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#NBCFail : One is not a Mused

So just how bad is NBC’s coverage of the Olympics.. I spent a few days last week in the US so I got the opportunity to actually experience it.

Well compared to the BBC, it was never going to win any prizes, but actually is not so bad once you get over the bizarre time delay theatre..

Just as with the BBC there was the expected focus of national sportsmen and women, but where as the BBC will also cover sports where TeamGB are not doing very well, for NBC if there was no TeamUSA medal winning then the sport does not exist..

So the efforts of Sir Chris Hoy, The Brownlee brothers et al has gone unreported.. indeed it appears if there was not enough success then the evening show may be cut short for other special programming .. a new Matthew Perry comedy for example !

The key problem for NBC I think was that they had just one channel to play with compared to two mainstream channels and at least another ten red button channels for the BBC plus of course the web and mobile..

IMHO the BBC have done a brilliant job recognising London as the first non linear, multi-channel, multi-platform Olympics. This is not news to NBC, but NBC need to keep a core audience for their advertisers who perhaps are not quite there yet !

What is unforgivable however was the editing of the opening and closing ceremonies, cutting out in one the moving tribute to the victims of London’s 7/7 bombing, and then in the other last night cutting Muse, the Who and Ray Davis classic anthem to London, Waterloo Sunset !

To paraphrase the great Eric Idle who was also bleeped by NBC ..

“NBC’s a piece of shit when you look at it !”

Written and submitted from home (51.425N, 0.331W)

 

5 replies on “#NBCFail : One is not a Mused”

Yep. Like most American media, NBC only plays for money. Their focus-grouped, calculated coverage decisions only address, “what-sells-for-the-most-money” That has become the driving ethic, not just for NBC, but for most American media.

Considering the number of medals the US won there wouldn’t be time for other sports. Though NBC did have channels just for soccer, basketball, and boxing

Good point Mitchell 🙂 – But that does not explain their editing of the opening and closing events, imagine the reaction if the BBC edited out references to 9/11 ?

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