NBC hates alpine skiing

[rtibbs4]

Facebook page for anyone who wants to complain about NBC's horrible coverage of alpine skiing.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=308488026685&ref=search&sid=705417289.1048053503..1

 

[drjeff]

joined!

 

[WJenness]

joined!

 

[wa-loaf]

joined last night, but just posting about it now ...

 

[WJenness]

joined last night, but just posting about it now ...

Yeah, I actually joined when I saw the notification that you had joined pop on facebook (before seeing this thread actually).

-w

 

[TheBEast]

All over this!

 

[billski]

While I joined the chorus of NBC-bashers, You have to look at the facts.
300 million people in the US.
5-10 million skiers in the US.
NBC Olympic coverage - 30 million viewers the other night - that's 10% of the US population - pretty good draw.
10% of 10 million skiers - 1 million. Will that many watch? Nah.
NBC paid $820 million for the Olympics, about $28 per viewer.
NBC doesn't care about the Olympics, they care about ratings and advertisers who will pay for those ratings. What draws the average, shallow American viewer? Glitz and drama. In general, as Rivercoil previously said, watching a heat of 50 downhill racers gets pretty tiresome. So I can see where they are coming from.

What really rankles me is that while they make an attempt to show US Athletes to a US market, they focus on a glamor girl or guy, but extremely talented people like Mancuso and other strong international competitors get ignored, sans the downhill.

There was a scathing article yesterday about how Vonn was undeserving of all the attention she got. Here she is talking about her injuries and other things, while competitors are challenged by the same things, most athletes performing while some part of their body is injured. The writer accused her of trying to psych out her competitors. What the writer failed to note is that it was the media that causes all this focus. It was the media that asked her incessantly about her injury and put the news on page one.

I know there is an issue of tape delay, vs. live. If I can't have live, just give me the whole race some place to watch, even delayed.

I'd love to have a back-channel access to the Olympics. Go ahead, charge me $100, $200 bucks for Olympic feeds. Cripes, we pay that to go to major league games. Worried about video theft and loss of revenue? Rent a theater. I'll go.

 

[jaywbigred]

Joined.

 

[TheBEast]

I would say my main issues with the whole NBC thing is this:

1) They don't offer full coverage of the Olympics for all events on back channels any where, making die hard fans have to scrounge around to find coverage
2) Their online site just stinks and finding videos of all the events is horrendous - I would pay to have full access to a site where I could get unlimited coverage via the web with full length video, etc.

I realize this is all about the advertising coin for NBC, but the way they are going about this Olympics just plain sucks.....just goes to show why they moved from #1 TV to #3 or #4. They cleraly don't get it.

 

[WJenness]

I'm sorry, but the 'only hardcore skiers care about the downhill' line doesn't hold any water with me.

I've only been skiing about three years. This is the first winter Olympics that have happened since I started skiing.

Every Olympics before this I've really enjoyed the speed events, and always have REALLY looked forward to the downhill. Even before I was a skier, I found it to be fascinating. The speed, the jumps, the fight to be on the edge of control, and yes, the falls, all that I found very exciting. Now, it's even more so, but I really enjoyed it back then, and was always disappointed when they showed two or three skiers and cut away to something else. I'd bet there were many more people out there like 'the old me'.

Slalom however was something I found extremely repetitive and boring before I was a skier. Watching the slalom portion of the women's combined yesterday was much more interesting for me now. It may be the HD allowing for better images about what's actually happening, but I think a lot of it comes from the fact that I ski now, and thus have a better understanding about what's happening technically with the ski, the skier, what the different sounds mean, etc.

Also, I think it's worth noting that on the radio this morning they were talking about the ratings for the Olympics... Wednesday had the highest numbers for NBC of any of their prime time coverage. There was no figure skating Wednesday... I really don't think it's as popular as they think it is. That said, having Shaun White, Lindsey Vonn, and Shani Davis all winning their respective events in one night was probably a pretty big boost as well.

-w

 

[Rambo]

While I joined the chorus of NBC-bashers, You have to look at the facts.

I know there is an issue of tape delay, vs. live. If I can't have live, just give me the whole race some place to watch, even delayed.

I'd love to have a back-channel access to the Olympics. Go ahead, charge me $100, $200 bucks for Olympic feeds. Cripes, we pay that to go to major league games. Worried about video theft and loss of revenue? Rent a theater. I'll go[/B].

Even if they showed events live in theaters, there are probably a few people who would sit in the audience with a small video camera and film the action off of the sreen. People film off of the screen in movie theaters and then post 1st run movies on hosting sites on the net.

 

[oakapple]

While I joined the chorus of NBC-bashers, You have to look at the facts.....

I think this is well put. There have been olympics on TV since about 1960, so the networks have pretty good data on what people want to watch. Figure skating is by far the most popular sport. Whether that's your personal preference or not, it's the reality. No sane broadcaster could ignore it, especially given the price they pay for the rights. After figure skating, the priority goes to the sports that have Americans in medal contention.

It is also fairly well known that most viewers are interested in the human interest story, what ABC used to call "up close and personal." There aren't enough viewers who want to watch a ski race for its own sake, without the personal stories that are behind it.

