And here I was rejoicing that finally we could do away with the lame soft-focus athlete stories and parochial commentary from NBCU with this Olympics: Yes, the company will have 2,200 hours of live competition from Beijing available online on NBCOlympics.com, but with some heavy restrictions…we mentioned some of this heavy handedness earlier about Olympic trials.
Now, during the main Summer Olympics, some more restrictions on watching the action live, according to this AP story:
– Other TV networks have a limited window in which to show Olympics highlights, but no video of Olympic events is permitted to be shown on any website besides NBCOlympics.com
– No events that are scheduled to be televised (on NBCU’s six TV channels) will be available online until after they are seen on TV. If this is the case, what’s this about 2,200 hours of live coverage online? Is it only on-demand later?
Meanwhile, in related chest-beating, by next year NBC.com, which is a repository of TV shows on NBC, will generate “tens of millions of dollars” in revenue “in a business that didn’t exist” a few years ago, according to NBC TV Network President John Eck, speaking at a PwC conference earlier this week. Compare that to Jeff Zucker’s claim that NBCU’s digital revenues will cross $1 billion by 2009, and you get the picture.
For our coverage of NBC Sports’ digital strategy for Vancouver 2010 Olympics, check out our Digital Olympics archives.
You have ridiculous expectations. This is completely reasonable.
I am not asking them to provide embed codes or free video sharing. Just let me watch the damn games live, without any interruptions…what if i am not near a TV (meaning at work?)
I think I'm with Steve or I'm really missing something here. NBC's cost to do this is absolutely staggering, and the online community should not be complaining about any reasonable commercialism. NBC is very likely to *lose* money on the online stuff, so your expectation seems way out of line here. I doubt they'll invoke many delays in showing these as the value decreases very dramatically with time.
I can see why NBC goes this way with their broadcast. They pay a fortune for the exclusive rights to broadcast the Olympics, and I guess they just wanna make sure they get as much back from it as possible.
I think the real issue here is we are obviously past the point where exclusive corporate broadcasting deals like this should even be issued. How about for the 2010 olympics, all events are broadcast live online without any exclusive coverage. Anyone who wants to come in and broadcast, like NBC, CBS, Fox, etc is more then allowed to do so. The Olympics is supposed to be this worldwide unity of sport event, but it seems more to me like a restrictive corporate shilling…
I'm not planning to watch any of the Olympics anyway (there is only so much high diving someone can take) but I'd love to see Olympic coverage move more toward a "for the people" model, where anyone can do whatever coverage they want…
I'd definitely be more interested in it if it went that way…
for me the actual experience of watching television is so noxious that there is no event anywhere that will make me even own one, let alone turn one on
Is this US only or worldwide? Is there _no_ european or asian website allowed to show any Olympics material online?!?!
JackH
This is U.S. rights only..each country's rights holder restricts online video coverage to within the country.
Live doesn't matter to me – I don't even know what the time difference is and I don't want to worry about remember the schedules. However, I'm looking forward to being able to access lower profile sports (that interest me) like judo and freestyle wrestling that get very little or random, hard to find air-time.
well, with the time difference, i don't expect to be able to watch much at work (i'm in LA). i think that's the only reason i don't find this ridiculous.
obviously, nbc learned a bit from the us open and how popular watching sports at work is. i don't see how this could come as a loss – last time i checked, you can advertise online.
As a Chinese American not able to go to Beijing to watch the opening ceremony, I am upset, just like many Chinese Americans and oversea Chinese are, that NBC will not be broadcasting the Olympics live, and without interruption. It is obvious to many people, not just the Chinese, that the Olympic games in Beijing has deep political and social significance to both the Chinese and Chinese internationals all over the world. In America alone, the Chinese population is significant, and the NBC viewers watching the opening ceremony will be composed of a large amount of Chinese people. I find it hard to comprehend that NBC cannot broadcast the Olympics live without interruption in the morning and then show the tailored version at night.