It has nothing to do with people not liking sports as much or missing the Olympics due to Facebook/Twitter/snapchat and everything to do with the fact that they beholden to this prime time nonsense and think that millions of people are willing to watch events when they already know what happened. Sports can be great storytelling devices but being able to watch live and see what happens with everyone else is a major part of its appeal, and why networks are paying more and more to the major leagues.
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Olympics ratings down, NBCU CEO predicted this and preemptively blamed millennials
- Thread starter XiaNaphryz
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PrivateWHudson
Member
Same here. I've learned awhile ago that it's mostly commercials and life stories. When they finally do show something interesting, the hosts just start talking over it with more life story crap, or they cut to the hosts instead of the athlete.
torre_avenue
Banned
"I wonder why all these people don't want to see sports whose results have already come out hours beforehand, have inane commentary spoken over them, and have a metric shit-ton of ads. Damn millenials and their Snapchats and their Instagrams and their reluctance to watch media that shoves ads down their throats."
I'd love to see a real breakdown of what happened to bring down viewers. I'd like to believe its a combination of the maelstrom of bad news that doggedly pursued Rio, a lack of desire to watch delayed games just so that ads could be broadcast, and falling cable subscriber numbers.
I'd love to see a real breakdown of what happened to bring down viewers. I'd like to believe its a combination of the maelstrom of bad news that doggedly pursued Rio, a lack of desire to watch delayed games just so that ads could be broadcast, and falling cable subscriber numbers.
kunonabi
Member
I watched everything online since the primetime coverage focuses on so few sports and spends so much time on the U.S athletes. They really need to improve their online Olympic services if you ask me. I should be able to customize the coverage to the sports and nations I want to follow.
It's each country's problem and job to hype their people to root for their athletes and watch them. A sport might be boring to watch, but if you make people care about the results and to actually care about that more people would watch them.
Right now, people who watch them are people who love those sports. Internet people only care about cool stuff that happened, like Bolt running at 100mph, Phelps beating a shark swimming or some athlete messing up.
In this age of youtube, gifs, snapchat... the content that succeeds are short highlight videos, not 8 hour coverages; because people don't care about their country's athlete's performance at olympics, they only want instant gratification entertainment and things to tweet about.
It's not millennials fault, society changes, and the enterntainment needs change with it. Make them care or give them what they want.
Right now, people who watch them are people who love those sports. Internet people only care about cool stuff that happened, like Bolt running at 100mph, Phelps beating a shark swimming or some athlete messing up.
In this age of youtube, gifs, snapchat... the content that succeeds are short highlight videos, not 8 hour coverages; because people don't care about their country's athlete's performance at olympics, they only want instant gratification entertainment and things to tweet about.
It's not millennials fault, society changes, and the enterntainment needs change with it. Make them care or give them what they want.
KernelPanic
Member
NBC treats the Olympics like a reality show and not a sporting event, they flat out admit it.
KeyBladerXIII
Member
Ratings were down because your coverage was fucking abysmal. You showcased the same shit every day and on a tape delay so you could cut most of the athletes out and just focused on the athletes you knew ahead of time would win.
You had the same 10 commercials play over and over and your commentators were dull. You gave zero attention to any monumental achievement that wasn't related to the US. Nobody watching NBC would've known about first gold medals for Fiji, Vietnam, or Puerto Rico or even American medalists for sports that weren't Swimming, Track, or Gymnastics.
Everyone with a brain knew to go online to find what they wanted, so you can rightly fuck off.
You had the same 10 commercials play over and over and your commentators were dull. You gave zero attention to any monumental achievement that wasn't related to the US. Nobody watching NBC would've known about first gold medals for Fiji, Vietnam, or Puerto Rico or even American medalists for sports that weren't Swimming, Track, or Gymnastics.
Everyone with a brain knew to go online to find what they wanted, so you can rightly fuck off.
SchrodingerC
Member
Maybe some people are tired of NBC's butchered version of the Olympics, you ass.
I mean our coverage was fantastic from the range of sports on show (live , online , digital channels and through red button) to the selection of commentators and pundits, but we were equally as patriotic, it's the Olympics after all, everyone is supporting their own nation.
I can't see how if the USAUSA stuff on NBC bogged you how out guys giving it TEAMGBTEAMGB would equally drive you nuts.
BBC coverage was brilliant though. Maybe it's still enjoyable here cause we are largely still under dogs punching above our weight.
Edit - plus no ads on the BBC
Still s ton of people watching. Even with lower ratings
T
thepotatoman
Unconfirmed Member
I do think they went way too far in covering only US athletes this year.
I like there being a US focus, but it's almost to the point where it's no longer impressive to see US win, because all other countries were basically invisible. It makes it no longer a worldwide competition.
