The Olympics are almost here (tips and thoughts)

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The Olympics are almost here (tips and thoughts)

I don't watch a lot of regular sports or network TV so I was shocked to find out that the Olympics in Athens (that everyone is predicting may be a disaster due to poor planning) starts in just one week from today.

In the states, NBC is using their stable of stations: network NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, Bravo, Telemundo, and their new NBC HDTV channel to show what they say is their most complete TV coverage of the events to date. I can still remember watching the Red channel, White channel, and Blue channel 24 hour coverage back in 1992 on my parents' giant old satellite dish, which seemed to show even the most obscure sports, but maybe NBC is telling the truth that 2004 will even outdo 1992.

When it comes to recording this stuff on a PVR, your best friend will be NBC's TV listing page here. If you just want results, as soon as they happen, NBC has a nice results page as well.

Personally, I'm interested in cycling and soccer, which rarely get any play among the countless hours and hours of gymnastics and diving coverage (both sports which, in my opinion, are judged merely on how you negatively deviate in the slightest from perfection, which I think a lot of people enjoy doing to others :). Unfortunately, NBC isn't listing their TV schedules by sports, so you'll have to hunt around to find your favorites (the first cycling event will be on Saturday, the 14th, Soccer starts a week from today on Wednesday).

What's amusing to me is that NBC will do the same dumb thing they've done in the past, which gets dumber every passing year: tape delay events. Americans are big people, not children, and if an event happens at 4:30am, true fans will do their best to catch it (either live, on tape, or TiVo). But NBC can't sell ad slots, so they'll hold stuff off until 8pm when they can get the big bucks and edit events into a blur of biographies featuring sunsets, struggles, and plenty of violin soundtracks. But in the age of the internet, you'll know results as they happen, hours before they ever get on TV. I hated this during the Japan games, and purposely had to avoid some sports sites to wait until I could watch the events later.

You know what's going to be big at this year's olympics? Bittorrent. Even the Opening Ceremonies are delayed by several hours in the US, and my guess is that you'll find crisp, digital copies of BBC or other EU network recordings soon after they happen, and before they show in the US, as DivX files on torrent servers.

You know what I'd do if I were NBC? Provide downloadable video of all sports, regardless of whether or not they aired on TV. Plus, I'd toss ads into them. You probably can't air coverage of Archery on NBC in primetime, but imagine if you had every Archery event on the NBC servers. I bet companies selling bows and arrows would jump at the chance to buy an 30 second slot in a online-only video. You'd have happy fans and happy advertisers, because both NBC's content and their advertising could reach their perfect audience: superfans.

Here's my prediction: if in a couple months we hear NBC claim that internet downloads of pirate sports recordings cost them millions in lost revenue, know that a savvy network could have turned that kind of demand into a revenue source (via ads in downloadable video), instead of letting folks route around their damage. If NBC can't look at someone cruising dozens of shady websites, then waiting hours to download a couple hours of shoddy video as extreme demand for something they'd happily pay for, then NBC has bigger problems than I thought.

Oh, this will be the first HDTV olympics, but NBC hasn't bothered to put anything on the website they've been advertising for months. A "coming soon" message a week before launch can't be a good sign.

by Matt Haughey August 4, 2004 in News

Comments

I wish they wouldn't use six hour schedule blocks. That makes my Tivo cry.

Posted by: Scott at Aug 4, 2004 12:46:05 PM

You forgot to mention USA Network, in the list of NBC's "stable of stations."

Posted by: Steve at Aug 4, 2004 12:53:47 PM

They don't list USA as carrying any events, though.

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Aug 4, 2004 1:18:39 PM

Scott, if you need space for all those 6 hour blocks, it's time to upgrade your TiVo. All my TiVo stuff started with the WorldCup and a planned vacation. Since it was taping about 8 hours of games everyday while I was away, I knew I needed more space. Look for a prepared 2nd drive kit at one of the many TiVo upgrade sites. Installation only takes about 15 minutes and it'll give you plenty of room to spare for Olympic Tivo bombs.

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Aug 4, 2004 2:06:00 PM

What a crap website though. All I wanted was a soccer schedule, but the link on the soccer page that says Complete Soccer TV Listings just goes back to the main TV Listings page you linked in this post. And given that much of the soccer coverage will be on Telemundo, will it also be in Spanish?

