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Lead up to Sochi
- Thread starter OnMAA
- Start date
Badger Booster
Registered User
Re: Lead up to Sochi
Is it me or is there virtually no promotion of hockey (men's or women's) with NBC? All of their recent Olympic advertisements/promotions center around snowboarding and figure skating. Nothing wrong with those sports, but c'mon, where's the hype for hockey? Makes me a little worried how much coverage the US teams are going to get.
Is it me or is there virtually no promotion of hockey (men's or women's) with NBC? All of their recent Olympic advertisements/promotions center around snowboarding and figure skating. Nothing wrong with those sports, but c'mon, where's the hype for hockey? Makes me a little worried how much coverage the US teams are going to get.
Hux
Alfond to Ridder & rinks in between
I wouldn't worry too much. They already know they have the hockey market covered given their NHL contract and weekly broadcasts. The Olympics promotion, as far as NBC is concerned, is about capturing the interest of the casual sports fan or the non fan through human interest or the spectacle itself.
Re: Lead up to Sochi
Haven't seen much pre-Olympics promotion of hockey but it does look like a lot of hockey will be broadcast on the various channels of the NBC family. NBC has a history of hyping a select few individuals (typically good-looking U.S. medal favorites) in advance of the games in attempt to create stars and good ratings. What's driving me nuts in the past is when they cut away from the middle of a great hockey game to show something like bobsledding or curling!
Haven't seen much pre-Olympics promotion of hockey but it does look like a lot of hockey will be broadcast on the various channels of the NBC family. NBC has a history of hyping a select few individuals (typically good-looking U.S. medal favorites) in advance of the games in attempt to create stars and good ratings. What's driving me nuts in the past is when they cut away from the middle of a great hockey game to show something like bobsledding or curling!
ARM
Fan of chipmunk-like mascots.
Hasn't that gotten better now that they have three or four networks to use for their coverage? It used to be the norm in the pre-cable days when after five minutes of a game they'd be back to Jim McKay in the studio, and then off to a human-interest story about all the different flavors of cheese that were available in the Olympic village.What's driving me nuts in the past is when they cut away from the middle of a great hockey game to show something like bobsledding or curling!
Re: Lead up to Sochi
The NBC primetime coverage of the Olympics is a joke. Example from 2012: I'm glad I found an unofficial stream of a British network's broadcast of the USA-Brazil women's volleyball game. The primetime coverage showed the beginning and the end, but not the most exciting parts, which happened to not be the very beginning and end of the match. There are so many good events that the primetime coverage never even touches, or if they do, they hop in and out, I don't get as much out of it.
The NBC primetime coverage of the Olympics is a joke. Example from 2012: I'm glad I found an unofficial stream of a British network's broadcast of the USA-Brazil women's volleyball game. The primetime coverage showed the beginning and the end, but not the most exciting parts, which happened to not be the very beginning and end of the match. There are so many good events that the primetime coverage never even touches, or if they do, they hop in and out, I don't get as much out of it.
Re: Lead up to Sochi
Pretty much. Last time around there was one channel that was pretty much devoted to hockey. What's far more annoying is the way they cover some of the other sports, especially cross country skiing and speed skating. It's not so much that they cut bits out, though there is still some of that, it's that almost half of the air time is devoted to commercials. Honestly, I wish there were pay-per-view channels where I could get just coverage and no ads. As a general rule, if you're getting something for free, as you are with Olympic coverage from NBC (if you have cable almost all of what you're paying goes to the cable company), you aren't the customer; you're the product. Well, I'd like to be the customer and have coverage tailored to what I want. And I'm willing to pay for it.
Pretty much. Last time around there was one channel that was pretty much devoted to hockey. What's far more annoying is the way they cover some of the other sports, especially cross country skiing and speed skating. It's not so much that they cut bits out, though there is still some of that, it's that almost half of the air time is devoted to commercials. Honestly, I wish there were pay-per-view channels where I could get just coverage and no ads. As a general rule, if you're getting something for free, as you are with Olympic coverage from NBC (if you have cable almost all of what you're paying goes to the cable company), you aren't the customer; you're the product. Well, I'd like to be the customer and have coverage tailored to what I want. And I'm willing to pay for it.
Re: Lead up to Sochi
While they offer great options on their other networks (provided you subscribe to a service that gets them), I still maintain that it was simply an idiotic move to not put the USA-Canada group stage game on NBC live, in prime time, just like a Stanley Cup Final game.
While they offer great options on their other networks (provided you subscribe to a service that gets them), I still maintain that it was simply an idiotic move to not put the USA-Canada group stage game on NBC live, in prime time, just like a Stanley Cup Final game.
ARM
Fan of chipmunk-like mascots.
I think it is worse with the Summer Olympics, because there as so many events that it is hard to show them all. For the Winter Games, there are events like cross country skiing and the long speed-skating events that don't fit into a nice, short package. They love the made-for-TV snowboarding events where they can't just show the three people and wind up on the podium and maybe an agony-of-defeat crash or two. And for both, prime time is worse when it isn't a live Olympics, because it is so prepackaged that they manage to remove much of the drama.
ARM
Fan of chipmunk-like mascots.
For all about a few events that I care enough to watch live, I just DVR them and watch an hour or two after the facts so that I can jump past all of the commercials.
Re: Lead up to Sochi
I don't like how it's the same stuff every night. The first week of the Summer Olympics is gymnastics and swimming, and just about nothing else. Growing up without cable, I was always disappointed that I didn't get to see all these Olympic sports that I'd read about because they only wanted to show a few of them on weekdays over the air.
I don't like how it's the same stuff every night. The first week of the Summer Olympics is gymnastics and swimming, and just about nothing else. Growing up without cable, I was always disappointed that I didn't get to see all these Olympic sports that I'd read about because they only wanted to show a few of them on weekdays over the air.
