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Olympics ratings down, NBCU CEO predicted this and preemptively blamed millennials

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Not Spaceghost

Spaceghost
I would have watched more of the olympics if they had been broadcast over twitch.

I only really watched it at like 10pm for an event or so.
 

cdyhybrid

Member
It's disappointing to see so many not into the Olympics. It's something that brings the world together. It's two weeks of positive vibes and powerful emotions that hundreds of countries get to share on. I see something like this http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1264530 as worth more than anything from any TV drama because it's real emotion.

Even if you watch it on DVR to fast forward through the commercials and background stories, it's better than not watching it at all. I feel bad for people that missed out on seeing it.
Brings the world together by destroying the lives of poor people in host countries and enabling rampant corruption/excess by the IOC. Such a feel-good story.
 

Jon Arbuckle

Neo Member
As a millenial, the reason I didn't watch NBC's trash coverage is the fact that they tape delay everything. I've railed against this for years. I want live coverage, which is why I watch the CBC's coverage and follow things online. Sure I don't always get to see the events I want to see, but at least I don't know the outcome ahead of time.

Plus, the people NBC gets to cover events are generally unknowledgeable (looking at you Bob Costas).
 
The most ive watched of it is whatever gifs ends up in the websites I visit. The Olympics just isn't entertaining to watch and I don't simply watch things for the sake of watching it.
 
I remember specifically watching the Overwatch Atlantic Showdown finals on Saturday and Sunday night even though I knew the final Olympic events were going on.

Edit: I mean, it's not like I don't like the Olympics... I actually think it's pretty cool, but I wish it was much easier to watch. All I had to do to watch the Overwatch tourney was turn on Twitch and there it was. Like if they had ano official Olympics set of streams where all the events are on different streams or something, y'feel?
 
I watched a ton of events this year probably due to how exceptional the BBCs coverage was over here. Over 8 channels showing live coverage plus streams of stuff they couldn't fit on TV. Sounds like NBC need to take long hard look at how they broadcast the events.

The BBC even took a potshot over NBCs methods during the opening ceremony. Something along the lines of you are watching along with countless millions around the world, apart from those in the US who will have to wait until Primetime to see it
 

PulseONE

Member
If you're on the internet, it was almost impossible to not know it was happening

...but that doesn't mean they're interested in watching it

I never found sports interesting and likely never will, and I'm far from the only one. Yeah back in the day when you only had a couple channels, people might watch it if only because nothing else was on, but there's so much other stuff now that people have no need to settle.
 

darscot

Member
Brings the world together by destroying the lives of poor people in host countries and enabling rampant corruption/excess by the IOC. Such a feel-good story.

Any massive event is going to have issues. Ease back on the hyperbole, and stop acting like nothing good comes out of the Olympics. Some are worse than others for sure but some are great. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
 

Calamari41

41 > 38
It's two weeks of positive vibes and powerful emotions that hundreds of countries get to share on.

Some of the crowd reactions went severely against this sentiment and really bothered me. The worst that I saw was when Brazil had a gymnast defending a Bronze placement, and there was one more competitor to go before the results were cemented. The crowd loudly cheered every time this individual messed up part of his routine. That kind of display ruined any kind of "positive vibes" that would otherwise have been "shared." Inexcusable and horrifically embarrassing for Brazil. The announcers even had to step in and say "you know, I don't think they're so much cheering for this young man's missteps as they're understandably excited for [name of Bronze winner]."
 
Nbc only shows the big 3 on primetime, swimming, gymnastics and track. With volleyball sprinkled snd other sports that we have a big presence.

Like the shit has over 2 dozen sports and they barely cover more thrn 5. Also tape delay which wasn't as bsd since I think Brazil was an hour ahead of us in the east coast
This, plus the ads, plus the difficult to navigate streaming options were my problems.

If you don't have cable, you would think the Olympics only consisted of three sports.
 

Cidd

Member
Olympics in 2016
Divi9yo.png
 
NBC and partners are limiting. They didn't give people enough options to watch. If you want to watch highlights online, you shall at least through their portal, or partner up with Youtube. If you want to watch full events online you shall easily be able to without having paying Time Warner Cable.
 