Posted by: BillSaysThis at Aug 4, 2004 2:30:39 PM

Telemundo's not that bad Bill, it's still "Goooooooooooaaaaaaaaallllll" in any language. I watch lots of games there.

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Aug 4, 2004 2:39:53 PM

Thanks Matt. I should have phrased it better: 6-hour blocks make ME cry. They conflict with everything I normally record and if I set a keyword wishlist for a specific sport it will also probably get 4 hours of junk. The actual disk space is the least of my worries -- I think I'm on my 4th hard drive upgrade.

Posted by: Scott at Aug 4, 2004 3:00:21 PM

Bill, since I want my own schedule too, here it is for Soccer:

Aug 11
MSNBC:
10:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. ET Women's Soccer - USA vs. Greece (LIVE)

Telemundo:
1:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. ET Men's Soccer - Mexico vs. Mali (LIVE) Men's Soccer - Argentina vs. Serbia and Montenegro Women's Soccer - USA Women vs. Greece

Aug 12
MSNBC:
1:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. ET Men's Soccer - Iraq vs. Portugal (LIVE)

Telemundo:
1:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. ET Men's Soccer - Costa Rica vs. Morocco (LIVE), Ghana vs. Italy, Paraguay vs. Japan

Aug 14
CNBC:
2:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. ET Women's Soccer - USA vs. Brazil (LIVE) Men's Soccer - Argentina vs. Tunisia (LIVE)

Telemundo:
1:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. ET Men's Soccer - Mexico vs. South Korea (LIVE), Argentina vs. Tunisia Women's Soccer - Mexico vs. China
1:30 a.m. - 3:30 a.m. ET Soccer (probably recaps)

Aug 15
CNBC:
2:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. ET Men's Soccer - Italy vs. Japan (LIVE)

Telemundo:
Noon - 7:00 p.m. ET Men's Soccer - Costa Rica vs. Iraq (LIVE), Paraguay vs. Ghana
1:30 a.m. - 3:30 a.m. ET Soccer

Aug 17
CNBC:
2:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m ET Women's Soccer - USA vs. Australia (LIVE) Men's Soccer Serbia and Montenegro vs. Tunisia (LIVE)

Telemundo:
1:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. ET Men's Soccer - Mexico vs. Greece (LIVE), Argentina vs. Australia Women's Soccer - Mexico vs. Germany
1:30 a.m. - 3:30 a.m. ET Soccer

Aug 18
MSNBC:
10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. ET Men's Soccer - Costa Rica vs. Portugal (LIVE)

Telemundo:
1:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. ET Men's Soccer - Paraguay vs. Italy (LIVE), Morocco vs. Iraq, Costa Rica vs. Portugal
1:30 a.m. - 3:30 a.m. ET Soccer

Aug 20
MSNBC:
11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. ET Women's Soccer - Quarterfinals (LIVE)

Telemundo:
10:55 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. ET Soccer - Women's Quarterfinals (LIVE)
1:30 a.m. - 3:30 a.m. ET Soccer

Aug 21
CNBC:
2:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. ET Soccer - Men's Quarterfinals (LIVE) Soccer - Men's Quarterfinals (LIVE)

Telemundo:
10:30 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. ET Men's Soccer - Quarterfinals (LIVE)
1:30 a.m. - 3:30 a.m. ET Soccer

Aug 23
MSNBC:
11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. ET Women's Soccer - Semifinals (LIVE)

Telemundo:
10:55 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. ET Women's Soccer - Semifinals (LIVE)
1:30 a.m. - 3:30 a.m. ET Soccer

Aug 24
MSNBC:
10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. ET Men's Soccer - Semifinals (LIVE)

Telemundo:
10:30 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. ET Men's Soccer - Semifinals (LIVE)
1:30 a.m. - 3:30 a.m. ET Soccer

Aug 26
NBC:
12:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. ET/PT Women's Soccer - Gold Medal Final (LIVE)

MSNBC:
10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. ET Women's Soccer- Bronze Medal Game (LIVE)

Telemundo:
10:55 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. ET Women's Soccer - Gold & Bronze Medal Matches
1:30 a.m. - 3:30 a.m. ET Soccer

Aug 27
MSNBC:
10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. ET Men's Soccer - Bronze Medal Game (LIVE)

Telemundo:
1:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. ET Men's Soccer - Bronze Medal Game (LIVE)

Aug 28
CNBC:
3:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. ET Men's Soccer - Gold Medal Game (LIVE)

Telemundo:
2:30 a.m. - 6:00 a.m. ET Men's Soccer - Men's Gold Medal Final (LIVE)
Noon - 8:00 p.m. ET Men's Soccer - Gold Medal Final (replay)

Damn, looks like it's gonna be tivoing lots of channels at odd times.

