[19wingz]

Over the many years that it has broadcast the Olympics, NBC has taken a lot of heat for its practice of holding broadcast of the “glam” competitions — hello beach volleyball! — until prime time, rather than airing them live.

The Reporters Who Cover Television have always turned a deaf ear to NBC’s argument that it needed to broadcast these very popular sporting events in the evening. NBC’s logic: The number of people at liberty to watch TV is much bigger than at, say 2 a.m. or 2 p.m.; the network needs to snag as big an audience as possible for these glam derbies so it can charge as much for ads during these prime-time broadcasts; and charging more means NBC can recoup the crazy stupid money it shells out for the broadcast rights to the Olympics.

Today, NBC gave an inch.

The network announced that it would stream every single event and sport live for the first time ever, on NBCOlympics.com. That’s more than 3,500 programming hours, including the awarding of all 302 medals.

Here’s the catch: Some of the featured competitions (read: glam derbies) will not be archived until after they’ve aired on NBC. So if you don’t get up at 2 a.m. to watch, say, the women’s beach volleyball prelims, you’ll still have to wait until NBC airs it in prime time that night. The choice is now yours.

Well-played, NBC!

SOURCE

[Mystycl]

i'm loving this...

[19wingz]

I am obsessed with the Olympics. This could bring a whole new level to my obsession. LOL

[Shiny Beige]

I thought"obsessed" was like "pregnant."
You either are or you're not.


Never mind. Dr. S is but he isn't.

[TheKdd]

I LOVE the Olympics, but I don't like how NBC shows them either. The 2am crap is stupid. Plus, say you want to see gymnastics, which they advertise on the 2 am time slot. You have to fast forward through so much other crap to find that 5 minutes they decided to show of the gymnastics. You had to record it for 5 hours to catch it.

I don't see why they just can't either split them all up and maybe put them on a cable channel, or put them on Hulu... That would help.

[19wingz]

It should be slightly better coverage this year since they also have the NBC Sports Network to go along with the other networks and this online streaming deal.

[terpkings]

Remember, Comcast bought NBC recently and that is the primary reason for the changes. They do understand sports programming and are trying to build up networks that can compete with ESPN in the next few years. Positive step by NBC and looking forward to their battle with ESPN sometime soon.

[19wingz]

Yep, I agree with you, Terp. I think it'll be an interesting battle with ESPN when they have gained ground after a few years. Even though the NHL isn't the most watch league in the US, it will be good to help propel the network. Ratings are getting higher each season.

[19wingz]

Speaking of good moves by NBC Sports Group this year ... I am LOVING that they have decided to air all NHL playoff games on an NBC network. They're making strides and I love it.