# Anyone else hate the US olympic coverage? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 12, 2012, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-hate-the-us-olympic-coverage/631314 "2012-08-12T23:32:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![PrettyVacant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/49beb7/32.png) [@PrettyVacant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PrettyVacant)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-hate-the-us-olympic-coverage/631314/41 "2012-08-14T06:44:44Z")
I’m not saying the UK system is better or worse, just to say there is a legally protected list (of events) here: > [@](#): > > Category A events are events which must have live coverage made available to free-to-air channels, although PPV networks may share live coverage. As of 2000, these events are: > [@](#): > > Category B events can be shown on PPV, provided sufficient secondary coverage (highlights, delayed broadcast, etc.) is made to free-to-air broadcasters. As of 2000, the events covered by this category are > **[Ofcom Code on Sports and Other Listed and Designated Events](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ofcom_Code_on_Sports_and_Other_Listed_and_Designated_Events)** > > The Ofcom Code on Sports and Other Listed & Designated Events is a series of regulations issued originally by the Independent Television Commission (ITC) then by Ofcom when the latter assumed most of the ITC's responsibilities in 2003, which is designed to protect the availability of coverage of major sporting occasions on free-to-air terrestrial television in the United Kingdom. > In 1991, the Home Secretary, Kenneth Baker, devised a list of events not permitted to be broadcast solely on pay tele... Obv. if the ‘free-to-air’ broadcaster happens to be the BBC, the broadcasting is also free of advertising. ---
**Author:** ![Sudden\_Kestrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-hate-the-us-olympic-coverage/631314/42 "2012-08-14T06:54:14Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > What’s next? Will we see dodge ball become a big deal at the next Olympics? Rope climbing? Tether ball? After watching (or rather, not watching) seemingly endless hours of swimming interspersed with various forms of volleyball, I’m looking forward to the 2016 Olympic foursquare competition. ---
**Author:** ![PrettyVacant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/49beb7/32.png) [@PrettyVacant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PrettyVacant)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-hate-the-us-olympic-coverage/631314/43 "2012-08-14T13:23:17Z")
Perhaps not for everyone but there is some fascinating data emerging from the 24-hour, multi-platform, (up to) 24 channel BBC coverage: > [@](#): > > PC usage maxes out during the week at lunchtime and during mid-afternoon peak Team GB moments > > Mobile takes over around 6pm as people leave the office but still want to keep up to date with the latest action > > Tablet usage reaches a peak at around 9pm: people using them as a second screen experience as they watch the Games on their TVs, and also as they continue to watch in bed PC - looks like ofice workers at lunchtime and afternoon break. Mobile - maybe the commute home? Tablet - very interesting (the concurrent second screen idea) > [@](#): > > Consumption of video content on mobile has been perhaps the key takeaway from the two weeks: we saw 12 million requests for video on mobile across the whole of the Games. It’s simply unimaginable that a single cycling event attacted more internet viweres than the entire last soccer World Cup… we live in exceptionally fast moving times. > **[BBC - BBC Internet Blog: The story of the digital Olympics: streams,...](https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2012/08/digital_olympics_reach_stream_stats.html)** > > The once-in-a-lifetime success of our athletes has driven equally incredible engagement from audiences with our Olympics coverage. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-hate-the-us-olympic-coverage/631314/44 "2012-08-14T13:35:11Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > Exactly when did volleyball become a hugely popular sport in the USA?! When the “women in skimpy bathing suits” version was added to the Olympics. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-hate-the-us-olympic-coverage/631314/45 "2012-08-14T13:51:28Z")
> [@Eureka](#): > > The thing which really disgusted me was the hour of coverage of World War II on Saturday night. An hour-long paean to Winston Churchill. I wanted to punch fucking Tom Brokaw in the nose. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-hate-the-us-olympic-coverage/631314/46 "2012-08-14T14:11:07Z")
