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[this guy are sick]

Note for anyone in the UK who may have wondered into the thread to feel good about the beeb's coverage, Discovery(aka Eurosport) bought the rights to the 2024 olympics and beyond. They're sharing with the BBC, but the BBC isn't going to cover like they did before, 1-2 channels instead of everything, a lot of the coverage is going to be off free tv it seems?

Its going to fucking suck and I'm so sad about it...

 

[The Lamonster]

"a social media bubble" is such an oxymoron. If anything, spending a lot of time on social media makes you more aware of things happening, especially in the realm of sports and entertainment.

Boneheaded statement.

 

[RastaMentality]

The site fucking sucked. You needed to have cable (which is fine) but they also required you have the USA network which is bullshit. If you wanted to watch any events that already happened, they cut it up into a minute long highlight (that didn't even have entire gymnastics routines). Like you're already showing us ads, why the fuck can't we watch the full event?

Then they deleted any instance of Olympics footage anywhere else the Internet. BBC handled this so much better.

 

[Salz01]

A somebody who cut the cord 4 years ago, it was a pain in the ass to find other ways to watch it. Sling didn't work that great for me and is an extra cost on top of Hulu. When I did watch the sports the shitty announcers and commercials ruined the little enjoyment I was having. Olympic coverage has to reinvent itself for 2020.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Blame information age and that we now actually now how much drugs are used in sports. Where's the fun in watching "Who's the best user?"

Also, IOC is shady a fuck and now more people than ever know it.

 

[Pupperbabysassy]

NBC focused on the majority white swim team where they tried to promote someone(Michael phelps) who had three DUI's.

 

[Holden]

- all the shit happening in brazil outside of the olympics
- no proper way to watch it online with access to vods and stuff, i ain't watching TV
- patriotism dick size contest bullshit

all those stuff just don't make me want to watch it

 

[jfkgoblue]

TBF, the other NBC channels were almost 100% live events, and didn't focus nearly as heavily on the American events as the main channel, I watched way more NBCSN these Olympics than NBC proper, they were just trying to maximize their OTA ratings with live swimming and tape delayed Gymnastics, which makes sense to me.

I really don't understand the people bitching about NBC's coverage when this year was probably the best overall with nearly every event shown live.

- all the shit happening in brazil outside of the olympics
- no proper way to watch it online with access to vods and stuff, i ain't watching TV
- patriotism dick size contest bullshit

all those stuff just don't make me want to watch it

What? They had fantastic online VoD with literally every single event available there, literally 4500+ hrs of VoD content.

 

[HariKari]

Their coverage was terrible. Delayed, showed few competitors, heavy USA focus. Obnoxious commentary.

 

[tomtom94]

Note for anyone in the UK who may have wondered into the thread to feel good about the beeb's coverage, Discovery(aka Eurosport) bought the rights to the 2024 olympics and beyond. They're sharing with the BBC, but the BBC isn't going to cover like they did before, 1-2 channels instead of everything, a lot of the coverage is going to be off free tv it seems?

Its going to fucking suck and I'm so sad about it...

Sports are all leaving free-to-air TV in this country because of the ridiculously over-inflated pay TV bubble. It's a shame.

 

[jfkgoblue]

Their coverage was terrible. Delayed, showed few competitors, heavy USA focus. Obnoxious commentary.

*If you limited your experience to the OTA broadcasts

Sports are all leaving free-to-air TV in this country because of the ridiculously over-inflated pay TV bubble. It's a shame.

This isn't a new development, and pay TV is absolutely not a bubble, it has been going strong for 25+ years, and contrary to what many cord-cutters are saying not dieing, for the very reason of sports.

And it isn't changing any time soon

And before I get accused of being a cable apologist...

I do hate how much it has gotten to be in recent years, thankfully streaming solutions such as Vue and Sling are popping up for a lot less and still providing the sports desired. But I can also see how cable has made things better, shows that would never get a chance OTA and a hell of a lot more available live sports are only possible thanks to Cable TV.

 

[jamsy]

Didn't watch much of anything because of NBCs decision to delay shit for the West Coast. No thanks!

Pretty much this.

What the fuck were they thinking? Who wants to watch sports when you already know the outcome several hours prior?

 

[Zombie James]

I'm Canadian, but maybe it's got something to do with NBC's shit coverage compared to everyone else.

If there was a sport on NBC I wanted to watch, I made sure it wasn't on any other channel first. Usually it was, so I maybe watched ~20 minutes of NBC coverage total this Olympics.

 

[mm04]

Pretty much this.

What the fuck were they thinking? Who wants to watch sports when you already know the outcome several hours prior?

