since they were free, but she was not as keen on doing that.

She will be there through this weekend (then going to spend a few days in Paris seeing the sights there before flying home), and is having a fabulous time. One of her main testimonies is how warm and friendly the British people are (I think I use the adjective correctly, as she has been in both London and Cardiff). She expected them to be polite, but not so outright friendly and welcoming.

[PGage]

On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 8:50 AM, Joe Hass <hassg...@gmail.com> wrote:

Adding to this: NBC says the reason the Abide By Me segment was cut
was because "our programming is tailored for the U.S. audience."

http://deadspin.com/5930048/nbc-responds-we-removed-the-opening-ceremony-memorial-to-terrorism-victims-because-
the-tribute-wasnt-about-america

Why am I willing to bet every penny I have that the 2002 opening
ceremony, which was so heavily symbolic of the 2001 US terrorist
attacks including the World Trade Center flag, wasn't cut down like
this by any other nation?

Also, NBC really doesn't give a rat's ass about the complaining. So
much so the head of digital programming actually retweeted this: "the
medal for most Olympic whining goes to everyone complaining about what
happens every 4 yrs., tape delay.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/sports/olympics/nbc-olympics-delay-and-streaming-bring-complaints-on-twitter.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

"The Olympics! It's a movement, and everyone needs one, every day!"

The main reason they don't give a rat's ass about the complaining of course is that their strategy seems to have worked on the only metric they would possibly care about - they got historic ratings for the OC.

To be fair to them, I read in other sources that the "Abide With Me" segment was not tagged in the materials given to broadcasters as a memorial to 7-7. The inference is valid, and I guess the BBC commentators made the link explicit in their on-air comments, but that is not how the producers portrayed it. I also noticed that when Meredith Vieira interviewed Danny Boyle (who she disclosed to the audience Friday night was a close personal friend) the next day, she described that segment (indirectly, and without mentioning that NBC failed to cover it) as a memorial to all those who were unable to be present for the Olympics, and highlighted Boyle's own father, who apparently died within the last 18 months.

The fact that NBC dumped it for a lame, content-less Phelps-Seacrest interview makes it still a poor editorial choice, but not quite as bad as if they say on the production rundown "7-7 Memorial" and said "Americans don't care about that, let's pimp Phelps before he looses too many races and becomes irrelevant".

[PGage]

As always, Al Trautwig announcing Gymnastics is one of NBC's biggest blunders. It is not that he is so incompetent with the basics of his assignment, it is just that he is so consistently the biggest US booster that it is embarrassing, even by NBC Olympic coverage standards. Trying to be fair to him, I think a big part of his problem is that he and his broadcast partners (Canadian former gymnast Elfi Schlegel and American former gymnast Tim Daggett) are just too tightly embedded with the US gymnastic team. They are like Judith Miller, that NYT reporter who was so closely in bed with the Cheney (er, sorry, Bush) Administration that she was not able to properly cover the Iraq war, instead functioning as a cheerleader for it. I would like to see Trautwig do an Olympics once with expert analysts who are not quite as much in bed with the US team, trading a little bit of access for a little more objectivity.

There was drama last night (what a shock) in the women's (girls) gymnastics. I give NBC (I think it was Trautwig) credit for noting in advance that by the end of the night one of the US girls was going to be both celebrating the team moving on to medal competition, but crying because they had lost the chance to compete in the all arounds. I wish they had spent more time though explaining, and critiquing the rule that limits each country to only 2 all around contestants up front. No matter which US girl got left out, it was likely going to seem unfair, and waiting until the end to bitch about it made it seem like sour grapes. Also, when Daggett argued that the one girl who got left out (I did not learn the names of these girls yet) was underscored, he did not say which of the two American girls who made it to the next round should have been left out.

[Joe Hass]

On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 11:13 AM, PGage <pga...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 8:50 AM, Joe Hass <hassg...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Adding to this: NBC says the reason the Abide By Me segment was cut
>> was because "our programming is tailored for the U.S. audience."
>>
>>
>> http://deadspin.com/5930048/nbc-responds-we-removed-the-opening-ceremony-memorial-to-terrorism-victims-because-
>> the-tribute-wasnt-about-america
>

> To be fair to them, I read in other sources that the "Abide With Me" segment
> was not tagged in the materials given to broadcasters as a memorial to 7-7.
> The inference is valid, and I guess the BBC commentators made the link
> explicit in their on-air comments, but that is not how the producers
> portrayed it. I also noticed that when Meredith Vieira interviewed Danny
> Boyle (who she disclosed to the audience Friday night was a close personal
> friend) the next day, she described that segment (indirectly, and without
> mentioning that NBC failed to cover it) as a memorial to all those who were
> unable to be present for the Olympics, and highlighted Boyle's own father,
> who apparently died within the last 18 months.

