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Rio 2016 Olympics - countdown and discussion

Gone are the days of truly epic opening ceremonies, but this one was okay.

I tried to stay up past 1 a.m. early Saturday but fell asleep before I could see the torch lit. It would've been nice if NBC had aired the event live, which would mean people on the West Coast could watch as early as 4:30 p.m. local time. If that seemed too early for some, they could always record it.

According to an article I was reading, NBC no longer features the medal ceremonies, "unless they're relevant." In other words, only when the U.S. gets gold. I'm not saying they should do an elaborate coverage for every medal award. It wouldn't be bad to show, say, an underdog athlete or team getting their moment of glory.
 
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Like in the 2004 Olympics and today when the Iraqi people are going through very hard times at home the Iraqi soccer team really gives everything it has and then some to unite the nation. The country can use it over the next several weeks of oppressive heat before the Battle of Mosul kicks off.

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Gone are the days of truly epic opening ceremonies, but this one was okay.

I tried to stay up past 1 a.m. early Saturday but fell asleep before I could see the torch lit. It would've be nice if NBC had aired the event live, which would mean people on the West Coast could watch as early as 4:30 p.m. local time. If that seemed too early for some, they could always record it.

According to an article I was reading, NBC no longer features the medal ceremonies, "unless they're relevant." In other words, only when the U.S. gets gold. I'm not saying they should do an elaborate coverage for every medal award. It wouldn't be bad to show, say, an underdog athlete or team getting their moment of glory.
God, Matt Lauer, Meredith Viera, and Hoda Kotb are the worst, though Viera less so than the others because she actually provides useful commentary too.

But Matt Lauer is such a cynical dick. Why'd he feel the need to point out that Belgian athlete Mourad Laachraoui was the brother of one of the Belgian airport suicide bombers? It's like guilt by association. Then he offered nothing positive to say about the guy, like that was the only thing about him worth mentioning. He also suggested that people back home would be pissed because of Brazil's Alberto Santos-Dumont "First in Flight" sequence, like anyone's actually going to get angry about it.

Then Hoda as the new member of the announcing team got the "honor" of making the same stupid "Djibouti" pun they make every Olympics (they even pointed out that they make the same joke every time), and again, add nothing else about the country or its athletes.

I don't really care about the state of relations between the US and North Korea, talk about their damn team when they come out. You don't even have to read the North Korean press release, just cite the stats for their previous performances in world competition leading up to the Games.
 
NBC dropped the ball tonight on the coverage of the men's all around gymnastic finals. Two and a half primetime hours of diving and swimming events, and no sign of gymnastics until later, possibly after 12:30 a.m. local time? I realize the US men placed fifth, but come on, they announced the event earlier tonight, so at least give the viewers a glimpse before bedtime. I'm surprised it's not even available via On Demand at this time.
 
swimming was shitty last night.
Germans fail all over the place. Obviously not enough doping....:shrug:
 
I've never been much of a sports fan. But I have my eye on long jumper Darya Klishina, the only Russian track and field athlete cleared to compete in the Olympics.

How do you say "goddess" in Russian? :luvlove:
 
Just curious, how do other networks cover the olympics because for being the US, and for having as much star power as this country has, The Olympic coverage here needs to be better. I see this observation every year and every year the technology improves but the coverage remains archaic. For example, last night I was watching some of the prime time coverage and it was terrible. I felt like I was watching more commercials than actual events, and the Events NBC did show were so truncated and lacking anything. Yes, it's tape delayed, and on the west coast, it's even more tape delayed, but if you're going to tape delay something, why go 4 hours with about 3 and a half hours of commercials? Also, you advertise the gymnastic team, but you don't show them until 11:00 at night? You want families to watch your product and maybe those include little girls who might dream of being a gymnist one day and the main event is held till after Prime Time is over?

Again, this is an issue every year but why won't there be any improvements. Yeah you can stream, but I was trying to stream things last night and it was pretty slow. I just wish Americans got the same olympic treatment as all the other countries. NBC isn't providing olympic coverage. They are providing an olympic infomercial, and that is sad.
 