Yep. Although the highlight for me was watching the NBCOlympics stream of the men's 200IM final while on vacation in Maui (another 3 hour difference) and listening to the commentator mix up Lochte and Michael Phelps. That was pretty awesome. I've been pissed at NBC's Olympic coverage since they came up with the awesome idea to tape delay Atlanta...ATLANTA. You stupid mother!@#%s. Tape delaying shit in our country.

 

[King Tubby]

I love watching sports and I hate watching the Olympics. I'll catch the highlights later on Youtube or whatever and that's only to discuss it with my friends who actually care. I don't want to watch people swim and run.

 

[Dan]

Between NBC's shitty coverage emphasizing personal stories over actual sports, the tape delays, and general displeasure with the IOC, I don't feel very interested in watching.

But sure, blame Snapchat.

 

[blakep267]

This go round I found it harder to watch stuff. In the past there used to be USA network, trutv, all the nbc channels, etc would have Olympic coverage. So I could randomly catch archery or shooting in the morning. Now it seems that for me at least, only NBC and NBC sports were consistently showing stuff and that was mainly swimming, gymnastics and track and field

Also I couldn't get the online to work. My cable provider wasn't on the list so I can't watch replays

 

[Luschient]

Only thing millenials would care about is maybe Team USA basketball,

And NBC, in their infinite wisdom, decided to show horses running through an obstacle course on their main channel instead of the live US v Spain game.

Can't fucking imagine why ratings are down so much.

 

[dskillzhtown]

The tape delay needs to stop. Every even needs to be held live. This is 2016 (and will be 2018) for God's sake.

I just don't think this is feasible. Prime time is when most people watch TV and most people who they want to watch ads are working during the day when many of the events were happening. Plus, I am sure some didn't mind the tape delay.

I don't know the best solution. But making everything available online live and archiving it was great for me this time. The audience consuming the content that way is only going to grow. So the NBC broadcast model will be less of a concern as people will be able to create their own broadcast schedule whether it be live or archived footage.

I am seeing alot of posts in this thread that seem to indicate many had no idea of the sports being shown on all of NBC's other channels who had events live and/or had no clue about the app or website.

A somebody who cut the cord 4 years ago, it was a pain in the ass to find other ways to watch it. Sling didn't work that great for me and is an extra cost on top of Hulu. When I did watch the sports the shitty announcers and commercials ruined the little enjoyment I was having. Olympic coverage has to reinvent itself for 2020.

With Vue you were able to sign into the NBCSports app and watch whatever you wanted. Sling's lack of credential use on network apps was a major reason I switched to Vue.

 

[Hatty]

I have no interest in prerecorded sports

 

[Plinko]

Pretty much this.

What the fuck were they thinking? Who wants to watch sports when you already know the outcome several hours prior?

Exactly. Worst decision they could have made. They got away with it when the internet wasn't as prevalent. Today, though? Give me a break. That network is run by people who are out of touch.

 

[Schrade]

I miss ABC Sports. They were always the best at the Olympics.

 

[BigDug13]

No one wants to watch tape delayed sports. People want to watch shit live.

And give us some damn variety in what is shown.

I watched plenty of it tape delayed. It was the NBC app and went straight to the sport I wanted to see and watched. Skipped around to the parts I wanted to see and was commercial free and I streamed it in high def into my TV through the Apple TV.

Why the hell would I watch their commercialized TV coverage when they provided a much better product in their app?

 

[jfkgoblue]

This go round I found it harder to watch stuff. In the past there used to be USA network, trutv, all the nbc channels, etc would have Olympic coverage. So I could randomly catch archery or shooting in the morning. Now it seems that for me at least, only NBC and NBC sports were consistently showing stuff and that was mainly swimming, gymnastics and track and field

Also I couldn't get the online to work

All the NBC channels showed sports, NBCSN literally did not show a single swimming, gymnastics or track and field event, those were all on NBC. Bravo showed every single Tennis match, CNBC, MSNBC, USA all had live events almost all day, plus the app had every event on demand.

I really have no idea what people wanted NBC to do. Not show the events that most people want to see in Primetime? They offered many options to choose from between 6 channels besides the main all showing live sports, if you wanted to watch non-American, live sports you could.

 

[Syncytia]

Oh, I knew the Olympics were on.

I just didn't care. Never have, and probably never will care about the Olympics.

 

[Vimes]

So this man feels like he is entitled to have millennials watch?

Watching old media and advertisers angrily blame millenials for not eating up their shit has been my favorite thing for the past few years.

This piece from earlier in the year about how beer advertising is weaning itself off sexist tropes to try to win us over from craft beers was a good chuckle.