You're right, PG. It's still a bullshit excuse, because *none* of it
is tailored to the US audience. I preface that I watched exactly two
parts of the Opening Ceremony, both because of post-event discussion:
the Queen & James Bond segment and the Abide By Me segment (which I
deliberately called that initially because, as you correctly noted, it
really wasn't a classic memoriam segment). But I would describe the
entire opening ceremony as a complete package: it's not a "pick and
choose" thing that you omit for the sake of time.

[Mark Jeffries]

In the end, though, isn't it the same reason why ESPN never responds to all of the people who bitch about them--that they're all "out of the demo?"  ESPN will claim that the 18-ro-34 men just luv Boomer and Stuart Scott and NBC will claim that the 18-to-49 women love how they do things in prime time and love Seacrest and that we're just all out of the demo?

> tvornottv-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com

[Brad Beam]

----- Original Message -----
From: PGage
>One of her main testimonies is how warm and friendly the British people are
>(I think I use the adjective correctly, as she has been in both London and
>Cardiff).

YACS.

Great Britain is the island, containing the countries of England, Scotland,
and Wales. The United Kingdom also includes Northern Ireland. The Republic
of Ireland declared its independence from the Commonwealth in 1948.

_ _
|_>|_> Brad Beam- Belle WV
|_>|_> http://www.facebook.com/74bmw

[Bob in Jersey]

I wrote:

Some media and sports types take to social sites to b!tch about the non-live opening ceremony:

HuffPost

Here's an LA-based writer for a Brit paper who got axed from Twitter for, f'rinstance, telling Lauer to shut up and for NBC Olympics chief Zenkel to be fired for the non-liveness.

Yahoo



--
BOB

[Joe Hass]

On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 8:10 PM, Bob in Jersey <bob.in...@juno.com> wrote:
>
> Here's an LA-based writer for a Brit paper who got axed from Twitter for,
> f'rinstance, telling Lauer to shut up and for NBC Olympics chief Zenkel to
> be fired for the non-liveness.
>

> http://sports.yahoo.com/news/olympics--critic-of-nbc-has-twitter-account-suspended-after-network-complains.html

For which his account was suspended for "posting an individual's
private information": Zenkel's corporate e-mail address, which is
about as private as figuring out that I work at Arc Worldwide, finding
the format of Arc's e-mail address, and e-mailing me there (as opposed
to the e-mail address I use here).

And who filed this complaint? Why it's NBC, with whom Twitter has an
official partnership for the Olympics!

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/ijkaqa

Simply put, NBC wants to continue to operate under the assumption that
the Olympic Games is a piece of reality television, able to be edited,
modeled, and adjusted in a manner that allows them to create three
hours of coverage between 8 and 11 PM ET. The catch, of course, is
that the rest of the world does not believe this, and treats it as a
sports event to be aired live. NBC has clearly decided they don't
care, which, bless their hearts, they're more than allowed to do that.
But they should not act like they've gotten the vapors when people who
align with the rest of the world disagree violently.

As for their online coverage: I tried to watch a tennis match today
for the sole reason of seeing the AELTC. I think I've mentioned that I
work as an interaction designer, which means I try to make websites
reasonably easy for users to use. It took me 10 clock minutes to start
watching a match that was going on live (and that involved going back
and forth between nbcolympics.com and london2012.org). How anyone is
supposed to figure out that site without a metric ton of patience is
beyond me.

[PGage]

Here is a small but real gripe I am starting to have. I have noticed twice now NBC anchors "reporting" on the "tweets" of celebrities about the Olympics as if they were news. Today the news was the Christie Brinkley had Olympic fever, and Tom Hanks was a superfan of the US women's soccer team. Is this a thing now? I guess if a public person announced something on Twitter that was actually newsworthy it would be one thing - perhaps if Christie Brinkley had said she was against having black athletes on the US gymnastics and swim teams because that sent a bad message to the world, maybe that would be news (though even so, who cares what Christie Brinkley thinks about the Olympics?). Marginally, if Brinkley was actually in London attending the games, I could see NBC inviting her into the studio to talk about why she is such a big fan. But no, I don't want segments rounding up for me what generic cliches celebrities are saying about the Olympics.

