Yay NBC!!

[liralen]

I hated ABC's summer Olympics coverage. I ranted and raved and shook my fists at God over ABC's supposed coverage of the summer Olympics that had more fuzzed out pictures of the American athletes' moms than of the actual events. They sucked so badly, they couldn't even show whole games of anything, they didn't show any qualifiers of anything, and they didn't show squat of the events that the US didn't have a medal *winner* in by delaying pretty much every event and only showing the US winner, on the most part. One or two slipped by them.

I mourned my loss of the Canadian channel we used to watch in Seattle that had marvelous coverage.

NBC's coverage, of the winter games, however, has been pretty darned cool, even in just the two days I've been watching (while not sleeping or not trying to scrounge something to eat). WIth the help of MSNBC, they're actually showing the whole hockey games. They showed the *practice* women's downhill runs. They showed the snowboarders' mosh pit! They showed all kinds of really cool details and mostly focussed on the events themselves, and as much of the events as they could put in around the commercials.

I am impressed so far.

Comments

[tenzil.livejournal.com]

Er, I would bet money that it was NBC that covered the '00 Summer Games in Sydney. Honest.

[mallen.livejournal.com]

I, um, agree with Tenzil. NBC sucks at Olympic coverage. They wonder why ratings for the games are down? Look no further than the prism through which we see everything.

I have never more fervently prayed for CBC access than during the Olympics (summer or winter).

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I *loved* CBC coverage when I could get it in Seattle. It was what we always watched there, and I cursed not being able to get it when we moved here.

[ogier30.livejournal.com]

You know, with all you American's clamoring for CBC coverage and all us Canadians wondering why we bother, I suspect there's a deal to be cut here. Maybe we should offer to sell the CBC to y'all. :)

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I'd buy it! In a minute!

Actually, I guess I did... *grin*... since I chose the CBC channels with my cable coverage up in Seattle. Canadian coverage actually covers *all* the sports and all the athletes, and not just Canadian or North American or... like the US coverage only seems to cover Americans, no matter how stupid...

[agrimony.livejournal.com]

NBC only covered the summer sports they felt were money makers.

Which left out most equestrian, most archery, most anything interesting that you only really get to see televised with the Olympics. Bastards.

Go CBC...

[shaterri.livejournal.com]

I had a chance to watch a little coverage (not as much as I'd have liked!) this weekend while I was in Vancouver visiting/interviewing, so I'm pretty fresh on this whole topic.

I haven't watched as much of the NBC coverage as I should, maybe, but I've been watching some of the CNBC coverage (which is VERY good, I must give them credit for that). Even so, it seems to me that NBC has been trying to cover the event as a human-interest event; a news story with a sports angle, rather than a sporting event. There are some upsides to that approach, but I think at a core level it dilutes the spirit of the games. CBC's coverage seems much more geared towards the games as sport; it's more dry (although they have their 'warm and fuzzy' side too, obviously), but it feels more true to the games themselves for that reason.