Ron Judd's Olympics Insider

Ron Judd, an Olympics junkie and Seattle Times columnist who has covered Olympic sports since 1997, will use this space to serve up news and opinion on the Summer and Winter Games -- also inviting you to chime in on Planet Earth's biggest get-together.

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August 15, 2008 4:38 PM

NBC: No way Phelps Saturday race will be live

Posted by Ron Judd

We neglected to post this yesterday, in all the excitement over beach volleyball star Kerri Walsh's birthday celebration on NBC:

A network spokesman, responding to hopeful rumors that the network would get a clue and at least broadcast one Michael Phelps race -- his likely historic, eighth-medal attempt Saturday evening -- live in the west-coast Disadvantaged Time Zone, has cleared that up:

No chance.

NBC, he reiterated, will continue to broadcast events "when the majority of people are available to watch."

Apparently, that would be about 1 a.m., which is when NBC's coverage of recent marquee events, such as gymnastics, have wrapped up on the East Coast of late. (The network could actually show the same events, live, on the West Coast, and actually have them seen in prime time, but refuses to do so.)

Doesn't matter that it's a major historical event. Doesn't matter that it happens on a Saturday, when a live television office across the country would likely be massive. Just doesn't matter.

It's amazing, and at some point, it starts to feel personal. Did Dick Ebersole perhaps have a bad experience as a child at the Space Needle? You've gotta wonder.

Meanwhile, word arrives that NBC's initial boffo ratings for Beijing have been flagging. For both Wednesday and Thursday nights, they trailed ratings for the comparable time periods in Athens, in spite of marquee events like Phelps' medal quest and women's gymnastics. Given those events, Thursday night should have been a highlight of NBC's entire Games coverage.

Maybe it took a couple days for people to tire of watching events they long ago heard results from dragging on to 1 a.m.

There's more bad news, and you might as well get used to it now: NBC's Olympic contract runs through 2012. Anyone willing to bet that the network won't be showing viewers in Seattle most Winter Games daytime events from Vancouver on a half-day delay, even though they'll be taking place live, right up the road? And you thought this was irritating...

Note also that if you're glibly watching on CBC this time around, you'd better check your channel grid before the Vancouver Games. CBC lost the Games contract to CTV, which will broadcast Vancouver 2010. Neither channel is carried on DirecTV, but most local cable operations offer both.

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Submit a comment

Posted by brian

6:54 PM, Aug 15, 2008

Sign this petition to let NBC know how you feel!

http://www.petitiononline.com/NBCwest/petition.html

Posted by Bob

9:00 PM, Aug 15, 2008

Brian,

We need a boycott on watching NBC because they don't or won't show decent coverage. Ebersoll always wanted to be a womens volleyball player and that's why we have the worst coverage in Olympic History

Posted by mike wilder

10:20 PM, Aug 15, 2008

nbc effing sucks.

Posted by Richard Rice

10:43 PM, Aug 15, 2008

This a pain. My earlier submission didn't work. So...
I just can't get over NBC. I watched Phelps live on CBC over 3 hrs ago, and now again on NBC. Their comments make no sense. The results are all over the internet and other news anyway. Stone age mentality in a 21st century world.

Posted by sporty

8:23 AM, Aug 16, 2008

NBC not covering Phelps race live? What a bunch of overpaid jerks. CBC is able to broadcast events in same time zone areas at more humane hours, which is 2-3 hours before NBC.

Ron, you broke my heart. I was counting watching CBC for the Vancouver Games. Phooey. CBC losing the contract to CTV is like ABC losing the contract to NBC. Sad day in sports television.

I see the petition for the NBC coverage but honestly, it's not going to change matters. Online petitions are nothing more than inboxing spam. They will not be read.

So, for now, I'll continue watching CBC while I can and pray for the day that NBC can bring in some real reporters to cover the sporting events, not birthday parties.

Posted by Karl

8:29 AM, Aug 16, 2008

NBC's coverage is crap. Not only is it ridiculous they do not show the events live on the West Coast, but they are showing terrible coverage of track so far. And to make it worse, instead of showing the 100 m dash live, they delay it until prime time, but announce the results on their freaking homepage as well as on every other newsite anywhere. Thanks NBC for crap.

Posted by Joe Capitano

8:28 PM, Aug 16, 2008

Sorry to say you won't find either CBC or CTV on dish Network either, and finding CTV on your cable system amounts to dumb luck that it hasn't been pulled for some other network or local channel. Your only hope is that you have a big enough outdoor antenna on your roof and/or you live close enough to the border.

And that bit from the NBC guy about saving things for "when the majority of people are available to watch." Uh, Ron, do you have any Grey Poupon? Seems it goes nicely with a slice of baloney.

Posted by Sports Scientist

1:45 PM, Aug 17, 2008

Indeed, the coverage is pitiful. To add to this poor TV coverage, there are no popular events available for reply on the website---unless you count the 20 km race walk final as a popular event.

What about the women's marathon? Men's 10,000 m...?

Seems like they make those unavailable as that would mean more on demand video and more cost to them.

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