ManBehindTheCurtain
Great and powerful wizard
Re: Lead up to Sochi
What you want, and what I also want, is exactly what they promised us we would get when the franchises were originally granted. We were promised that we could pay and get what we wanted. There was a lot of talk then about an "a la carte" selection menu which would be available to subscribers. Instead we got "packages" from the big conglomerates. Thank you ABC-Disney but just exactly how many ESPNs do you think I actually need? The "Ocho"?
And I agree with you about Olympic coverage, this isn't just about the hockey. Cross country skiing, known to the rest of the world as the Nordic events, regularly provides some of the most competitive and compelling events of the winter games. All while the usual NBC feed only gives full coverage to final men's 4x10 relay. The rest of the events get exactly the coverage you have described.
I regularly and gladly pay $7 or $8 for a one day pass to some internet site where I can watch ONE women's hockey game in extremely grainy extremely low def. It should go without saying that I would rather pay that money to someone, anyone, willing to provide me with actual HD TV content for a single sport during the course of the Olympics. And my question is, why isn't THAT available on my ON DEMAND menu?
Because
Cut to Bob Costas.
I am old enough to remember distinctly the debates about granting the cable TV franchises and the promises that were made by those to whom we eventually granted these cash cow monopolies.
What you want, and what I also want, is exactly what they promised us we would get when the franchises were originally granted. We were promised that we could pay and get what we wanted. There was a lot of talk then about an "a la carte" selection menu which would be available to subscribers. Instead we got "packages" from the big conglomerates. Thank you ABC-Disney but just exactly how many ESPNs do you think I actually need? The "Ocho"?
And I agree with you about Olympic coverage, this isn't just about the hockey. Cross country skiing, known to the rest of the world as the Nordic events, regularly provides some of the most competitive and compelling events of the winter games. All while the usual NBC feed only gives full coverage to final men's 4x10 relay. The rest of the events get exactly the coverage you have described.
I regularly and gladly pay $7 or $8 for a one day pass to some internet site where I can watch ONE women's hockey game in extremely grainy extremely low def. It should go without saying that I would rather pay that money to someone, anyone, willing to provide me with actual HD TV content for a single sport during the course of the Olympics. And my question is, why isn't THAT available on my ON DEMAND menu?
Because
Cut to Bob Costas.
Re: Lead up to Sochi
A la carte would make very little difference in the price you pay. The fact is the vast majority of cable subscribers watch only a few of the channels. The only difference is which channels they limit themselves to. So what you'd find with a la carte pricing is that the individual channels would have much higher prices than simply the reciprocal of the number of channels and the vast majority of cable subscribers would end up paying about the same amount they do now.
There are definitely some anti-trust issues involved in the cable industry, though less so in most markets with the growth of satellite TV and internet streaming. (The world of high speed internet provision is different given the inherent limitations on satellite provision thanks to the non-infinite speed of light.) In the end, though, the main reason we pay so much for cable service is because we're willing to pay so much for cable service.
A la carte would make very little difference in the price you pay. The fact is the vast majority of cable subscribers watch only a few of the channels. The only difference is which channels they limit themselves to. So what you'd find with a la carte pricing is that the individual channels would have much higher prices than simply the reciprocal of the number of channels and the vast majority of cable subscribers would end up paying about the same amount they do now.
There are definitely some anti-trust issues involved in the cable industry, though less so in most markets with the growth of satellite TV and internet streaming. (The world of high speed internet provision is different given the inherent limitations on satellite provision thanks to the non-infinite speed of light.) In the end, though, the main reason we pay so much for cable service is because we're willing to pay so much for cable service.
TonyTheTiger20
#SOAR
Re: Lead up to Sochi
I could be mistaken but I thought I read somewhere that NBC would be broadcasting all USA and Canada men's and women's hockey games during these Olympics on one channel or another. Am I making that up?
I could be mistaken but I thought I read somewhere that NBC would be broadcasting all USA and Canada men's and women's hockey games during these Olympics on one channel or another. Am I making that up?
Re: Lead up to Sochi
You could just move to Canada and get coverage of that and a whole lot more. U.S. networks, in my experience, like to cover the 'human interest' stories of the Olympics while generally ignoring most of the actual events.
You could just move to Canada and get coverage of that and a whole lot more. U.S. networks, in my experience, like to cover the 'human interest' stories of the Olympics while generally ignoring most of the actual events.
Watson Rink
Registered User
Re: Lead up to Sochi
I love it that the jump button on my DVR is commonsensically preset by the manufacturer for (1) one commercial of typical length, which also happens to be equal in duration to (2) the typical time between snaps in a fb game (unless the team is employing a hurry up offense).
Guess how long that corresponds to in a baseball game? Not as long as the typical time between two pitches.....
I love it that the jump button on my DVR is commonsensically preset by the manufacturer for (1) one commercial of typical length, which also happens to be equal in duration to (2) the typical time between snaps in a fb game (unless the team is employing a hurry up offense).
Guess how long that corresponds to in a baseball game? Not as long as the typical time between two pitches.....
Re: Lead up to Sochi
I was on vacation on Mackinac Island during part of the 2008 summer games, and CBC was available in the hotel I was staying in. CBC was showing a USA basketball game (I think against Spain, but it may have been Argentina) live. NBC was showing a beach volleyball match between 2 countries that were not the USA.
I was on vacation on Mackinac Island during part of the 2008 summer games, and CBC was available in the hotel I was staying in. CBC was showing a USA basketball game (I think against Spain, but it may have been Argentina) live. NBC was showing a beach volleyball match between 2 countries that were not the USA.