When it comes to gender-neutral advertising, though, the brand consultant Dean Crutchfield says that Coors Light, which has long sought to portray a robust masculinity in its marketing, is taking a considerable risk.

“If you alienate your core, your credibility and relevance tumbles,” Mr. Crutchfield said. “It’s about your brand, your heritage, your past and your future. It’s been all wrapped around the males. To suddenly unwrap that, it does carry risk.”

oh no, don't stop depicting women as objects, you'll alienate your core

 

[Piano]

Sports not being popular with my generation? Bullshit maybe if NBC's coverage wasn't delayed and ad filled people would watch it more.

Willing to bet the bbc never had theses issues here, may be a slight dip due to not hosting it and the weird track and field times thanks to NBC.

Yep. I actually subscribed to a VPN just for the month of August so I could watch the BBC streams and skip NBC altogether. I've had so much trouble with their streams in the past.

 

[IdreamofHIME]

9 million people in the UK watched the freaking hockey final. Maybe NBC just needs to get gut at broadcasting live sport?

 

[dskillzhtown]

I watched plenty of it tape delayed. It was the NBC app and went straight to the sport I wanted to see and watched. Skipped around to the parts I wanted to see and was commercial free and I streamed it in high def into my TV through the Apple TV.

Why the hell would I watch their commercialized TV coverage when they provided a much better product in their app?

All the NBC channels showed sports, NBCSN literally did not show a single swimming, gymnastics or track and field event, those were all on NBC. Bravo showed every single Tennis match, CNBC, MSNBC, USA all had live events almost all day, plus the app had every event on demand.

These posts kind of represent where I am coming from. With the app/website you could make your own experience and with the NBC family of channels, there was plenty of live options not online. It might be more of an issue that NBC might need to do a better job of promoting the other options.

 

[Fluvian]

Millennial here, I simply had better shit to do than sit around for two weeks watching grown adults play sports, call that a grotesque over simplification but I stand by it, I'm trying to find a job and re-watch the wire, I frankly don't care that Michael Phelps has more gold medals.
The only thing about the games that seemed to interest me and my friends were all the stuff happening around it in Rio. Dead bodies washing up, stray bullets etc.

 

[DragonSworne]

Just show the events live with good commentary from actual experts of the sport and numbers will skyrocket.

No one wants the bullshit story narrative that NBC tries to create for each event.

 

[Syncytia]

Watching old media and advertisers angrily blame millenials for not eating up their shit has been my favorite thing for the past few years.

This piece from earlier in the year about how beer advertising is weaning itself off sexist tropes to try to win us over from craft beers was a good chuckle.

oh no, don't stop treating women as objects, you'll alienate your core

Wait, they think they can convert craft beer drinkers to coors light by changing their advertising.

 

[Mediking]

Ehhhh.... Didn't really care this year. I wished I watched more volleyball though.

 

[Nickle]

If you're going to show most of it on delay, then we'd rather just watch highlights online.

 

[Rest]

The coverage was garbage. If I watch an Olympic event, I'm not tuning in to watch only the Americans. I want to see the whole event from beginning to end, I want to watch every competitor from every country. The Olympics isn't about watching Americans win gold medals, it's about the world coming together.

I don't remember which event it was, but the announcers talked over the names of the players from the teams that won the bronze and silver medals. That shit is so disrespectful, it made my blood boil. Those people just competed in in the name of their country and on behalf of its people and won an accolade for it, they deserve to have their names heard.

Basically what I'm trying to say is fuck NBC.

 

[aeolist]

"a social media bubble" is such an oxymoron. If anything, spending a lot of time on social media makes you more aware of things happening, especially in the realm of sports and entertainment.

Boneheaded statement.

exactly, i never give a fuck about the olympics and saw way more about them this year than any previous one because of twitter

 

[Piano]

The coverage was garbage. If I watch an Olympic event, I'm not tuning in to watch only the Americans. I want to see the whole event from beginning to end, I want to watch every competitor from every country. The Olympics isn't about watching Americans win gold medals, it's about the world coming together.

I don't remember which event it was, but the announcers talked over the names of the players from the teams that won the bronze and silver medals. That shit is so disrespectful, it made my blood boil. Those people just competed in in the name of their country and on behalf of its people and won an accolade for it, they deserve to have their names heard.

Basically what I'm trying to say is fuck NBC.

Yep. This is what bugs me most about NBCs coverage. They can't stay focused on the actual sport.

 

[jfkgoblue]

If you're going to show most of it on delay, then we'd rather just watch highlights online.

Would you have watched the gymnastics live at 4pm?