Addnan

Member
BBC seems to have done fine with the viewing figures. Highest for an overseas game. 45million tuned in at one point or another. Damn American millennials.
 
Nope, watched what I wanted on BBC and other online sources. Fuck NBC's sacchrine sweet against all odds USA BEST 4EVAR coverage.

You do know that BBC does the exact same with British athletes, correct?

CBC does the same with Canadian athletes, etc. It's a source of national pride...

I watched a ton of events this year probably due to how exceptional the BBCs coverage was over here. Over 8 channels showing live coverage plus streams of stuff they couldn't fit on TV. Sounds like NBC need to take long hard look at how they broadcast the events.

The BBC even took a potshot over NBCs methods during the opening ceremony. Something along the lines of you are watching along with countless millions around the world, apart from those in the US who will have to wait until Primetime to see it

Easy for the BBC to say as they are financed using taxpayer money and are paying peanuts to the IOC compared to what NBC is paying. NBC is keen to get a return on their investment as it's the only way for them to recoup the investment.
 

rbenchley

Member
Any massive event is going to have issues. Ease back on the hyperbole, and stop acting like nothing good comes out of the Olympics. Some are worse than others for sure but some are great. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21645114-hosting-olympics-and-world-cup-bad-citys-health-just-say-no

Fuck the Olympics. It's pretty much always awful for the local economy. If they're going to have the Olympics, the World Cup and things of that ilk every four years, it would be a much better solution to find permanent venues for each event to avoid countries pissing away billions every few years to enrich the scum that comprises organizations like the IOC and FIFA or to entertain people with a taste for boring track & field events or an infantile need to have their country be "better" than other countries.
 

darscot

Member
http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21645114-hosting-olympics-and-world-cup-bad-citys-health-just-say-no

Fuck the Olympics. It's pretty much always awful for the local economy. If they're going to have the Olympics, the World Cup and things of that ilk every four years, it would be a much better solution to find permanent venues for each event to avoid countries pissing away billions every few years to enrich the scum that comprises organizations like the IOC and FIFA or to entertain people with a taste for boring track & field events or an infantile need to have their country be "better" than other countries.

Well I attended a World Cup in Japan and live and attended the Olympics in Vancouver. Both were massive successes and created a huge influx of dollars, tourism and jobs. Japan will be an amazing host for the Olympics and Vancouver is still benefiting from the facilities, infrastructure and tourism created by the games. It is not always awful, before every games the doomsayers come out in full force. There is so much rhetoric and bullshit and much of it is simple salt. With both the World Cup and Olympics in Brazil they are clearly taking strides on a global scale, it takes years to understand the impact.
 

Parch

Member
NBC just needs to get with the program. Their coverage is terrible.
Canada's olympic coverage became what I had always hoped it could be. 5 channels all day. Online coverage with everything. Don't like the bias or commercials, watch the international feeds. Live or recorded. It was perfect.

I think with online access to quality international feeds there is no need for anybody to pay those levels of broadcast fees anymore. NBC paid a ridiculous amount for the rights. Combined with their shit coverage, it's a huge waste of money.

The younger generations not giving a crap about the olympics is a different problem. That's a big shame.
 
I had to buy a VPN to watch it on BBC.

Can anybody explain to me why can't NBC sell me unlimited Olympic streaming pass for $10?

Or they can play 1 ad every 5 minute for free viewing. I don't care I just want to watch it on my laptop.

NBC just need to fire everybody from top to bottom and start over.
 
Maybe it's because the Winter Olympics are better. Get bobsled races, curling, and hockey in the Summer Olympics and then we'll talk.
 

neorej

ERMYGERD!
Saw NBC's coverage of the opening ceremony, if that was the level of commentary during the actual sports events, no wonder people are changing channels.
 

muteki

Member
I just want to watch the 2-3 events i'm interested in in full.

I have zero interest in chopped up recap prime time footage of everything else.
 
Well I attended a World Cup in Japan and live and attended the Olympics in Vancouver. Both were massive successes and created a huge influx of dollars, tourism and jobs. Japan will be an amazing host for the Olympics and Vancouver is still benefiting from the facilities, infrastructure and tourism created by the games. It is not always awful, before every games the doomsayers come out in full force. There is so much rhetoric and bullshit and much of it is simple salt. With both the World Cup and Olympics in Brazil they are clearly taking strides on a global scale, it takes years to understand the impact.