[PGage]

On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 7:14 PM, Joe Hass <hassg...@gmail.com> wrote:

Simply put, NBC wants to continue to operate under the assumption that
the Olympic Games is a piece of reality television, able to be edited,
modeled, and adjusted in a manner that allows them to create three
hours of coverage between 8 and 11 PM ET. The catch, of course, is
that the rest of the world does not believe this, and treats it as a
sports event to be aired live. NBC has clearly decided they don't
care, which, bless their hearts, they're more than allowed to do that.
But they should not act like they've gotten the vapors when people who
align with the rest of the world disagree violently.

I don't disagree with this, except that, by making so much coverage available on the cable (and broadcast) networks during the overnight and day hours, I think NBC is approaching a reasonable compromise. Non-primetime is treated significantly (not completely) like sports coverage, which helps me tolerate the entertainment treatment they give to the primetime show. I will also say that I notice they are doing their up close and personal pieces mostly in much smaller bites, which allows them to be squeezed into the (artificially elongated, thanks to their pre-recorded nature) natural breaks in the actual competition. The longer pieces seem to be mostly introduced from the main anchor desk by the "correspondent" who worked on them, which cues me to hit the ff button.

[eastick]

Karla - try here - all 3:52:19 replay stream.     http://bbc.in/NRueQF

If that link won't stream for you, setup an account at unblock-us.com   That's what I have and it pretends I am in the UK.

[Joe Hass]

On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 9:25 PM, PGage <pga...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I don't disagree with this, except that, by making so much coverage
> available on the cable (and broadcast) networks during the overnight and day
> hours, I think NBC is approaching a reasonable compromise. Non-primetime is
> treated significantly (not completely) like sports coverage, which helps me
> tolerate the entertainment treatment they give to the primetime show. I will
> also say that I notice they are doing their up close and personal pieces
> mostly in much smaller bites, which allows them to be squeezed into the
> (artificially elongated, thanks to their pre-recorded nature) natural breaks
> in the actual competition. The longer pieces seem to be mostly introduced
> from the main anchor desk by the "correspondent" who worked on them, which
> cues me to hit the ff button.

I disagree that it's a compromise, because for what the big three
sports (gymnastics, track, and swimming/diving), there's no
compromise: you're watching it when NBC tells you you're going to
watch it, with all their crap shoved in the middle of it. A compromise
would be to air it live on nbcolympics.com for people who are
dedicated to watching it live. The people that NBC want to declare
their prime audience are not going to be logging on in the middle of
the day to watch this. They truly are the people who want their pablum
served up prechewed and ready for easy digestion. Here's what I'd say
to NBC: try it for one day. See if the ratings really do drop off a
cliff like you fear. If they do: congratulations for proving us all
doofuses. But I'd bet a significant amount of money that the sports
fans who want to watch it live will watch it live, and what I'll call
the "Olympic Core" audience will still tune in at 8:00 PM, and your
ratings will stay close enough to even that no one will mind. Hell, if
you're really that paranoid, charge people $5 to watch it early! Or
find some price point: I'm assuming there's still at least a couple
people in your market research department.

[David Lynch]

They had a promo for "Today" promoting that they would have a gold
medal winner on tomorrow morning that aired in the break immediately
before the event in which this person won the gold. If I cared about
spoilers (and hadn't already seen the result on both Nightly News and
the local news), I would be rather unhappy about that.

Also, I'm wondering if any organization representing blind people has
yet complained about the "if you don't want to know the results, turn
away now" moments. I find them annoying enough when I'm in the kitchen
and can't see the TV clearly.

--
David J. Lynch
djl...@gmail.com

[PGage]

Well, I did say *approaching* a reasonable compromise.

I did not look today, but over the weekend the gymnastics was available live online, as was the swimming. I have not had a problem navigating to it (I downloaded the widget for it to my igoogle page, and get to the sport I want by clicking the link on the daily schedule). But I have missed the commentators, so I have not been using it very much. I have found that if I leave the page with the online screen open for a few minutes, it freezes my whole computer for some reason.

