If more people want to see ice dance than hockey (and they do) then it’s just common sense to show ice dance. Figure skating’s in a bit of a slump right now but it’s still the sport which draws the highest ratings of any Olympic broadcast. It’s silly to suggest that a less popular (and hence, less lucrative,) sport should be shown instead.
Besides, you make it sound like you can’t see the hockey game at all. You can. It’s on MSNBC. It’s a -good- thing that we have multiple channels with multiple sports. If you didn’t have the MSNBC channel, you’d get even less hockey than you already do.
This thread baffles me. NBC is showing more sports, more live sports, more hours of coverage, in more venues and somehow it’s a national tragedy because they can’t show everything live in prime-time on one channel.
Be glad it isn’t 1952, when you had to wait for the Newsreel coverage to be shown in your local movie theatre. And if you were involved in the Korean War, you had to wait for that to get requisitioned to the front line.
Merenith…Do you work for NBC? Please. Why does NBC show cross-country skiing live and not the premier event, the Mens’ Downhill? Why can’t they show the full event live? How would that take away from ratings at night? Why can’t they show it in full length on CNBC? People will know the results from the web in either case.
Being an Alpine Skiing fan I watch Universal HD and am able to watch the full race…every racer. With NBC you already know who is going to win by the way the cover it. You will see all the Americans. You will see most of the Canadians. And they you will see some people from other countries. These people will either crash or medal. There is no suspense other than…“Will this American do well?”
I went to the NBC Olympic site and watched the Downhill training run. No commentary. Everyone raced.
Which for me will not even be available in HD, a huge personal annoyance.
But to me, it makes absolutely no sense as a move. When ice dancing is a distant memory in May and June, NBC will be broadcasting the Stanley Cup playoffs, games which will be featuring players from these two teams…it’s a perfect chance to market your hockey coverage! Instead, they cut off their own noses for one night of supposedly better ratings.