I like there being a US focus, but it's almost to the point where it's no longer impressive to see US win, because all other countries were basically invisible. It makes it no longer a worldwide competition.
The less popular sports were all streamed live. It was only the popular ones with heavy US involvement thst were not streamed live.
Hasphat'sAnts
Member
They keep running these saccharine human interest pieces that are decidedly not targeted at millennials then wonder why millennials don't watch.
Who's running their business?
Who's running their business?
FelixOrion
Poet Centuriate
See y'all at the eGames in 2016 and 2020
http://www.egames.org/rio-de-janeiro-egames-showcase-2016.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EGames_(eSports)
KennyLinder
Member
BBC had upto 8 HD channels showing different sports, it was fucking spectacular. How on Earth does US fuck this up?
Unknown Soldier
Member
It's not hard to see how shit NBC Olympic coverage is anymore because of the Internet. Maybe NBC should try harder to not be shit.
Ziltoidia 9
Member
So this man feels like he is entitled to have millennials watch?
Smokey_Run
Member
I couldn't care less about the Olympics to be honest. I never watched them. It doesn't help that the US dominates in the medal count. Why watch Men's or Women's Basketball when you know they're going to win? I've got better stuff to do.
I barely watch live sports games anymore. It's been reduced to playoff games in the MLB and NBA, NFL games, and college football games. I don't care enough to watch the 131st Yankees game that really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. If football seasons were any longer, I'd feel the same way about them.
I barely watch live sports games anymore. It's been reduced to playoff games in the MLB and NBA, NFL games, and college football games. I don't care enough to watch the 131st Yankees game that really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. If football seasons were any longer, I'd feel the same way about them.
Cindi Mayweather
Member
This quote:
Really gave me the giggles. I didn't watch because fuck what IOC and Brazil did to Brazilians for money. And if I watched anyways it certainly wouldn't have been on NBC.
I like sports but not what's the point if it's not live and you only coverage the sports the USA is "good" at? What's the point in watching Team USA pulverize everyone in basketball? I've been watching that happen since I was a kid. Why would I want to watch that boredom again?
Really gave me the giggles. I didn't watch because fuck what IOC and Brazil did to Brazilians for money. And if I watched anyways it certainly wouldn't have been on NBC.
I like sports but not what's the point if it's not live and you only coverage the sports the USA is "good" at? What's the point in watching Team USA pulverize everyone in basketball? I've been watching that happen since I was a kid. Why would I want to watch that boredom again?
SDCowboy
Member
Odd, I can't think of any modern generation of youth that was ingrained with a love for fencing, water polo or fucking handball. Could it just be people today care less about obscure sports that they never cared about ever outside of the Olympics?
Also I doubt all the negative press leading up to this year's helped.
DietRob
i've been begging for over 5 years.
I think NBC/Comcast is going to really regret their decision to pay over 2 billion for broadcast rights for the winter 2018 and summer 2020 games. If they are already hurting for the changing TV broadcast trends in 2016 it's only going to get more diverse by 2020.
NBC/Comcast is not a company known for adapting to new trends but they will need to.
The only things I specifically watched their prime time coverage for was the swimming coverage and gymnastics. I made sure to stay off social media those days since I was unsure if what I was watching in prime time took place hours or days before shown in prime time.
NBC/Comcast is not a company known for adapting to new trends but they will need to.
The only things I specifically watched their prime time coverage for was the swimming coverage and gymnastics. I made sure to stay off social media those days since I was unsure if what I was watching in prime time took place hours or days before shown in prime time.
FelixOrion
Poet Centuriate
tried watching some shit online but their site and highlights are garbage
fix your shit before you tell me to fix mine
fix your shit before you tell me to fix mine
Yeah... NBC's coverage just plane sucks and they don't seem like they want to change.
If you want to stream anything from them, you have to log in with a cable company, and then when something big is going on in the middle of the day, like Simone Biles doing what she does, they show non-live rowing or something while I'm getting an ESPN alert on who won what medal.
But nah, it's easier to blame people than actually attempting to cater to them.
If you want to stream anything from them, you have to log in with a cable company, and then when something big is going on in the middle of the day, like Simone Biles doing what she does, they show non-live rowing or something while I'm getting an ESPN alert on who won what medal.
But nah, it's easier to blame people than actually attempting to cater to them.
NBC coverage could be better organized, I still think Tokyo will help improve ratings for NBC in 2020. Overall the exciment level wasn't that of Beijing or London.
Also, the initial ratings reports factoring in app usable and streaming made up a fair chunk of the shortfall.
By the time Tokyo hits programming will be even more developed with live streaming and broadcasting online, which will bode well for nbc as well...