Another practical problem I have noticed when trying to organize an approach to viewing things live, is that in real time these things are spread out over many hours. You can not easily settle in for two or even three hours to watch the gymnastics coverage, as you have to wait for many hours for the different rotations to and clusters to go through. Or you have the opposite problem, where many of the events are happening at literally the same time, so you can't watch all the ones you want live (well, I have not tried having 3 windows open at the same time). Probably if there were premier events which lacked US competitors in medal contention, it would be better to watch them online to get good exposure to the preliminary rounds and a good feel for the main competition. But with the US fielding competitive teams in most swimming, gymnastics and track (if not field) events, I am finding it so far a lot easier, and time economical, to just let NBC organize it for me in the primetime.

What I think would be ideal would be to use the Sports Network to anchor live coverage overnight and during the day, whipping you around to interesting live events at various venues, while providing background and context, maybe with a small team of analysts and announcers to talk over live video. This could be supplemented by short-term delayed coverage of conflicting events, or to fill time between major live events. Then do the primetime packaged show. Like you, I suspect that the primetime audience would not go down at all, and might increase, as it would generate more excitement and word of mouth. They are not there yet, but combining the online possibilities with the cable programing, they are moving in the right direction.

[Bob in Jersey]

Joe Hass, to PGage:

I disagree that it's a compromise, because for what the big three
sports (gymnastics, track, and swimming/diving), there's no
compromise: you're watching it when NBC tells you you're going to
watch it, with all their crap shoved in the middle of it. A compromise
would be to air it live on nbcolympics.com for people who are
dedicated to watching it live. The people that NBC want to declare
their prime audience are not going to be logging on in the middle of
the day to watch this. They truly are the people who want their pablum
served up prechewed and ready for easy digestion. Here's what I'd say
to NBC: try it for one day. See if the ratings really do drop off a
cliff like you fear. If they do: congratulations for proving us all
doofuses. But I'd bet a significant amount of money that the sports
fans who want to watch it live will watch it live, and what I'll call
the "Olympic Core" audience will still tune in at 8:00 PM, and your
ratings will stay close enough to even that no one will mind. Hell, if
you're really that paranoid, charge people $5 to watch it early! Or
find some price point: I'm assuming there's still at least a couple
people in your market research department.

The requirement that online viewers be verified customers of a cable / satellite / telco provider (the household cable bill is paid by dad here, and he hasn't asked about the periodic Service Electric ads touting their access to NBCO) could be payment enough for that.



--
BOB

[Joe Hass]

On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 10:50 PM, PGage <pga...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I did not look today, but over the weekend the gymnastics was available live
> online, as was the swimming. I have not had a problem navigating to it (I
> downloaded the widget for it to my igoogle page, and get to the sport I want
> by clicking the link on the daily schedule). But I have missed the
> commentators, so I have not been using it very much. I have found that if I
> leave the page with the online screen open for a few minutes, it freezes my
> whole computer for some reason.

I couldn't remember that. Thanks for the correction, which allays my
concerns. The one thing that would be a nice-to-have would be the
ability to time-shift online (if a competition starts at noon, you can
tune in at 1:00 PM and watch it from the beginning) or watch a
competition online after it takes place.

On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 9:34 AM, Bob in Jersey <bob.in...@juno.com> wrote:
>
> Joe Hass, to PGage:

>>
>> Hell, if
>> you're really that paranoid, charge people $5 to watch it early! Or
>> find some price point: I'm assuming there's still at least a couple
>> people in your market research department.
>
> The requirement that online viewers be verified customers of a cable /
> satellite / telco provider (the household cable bill is paid by dad here,
> and he hasn't asked about the periodic Service Electric ads touting their
> access to NBCO) could be payment enough for that.

For the NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament, people without cable could
pay $3 for access to all the games if they didn't have cable. I
thought that was a spectacularly wonderful idea, and one that could be
implemented.

I think NBC still has the shakes whenever anyone mentions buying
Olympic coverage, but really: the Triplecast was a disaster for a
number of reasons, none of which are still in play now.

[Bob in Jersey]

An insider told Carson Griffith in the NYDN that Hoda was shipped off to London to replace Curry.

She was all ready to go on vacation, but hell, it's the Games!!



--
BOB

[Bob in Jersey]

Tape delay has come back to bite NBC's ass big time.

The Peacock, per NY Times' Jeremy Peters, mistakenly showed a preview of a (Tuesday) Today show segment about 17yr-old swimmer Missy Franklin and her winning sprint in the 100 meter backstroke before televising the actual race on Monday night.

Prioritize, guys!



