Monday, February 27, 2006

The 2006 Winter Olympics Are Complete

And thank goodness for that!

I have been a fan of the Winter Olympics since 1968. I love the luge, bobsled and speed skating.

Recent Olympiads have been nearly unviewable, and this year's was an abomination of broadcasting.

The creation of controversies and the lame post event interviews. I can't stomach another Q&A like this:
"Walk us through your emotional state during the event."

Followed by some unfathomable remarks about intensity.

I want to have MY OWN emotional response to the event, and I do not want to hear from a talking head or an athlete about THEIR emotional response. Why does NBC insist on stripping its viewers of their personal reaction to the event?

Since the majority of the Olympiad is taped and repackaged, NBC is intentionally interrupting sporting events for commercials. They can insert the commercials before and after events, but insist on saying: "We'll be right back for the conclusion of this 2 minute event after a word from Budweiser, making America strong and proud."

Amd why can't NBC list the timing of the events. The listing says "8:00 P.M. - 11:30 P.M. Speed-skating, luge, slalom, biathalon." I tune-in and there is no indication of when my event is to be broadcast. So I turn it off! I am not going to watch figure-skating for 90 minutes, hoping to see eleven minutes of bobsleds. So, I turn-off the Olympics.

NBC fails completely to keep me interested.

The Olympic Committee should sell the rights to a network that is interested in broadcasting to the fans, and not to the advertisers. NBC is an embarrassment to sports broadcasting, and if they broadcast the next Olympics, I may skip it altogether.

For interesting web reports of the Games, ignore the sports and new sites and visit DFL. Now THAT'S an interesting site!



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