Oh, and it looks like USA Networks will be playing some stuff, I'll update the post.

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Aug 4, 2004 3:00:32 PM

That's true Scott. I guess this is where my dual-tuner DirecTiVo comes in really handy.

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Aug 4, 2004 3:03:27 PM

Dish Network is going to launch an Olympics channel (# 9910) during the games.

It has 6 channels on one screen. They are
1 NBC
2 MSNBC
3 CNBC
4 USA
5 Bravo
6 Telemundo

Using your Dish Network remote you'll be able to select one of the six audio feeds on this station so you can watch all six and listen to whichever one you'd like.

Personally I think it's a great idear!

Posted by: Mike Frisco at Aug 4, 2004 3:47:59 PM

Hi Matt, etc.

Thanks for the props on the listings and results pages. Those will be the most trafficked pages of the site, and they will be greatly expanded as the games get rolling.

Answering a few of your concerns:

+ Regarding the schedule: you're right, NBC hasn't yet announced the minute-by-minute schedule. That could be blamed on many things, but let's just say these Olympics are unique in many ways -- numerous things are happening later than expected. You will see a very comprehensive day-by-day, minute-by-minute schedule soon.

+ Regarding tape-delay: what you describe isn't exactly right. Most of the events *will* be broadcast live, but because Greece is 6-10 hours ahead of the States, you probably won't see them that way. But if you want, you can watch (or, ahem, TiVo) your soccer match at 3:00 a.m. on CNBC. There are exceptions to this, but it is generally the case.

+ Regarding the downloadable videos: huge leaps have been made in online video production compared to previous Olympics. However, one that you will probably never see in your lifetime is sanctioned network downloading. This has nothing to do with NBC -- it has to do with the IOC. You see, NBC only has the rights to broadcast video *in the U.S.* Therefore, NBCOlympics.com only has the rights to distribute video in the U.S. (If you come to the site in a week, you'll see how we do that.) The International Olympic Committee (which makes its money from selling tv rights around the world) will probably never allow a broadcast unit to create non-streaming, downloadable video files. (Or at least not in an media incarnation I can imagine. I'd sure like to be wrong about that.) Now, you can certainly point the finger and accuse that of being "old media thinking." But you have to remember that the Olympics are an international event, in which not even fractions of one percent with see the games via DVR. That the IOC has taken the huge step to allow *any* online video has been completely overlooked.

+ Regarding streaming video: we will be providing clips and packages online. The average person will have much more streaming video than they can stand to watch.

+ Regarding HDTV: I've only got the lame excuse that the delay is related to production/sponsorship factors. Sorry, you'll see more about it soon.

+ Regarding your prediction, I'll take that bet!

Finally, here's some shameless self-promotion where I talk about launching the site, which has been great fun:
http://www.lostremote.com/story/nbc_olympics.htm

-Rex Sorgatz
currently: nbcolymics.com
regularly: ibsys.com.com
previously: fimoculous.com

Posted by: Rex Sorgatz at Aug 4, 2004 6:23:10 PM

I have been trying to get broadcast channels to make video available online for a VERY long time, especially for fansites who find a celebrity interview worth archiving for fans. NBC has an absolutely terrible archiving policy (nothing over 90 days is kept) and VHS duplicating is an absurdly high cost (something like $250 per tape) and for media only. If you missed it, that's just too bad. NBC/CBS/etc need to really get on the ball with the downloadable content age. I work 3rd shift, and for the past 3 years have not seen much of anything prime time because that's when I sleep! I can, however, download episodes of current shows online and watch them on my off days, never having to rely on some corny VHS recorder and get crystal clear images as they are fan-coverted in digital quality. And imagine how nice it would be if the actually broadcaster made it so? They should at least give it a trial run with the Olympics, including all events and just see how well it really works.

Posted by: Mike Moore at Aug 4, 2004 9:34:58 PM

Rex, thank you so much for your informative and interesting comment. It is information like this that helps us understand why sites are built the way they are and what compromises had to be made. It is valuable and personal and commendable.

