NBC Would Like Everyone To Turn Off The Internet For The Duration Of The Olympics

by Glynnis MacNicol | 5:14 pm, February 17th, 2010

» 3 comments

NBC, meet the Internet. Once again — this was also a big complaint during the Beijing Olympics — NBC is determined to ignore the fact that news is now available 24 hours a day and that the entire world has adjusted to this schedule, and show the Olympics on time delay so that certain events only broadcast during prime time. This despite the fact they are losing a ton of money. Anyway, NBC’s ridiculous Olympic Internet plan is not new news. But apparently it is getting NYT.com in hot water.

At 6:24 last night, more than an hour and a half before NBC began its tape-delayed coverage of the Winter Olympics, The Times reported on its home page that Lindsey Jacobellis, a popular American, had veered off course in the semi-finals of the snowboard cross and was eliminated from medal contention…“We’ve got a global audience,” Jolly said. “We’ve got readers around the world watching the Olympics in real time, for us to hide the results from them is preposterous.”

Meanwhile, according to Deadspin, NBC doesn’t care if you don’t like it: “The “Miracle On Ice” was on tape delay and that was good enough for America in 1980! So what’s wrong with you 2010 babies?” The Battle of the Brians was pretty fantastic, as I recall.

Deadspin, NBC, The Internet Stupid, twitter, Vancouver Olympics 2010

ChrisNH

Any time that something can get Olbermann into an apoplectic froth (see Deadspin on that) while causing the New York Times and NBC to do BATTLE against each other, I’m in favor. The whole NBC franchise is getting excoriated AND they are losing tons of money. I call this a ‘good thing.’
germ

Yea, the whole tape delay thing is pretty pathetic. I live north of Seattle and I can almost drive to Vancouver after the events and back to my house before the event is shown sometime between figure skating, stories on polar bears, and and the obligatory “rags” to champion story.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

It’s probably a good thing for NBC that ratings aren’t measured as “active viewers”. Around my house, we basically tune the family room television onto the Olympics and when there’s an actual event, whomever happens to be passing through the room will give a shout.

Of course, I don’t have a Nielson box, so I don’t count. But, the way they’ve messed-up primetime and now with their deadheaded insistence to treat the Olympics like it’s 1995, one would think (hope) that if the regulators sign-off, Comcast will just clean house.