the worst televised sports coverage in the history of mankind

[crimsonblue]

I can safely say that NBC's coverage of the Men's volleyball Gold Mwdal Match was truly one of the most blasphemous events ever covered. Not only was the match between the USA and Brasil delayed by 18 hours, but it was also shortened. Could you ever imagine a Superbowl or College Championship shortenedby nearly half? ANY gold medal match featuring US participants should be broadcast live, in full in this country. Canada and the UK showed this match live. Why couldn't NBC? Our men deserved to at least have their match shown in full. Shame on NBC for exploiting the tragedy of these games for their own marketing purposes.

[MrSlayer]

1. Yes, it was lamented at my house as well.

We were reduced to following it on the internet as a fucking ping-pong match was shown instead. Disgusting. No point in watching the replay.

[glowing]

2. I think the entire Olympic coverage by NBC was really quite bad...

They seemed like a marketing tool for AWOL chimpy and for China.

[ColbertWatcher]

3. Bravo. n/t

[npk]

4. One reason is Money

NBC paid for the rights to the Olympics so they could make money. The way you make money is to air the most popular segment in prime time. Prime time advertising rates are worth millions, compared to advertising dollars during the wee hour of the morning. So in the end money won out. That, incidentally, is also why the match was shortened.

[crimsonblue]

5. if that's the case

why not show the mens bball final instead? God I hope ESPN wins the rights for the Chicago games, as they have already comitted to showing EVERY event live.

[npk]

7. That's a good point too, Crimson

They did show the Men BB final at 230Am, I forgot about that. I suppose they figured the backlash would not have been worth the monetary gains.

[pokerfan]

16. Since when is 1AM prime-time?

Making the west coast stay up to 1AM to watch a taped event made no sense.

[npk]

18. I have no clue pokerfan

That doesn't make since to me. Must have had something to do with the local syndicate of NBC.

[Trajan]

6. I thought NBC's coverage was mildly bad ....

Worst in history ? .... big words ....

[gi4obama]

8. You can also put

Olympic baseball coverage on that list. The Japan/USA game went into extra innings the other day and the new rule to help shorten the games was used.


*The rule says that if a game were to go into extra innings that 2 players would be placed on first and second.

[tkmorris]

9. I saw that and just shook my head

I am no huge fan of baseball but there is something sacrosanct about it. You just don't make rule changes like this, it fundamentally changes the game. Hell, I think the DH rule ruined the modern game, at least in the AL.

[crimsonblue]

10. The only time that the extra inning rule makes sense

is for the All Star game. For that game, it would ensure that the game ends, and help prevent another tie and keep from exhausting the bullpen. Or, they could just get rid of the "It Counts" BS, and let the winningest team host the WS like it should be.

[Johonny]

12. a lot of non-USA origin sports

have overtime rules unlike the rest of the game. So if you watch international sports it wasn't that huge a surprise. As the writer below wrote, the American game could probably use this rule for events like the All Star game.

[Johonny]

11. I liked the coverage

It was basically the same coverage you always get from an Olympics that many time zones away.

Funny enough NFL network cuts a lot of the dead time from their games when they rebroadcast them. Boy it's a lot easier to watch. So cutting out the duller parts of championship games that are not live... not new either to the Olympics or sports and certainly expected when you have so many events to show and only a small idea exactly what events will be attractive to viewers.

[pokerfan]

13. The Olympics are not sports

At least according to NBC.

From NBC: "The audience makeup of the Olympics is very much like that of American Idol and Dancing with the Stars which have 'live' season finales presented in much the same way."

[crimsonblue]

14. One more reason I hope ESPN gets the 2016 games

they will treat the Olympics like the sporting event it is.

[pokerfan]

15. Can you imagine NBC broadcasting the Super Bowl?

Or the World Series? And delaying it three hours for the west coast? Don't think that they wouldn't do it.

[taterguy]

19. How many people bet on the outcome of a volleyball match?

[pokerfan]

20. Have you ever been inside a Vegas sports book?

People bet on everything, including American Idol. Are you saying that the only reason people have an interest in watching live coverage of a sporting event is because of gambling?

The reason people want to to watch live sports is that it is unscripted drama. Delaying the gold medal match by 21 hours (left coast) in this twenty-first century "information age" was simply idiotic. It was impossible not to be spoiled.

NBC had over a dozen channels covering the games. Why didn't they make the gold medal match available live on one of the lesser channels AND also air it delayed in prime-time? I doubt that it would have hurt their Sunday night ratings a bit.

[taterguy]

21. Have you ever been inside this tunnel?

Well, have you?

[aikoaiko]

17. I enjoyed the Olympics.

Of course more unedited sports and less commercials would have been nice, but thats tv.

[MadHound]

22. NBC's coverage sucked all the way around

I was actually a bit hopeful when they kept mentioning how they would be putting all their cable channels to use. They did, but not all at the same time, and most hardly at all. On NBC we were treated to the most "popular" sports, the swimming, beach volleyball, gymnastics, etc., their standard fare on NBC.

The trouble is, the only other channel that broadcast at nights showed boxing, boxing and more boxing on UHD channel. Once every few days they would throw on some badminton early in the evening, but only for a short while, then back to boxing.

The daytime schedule would sometimes feature odd sports, but I saw no cycling, little soccer, little basketball(no women's), the list goes on and on. It really was atrocious.