NBC delays Olympic coverage by 12 hours, angering U.S. fans

Saturday 09th August, 11:57 AM JST

NEW YORK —

The rest of the world might have been dazzled by the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony but angry U.S. viewers clamoring for a glimpse of the spectacle on Friday were made to wait after a media blackout.

U.S. network NBC, which owns exclusive rights to Olympics coverage in the United States, refrained from showing the opening ceremony live, preferring instead to delay coverage by 12 hours for a prime-time evening slot.

A spokesman for NBC, which paid nearly $900 million for Olympic broadcast rights, said the decision was taken to maximize viewing figures.

“It’s a business decision,” the spokesman said. “It protects our affiliates, our advertisers, and shows it to the largest number of viewers possible,” he added.

Bizarrely, the co-hosts of NBC’s breakfast television show barely mentioned the ongoing ceremony during their broadcast, which was reportedly pre-taped.

Meanwhile, rival networks used correspondents in Beijing to describe details of the ceremony, but no footage of the extravaganza was available.

Major newspapers carried extensive reports of the ceremony in their online editions, with the story dominating The New York Times’ homepage. The Times illustrated their coverage with a selection of photographs.

The opening ceremony blackout dismayed dozens of readers who posted messages on a New York Times message board.

“What a joke. I got up this morning to watch the ceremony assuming that it would be on,” said one poster, Andrew, who wrote that he had found a live stream of the event on the Internet.

Another contributor, Leo, said attempting to impose a blackout in the age of the Internet was impossible.

“A delayed play is ridiculous in an Internet age,” he wrote. “They thought people could pretend to ignore such an important event was happening on the (other) side of the globe? It’s impossible.”

Others accused NBC of living in a bygone era. “I can’t understand how in 2008, in the area of instant access, with multiple media outlets, NBC behaves as if we are in 1950, and has the guts to make audiences ‘wait’ for a live coverage that many other countries in the world can see as they are taking place,” wrote Erik.

Another poster, Jordan, lamented: “Richest country in the world and we can’t watch the Olympic opening ceremony live. Its being shown live all over the world … NBC is pathetic.”

A writer on the San Francisco Chronicle’s website accused NBC of putting advertising revenues before public service.

“NBC is an acronym for ‘Not airing Before making big Cash! The Chinese may censor their people over politics—our corporate overlords sensor (sic) us over profits,” the reader fumed.

Meanwhile, attempts to circumvent the blackout on Youtube were quickly clamped down. Although several users of the popular video-sharing site appeared to have posted clips of the ceremony, the items were later blocked.

However, other sites scoured the web in order to locate live coverage of the opening ceremony, the New York Times reported, and found success with a German-language feed among others.

The NBC spokesman said the network was rigorously enforcing web violations of its broadcast rights.

“We take copyright law very seriously and we’re actively working with the IOC (International Olympic Committee) to ensure the take-down of infringing Olympic content on the Internet,” he said.

Wire reports

Latest 15 of 18 Total Comments Show All

smartacus at 02:27 PM JST - 9th August

Poor decision by NBC. I'm surprised they haven't tried to use their clout to get the blue-ribbon events, like the men's 100-meter final, and basketball games involving the U.S., played at 9 a.m. Beijing time so it will suit their prime time schedule in New York.
Pukey2 at 04:00 PM JST - 9th August

Bwa-ha-ha!!

I bet even Timbuktoo had live coverage!
Terrikus at 04:39 PM JST - 9th August

I ended up watching it of a German station. I was so surprised at the lack of NBC's live coverage.
Storenose at 05:19 PM JST - 9th August

That's pretty poor form. Still it's hard to picture worse coverage than Australia is getting at the moment.
GW at 06:26 PM JST - 9th August

US govt shud revoke nbcs TV license, what a bunch of idiots
Triple888 at 08:09 PM JST - 9th August

What would you expect from Americans: everything is money; every advantage is exploited.
ExPrinceska at 08:14 PM JST - 9th August

Cannot believe it! but I think the Japanese TV is worse, today they did not show any other team except the Japanese in the qualifications. How can we compare the teams?
ExPrinceska at 08:15 PM JST - 9th August

I mean the gymnastics qualifications
Sarge at 08:49 PM JST - 9th August

"Japanese TV is worse, today they did not show any other team except the Japanese"

Were you expecting something else, Princess?
flammenwerfer at 08:59 PM JST - 9th August

NBC delayed it? are you for real? as they say in America: Get with the Program! Why not show it twice? with all the precious ads twice - tell the precious advertisers that it's 2 for 1 day, that'll keep them happy. Problem solved.

NBC = No Brains or Common sense
redrightntrue at 11:35 PM JST - 9th August

I dunno about this. I talked with my folks stateside. They said these complaints are obviously isolated. Afterall, these are just the opening ceremonies and a good portion of the USA was still asleep ! Boy, leave it to the editors of Japantoday to find a minor story and blow it out of proportion. Try not to swallow the hook to deep, it's really a non issue. NBC has more live televised coverage than Japan, and you don't hear the Japanese complaining.
JohnBecker at 11:48 PM JST - 9th August

As a resident of the U.S. who is relying on NBC and its rather large group of affiliates to see the Games, it didn't matter to me that the opening ceremonies were shown only on tape delay. I was in the shower and then at work while the ceremony was actually happening, as were most Americans. But I can understand why those who would have been able to watch were upset. I'd rather see something live if the opportunity exists.
GW at 12:49 AM JST - 10th August

folks, if yr in Jpn or the US dont expect much INTERNATIONAL coverage, this is where the US & JPN are the same, self centred, same oole same ole ha ha
TheCode at 11:06 AM JST - 10th August

GW:

folks, if yr in Jpn or the US dont expect much INTERNATIONAL coverage, this is where the US & JPN are the same, self centred, same oole same ole ha ha

In years past that would be quite true. I'm pleasantly surprised that the coverage in Japan has been quite international. I saw nearly all of the men's judo under 60kg. division. The French guy was pretty good. And so was the Algerian and Czech. Then there was the men's air pistol final where two Americans were in the mix and ended up placing 4th and 5th, right behind a Chinese, South Korean, and North Korean. Then, I saw all nine heats of the men's 100 m. breaststroke, women's 400 m. medley, and women's 4x100 m. relay. It was even interesting to see a couple of the qualifying (elimination?) rounds where only 3-5 swimmers were competing from countries like Kazakhstan (which are not known as swimming powerhouses) compete.

One thing I realize though, is that the longer races, like the 400 meter ones start to get boring, since by the time the swimmers get to their final laps, the favorite ends up building such an insurmountable lead. I'm not looking forward to the long-distance swimming events, like the men's 1500 m. freestyle and women's 800 m. freestyle.
TheNewZen at 11:11 AM JST - 10th August

Coverage in Japan has been good so far they showed a lot of judo-matches that involved no Japanese. Even managed to see some of my countrymen compete.

But I am sure that coverage will vary between stations some will do better than others.