Yes, it does - and that’s part of the problem. NBC pays so much for multi-year rights for both the summer and winter Olympics that it has to package the main broadcasts in a way that gets as many people as possible to watch, as it can’t make money unless it promises astronomical ratings to the advertisers, usually backed up by a guarantee of free or discounted advertising on popular shows (e.g. The Voice) if it can’t deliver. NBC is under the impression that this means it has to be pretty much “USA Against the World.”
Also, it means that there is no live coverage to the western half of the country, as (a) too many people don’t get home from work until the coverage begins in the east, and (b) NBC won’t show a live version (with the same commercials) on another channel as the local stations complain that it would take away from its own advertisers. Actually, NBC had a different excuse for this; it said that it was afraid that somebody “would be outside of their home and overhear a result on a neighbor’s TV.”
What I remember most from the last Olympics was that it was possible to go online and watch most events (maybe every event?) live from start to finish with all of the preliminaries. Although I wasn’t watching much of the regular primetime coverage, I had an entry from some contest that had me following a female pistol shooter. Even though I don’t typically watch shooting events, I went online and watched the entire thing. I also remember going online to watch a lot of men’s gymnastics events that weren’t included in the primetime broadcast. So I think coverage should be available, it just won’t be broadcast on T.V.
It’s been that way (live coverage of non-major sports on various NBC cable properties and over the web) since at least 2000, but people still trot out the same complaint every four years (All they show is gymnastics and basketball on tape delay!!!)
Four years ago (and I’m pretty sure this year also), NBC made everything available live streaming. I am a huge track and field geek, and I watched almost all of the London track and field live streaming. In addition, I could open separate windows that focused on specific field events. So I had a window open for the track events, a window for the women’s high jump, and a window for the men’s triple jump. I was in heaven.
Anyone on this message board is probably clever enough to figure out ways around geoblocking and get online coverage from foreign broadcasters. Get it set up and you won’t be sorry you broke NBC’s monopoly. Barring that, NBC will stream basically everything live online using the “international feeds”.
There are a lot of crappy things about living in a city that might as well be called “Little Detroit”, but I have always had access to CBC and their Olympic coverage makes NBC look like the idiots that they are. Everything is live and commercial breaks are minimal and short. I got up at 3:00am every day during Sydney '00 and saw everything before work. I kept the chart in the men’s high jump final that year because they showed EVERY SINGLE ATTEMPT!
Four years ago a local kid just three years out of high school won a surprise silver medal. My sister-in-law owned a bar back then and the regular crowd all went to the same high school as this guy. I saw what he did during the day and hastily organized a watch party. NBC dedicated less than a minute to his event–part at 9:00, the rest at 11:30. They were as angry as the villagers in Frankenstein.
How many of the complainers are “cable cutters” that get only their NBC affiliate?
Also, a significant amount of the streaming coverage (and there were some events in some years - Judo in 2008 comes to mind - that were only available online, and without commentary (well, except for chat-style text commentary alongside the video). One time where this was a problem was in a cycling final, where, five minutes after the race, the winners were disqualified, but if you didn’t have audio, you saw that the posted result had changed but with no idea why.
If you are in a part of the US that gets Canadian TV channels, watch the Olympic coverage on one of them. Far better and more comprehensive coverage, without all of those deadly “up close and personal” human-interest stores that clutter the NBC coverage. Yes, you see more of the Canadian competitors, but you see more of other country’s athletes as well.
I don’t need a 10-minute profile of every athlete. I just don’t care. I mean, good for them and all, I’m sure it’s an inspiring story, but I already get the Hallmark Channel. I’m here to watch sports, why can’t you just show me the sports, dammit!