NBC Tape Delay, You Still Suck

I don’t really know why I’m so angered by the NBC time delay on the Vancouver 2010 Olympic events, because it really doesn’t affect me.

I’m lucky enough to bypass it through the use of technology that I probably shouldn’t discuss publicly. All week, I’ve had the luxury of watching just about anything I want live on the CTV feed from Canada. I guess the NBC thing just irks me on principle.

I reached a new level of frustration last night as I sat at home watching coverage of the women’s bobsled runs. There’s only one good reason for people to be standing in the dark at Whistler watching sliding events. It’s because a 5 pm start in Vancouver matches perfectly with NBC’s live 8 pm ET telecast. I watched with excitement on CTV as Canada 1, Canada 2 and USA 2 lined up for gold, silver and bronze finishes. Then, I reached for the remote to see if the “live” NBC had an interview with the US team. When I got there I realized that NBC was even delaying an event that it could have delivered live. I think it was a good half hour later before the race was “over” on NBC.

I was at the Whistler Sliding Center last week, hiking through the snow on a barely lit path for an event that was scheduled at night for the benefit of TV networks. If they aren’t going to put it up during the nighttime events couldn’t they just let the organizers run them in the afternoon? It’s a lot more spectator friendly to gather people on a mountain when the sun is shining.

These are all points I made in my Mediaite column on this topic two weeks ago, so I won’t drag out the argument again. The reason I’m back on the rant today is that there was great news in the New York Times this morning. The paper says ESPN intends to make a pledge for live coverage part of a bid for the Olympic rights in 2014.

The Times quotes John Skipper, ESPN’s vice president in charge of content, saying he doesn’t think “nonlive is sports fan-friendly.” NBC’s got one more Olympics on their contract before the rights are sold for the 2014 and 2016 games. In the article, NBC defends its adherence to the tape delay and says it’s unlikely it will change its strategy for the 2012 Summer Games in London. The network points to the 25.5 million viewers who tuned in to watch prime time coverage of the Vancouver Games, a number that knocked “American Idol” out of its long-held number one spot. But ESPN executives believe that NBC’s revenue model, one which emphasizes prime time ads, will be outdated by the time 2014 rolls around. Said the network’s president of sales: “It will be an online, on-demand world, and those of us in front of it believe the ad models will be there to monetize it.”

NBC is way behind it. They may have a monopoly on anything Olympic right now, but they no longer have a monopoly on the news — my CTV feed tells me that, not to mention Twitter. Time to catch up, NBC – like it or not, there are other options. And you know what they say in the Olympics — let the best competitor win.

TV newsman Pat Kiernan picks his favorite stories from the morning papers each weekday on NY1 News and PatsPapers.com. He’s known to VH1 fans as the host of World Series of Pop Culture. Twitter: @patkiernan

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.