We’re one week into the 2012 Summer Olympics, which means it’s time to look back on NBC’s week of TV and online coverage of the games. And while the network has taken a beating in the social media sphere for its insistence on not airing marquee events like swimming and gymnastics live on air, the suits at NBC pish-posh the criticism and say that people are actually more than alright with knowing who has won or lost the gold medal each night. [More]
olympics
Less Than 24 Hours Into The Olympics And NBC Has Already Ticked People Off
By 7.28.12
When NBC first announced it would offer free live streaming to all of the London 2012 Olympic Games, a lot of people were delighted that they would finally not be stuck having to wait until the network’s oft-derided prime-time broadcast coverage just to see the results of events that were already spoiled to most folks with an Internet connection. And yet, even with the live feeds, NBC has managed to piss off an awful lot of viewers. [More]
Wait To Buy An Olympic Torch If You Don’t Want To Get Burned On The Price
By 7.27.12
Any minute now — or several hours from now if you wait for tonight’s NBC broadcast, the Olympic flame will make its way into the opening ceremony in London, and pass from the 8,000th torch in the Athens-London relay to the big cauldron. It’s easy to get swept up in all the pageantry and tradition; enough to make some folks ponder parting with a pile of cash for one of those torches. But if you just wait until after we’ve all recovered from Olympics fever, you won’t spend nearly as much. [More]
Brits May Challenge Visa's 2012 Olympics Exclusivity
By 6.24.10
If you’ve gone to an Olympic event over the past 22 years, Visa was everywhere you wanted to be. And everywhere you didn’t want to be. In fact, thanks to a contract between Visa and the International Olympic Committee, Visa has been the only credit or debit card allowed at the Olympics since the Seoul games in 1988. But Britain may challenge the exclusivity in the run up to the 2012 games. [More]
Did NBC's Coverage Of The Winter Olympics Suck?
By 3.1.10
As a product, NBC’s broadcast of the 2010 Winter Olympics seemed pretty disappointing to a lot of online users. TechCrunch points out that a recent analysis of comments on Twitter, blogs, and forums, shows a wide range of dissatisfaction with NBC’s coverage, with the biggest percentage focused on content: 19% of the complaints were about the tape delay of events (what a former NBC sports exec once called “plausibly live”), and 20% were about there not being enough actual sporting events shown. [More]
Why Does NBC Hate Hockey/Events People Want To Watch?
By 2.22.10
On paper, Sunday night’s Olympic ice hockey game between the U.S. and Canadian teams would have seemed like a marquee event, something deserving of prime time coverage in HD. But NBC relegated coverage of the game to sibling channel MSNBC, which isn’t available in HD to a large number of viewers. [More]
NBC Perfectly Happy With Angering Winter Olympics Fans
By 2.18.10
When it was announced several years ago that the 2010 Winter Olympics would be held in Vancouver, many people in North America — especially those in the Pacific time zone — were relieved. Finally, they’d be able to see the major events live, instead of on the tape delay they’d come to expect from recent Olympics in Europe, Asia and Australia. Alas, NBC has decided, despite having nearly 24-hour coverage spread out over several channels, to irritate millions of viewers by continuing to use tape delay. [More]
NBC Blocking Certain ISPs From Online Olympic Streaming
By 2.16.10
If you connect to the internet via Verizon DSL, don’t expect to be able to catch your triple axels in real time. Robin complains she and her husband have been ring-blocked since NBC didn’t put the ISP on its approved list. [More]
Did China Cover Up The Melamine Milk Scandal Because Of The Olympics?
By 9.23.08
The New York Times says that China’s state-controlled media has admitted that “one of China’s biggest dairy producers received consumer complaints about its baby milk formula as early as December 2007 — much earlier than previously thought and nine months before the producer ordered a nationwide recall because of concerns that the formula had been adulterated with a toxic industrial chemical.”
Coca-Cola's Probably Regretting Sponsoring Argentina's Women's Soccer Team
By 8.21.08
Pictured above are members of Argentina’s olympic soccer team, celebrating their trip to the Olympics in Beijing. Although they’re not the first Olympic team to strike this tasteless pose, they are the first to do so while wearing their corporate sponsor’s name on their jerseys.