For every LA or Vancouver, you have a Montreal, Athens, Beijing and Sochi.

And the 2014 FIFA World Cup...
 

4Tran

Member
You do know that BBC does the exact same with British athletes, correct?

CBC does the same with Canadian athletes, etc. It's a source of national pride...
"Both sides are the same" is laughable in this case because NBC has far worse coverage than either the BBC or the CBC. The latter two are watchable by even non-citizens while a lot of Americans can't stand NBC.
 

darscot

Member
For every LA or Vancouver, you have a Montreal, Athens, Beijing and Sochi.

And the 2014 FIFA World Cup...

So when you fail you just back it in and give up, cancel both the Olympics and the World Cup? Clearly cities and nations are clamoring to host these events. At every single event you have the doomsayers until the first athlete steps out to compete.
 
Seems a bit quick to call out the social media generation for a drop off in the last 4 years.

How was 2012 coverage in the US compared to 2016? I got the impression this time it was terrible, limited access, limited channels and also delayed.

Perhaps people did initially tune in but weren't drawn in by the lack of spectators. Much of the Olympics felt like one of those random ass local Sunday afternoon meets.

BBC over here sounds like a god send. We had 10-15 channels going with HD on all available with no ad breaks. It wasn't up to par with 2012's 24-28 channels or whatever it was but was very good despite sometimes BBC showing the same event across 2-3 channels.

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...

Oh dear. Just have to make the most of 2020 then.

Going to be like F1 on Sky with a few 100k watching live. It's not all bad though, I'm sure people can get around to those DIY jobs and gardening. I've noticed a lot of nicer gardens since F1 made the jump to the Sky broom cupboard.
 

Rest

All these years later I still chuckle at what a fucking moron that guy is.
NBC's coverage is a joke. Besides the tape delay to cram in commercials on things, NBC's spots app, where you could watch things live, was crashing on me every 30 minutes or so on Apple TV. Eventually said "screw it" and watched foreign broadcasts from CBC and BBC.

There is only one good thing about NBC Olympic Coverage.

FDxF1vx.jpg


That theme song
It seems that they re-recorded it for this year's broadcasts, I think it sounds better than it did before.
 
When I watch some sportsevent I get bored after a while. Playing videogames / watching a movie / series on demand is more fun .
 

Meohsix

Member
I watched maybe 10 minutes total. Every time I tuned in it was showing something stupid like synchronized swimming, badminton or handball.
 

TwoDurans

"Never said I wasn't a hypocrite."
You can't delay major events for hours after the results hit the internet and expect people to tune in. NBC really borked this one.
 

DR2K

Banned
I just watched the highlights through my Facebook feed.

They did such a shit job of covering anyone that wasn't a white male. That probably hurts more than they want it to.
 

Acorn

Member
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...
Eurosport suddenly going to realise 90% of people will not give a shit once ads are plastered all over coverage.

IOC laughing to the bank.
 

ElFly

Member
Curious stuff.

The Olympics ratings went up in Portugal, after our public TV channel did a 100% coverage of every olympic sport, with commentaries by different specialists.
It was the best coverage ever percentage wise, and the ratings got boosted by result.

Just do your job well and people will come.

God I wish they did that here

Instead it is impossible to watch anything I want because the fuxkers at the TV station decide what to show, and they invariably show some national fucker

And ESPN here is run by Argentina so if I switch to that channel, they will show only their team events
 

Lothar

Banned
I just watched the highlights through my Facebook feed.

They did such a shit job of covering anyone that wasn't a white male. That probably hurts more than they want it to.

It felt like over half of their coverage went to worshipping Usain Bolt and Simone Biles (for good reason) so I don't know what you mean here.

I watched maybe 10 minutes total. Every time I tuned in it was showing something stupid like synchronized swimming, badminton or handball.

NBC always saves the good stuff for primetime. You would have had to been watching late at night. 7 to midnight CST.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
CBC had raw video feeds of every single event, even if they weren't being covered... I can't imagine ever watching TV unless you like commercials and commentators constantly talking to fill the air time.
 

otapnam

Member
I was pretty mad when the Xfinity guide said they were going to show weightlifting but decided to skip it for more stupid gymnastics coverage. Why tell your customers one thing then show something else?