--
BOB

[Mark Jeffries]

Joe Posnanski of Sports on Earth reminds us that NBC is not programming to sports fans--key quote:

 

"There’s a good argument to be made that networks and corporations should pay utmost heed to what their diehard customers want, rather than just be blandly generalist. If you make your most loyal customers happy, they’ll stick with you during down periods, providing you a solid customer base. But the Olympics are absolutely not the time to make that argument. There are no loyalist Olympic fans. This is an event that comes around every two years, featuring sports that, in any other context, no one cares about. There is no solid customer base. Everyone’s just dabbling, so NBC is selling accordingly. The Olympics are a two-week episode of the “Today” show, pitched at that level and sold accordingly. It’s the only way to do it."

 

And he also reminds us that only a small subset of the Internet is on Twitter--and that there are still 18 percent of Americans with no access to the net at all (and adds that he's not happy with NBC, either, but he's not the audience):

 

http://sportsonearthblog.com/2012/07/31/nbc-is-ignoring-twitter-diehards-and-rightfully-so/

[Jason Carpio]

That still doesn't excuse the Missy Franklin Today commercial before the actual race last night. 

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Not sent from an iPhone

[Joe Hass]

I am a big fan of Will Leitch (who wrote the item, even though it's on
JoePo's website). In this case, he's spectacularly full of shit.

Everyone seems to be putting the onus on Twitter here, when it's
really the entire Web. We started seeing this in 2008, when people
started complaining to non-NBC news properties about "spoiling" the
Olympics. At this point, it requires a real effort to *not* find out
the results unless you block off almost every social network *and*
anything related to news/sports (For heaven's sake: I've been getting
alerts from The Wall Street Journal on major events).

The catch is that NBC wants to play both sides of the fence here.
Their official site, nbcolympics.com, is a full spoiler. There is to
the best of my knowledge no way to avoid that. Right now the big image
on their home page is a big ol' spoiler. The NBC Olympics Twitter feed
has been spoiling all the time. BriWi has been spoiling on Nightly
News. Only the NBC Olympics Facebook page is spoiler free, simply
pointing out when events are happening live.

But NBC continues to operate their prime-time three-hour block with
the modus operandi that a viewer has no clue what has happened today.
That group of people is shrinking more and more. NBC can argue that
they're setting record ratings, but what the ratings don't show is how
many people are getting increasingly pissed while doing so. About five
minutes ago someone posted this Facebook status: "‎? to NBC? If mens
swimming and womens gymnastics already happened today...why am I
watching a platform diving final that the US isnt even in right now??"
And this isn't someone who's a social media wizard: this would be
someone in the demo! And they're pissed off. They just want to get to
the fireworks factory (Simpsons reference).

I'll agree that the sports fans don't really matter. But acting as if
the regular fans are stupid (which is what NBC's attitude has been) is
what's really pissing people off. And NBC's "The silent majority love
us" act is wearing thin on everyone.

As for Leitch's comment about how 20% of people aren't on the
Internet: According to that same report, 97% of adults 18-29 and 91%
of adults 30-49 (aka The Demo) *are* on the Internet. The people who
aren't are almost all old folks (aka Not The Demo). If you're making
the argument that NBC needs to aim towards the people out of the demo,
then perhaps *you're* the one who should be ignored.

On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 5:05 PM, Mark Jeffries <spotl...@gmail.com> wrote:

[JW]

> I am a big fan of Will Leitch (who wrote the item, even though it's on
> JoePo's website). In this case, he's spectacularly full of shit.

The website is a USA Today production that will be Sports on Earth,
where Posnanski is the big name, but other writers like Leitch and
Mike Tanier will be on staff as well.

> Everyone seems to be putting the onus on Twitter here, when it's
> really the entire Web.

Twitter makes it easy to complain, and the complaints multiply on
themselves. Grumbling on a list like this is unlikely to have an
effect unless someone in a position to address a complaint happens to
see it.

As it happened, Tuesday night exemplified the problem perfectly. I was
watching the Pirates-Cubs game, where A.J. Burnett had a no-hitter
going. During breaks, I'd flip over to NBC, which usually had
gymnastics when it didn't have its own commercials. I knew that
[SPOILER ALERT] the USA had won the gold, and then I'd switch back to
the ballgame, where I didn't know what was going to happen. I much
preferred the live broadcast.

> The catch is that NBC wants to play both sides of the fence here.
> Their official site, nbcolympics.com, is a full spoiler. There is to
> the best of my knowledge no way to avoid that.