Also, the initial ratings reports factoring in app usable and streaming made up a fair chunk of the shortfall.
By the time Tokyo hits programming will be even more developed with live streaming and broadcasting online, which will bode well for nbc as well...
poster is mixing up streams and broadcast. random non-US-centric events were broadcast live during odd hours of the day. anything US-centric like women's gymnastics was held back for primetime broadcast. including the fucking opening ceremony
everything was streamed live
PsychoSoldier
Banned
I think there were probably a million reasons this was the case.
There's so much content available not-live. You may not have a lot of competition on live tv but you have a ton of competition in terms of people who mainly watch things on Hulu/Netflix/Amazon/Youtube/etc.
There's so much content available in general. When there was little content in general, even a shitty version of the Olympics was the best thing going and tons of people would watch.
A lot of people aren't used to the amount of commercials live tv brings with it. As someone who pays for no-ad Hulu and mainly watches Netflix, I could see myself getting frustrated with the dearth of sporting coverage relative to the amount of commercials. Probably other people felt the same.
It's easier to watch the highlights. Given how many Olympic sports are very short spurts of action, highlights make a lot more sense if there's a lot of other content out there you want to watch.
There's so much content available not-live. You may not have a lot of competition on live tv but you have a ton of competition in terms of people who mainly watch things on Hulu/Netflix/Amazon/Youtube/etc.
There's so much content available in general. When there was little content in general, even a shitty version of the Olympics was the best thing going and tons of people would watch.
A lot of people aren't used to the amount of commercials live tv brings with it. As someone who pays for no-ad Hulu and mainly watches Netflix, I could see myself getting frustrated with the dearth of sporting coverage relative to the amount of commercials. Probably other people felt the same.
It's easier to watch the highlights. Given how many Olympic sports are very short spurts of action, highlights make a lot more sense if there's a lot of other content out there you want to watch.
T
thepotatoman
Unconfirmed Member
Thinking about it more, the problem probably isn't the US centricity, but the Reality TV direction they took it. They try so hard to make you care about one individual athlete, spending so much time showing clips talking about their personal lives, while barely giving a passing mention to the other athletes.
That's what is making the US centricity of the coverage seem so incredibly extreme, compared to your typical coverage of most competitions. Even if the coverage of those competitions are clearly biased, at least they're covered like competitions, which makes things not too one sided.
NBC doesn't want to show competition. They want to show stars. Of course they're going to choose only americans for that spotlight, but it wouldn't be fixed by making their star of the show for the event they're covering be non-american.
I watched a decent amount of Olympics, but until the games adds a fifth sport (can't believe the entire Olympics consists of swimming, gymnastics, track and field and beach volleyball) to the lineup, I'm kinda over it.
Oh, also all the results were on Twitter 3-4 hours before it aired on the west coast so everything was a bit anticlimactic. Too bad there's no solution for this impossible problem!
Oh, also all the results were on Twitter 3-4 hours before it aired on the west coast so everything was a bit anticlimactic. Too bad there's no solution for this impossible problem!
Master Thespian
Member
exactly. their reluctance to talk about the sports is worse than their tape delay
Fox Mulder
Member
Gotta love that tape delayed, commercial filled mainstream shallow coverage.
DietRob
i've been begging for over 5 years.
NBC is going to need to shift more of it's coverage to online streaming. People want to watch events LIVE. There will only be a handful of people (olds) that are OK with only watching prime time coverage of prerecorded events.
TV Viewership for the 2018 games is going to be even lower. Not only because of the landscape of television but also because the winter games aren't nearly as popular. Toyko 2020 is a real toss up. Who knows what the broadcast landscape looks like by then.
TV Viewership for the 2018 games is going to be even lower. Not only because of the landscape of television but also because the winter games aren't nearly as popular. Toyko 2020 is a real toss up. Who knows what the broadcast landscape looks like by then.
Dash_Riprock
Member
Same here.
SDCowboy
Member
The tape delay needs to stop. Every even needs to be held live. This is 2016 (and will be 2018) for God's sake.
dskillzhtown
keep your strippers out of my American football
I think you could have done that. Every event was streamed online, mostly with no commentary. You would have to do some searching though.
I watched online exclusively so I am part of the problem. I watched NBC's coverage on their app and thought it was great. I watched alot of events that weren't broadcast on TV, so there were very few or no commercials at all. I watched Handball like I was addicted as well as rowing and tablet tennis. Sports that I am sure NBC proper ignored. I even watched Olympic basketball online.
In my case, NBC gave me an option and I used it but now they are disappointed. They need to rethink their approach. Less studio shows and more variety in the coverage. To me it seems they have been using the same playbook for about 20 years. To blame "millennials" is a bit short-sighted as well. Not only millennials watched the games online.
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