NBC, u suxx0r!

[The Tino Standard 0]

People still watch the Olympics?

 

......guess those people don't have cable or satellite.

Watching obscure sports once every 4 years has a certain appeal.

 

Badmiten

Table Tennis

Field Hockey

Rowing

Absolutely.

 

And the way they were talking during the opening ceremonies, it seems like they're trying to push badminton as the cult favorite that curling became during the last Winter Games.

 

A lot of these sports are things that I'd never watch on a regular basis, but they're good as a novelty act every four years. I think that's a big reason why the Olympics are still the juggernaut event that they are.

[Mole 0]

Couldn't NBC put a little more effort into the Parade of Nations? I swear the only thing Costas and Couric said about Bolivia was that it was a landlocked country in South America.

To their credit, the announcers on the HD channel gave more information about the history of most the nations ("Madagascar is the fifth largest island in the world" "Hey, here comes one of the world's last Communist nations" "Here's Vietnam, we were at war with them for a long time"), although very little information about where each country was located, which would be helpful for a 3D globe or something to appear for these "WTF? I've never heard of them" nations.

 

The only problem is the woman they have with him sounds like Rocky the Flying Squirrel.

Atleast HD people don't have to hear Costas voice. For some reason, I just can't stand it when he opens his mouth. He is so damn annoying.

[Insane Bump Machine 0]

Wow, you'd think the USA had one of the best TV coverage with the US having the biggest team in Athens. But this sounds dreadful. Here in Germany we get almost 24h live coverage with next to no commercials during the day and NO commercials after 8pm. And on digital TV we get 4(!) extra channels showing pretty much every discipline there is commercial-free and live.

 

Oh, and there's Eurosport as well. They show the same stuff but with different announcers, so you even have an extra choice there.

 

[starvenger 0]

Couldn't NBC put a little more effort into the Parade of Nations? I swear the only thing Costas and Couric said about Bolivia was that it was a landlocked country in South America.

I gotta say that it would be funny if he said that Bolivia is where Mike Tyson has sent some of his opponents...

 

I don't care if the coverage is biased in the home country, because come on, I'm sure it's fine for each nation to support their own over the rest. Whatever

For the most part, it's fine, but for some announcers they need to tone it down a bit. I dunno if they'll replay the women's 4x100 relay, but the announcer was crowing about how the anchor would pull away from the Aussies, and when she didn't, it was kind of like "oh well, the Aussies are gonna win, and with a world record time."

 

Atleast HD people don't have to hear Costas voice. For some reason, I just can't stand it when he opens his mouth. He is so damn annoying.

Don't you get the incredbly low voice of Mary Carillo instead?

[Guest Nanks]

I don't care if the coverage is biased in the home country, because come on, I'm sure it's fine for each nation to support their own over the rest. Whatever

For the most part, it's fine, but for some announcers they need to tone it down a bit. I dunno if they'll replay the women's 4x100 relay, but the announcer was crowing about how the anchor would pull away from the Aussies, and when she didn't, it was kind of like "oh well, the Aussies are gonna win, and with a world record time."

The fact that there's some bias in the commentators is what made that call so much better for us. The commentators here were saying that Thompson (US Anchor) was the more experienced and also likely to pull away from Henry (AUS Anchor) so when Henry took it away from her in the final 50 they went nuts. Which is fair enough anyway really, especially given Jodie Henry threw down the fastest split in a 4x100m chicks relay in history to knock off an 8-time gold medallist in Jenny Thompson. The individual 100m free should be an absolute smokeshow by the way.

[starvenger 0]

btw, have I mentioned Thorpe isn't human? In the 400-free heat that I saw (again, THANK YOU NBC for showing this while the fiancee saw the finals at around the same time.) He looked like he was swimming sooooo slow, yet he's killing the rest of the field. Replays showed that he is actually one helluva kicker, but still - Un-fricking-believable.

[razazteca 0]

Are there any conspiracy theories about the black wetsuit that Thorpe wears? You know there will be some then he beats Phelps.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Wow, you'd think the USA had one of the best TV coverage with the US having the biggest team in Athens. But this sounds dreadful.

Oh no, not here. NBC is a huge network, but with no deals with our basketball, baseball, football (our football, not yours), or hockey leagues, all they have is the Olympics and they're going to hold onto that for as long as they possibly can. Which sucks, because they never do it justice.

 

The one time they did was Barcelona "Olympic Triplecast", where they had three channels running 24 hours with no commercials looking at various events. Unfortunately, it cost something like $70 per household for this service, so it was a minor joke.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Don't you get the incredbly low voice of Mary Carillo instead?

That's the woman who sounds like Rocket J. Squirrel.

 

I keep waiting for "And now, Mister Know-It-All..."

[Guest Nanks]

Are there any conspiracy theories about the black wetsuit that Thorpe wears? You know there will be some then he beats Phelps.

It's just a fastskin suit. Yeah, it gives him an advantage, but not one that isn't available to everyone else in the pool. What he does have over everyone else is his ungodly sized feet, they look and act like flippers. The amusing thing is that if you throw a ball at him he can barely defend himself let alone catch it or throw it back.

