Sunday, July 29, 2012

The Primetime NBC Tape-Delay

I've been avoiding Twitter as much as I can during the daytime.  Sure, I'm tweeting but only from my main profile page.

Due to guys like Pat Forde ruining the Olympic experience for many that want to watch the games with the drama and suspense that goes with it, I cannot check Twitter during most of the day.  Believe me, I tried but it's impossible.

Yes, I know that NBC is allowing for the live streaming of just about everything this time around.  Come 2016 when the games are in Rio, there will be no need for a primetime tape delay as Rio is one hour ahead of those of us in Eastern Time.

On weekends, NBC could easily have aired the swimming semifinals and finals live but they didn't.  They know that had they aired it live, their evening ratings would be horrendous.  That's what it comes down to for them.  The ratings.  Large ratings means that the advertisers are satisfied at who is viewing their ads.

NBC saw an Opening Ceremony record set on Friday night mainly because they did not allow for any live streaming of the opening night.  I don't blame them one bit.  Nobody will sit at their computer for that long of a time.  But for the swimming and gymnastics--mainly the swimming--they will.

Now NBC has it wrong while ESPN has it right.  With ESPN3, if your internet/cable is provided by certain providers, you automatically have the access to ESPN3 without having to log in with your cable username and password.  NBC?  Not so much.  You HAVE to know your cable information.  If you don't, you are shit out of luck.  To those that don't have cable, talk to your parents and maybe you can get their information.

I like many members of the NBC Sports team but part of me thinks that the IOC royally screwed up by not giving the games to ESPN when they made a bid for them.  ESPN has the bandwidth to handle the extra capacity.  NBC Sports?  Not so much.  Moments ago, we tried to watch some of the swimming via Live Extra.  The browser froze almost immediately after loading and this is on a new computer, no less.

Come 2016, there won't be any bitching and moaning about not airing swimming or gymnastics live because it will be airing practically in real time.

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