There was a scathing article yesterday about how Vonn was undeserving of all the attention she got. Here she is talking about her injuries and other things, while competitors are challenged by the same things, most athletes performing while some part of their body is injured. The writer accused her of trying to psych out her competitors. What the writer failed to note is that it was the media that causes all this focus. It was the media that asked her incessantly about her injury and put the news on page one.

I don't think there are many people who have won a gold medal in the downhill while battling a shin injury. While all athletes have injuries at time, this one was pretty serious. You could see that she was clearly favoring that leg. To win the premier race in all of alpine skiing under those circumstances is a significant achievement. Those criticizing her ought to try it themselves, and see how easy it is.

 

[Rambo]

I think this is well put. There have been olympics on TV since about 1960, so the networks have pretty good data on what people want to watch. Figure skating is by far the most popular sport. Whether that's your personal preference or not, it's the reality. No sane broadcaster could ignore it, especially given the price they pay for the rights. After figure skating, the priority goes to the sports that have Americans in medal contention.

It is also fairly well known that most viewers are interested in the human interest story, what ABC used to call "up close and personal." There aren't enough viewers who want to watch a ski race for its own sake, without the personal stories that are behind it.


I don't think there are many people who have won a gold medal in the downhill while battling a shin injury. While all athletes have injuries at time, this one was pretty serious. You could see that she was clearly favoring that leg. To win the premier race in all of alpine skiing under those circumstances is a significant achievement. Those criticizing her ought to try it themselves, and see how easy it is.

Probably not a Gold Medal but Andy Mill of the US had a real bad shin injury right before the Downhill at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics and he took off his boot and stuck his leg into a cold snowbank for 40 minutes before his start to get some of the swelling down and he finished 6th.

 

[billski]

the most watched winter sports are
1. Figure Skating
2. Ice Hockey
3. Curling.
The first two are understandable. We've talked about curling to beat the band. I still don't get the attraction, even after hundreds of explanations. maybe I should go to the local curling club open house day. Maybe then I'll understand.

 

[WJenness]

Who is the Figure Skating demographic?

Where are these people? I've had quite a few Olympic discussions with people this week, I've talked about Hockey, Curling, Alpine Skiing, Speed Skating, Biathlon, Ski Jumping, Nordic Combined... Not one person has said anything to me about figure skating... and I work in an office that's 90% female.

-w

 

[billski]

Every Olympics before this I've really enjoyed the speed events, and always have REALLY looked forward to the downhill.

Slalom however was something I found extremely repetitive and boring before I was a skier.

-w

Slalom doesn't have spectacular crashes the way downhill does. It's like NASCAR. I'll bet attendance would be a lot lower if there were no crashes. :lol:

When I watch skiing events, I find my body reflexively reacting to mistakes, turns and hits. My hips sometime flinch. When that happens, my wife still looks at me strange after all these years.

 

[billski]

Who is the Figure Skating demographic?

Where are these people? I've had quite a few Olympic discussions with people this week, I've talked about Hockey, Curling, Alpine Skiing, Speed Skating, Biathlon, Ski Jumping, Nordic Combined... Not one person has said anything to me about figure skating... and I work in an office that's 90% female.

-w

My kids all skated for a long time, one of them competitively. They were attended to only by the coaches and parents day after day, week after week, competition and training alike. Whenever there was a performance the place would be packed. It's mostly not people who skate who come to watch. It's also a lot of people of a much older age demographic. Most Americans don't see figure skating as a competition as much as a performance. Like going to the Kennedy Center to watch a show. I hear much more chatter about the costume, the music, the choreography than I do about who got first, second or third.

 

[crank]

Thought I'd weigh in here while on hold with Jay peak reservations.

Ratings Ratings Ratings. Ski racing doesn't rate. Most recreational skiers don;t watch racing. Lindsy Vonn won what - like 6 WC downhills in a row this year - she is the story...just like Bode was 4 years ago. Slam NBC on the net, let's 'em know you're watching.

I've been on hold with Jay Peak for 8 minutes now...probably more time than NBC devoted to the men's DH. They can;t be that busy, just grabbing a cup of coffee or a few runs is my guess. "Thank you for holding."


OK got off hold staying at Hotel jay and skiing tomorrow!

 

[billski]

stop complaining, start clicking

. Slam NBC on the net, let's 'em know you're watching.

Put your viewing where it matters - you know they are counting hits on nbcolympics.com. That will probably have greater effect than 1,000 loud mouths.

Hit on the ski event pages every day, even if you don't stay. It may not help this year, but maybe it will cause them to rethink how they use the net and how much detail users are looking for

 

[WJenness]

Put your viewing where it matters - you know they are counting hits on nbcolympics.com. That will probably have greater effect than 1,000 loud mouths.

Hit on the ski event pages every day, even if you don't stay. It may not help this year, but maybe it will cause them to rethink how they use the net and how much detail users are looking for

It was nice last night that all the figure skating was at the end of the broadcast.

It let me mute the tv, and bring up the full event replay of the women's downhill on my laptop. I watched that while keeping an eye on the tv to see if an event I actually wanted to see any of popped up.

-w