 

[HStallion]

Is anyone surprised? Its not that interesting to watch overall and NBC's coverage of it in the US is terrible. The constant commercial breaks and "commentary" over the actual opening ceremony was terrible and insulting to the viewers intelligence. The actual sports coverage is uneven as hell but then again the games themselves are often weighted in terms of certain events. After like a day or two I don't really give a shit about people swimming the Butterfly over the Breast Stroke or running 200 meters instead of 100. More power to the Olympians themselves but those events are repetitive as hell.

 

[Draxal]

I think the IOC is incredibly scummy, so I just don't watch.

 

[honestrade]

NBC ruined it by showing everything on tape delay. I'm in the mountain time zone and even events they could have shown live in prime time were delayed by an hour (swimming and track). Also the broadcasts of womens artistic gymnastics team and individual, two of the most popular events, were shown in two segments separated by 1.5 to 2 hours of tape delayed swimming. Their coverage was pathetic.

 

[tearsintherain]

As a kid growing up I remember watching the olympics with the entire family every night, and pretty much all my friends did too.

This year, I don't think a single member of my family watched more than 10 minutes of the olympics, and mostly while just channel surfing. Zero time together watching it, same experience across all the relatives I talked to.

Partially due to the time differences, partially the programming, partially the fact that there is so much sports on TV now its hard to really care that much.

If NBC was smart they would simply move to airing live the stuff as it happens with zero commentary on TV and a stream, and then an hour wrap up every night of the highlights.

 

[SaviourMK2]

Yup, all us damn millennials fault

 

[Delicious Waffles]

If it wasn't tape delayed and had a commercial every five minutes, I would've watched more.

I was watching volleyball the other day and they went to a commercial break during the match. It wasn't a break or anything. A team got the point and they went to commercial. Ridiculous.

 

[Future]

Anyone on the internet knows the results before the events are done. They are still broadcasted as if you don't know. This is a huge problem when compared to traditional sports broadcast where people want to see events as they happen. Just the nature of the beast for olympics, so they need to find better ways to get you the content

I watched a few live streams, but they seemed harder to follow than the prime time broadcast. Not as much commentary for what you should be paying attention to, so not as entertaining. Website also sucked, and required constant verification of my provider and just a general pain in the ass. This is on network tv and should be free and painless to watch with ads

Prime time broadcast lasts deep into midnight. Don't got time for that. We are in an on demand culture now for a reason and people aren't glued to their sets every night at prime time anymore

Lots of time spent on the stories behind the athletes. Some of it is good but some of it I'm just not interested in. Chances are that 4 hour or so broadcast includes some content you don't want to see. So many commercials too.... I lost interest multiple times. The games are fun and there are so many events.... Show me more cool shit and focus on the fun competition, not the struggle every athlete had to go through with somber piano in the background

Give me an on demand broadcast that includes full commentary that is live. Replay that on prime time with supplemented interviews. Focus on easy to follow competition and rivalries and explanation of the details. Include more sports beyond simply diving, volleyball, running, swimming and gymnastics. Maybe there was more shown than that but that's all I saw and it's easy to get burned out

 

[Killthee]

Was there any way to watch this via device apps if you didn't have cable? I'm thinking I'm not the only person who didn't have super-easy access to the Olympics coverage, as most of my television watching is through Netflix/Hulu and sometimes Youtube/Twitch.

PS Vue lets you sign into the channel apps.

 

[blakep267]

All the NBC channels showed sports, NBCSN literally did not show a single swimming, gymnastics or track and field event, those were all on NBC. Bravo showed every single Tennis match, CNBC, MSNBC, USA all had live events almost all day, plus the app had every event on demand.

I really have no idea what people wanted NBC to do. Not show the events that most people want to see in Primetime? They offered many options to choose from between 6 channels besides the main all showing live sports, if you wanted to watch non-American, live sports you could.

Eh I must've missed those USA and Bravi days. I distinctly remember sitting and watching reruns of law and order SVU during the daytime on USA and catching MR robot and Suits at night. And million dollar listing on Bravo.

 

[Glass Shark]

lol @ the idea that "Millennials didn't know the Olympics were happening"

We know full well that it's happening, but we also don't care to watch it when you want us to. We'll watch the clips and GIFs online the next day.

 

[RandomSeed]

Commentators never shutting the fuck up and just yacking about pointless crap is a big issue I have with watching sports, so while I had a good time using the website and turning it off, the NBC content was bad as usual. Of course I also don't like "reality" TV, so I didn't find any interest in all the little stories they pushed.

 

[Jinkies]

I am very happy to watch NBC's coverage, but their website is buggy and did not accept my valid TV account credentials.

Rather saddening. This was the first Olympics that I needed to catch in bits and pieces from YouTube clips.