Seems easy to me. I've avoided it, not because I care about spoilers,
but because I don't care about that site. The major result of all this
is that I find I don't care much about the Olympics, either.

[PGage]

Here is a nice, Grade A slice of 100% fresh bullshit from NBC about their bastardized coverage of the Girls Gymnastics the other day:

http://www.deadline.com/2012/08/nbc-sports-summer-olympics-coverage-criticism-gymnastics-misssy-franklin/

The money quote: "Asked about NBC editing out the fall of Russia’s Ksenia Afanasyeva in Tuesday’s gymnastics event to create suspense for a U.S. team Gold win, Lazaus said it was cut “in the interests of time”. He added that “it was immaterial to the outcome” of the U.S. team’s Gold win. “All of the drama was about the US performance, not what the Russians did or did not achieve, said Lazarus. “It did nothing to alter the suspense”."

Lazaus actually stuck the landing on this bullshit double somersault. Several times during Thursday's coverage of the all around competition NBC pimped the growing, close race for third place between American Aly Raisman and one of the Russians by saying that it was going to come down to Raisman's floor performance, just as it had when she nailed a pressure packed program to win the US the Team Gold. Except, of course, almost nothing about that is true.

I have now done the specific calculations I was freeballing while while watching it on TV, using in part information available at http://www.nbcolympics.com/gymnastics/event/women-team/phase=gaw400100/doc=floor.html. By the time Raisman started her floor performance the US was already so far ahead of the Russians that she only needed a 10.34. To put that in perspective, of the 24 girls who did a floor routine from the final 8 countries who were competing for a medal that night, the *lowest* score was 12.466, and that was by Anastasia Grishina, the Russian girl who fell on her face, and whose performance NBC says it cut because it was so low it was, in their words "immaterial to the outcome". In other words, Raisman could have fallen on her face three times during the floor routine and the US still would have won the Gold Medal. When the NBC shill says "all the drama was in the US performance" he is scoring a perfect 10 in bullshit - there was precisely ZERO drama in the US performance. ALL of the drama that night was in the Russian performance right before the US went, and 33% of that got cut.

Does NBC seriously expect us to believe that they cut the most important performances from what must be one of the top 3 or 4 nights from their entire, multimillion dollar Olympics package for time? They could not find 2 minutes to televise the complete ending, out of the more than 4 hours of coverage they had that night (and they seem to be able to go late on that primetime show whenever they want to)? Have I mentioned how pure this bullshit is?

Clearly, the only reason they cut out that performance was to give the illusion that the competition was closer than it was, that the final floor exercises were more pressurized and significant and dramatic than they were.

I know, Kevin has explained that NBC treats its Olympic coverage (at least in primetime) like a Reality Show, and we know there is precious little reality in Reality Shows, with the producers scripting conflict and drama to create interest. I can accept some of that (especially when I can watch relatively more straight up sports coverage of much of the Olympic games earlier in the day). But at the very least have the grace not to lie to us - don't piss in our face and call it lemonade.

[Tom Wolper]

On Fri, Aug 3, 2012 at 5:05 AM, PGage <pga...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Does NBC seriously expect us to believe that they cut the most important
> performances from what must be one of the top 3 or 4 nights from their
> entire, multimillion dollar Olympics package for time? They could not find 2
> minutes to televise the complete ending, out of the more than 4 hours of
> coverage they had that night (and they seem to be able to go late on that
> primetime show whenever they want to)? Have I mentioned how pure this
> bullshit is?
>
> Clearly, the only reason they cut out that performance was to give the
> illusion that the competition was closer than it was, that the final floor
> exercises were more pressurized and significant and dramatic than they were.
>
> I know, Kevin has explained that NBC treats its Olympic coverage (at least
> in primetime) like a Reality Show, and we know there is precious little
> reality in Reality Shows, with the producers scripting conflict and drama to
> create interest. I can accept some of that (especially when I can watch
> relatively more straight up sports coverage of much of the Olympic games
> earlier in the day). But at the very least have the grace not to lie to us -
> don't piss in our face and call it lemonade.

I haven't weighed in on Olympics coverage because I have been ignoring
the Games for the most part. I haven't been able to put my finger on
the reason, but I've figured it out: in the US these Olympic Games are
about NBC. In other countries they want the Games to be all about the
athletes and the sports so the broadcasters get out of the way while
in the US it's all about NBC's programming decisions, NBC's ratings,
and NBC's coverage. It has completely turned me off.

