XXXth Olympiad - London

[MacLeod]

In case anyone missed it/is interested today marks 100 days till the games begin.

[Darth Duck]

The sexy Olympics.

[Roger Wilco]

Sorry for the nitpicking, but this is going to annoy me for months if this is the "official" thread, the Olympiad is actually the period between the "Games", Olympics was the word you meant.

[MacLeod]

I'm sure one of our friendly mods can change it.

[SmoothieX]

The Olympics are awesome, I can't wait.

Of course, NBC will once again show nothing but women's gymnastics and sprinting mixed with sappy human interest segments.

[Dorian Thompson]

Womens gymnastics and track and field are what draws the ratings. And swimming. Nothing else is interesting unless you're directly involved in it.

[tomalak301]

I wonder how much West Coast live stuff there will be. Now that NBC Sports Network is around, there might be more, which could be a good thing. Still, I've always hated NBC's insistance that the west coast doesn't get live stuff and it's one of the reasons I wish the Olympics were on ESPN/ABC. This year will probably be no different.

[Roger Wilco]

^^
You have internet. There is literally no event in the Olympics you can't see live if you want to.

Fuck NBC if they refuse to deliver you the content you expect.

[Dorian Thompson]

ESPN will get them eventually. In the internet age, the Olympics on network television is dated. How it expects to get any ratings on the west coast, I don't know.

As far as womens gymnastics is concerned there's already trouble brewing, only not over the ages of the Chinese gymnasts this time. China is not as deep as it was, but the US is incredibly deep. Problem is, the Olympic committee has decided to limit each country to only 5 team members total. The US is so deep with medal contenders this time that 2 or even 3 gymanasts who could be competing in finals on every apparatus are going to be left off the team. With Nastia Liukin trying to make the team as a bars specialist (many people think she shouldn't because she won the all around in '08) people are afraid that an all arounder might get denied a place on the team.

Jordyn Wieber, Alexandra Raisman, Rebecca Bross, Gabrielle Douglas, McKayla Maroney have all medaled at the world championships. Wieber won the all around. Kyla Ross and Sabrina Vega are both impressively talented and are expected to compete at the trials and selection camp. They were the top 8. Liukin is going to compete at trials. So may Shawn Johnson. Alicia Sacramone was going to as well, but she tore her achilles tendon at the world championships, so she's out. That's 9 medal worthy competitors competing for 5 spots. There will be other gymnasts as well. This time, I think the girls' team will take the gold home barring any unforeseen injuries. The all around is the real drama. Already bad blood between Wieber and the top Russian gymnast, Komokova, who whined like a baby when she didn't win the gold at worlds. See, there's plenty of stuff to excite you in womens' gymnastics.

[Hound of UIster]

^^
You have internet. There is literally no event in the Olympics you can't see live if you want to.

Fuck NBC if they refuse to deliver you the content you expect.

But it's always to difficult to match up the times of the events with when they get streamed by NHK/BBC/CCTV.

[Roger Wilco]

I suppose. But when an event's live it's live and doesn't wait for it. You'll just have to figure out when it starts.

[Kestrel]

I hope ESPN doesn't get them, they're too much of a monster already.

[tomalak301]

Roger Wilco wrote:

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^^
You have internet. There is literally no event in the Olympics you can't see live if you want to.

Fuck NBC if they refuse to deliver you the content you expect.

Legally, they crack down on the internet viewing quite hard.

[tomalak301]

I just read something that is making me happy, but giving me one of those "Is this too good to be true?" thoughts.

Live Olympics

In a great step for fans of the Olympic Games, NBCOlympics.com will be streaming all 32 sports live on the web. For folks that dive into the Olympics and have been frustrated with the primetimeization of the games, this is great news. The only catch to the live streaming online is that major events covered in primetime won't be archived online until after the primetime broadcast. Other events will be archived almost immediately. The live streaming is a major step forward in a new direction for NBC as told by Richard Sandomir of the New York Times...

The live streaming of every event is a major shift at the NBC Sports Group, which was formed after Comcast acquired control of NBC Universal. Under General Electric, its former owner, NBC Sports did not stream live events that would be featured in prime time, lest they diminish ratings.

Two years ago, at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, only hockey and curling were streamed live in order to protect prime time. At the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, 25 sports were streamed live but none of them were important to the evening broadcast, which is usually at least four hours long.

“The way consumers consume video has changed over the years,” Mr. Cordella said. “We can’t go back with hindsight and say we were wrong.”

He said that NBC had data to show that live streaming could increase viewership of a event shown hours later on delay. “We’re not scared of cannibalization,” Mr. Cordella said, adding, “Anytime you have a great event that happens before it shows on the air, it increases ratings and generates buzz.”

According to NBC, all you need to sign up for the live streaming is to confirm a cable or satellite service (which will hopefully be eaiser than March Madness On Demand). The potential here is huge with all 302 events from 32 sports beginning with soccer prelims on July 25th. Several events will also have multiple streaming options including tennis, track and field, and gymnastics.

[Hound of UIster]

tomalak301 wrote:

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Legally, they crack down on the internet viewing quite hard.

There is nothing worth watching on NBC or most American cable channels.