I caught the sports I really wanted to on my iPad, but for the casual viewer they aren't doing near enough
 
As a 23 year old I used to watch the Olympics when i lived with my parents but after I moved out i just don't care. All my TV is through my internet (Netflix, Crunchyroll etc).
 

jfkgoblue

Member
NBC and partners are limiting. They didn't give people enough options to watch. If you want to watch highlights online, you shall at least through their portal, or partner up with Youtube. If you want to watch full events online you shall easily be able to without having paying Time Warner Cable.
Why? Would you rather have a TV tax like the rest of the world for "free" streaming of the events?

If you wanted to watch all the events, you could, provided you pay for it. NBC paid a lot of money for the rights, and cable providers pay for the rights to air the other 6 Olympic channels. Hell you could have paid $30 for a month of Vue, had access to the website, then canceled.

People need to stop bitching about how being a cord cutter makes it hard to watch sports. You have choices, you can choose not to pay for it, but then don't go and bitch about how terrible it is when you do.

If you wanted to watch things other than swimming(like me) you had options, but you chose to not exercise said options. You could watch every event live if you wanted, you just chose not too.

Also bitching about ads on free OTA broadcasts is stupid too... You think they paid $12 billion to give it away for free? The cable broadcasts actually had very few ad breaks and only in between the action as all the cable channels were live sports.

One last thing... Why do you think they had swimming, track and gymnastics on the main channel at Primetime? It's what most Americans want to see at the time when the most are watching.
 

Octavia

Unconfirmed Member
Actually, I didn't watch because I'm not interested in giving corrupt agencies my time or ratings. Also, all the really good stuff is gif'd or in news stories right after the fact anyways.
 

Nipo

Member
Why? Would you rather have a TV tax like the rest of the world for "free" streaming of the events?

If you wanted to watch all the events, you could, provided you pay for it. NBC paid a lot of money for the rights, and cable providers pay for the rights to air the other 6 Olympic channels. Hell you could have paid $30 for a month of Vue, had access to the website, then canceled.

People need to stop bitching about how being a cord cutter makes it hard to watch sports. You have choices, you can choose not to pay for it, but then don't go and bitch about how terrible it is when you do.

If you wanted to watch things other than swimming(like me) you had options, but you chose to not exercise said options. You could watch every event live if you wanted, you just chose not too.

Also bitching about ads on free OTA broadcasts is stupid too... You think they paid $12 billion to give it away for free? The cable broadcasts actually had very few ad breaks and only in between the action as all the cable channels were live sports.

One last thing... Why do you think they had swimming, track and gymnastics on the main channel at Primetime? It's what most Americans want to see at the time when the most are watching.

I can't speak for all cord cutters but I don't think NBC should be able to buy rights to games funded by tax money both by host and member countries. The Games should be on PBS and until they are I see no problem using a VPN to watch superior coverage from CBC and BBC.
 

numble

Member
I can't speak for all cord cutters but I don't think NBC should be able to buy rights to games funded by tax money both by host and member countries. The Games should be on PBS and until they are I see no problem using a VPN to watch superior coverage from CBC and BBC.

The money for the games comes in part from the broadcasting rights (as well as sponsorship rights).

http://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/7967000/ioc-usoc-resolve-differences-revenues

Under a long-standing contract, the USOC has received a 20 percent share of global sponsorship revenue and a 12.75 percent cut of U.S. broadcast rights deals. The IOC believed the U.S. share, set out in an open-ended contract dating to 1996, was excessive and should be renegotiated.
...
In addition, the USOC agreed to contribute to the administrative costs of staging the Olympics -- $15 million through 2020 and $20 million after 2020, the officials said.
 

Nipo

Member
The money for the games comes in part from the broadcasting rights (as well as sponsorship rights).

http://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/7967000/ioc-usoc-resolve-differences-revenues

Money for team USA comes entirety grim donations. Money for athletes from almost every other County comes from federal funds. The host government uses billions of public funds to host the Olympics.http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ioc-straight-up-lies-about-public-funding-and-rio-games-180500639.html

Without public money these games wouldn't happen.
 
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