In contrast, I was a casual soccer fan in 2010 when ESPN announced
they would stream every World Cup game, meaning it would be available
for free both live and by replay. Watching the tournament (well, Spain
mostly) converted me into a more dedicated fan and I have caught the
occasional Spanish, English, or German league game as well as
following the recent Euro 2012 tournament. I can't understand why NBC
doesn't follow that model and as a result I will rather watch a CFL
game on ESPN 3 rather than the Olympics on NBC.

[Joe Coughlin]

Tunnel Bear and the BBC are your friend, people of the US.

> --
> TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People!
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
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--
+++++++++++++++
Joe Coughlin
http://www.twitter.com/inturnaround

[Joe Hass]

Today's grade A screw-up: while showing Japan-Brazil womens soccer
match, NBC decided to cut away to a commercial, only to miss a killer
goal.

Seriously? Cutting away mid-match in the middle for commercials? Has
no one at NBC seen how to cover a soccer match since about 1986?

http://deadspin.com/5931689/nbc-sportss-broadcast-of-olympic-soccer-cuts-to-commercial-right-before-a-critical-goal

On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 7:43 PM, Kevin M. <drunkba...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Let us start a thread for all the things NBC will do wrong in its
> coverage of London 2012 games. First, right out of the gate, NBC's
> online team posted a tweet from the official Olympic Twitter account
> containing a link for viewers to watch a bootleg live feed of the
> opening ceremonies. One would think if NBC wanted viewers to watch it
> live, they'd have broadcast them on their network as they happened.
> Seems odd that NBC would intentionally redirect viewers away from the
> network and towards a rival.
>
> http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/27/nbc-olympic-opening-ceremony/
>
> --
> Kevin M. (RPCV)

[Jon Delfin]

This is only a grade-B screw-up: USA ran "Mission Impossible II" but
the program info said it was "Mission Impossible III."

[Kevin M.]

On Fri, Aug 3, 2012 at 12:53 PM, Jon Delfin <jond...@gmail.com> wrote:
> This is only a grade-B screw-up: USA ran "Mission Impossible II" but
> the program info said it was "Mission Impossible III."

Showing ANY Mission Impossible movie is a grade-A screw-up
--
Kevin M. (RPCV)

[Brad Beam]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Wolper" <two...@gmail.com>

> I can't understand why NBC doesn't follow that model and as a result I
> will rather watch a CFL game on ESPN 3 rather than the Olympics on NBC.

Then you'll appreciate the irony that the NBC Sports Network will be
carrying the CFL via the TSN feed beginning August 27. And based on the
schedule, you better be an Esks fan; Edmonton is in six of the nine
regular-season match-ups.
http://www.cfl.ca/article/100th-grey-cup-to-air-live-in-us-on-nbc-sports-network

On a related note, because of the Olympics, Sunday's NFL Hall of Fame game
will instead be airing on the NFL Network with its crew.

[Mark Jeffries]

For added irony--since TSN has a connection with ESPN through minority interest by Disney (all that's allowed of foreign businesses in Canada) that allows them access to ESPN programs, a similar logo and their nightly studio show called "SportsCentre" (with the same logo and I assume a similar set and the same bastardized-from-Annie Rossof theme music), does TSN use "Heavy Action" as their CFL theme music?

 

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[Tom Wolper]

On Fri, Aug 3, 2012 at 6:05 PM, Brad Beam <b.b...@suddenlink.net> wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Wolper" <two...@gmail.com>
>
>> I can't understand why NBC doesn't follow that model and as a result I
>> will rather watch a CFL game on ESPN 3 rather than the Olympics on NBC.
>
>
> Then you'll appreciate the irony that the NBC Sports Network will be
> carrying the CFL via the TSN feed beginning August 27. And based on the
> schedule, you better be an Esks fan; Edmonton is in six of the nine
> regular-season match-ups.
> http://www.cfl.ca/article/100th-grey-cup-to-air-live-in-us-on-nbc-sports-network

Cool. I guess as long as NBC Sports shows the games live and not on
tape delay. I was going to add "and they use the TSN announcers and
not NBC announce teams," but frankly I don't think too much of the TSN
announcers. And they have to treat it like sports and not reality TV.

I remember last season they said some games were being aired on the NFL Network.

>
> On a related note, because of the Olympics, Sunday's NFL Hall of Fame game
> will instead be airing on the NFL Network with its crew.

As it looks now it will be with scab referees.

