Anyone beside me think that NBC's presentation of the Olympics is really poor this year?
I am not talking about the issues of delaying coverage to prime time, or inserting those somewhat hokey personal stories right in the middle of more exciting competition, what I am talking about it more about the basic presentation of the material.
Some examples:
- In the women's gymnastics all around yesterday it didn't seem like they were putting up much of a story. I think I remember from when I was a kid the competition between the US and whoever our rivals were that year (generally Russia, and later China) were told compellingly. There was actual excitement built in the presentation of the events and scoring that you hung on the next event to see who would lead. There was a little of that near the end of yesterday, but not enough.
- In many events, the scoring or relative positions of the athletes are not well depicted. I have noticed this in basketball (where the score, time, shot clock, etc. are not displayed for minutes on end), gymnastics (in multiple events including the final of the all around, some of the gymnasts' scores were never shown. I don't think I ever saw the final Russian girl's score that left her with silver, and only later saw the board with the bronze and 4th place scores.), and in multiple other events (for example in swimming or rowing, they only indicate the event length at certain intervals, so if I just tuned back in I don't know for long periods what event I am looking at). It isn't like graphics or bugs are hard to do or would get in the way - they have been standard for decades now - is it so hard? Who is running this stuff?
- Replays have been especially poor or infrequent. Yeah, DVR helps with seeing something again, but in most cases it won't let me see different angles. The replays have been very few and far between, especially in basketball. Almost like a bunch of amateurs are filming everything. I understand that there are a lot of events that need to be covered, but if NBC or BBC or whoever can't provide the coverage in all the events, maybe the contract should be shared around a bit. Also, despite having hours (5 or 6 at least, and up to 12+ hours in many cases) between when an event occurs and when it is shown in primetime you would think there would be plenty of time to put together a good edit of the event. Also, very rarely are any controversial calls by the officials shown in a replay; presumably NBC is just following their unofficial policy of NBA coverage where they rarely show anything that would put the officials in a bad light (i.e., lets show the boring layup from the last time down the court rather than reviewing the potentially blown foul call that just happened).
- Speaking of editing, just because the sport is happening in cold, rainy London and the women aren't wearing only their skimpy regular bikinis, that doesn't mean I don't want to see the second set of the US vs. Austria beach volleyball. NBC returns us to the game like, "oh, so you might have been worried for a second about the American's possibly losing. Forget that, they won the second set in a cruise and now are going to finish this puppy off." I guess their motto is 'Who needs suspense anyway?'
Anyway, anyone else think the coverage/presentation is poor? Or good? What other examples have you noticed?
I am not talking about the issues of delaying coverage to prime time, or inserting those somewhat hokey personal stories right in the middle of more exciting competition, what I am talking about it more about the basic presentation of the material.
Some examples:
- In the women's gymnastics all around yesterday it didn't seem like they were putting up much of a story. I think I remember from when I was a kid the competition between the US and whoever our rivals were that year (generally Russia, and later China) were told compellingly. There was actual excitement built in the presentation of the events and scoring that you hung on the next event to see who would lead. There was a little of that near the end of yesterday, but not enough.
- In many events, the scoring or relative positions of the athletes are not well depicted. I have noticed this in basketball (where the score, time, shot clock, etc. are not displayed for minutes on end), gymnastics (in multiple events including the final of the all around, some of the gymnasts' scores were never shown. I don't think I ever saw the final Russian girl's score that left her with silver, and only later saw the board with the bronze and 4th place scores.), and in multiple other events (for example in swimming or rowing, they only indicate the event length at certain intervals, so if I just tuned back in I don't know for long periods what event I am looking at). It isn't like graphics or bugs are hard to do or would get in the way - they have been standard for decades now - is it so hard? Who is running this stuff?
- Replays have been especially poor or infrequent. Yeah, DVR helps with seeing something again, but in most cases it won't let me see different angles. The replays have been very few and far between, especially in basketball. Almost like a bunch of amateurs are filming everything. I understand that there are a lot of events that need to be covered, but if NBC or BBC or whoever can't provide the coverage in all the events, maybe the contract should be shared around a bit. Also, despite having hours (5 or 6 at least, and up to 12+ hours in many cases) between when an event occurs and when it is shown in primetime you would think there would be plenty of time to put together a good edit of the event. Also, very rarely are any controversial calls by the officials shown in a replay; presumably NBC is just following their unofficial policy of NBA coverage where they rarely show anything that would put the officials in a bad light (i.e., lets show the boring layup from the last time down the court rather than reviewing the potentially blown foul call that just happened).
- Speaking of editing, just because the sport is happening in cold, rainy London and the women aren't wearing only their skimpy regular bikinis, that doesn't mean I don't want to see the second set of the US vs. Austria beach volleyball. NBC returns us to the game like, "oh, so you might have been worried for a second about the American's possibly losing. Forget that, they won the second set in a cruise and now are going to finish this puppy off." I guess their motto is 'Who needs suspense anyway?'
Anyway, anyone else think the coverage/presentation is poor? Or good? What other examples have you noticed?