> [@PrettyVacant](#): > > It’s simply unimaginable that a single cycling event attacted more internet viweres than the entire last soccer World Cup… we live in exceptionally fast moving times. 2.8 petabytes served on the busiest day. That seems quite a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-hate-the-us-olympic-coverage/631314/47 "2012-08-14T14:15:54Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > Exactly when did volleyball become a hugely popular sport in the USA?! Last time I even saw anyone play volleyball was when I was a freshman in high school and I was forced to play in gym class. I’ve actually seen real live people playing volleyball, the beach variety anyway, not the indoor variety. Volleyball and badminton are fairly popular on beaches, at family reunions, cookouts, office picnics, etc. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-hate-the-us-olympic-coverage/631314/48 "2012-08-14T15:11:10Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > An hour-long paean to Winston Churchill. I wanted to punch fucking Tom Brokaw in the nose. It was just more of that “greatest generation” stuff he’s been peddling since he retired from doing nightly newscasts. Can’t imagine why they wasted an hour of sports coverage time with it. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-hate-the-us-olympic-coverage/631314/49 "2012-08-14T18:58:35Z")
NBC’s coverage could certainly have been a lot better. No doubt about it. But to put it into perspective, there are complaints about the coverage every two years, and actually I think there were a lot fewer complaints this year than in past years. Yes, that’s true despite all the talk on Twitter et al. ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-hate-the-us-olympic-coverage/631314/50 "2012-08-14T20:33:29Z")
We spent the second week of the Olympics on vacation in Costa Rica. We had their broadcast on occasionally over the week. It was awesome. First, I don’t speak anywhere near enough Spanish to follow what was being said. Second, no glurge. Just sports. Third, when they started showing an event, they showed all of it. Granted, the kids started to complain after 90 minutes of indoor cycling, but we saw a lot of stuff that we would never have seen on NBC. Also? Much less volleyball. ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-hate-the-us-olympic-coverage/631314/51 "2012-08-15T00:43:19Z")
More than ever they edited some gymnastics events to be more dramatic and closer than it really was. That. Is my theory why they refused to put up graphics showing the top three finishers and their scores for events like the vault. Combined with the commentary being too quiet over the cheering crowd we had to go online to find out who finished second and third. ---
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-hate-the-us-olympic-coverage/631314/52 "2012-08-15T05:15:59Z")
Don’t care about this extravaganza enough to hate any part of it, but there are a few things about NBC’s coverage that left me…well…_baffled._ - Pretending that there was the slightest bit of drama surrounding Michael Phelps. Look, I’ll just give it to you straight: 1. He needed a small number of medals for the record. 2. The number of events he was competing in was far higher than that number. 3. There was no reason to believe that he suffered a massive dropoff since Beijing. 4. Nobody gave a damn about this Lochte jerk before, and we weren’t about to start now. He was going to beat the record, and anyone who thought otherwise was dumb as a rock. I suppose the could’ve had a lively debate over his GOAT credentials, but per usual GOAT “discussion” procedure, they just gave him the honor and declared the issue closed. - The truly bizarre spin on the Magnificent 7. Leaving aside for the moment that they would’ve (barely) won the gold even if Kerri Strug never mad a second vault, how can you completely leave _Dominique Moceanu_ out of the discussion? She was the one who screwed up and gave Strug a reason to make the second vault in the first place! Even more so, since Moceanu was the only one of the seven to have any kind of gymnastics career after Atlanta! For a nation that loves persecuting its real and perceived goats to no end, this was a major sin of omission. - World War 2. Yes, Facebook was pointless and annoying, but at least it’s _current_. What can possibly be said about America’s Last Good War that hasn’t already been beaten into the ground? Meh. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-hate-the-us-olympic-coverage/631314/53 "2012-08-15T12:00:43Z")
I enjoyed the coverage much more than the last Olympics. My biggest beef was that they weren’t clear on what sport they’d be covering on what channel. I ended up channel surfing a lot. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-hate-the-us-olympic-coverage/631314.md?page=2)