[John Edwards]

The SportsCentre theme is mostly the same, but not exactly. (The show is actually funny when it wants to be, as well, more so than its trying-too-hard American cousin.)

The CFL theme, though, is completely different. 

TSN did, however, scoop up the rights to the Hockey Night in Canada theme a few years ago, after the composer's family got into a dispute with CBC.

John

Sent from my iPhone

tvornottv-...@googlegroups.com

[Brad Beam]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Wolper" <two...@gmail.com>

> Cool. I guess as long as NBC Sports shows the games live and not on tape
> delay.

Looking at the schedule, it looks like NBCSN will tape-delay a conference
semifinal and conference final -- most likely the West, which would start
after the East games end at roughly 8:00 ET/9:00 AT (and a half-hour later
in Newfoundland) -- so as not to interfere with the mothership's Sunday
Night Football.

The Grey Cup will air live the next Sunday evening at 6.

[Bob in Jersey]

Not sure what night this was, but here's the Jacksonville, FL NBC affil's sports guy dumping on Costas for not ending the primetime show at the exact published time...

the 'toob, a shoot-at-the-screen piece



--
BOB

[Mark Jeffries]

Well, we'll see what he says Wednesday night if the commercial-free prem--excuse me, "sneak preview" of "Go On" starts later than the announced 11:08 p.m.  Or next Sunday when the commercial free prem--excuse me again, "sneak preview" of the monkey show starts later than the announced 10:38 p.m.

 

--

[Bob in Jersey]

An interesting juxtaposition occurred Thursday involving Gabrielle Douglas' gymnastics triumph and an ad for the aforementioned Animal Practice featuring a simian performing on rings -- a columnist for the Dallas Morning News saw something offensive -- NBCU told THR there was no intent...



--
BOB

[PGage]

On Sat, Aug 4, 2012 at 5:47 PM, Bob in Jersey <bob.in...@juno.com> wrote:

An interesting juxtaposition occurred Thursday involving Gabrielle Douglas' gymnastics triumph and an ad for the aforementioned Animal Practice featuring a simian performing on rings -- a columnist for the Dallas Morning News saw something offensive -- NBCU told THR there was no intent...

I actually received several emails about this the morning after it happened. I had not noticed it myself because I skip commercials, but I went back and watched it. Nothing to see here - move along.

The obvious line is the truest one: The only offensive thing about the commercial was the insult to my intelligence that any suggestion that I might want to watch the show represents. It had nothing to do with Douglas or African-American gymnasts.

Interestingly, I also received a few emails that morning bashing Costas and NBC for even mentioning that Douglas was African-American, seeing this as part of some pro-Obama conspiracy to get even more entitlements for dark skinned people (or something - I did not really understand the basis for the criticism exactly, it was mostly just an opportunity to foam at the mouth incoherently).

The actual point is that Costas and NBC handled Douglas's ethnicity appropriately and gracefully. They did not mention it at all during the competition, or, to my memory, in any of the event broadcast or commentary after it was over. Costas did not mention it at all during his post-event discussion and interviews, until just before his sign-off, when he introduced it by stating that it as a sign of how far we had come that it hardly seemed remarkable any more, but still worth nothing that she was the first African-American woman to win the Olympic all-around. He noted that Douglas had been inspired by an African-American who won a team Gold some years ago (Dominque something, I kind of remember her as being a part of one of the more obnoxious US Gymnastics Teams), and then noted somewhat sentimentally but no doubt accurately that there were probably more than a few African-American girls going to bed that night thinking they might want to try out for the Olympics one day. Very short, very understated, and very appropriate. In other words, the opposite of the trumped up, irrational controversy, on various sides, in the aftermath.

[Bob in Jersey]

Dominique Dawes, of Hill's Angels gymnastics club in suburban DC, was on three consecutive medal-winning US teams, taking gold in Atlanta.



--
BOB

[Kevin M.]

Just chugged my way through the closing ceremony. My theory is that
since most in Britain consider the games a success, so the British
used to closing ceremonies to remind us of the very worst of Britain.
It evened the scales, as it were. Wow... they ought to show that to
detainees at Gitmo.


--
Kevin M. (RPCV)

[M-D November]

Disagree.  I find the MI films* to be good mindless popcorn-movie diversions.  I'm not saying they're high art by any means, but they're not the worst way to spend 90 or so minutes.

*the exception being MI2 - John Woo had no business going anywhere near that franchise.