Posted by: Gen Kanai at Aug 4, 2004 10:18:13 PM

Rex, thanks so much for the insider info. I forgot completely about the IOC's ridiculous control freak rules they force people to abide by (and I know it's likely I'll get an email someday asking me to take the logo image off this post).

Great to hear you're on the job and I look forward to seeing the site's content beef up as the games approach. My only feature request at this point would be a filtered schedule by sports type, so I could see all cycling, soccer, or basketball events listed and set my tivo accordingly.

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Aug 5, 2004 11:28:29 AM

The BBC's actually doing free, live, multi-event streaming of the Olympics, but it's IP-whitelisted to UK residential broadband customers only. I don't know whether NBC considered that kind of deal with cable and DSL customers in the US, but I'd have paid for it.

As for TiVoing, I'd definitely like more granular control over programming blocks, just to make channel flipping and scheduled recording a whole lot easier on my old-school Series 1 standalone with its one input.

And I'm with Matt here: I'd like to see a per-sport schedule, and would love a DHTML-driven colour-coded day-planner thing that allows you to pick sports from a list, then see the blocks appear in their time slots. (My Olympics: cycling, football, rowing, weightlifting; handball, waterpolo and hockey. No bloody gymnastics.)

By Beijing -- which is going to be a nightmare for US viewers, of course, given the time difference -- I suspect we'll be in an era of being able to devote individual channels to individual sports (and perhaps even individual matches)

Posted by: Nick Sweeney at Aug 9, 2004 8:15:27 AM

I will completely boycott anything that is on a tape delay and use bittorrent or any other legal or illegal means to get stuff as it happens. To have opening ceremony 7 hours after it actually started is stupid and plain childish.

Posted by: Oz at Aug 9, 2004 9:19:27 AM

Sorry for returning to this post so late, but things are a bit hectic, as you might imagine. If you go to the site (nbcolympics.com) now, you'll see a much more comprehensive tv schedule (click on "TV LISTINGS"). It should have the levels of granularity you're looking for.

Enjoy the games and feel free to email me if you have other concerns (I'll try to get back to you before... well, september).

-Rex Sorgatz (rex@ibsys.com)

currently: nbcolymics.com
regularly: ibsys.com
previously: fimoculous.com

Posted by: Rex Sorgatz at Aug 9, 2004 9:39:48 AM

Recent details of TV Listings for NBCOlympic.com at
http://cbs.marketwatch.com/tools/quotes/newsarticle.asp?guid={EAE8D2B3-CA2C-47B4-B972-F65B7C3DD875}&siteid=mktw&dist=nbs&symb=

Posted by: Ron Seasons at Aug 10, 2004 8:07:36 AM

I've invested in an HD PC-tuner card and HD monitor specifically anticipating watching HD Olympics on my local digital OTA broadcast NBC affiliate (WDRC - Washington, DC). Now it looks like they're broadcasting only SD content! Do I have to buy a Dish or digital cable subscription to see HD feeds? What happened to "Broadcasting the Olympics in HD"? Cable and Dish is *not* broadcast.

Chris

Posted by: Chris Linton at Aug 11, 2004 5:17:37 AM

Rex,

Thanks for the insight, this is really cool. I'm also hoping that you can point me to a good source for some information...

I'm looking to Tivo/HTPC all the coverage and watch whatever I want out of it over the next few weeks. But, I can't seem to get a good, consistent outline of when the coverage on a channel will be first run and when it is replay of some other airing (on the same channel or not).

I'd love a schedule (not necessarily to the sport/content level) of first-run (tape delayed or not, doesn't matter) programming. Then I can just set the tivo & htpc to record just those and have a chance of getting some of my regular shows in edgewise. :)

Do you (or anyone else) know of a listing online like this?

Thanks!
Robert

Posted by: Robert at Aug 13, 2004 1:02:32 PM

I would like to get the team USA Softball shedule? Why was this web site done so poorly and confusing?

Posted by: VERN CREPS at Aug 14, 2004 1:34:33 PM

I would like to get the team USA Softball shedule? Why was this web site done so poorly and confusing?

Posted by: VERN CREPS at Aug 14, 2004 1:36:07 PM

How about a Wrestling shedule Men's and Women's??

Posted by: Jim Shu at Aug 15, 2004 2:53:50 PM

Vern and Jim, just load up this page, select a sport, then change the second date to Aug 30:

http://nbcolympics.zap2it.com/tv/search.jsp

that will give you the entire schedule for that sport.