 

The Saffas in the 4x100 free were incredible, breaking our world record is a massive achievement, we set that record in that famous H2H in Sydney against the US and this time around nobody could get near South Africa. That individual event is going to be a cracker too. A couple of South Africans, Alexander Popov, Pieter Van Den Hoogenband, Michael Phelps & Ian Thorpe.

[treble 0]

Wow, you'd think the USA had one of the best TV coverage with the US having the biggest team in Athens. But this sounds dreadful.

Oh no, not here. NBC is a huge network, but with no deals with our basketball, baseball, football (our football, not yours), or hockey leagues, all they have is the Olympics and they're going to hold onto that for as long as they possibly can. Which sucks, because they never do it justice.

Actually, NBC does have the NHL US TV deal now. It'll kick in whenever the next hockey season starts.

[nl5xsk1 0]

* The same reason I usually hate the US coverage: Delayed to all hell. Newspapers, Internet, and radio are covering results that I won't even see for hours.

Not saying you in particular, JOTW, but just a general comment ... people that complain about tape-delayed sporting events getting 'spoiled' by the news is such a pet-peeve of mine. People got so heated on the fark message board during the Tour de France because ESPN was saying the results before they had a chance to watch it that night. It's not that hard to avoid the results. I've taped events that I couldn't see live for whatever reason (hockey games, football games, etc) & still managed to avoid finding the score until after I'd watched the game. It's not that difficult.

 

You don't want to know who won? Don't go to a webpage that will give the results (e.g. ESPN, NBC, Yahoo, etc.) ... it's not that hard.

[starvenger 0]

Not saying you in particular, JOTW, but just a general comment ... people that complain about tape-delayed sporting events getting 'spoiled' by the news is such a pet-peeve of mine. People got so heated on the fark message board during the Tour de France because ESPN was saying the results before they had a chance to watch it that night. It's not that hard to avoid the results. I've taped events that I couldn't see live for whatever reason (hockey games, football games, etc) & still managed to avoid finding the score until after I'd watched the game. It's not that difficult.

I have to agree with you there. For instance, I avidly watch poker on ESPN and the Travel Channel, and these are taped events that have happened a year ago at the most. However, you will not see tapes of these shows until they air, so it's still new to me.

 

What bothers me about the NBC broadcasts is that other countries can and will air the Olympics live, while we get a mix of live and taped, in the name of ratings.

[treble 0]

And, for whatever reason, NBC was showing swimming heats when what everyone is calling the biggest race so far in the Olympics, the men's 200 M freestyle was going on. I can understand wanting to show it in prime time and all that, but is it going to hurt ratings to show it live, too?

[JJMc 0]

Oh no, not here. NBC is a huge network, but with no deals with our basketball, baseball, football (our football, not yours), or hockey leagues, all they have is the Olympics and they're going to hold onto that for as long as they possibly can.

You know, that pisses me off, particularly with baseball. Everything is on Fox or ESPN. EVERYTHING. The All-Star Game, game of the week, the playoffs. What really annoys me with Fox is the incessant music before and after every commercial break...its been the same for years. And what I REALLY hate are the announcers, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, and not just because they were seen as biased against the Red Sox in the ALCS last year (I'm from Boston). They're just so stale and stagnant, and it turns my stomach to have to listen to them for every fucking game. Plus, Joe Buck does football for Fox as well.

 

I wish the All-Star Game and playoffs would be on NBC again. I liked it a few years back when Bob Costas (I find him to be ok to listen to) and Joe Morgan would do the LCS.

 

Anyone else on the "fuck Fox" wagon?

[starvenger 0]

Anyone else on the "fuck Fox" wagon?

For everything except football... yes.

[MrRant 0]

I like the FOX theme song.

[Guest Vitamin X]

I actually have the NFL on Fox music as the startup ringtone on my cellphone.

[Guest El Satanico]

Other than the reality garbage I like Fox. I have questionable tastes when it comes to TV and I'd much rather watch a stupid Fox comedy or mindless action show than watch crap like ER or Law and Order.

 

:thinks back fondly of Herman's Head and other bizarre early Fox shows:

 

[JJMc 0]

I actually have the NFL on Fox music as the startup ringtone on my cellphone.

Haha. Yeah, I guess it's not really the music itself that I hate, it's just the fact that it's ALWAYS FUCKING ON. haha. Later-Jim

[Guest Mr. Wrestling]

Wow, you'd think the USA had one of the best TV coverage with the US having the biggest team in Athens. But this sounds dreadful.

Oh no, not here. NBC is a huge network, but with no deals with our basketball, baseball, football (our football, not yours), or hockey leagues, all they have is the Olympics and they're going to hold onto that for as long as they possibly can. Which sucks, because they never do it justice.

Actually, NBC does have the NHL US TV deal now. It'll kick in whenever the next hockey season starts.

Actually NBC has NASCAR from July to November and alternates the biggest stock car race of the year (Daytona 500) with FOX meaning they have it every other year. That counts for something, they do have the biggest spectator sport in the country.

[Guest syncer55]

The reality shows on Fox are always out there and most of the time funny also.