Also, you advertise the gymnastic team, but you don't show them until 11:00 at night? You want families to watch your product and maybe those include little girls who might dream of being a gymnist one day and the main event is held till after Prime Time is over?
I had the very same thought.
 
NBC coverage is as bad as its ever been. The hashtag #NBCFail is still alive and well.

The only bright spot so far is the ratings for Opening Ceremonies were terrible. And no wonder, while my wife and I remember what the Olympics were like with good coverage my children who are teenagers and young adults don't have any interest in the Olympics at all. NBC is turning off a whole generation.
 
Just curious, how do other networks cover the olympics because for being the US, and for having as much star power as this country has, The Olympic coverage here needs to be better. I see this observation every year and every year the technology improves but the coverage remains archaic. For example, last night I was watching some of the prime time coverage and it was terrible. I felt like I was watching more commercials than actual events, and the Events NBC did show were so truncated and lacking anything. Yes, it's tape delayed, and on the west coast, it's even more tape delayed, but if you're going to tape delay something, why go 4 hours with about 3 and a half hours of commercials? Also, you advertise the gymnastic team, but you don't show them until 11:00 at night? You want families to watch your product and maybe those include little girls who might dream of being a gymnist one day and the main event is held till after Prime Time is over?

Again, this is an issue every year but why won't there be any improvements. Yeah you can stream, but I was trying to stream things last night and it was pretty slow. I just wish Americans got the same olympic treatment as all the other countries. NBC isn't providing olympic coverage. They are providing an olympic infomercial, and that is sad.

I feel for you. I have XFinity Comcast, and I have to watch some of the events On Demand because NBC's primetime coverage doesn't cut it. It wasn't always like this, or perhaps I was remembering things differently back then? I've been watching the Olympics way before the era of 700 high-definition channels, and I felt it was much more inclusive and comprehensive back then. Heck, they even showed the medal ceremonies for foreign countries. Cycling, basketball, rowing - those were shown at different times on the same local channel. People talked about the Olympics, not about the Olympics coverage. How things have changed.
 
I feel for you. I have XFinity Comcast, and I have to watch some of the events On Demand because NBC's primetime coverage doesn't cut it. It wasn't always like this, or perhaps I was remembering things differently back then? I've been watching the Olympics way before the era of 700 high-definition channels, and I felt it was much more inclusive and comprehensive back then. Heck, they even showed the medal ceremonies for foreign countries. Cycling, basketball, rowing - those were shown at different times on the same local channel. People talked about the Olympics, not about the Olympics coverage. How things have changed.

It's been so many years, but I remember the Olympics being a truly world event. You had the human stories, but the competition was front and center and it was not always so US centric. I was watching last night and I don't think they went a half an hour without talking about Michael Phelps. It was too much, and I'm rooting for team USA too. I just wish the Olympics turned back into a world thing rather than an in your face country thing that NBC has turned it into.
 
Over here we have 10 channels of dedicated Olympics coverage on Sky Sport, plus some of the more popular events are shown on the main Sky Sport 1-4 channels. I brlieve free-to-air coverage of the more popular sports are being shown with a 40 minute delay.

The NZ Sevens men's team crashed out against Fiji 12-7 at the quarter finals this morning, at least we managed to scrape through that far and against losing agsinst the favourites to take out the gold medal isn't too embarrassing. Losing to Japan and Great Britain getting there on the other hand... New Zealand Rugby really dropped the ball as far as the Sevens are concerned, all they care about are the All Blacks. At least the women's team managed a silver earlier in the week!
 
It's been so many years, but I remember the Olympics being a truly world event. You had the human stories, but the competition was front and center and it was not always so US centric. I was watching last night and I don't think they went a half an hour without talking about Michael Phelps. It was too much, and I'm rooting for team USA too. I just wish the Olympics turned back into a world thing rather than an in your face country thing that NBC has turned it into.
It would be nice if NBC's coverage of the Olympics could be formatted as a celebratory world event instead of making it look like the Cold War by athletic proxy is still going down. NBC is more interested in selling commercials and airing Bob Costas giving cringey interviews so I'm not holding breath about it.
 
I'm glad our coverage here is better, although without the streaming channels it would be pretty terrible as well

thank God for the online services run by our public stations
 
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