# Why isn't viewing the Olympics free? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** olympic-sports-track\ **Created:** [July 30, 2024, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-viewing-the-olympics-free/1005012 "2024-07-30T16:17:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2024, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-viewing-the-olympics-free/1005012/41 "2024-07-30T18:23:35Z")
It’s more a recognition that things are NOT “now” purely profit driven. They always have been. It’s just more transparently obvious now. There’s also a tendency to view our childhood’s through rose tinted glasses if things seemed different back then. The fact of the matter is that we do have a free and readily available source to watch the most popular Olympic events - the over the air broadcast. It’s of the same (better, actually) quality than it has been in generations past and better than other countries get. If more Americans aren’t choosing to view these events collectively, that’s less on profit driven corporations and more on Americans not being limited to a few channels. Ratings are down across the board. And the time zone difference doesn’t help. Most events happen during the work day and people get live updates on their phones for most things. Which they can catch on NBC (or not) later that day. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2024, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-viewing-the-olympics-free/1005012/42 "2024-07-30T18:23:52Z")
In Canada, CBC Gem has free (ad-supported) streaming of Olympic events. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2024, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-viewing-the-olympics-free/1005012/43 "2024-07-30T19:42:46Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > Or, if you only want to watch the Olympics you can sign up for Peacock for one month for $7.99 plus tax, if applicable. And if you think about it, this is a super very good deal. You get more Olympic coverage than is on NBC or NBC cable networks (I think), commercial free, sortable, searchable and ready to play at any time convenient to you. Heck, I paid the $8 just so I could go watch the full opening ceremonies because I couldn’t catch it while it was on (and I think it was shown twice on NBC). Now I have a month’s worth of Olympics and whatever else I want to watch on Peacock. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2024, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-viewing-the-olympics-free/1005012/44 "2024-07-30T21:29:25Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > The U.S. Olympic team does not receive any public/taxpayer funding. The USOC is privately funded, and many U.S. Olympic athletes rely on their own funding to pay for training. A build on this, from a news story I read earlier today: rapper Flavor Flav, having seen an Instagram post from a member of the U.S. Women’s Water Polo team about how their team members have to work side jobs, and seek sponsorships, in order to afford training and competing, decided to sponsor the team for the next five years. [https://wapo.st/3WHN0m6](https://wapo.st/3WHN0m6) ---
**Author:** ![Hoopy\_Frood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoopy_frood/32/8452_2.png) [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2024, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-viewing-the-olympics-free/1005012/45 "2024-07-30T21:30:47Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > This is the answer. When I was a kid, I remember distinctly being given an idealized version of the Olympic games that were all about international harmony, but it’s really just a business. And a corrupt business at that. The IOC is going to do whatever they can to line their pockets. More than that, they’re a corrupt non-profit business. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2024, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-viewing-the-olympics-free/1005012/46 "2024-07-30T21:49:26Z")
Frankly, I prefer the modern Olympics which are a way to boost profits. The original Olympic Games were a way for various city-states to assert dominance over one another politically, while temporarily halting the incessant wars between them. We have TV ads and sponsorships, back then they would sacrifice 100 bulls to Zeus as the _hecatomb_ ceremony. Don’t go griping about the “good old days”, they never existed. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2024, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-viewing-the-olympics-free/1005012/47 "2024-07-30T22:49:27Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > The original Olympic Games were a way for various city-states to assert dominance over one another politically, while temporarily halting the incessant wars between them. We have TV ads and sponsorships, back then they would sacrifice 100 bulls to Zeus as the _hecatomb_ ceremony. Don’t go griping about the “good old days”, they never existed. Aren’t the Olympics used as a way for modern nation-states to assert dominance over one another these days? And those 100 bulls would feed a lot of Greeks. It’s not like that food just went to waste. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2024, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-viewing-the-olympics-free/1005012/48 "2024-07-30T22:52:24Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Aren’t the Olympics used as a way for modern nation-states to assert dominance over one another these days? Not the same way. They were actually forming alliances and making political decisions at the games. It was more than just reputation. > [@Odesio](#): > > And those 100 bulls would feed a lot of Greeks. It’s not like that food just went to waste. But the smell! I used to live in farm country in Kansas and just moving herds of cows around was bad enough. A mass slaughter out in public would have been awful, and I doubt I’d have much of an appetite after that. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2024, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-viewing-the-olympics-free/1005012/49 "2024-07-30T23:33:06Z")
I’m a Peacock subscriber. I’ve been watching a lot of the Olympics. I haven’t once turned on Peacock. Between the daytime, prime time and late night coverage plain ol’ NBC has been plenty for me. Unlike back in the day having streaming services allows much more of the events to be aired but if you don’t want that then there is plenty of coverage on “free” tv. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2024, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-viewing-the-olympics-free/1005012/50 "2024-07-31T01:18:19Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > We have TV ads and sponsorships IIRC, a ancient Greek Olympians had sponsors, too. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2024, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-viewing-the-olympics-free/1005012/51 "2024-07-31T02:56:33Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Why aren’t these events running on every channel in real time all day so we as a nation can experience SOMETHING together as one people be it success or failure. I’m wondering when the OP thought the Olympics ever ran “on every channel in real time all day.” First off, theres often a time zone difference, so only people in the same time zone get to see everything in real time. Los Angeles is eight hours behind Paris, so an event at Noon winds up being shown at 4:00 a.m. in L.A., while prime-time in L.A. is the middle of the night in Paris. Second, in the good old days before cable, the Olympics were broadcast on one channel and one channel only in the U.S. In 1960, CBS paid $394,000 to broadcast 20 hours of the Summer games from Rome. It wasn’t until the 1980 Summer games that any network broadcast more than 76 hours of coverage. (Even the Miracle on Ice game at Lake Placid was tape-delayed three hours because ABC wanted to show it in prime time.) And for all the OP complains about cable, when NBC tried their infamous TripleCast in 1992, their cable partners managed to add more than 1,000 hours of coverage to the 160 that the broadcast network showed. Unfortunately, NBC lost $100 million on the setup. Still by the 2022 Beijing games, NBC and its cable partners showed _2,800 hours_. That’s a lot closer to the “real time all day” the OP wishes for. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-viewing-the-olympics-free/1005012.md?page=2)