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Aug 15, 2004 7:33:53 PM

Does anyone know of a site that's hosting Olympics torrents? I'm using our cable-box-Tivo-thing. But I'm taping a whole lot faster than I can watch, and there's no way to expand the HD space or save the shows onto my computer. Which stinks. We have digital cable. I'd just like to actually watch the all the Olympics I can get. Any help?

Posted by: Nathan at Aug 15, 2004 8:31:41 PM

I too am looking for links for olympics torrents. the usual suspects arent turning up anything. (tvtorrents, suprnova)

Posted by: tomaste at Aug 15, 2004 8:36:25 PM

I TOO am looking for torrents of coverage. However, I want video files of the medal ceromonies, that for some unholy reason, NBC won't show.

I REALLY want to watch the Greek's first gold medal for Synchro Diving, and I even looked on Greek TV sites and I can't find it anywhere :(

Would posting links be against the rules here?

Posted by: Mito Mikeoe at Aug 16, 2004 5:41:37 PM

I would like to send the letter below to someone at NBC Sports. Does anyone know a good email address to use? The one on their Olympics Web site was bounced back to me.

August 16

Hello,

I think I emailed you during the last Olympics about the preponderant focus on the US and American athletes during your coverage. Well, it has not improved. I think during the last Olympics, I said that there is no need to build drama through schmaltzy music and overhyped commentary, that indeed the sports and athletes speak for themselves. Well, the same criticism unfortunately holds true for this Olympics.

What are you doing???

Your coverage at night raises suspicions (not just by me) that you have gone back and edited over commentary originally recorded to reflect the outcomes that were different than expected. Also at night, it is so obvious that if you are showing an event with an American in it at 11:00 pm as opposed to 9 or 10 pm, then that American athlete did not win. As if ratings are all that counts.

What was interesting was what Bob Costas said in his prime time closing this evening. Commenting on the Japanese team victory in men's gymnastics, he referred to Jim McKay's commentary from 1972 (the last time Japan won gold in this team event) and noted that there had been a film made about the Olympics featuring that coverage. Aren't you a bit embarrassed that no one will be making movies of your coverage? They'll be using footage of Australian or Canadian TV instead.

Posted by: Virginia at Aug 16, 2004 10:00:17 PM

I have been watching the Athens 2004 Olympics and during the men's 100m butterfly event, the Commentador made the remark "Japan just used the dolphin kick as he came off the wall". Now, my question is, if a Commentador saw the kick and pointed it out to the whole world when it was taking place, how can the Japanease deny that it didn't happen and keep the gold medal? These young men and women train for years to get to this level...all of these athletes represent the best in the world....As doping should suspend an athelet from competing because it is dishonest....so it cheating. In my opinion the two are no different and the young man from Japan should be disqualified from the rest of the swim meets. I just don't understand why the Officials haven't review the tape, especially when it was broadcasted for the whole world to see. After all, isn't Honesty the best policy.

Posted by: carolyn at Aug 17, 2004 10:27:53 AM

KATIE COURIC AND BOB COSTAS' COVERAGE OF THE OPENING CEREMONEY OF THE OLYMPICS WAS PATHETIC. THEY NEEDED TO BE MORE INFORMATIVE ON WHAT GREECE WAS TRYING TO TELL THE WORLD ABOUT GREEK CULTURAL...THEIR SILENCE SHOWED THEIR IGNORANCE ON THE BEAUTIFUL PRESENTATION. IT WOULD OF BEEN WONDERFUL IF THEY EXPLAINED THE FLOATS AND WHAT THE STORY OF EACH WAS. WE ALL PRAY THAT THEY DO NOT COVER THE CLOSING CEREMONY, UNLESS THEY STUDY HARD ON WHAT IS BEING PRESENTED TO THE WORLD. MANY HAVE AGREED THAT WE COULD OF DONE A BETTER JOB OF EXPLAINING WHAT WAS GOING ON. COSTAS (BEING OF GREEK ORIGIN) SHOULD DEFINATELY BRUSH UP ON HIS GREEK AND PRONOUNCIATION OF WORDS!!!

Posted by: PARI SPALLAS at Aug 18, 2004 5:16:40 PM

"Gold for Sale" Amazing turn of event, Hamm falls into the judges table, moves to 12th place, and miraculously gets the Gold. South Korea graciously accepts the Silver and Bronze. What a wonderful day to be an American. The old "Bully" theory rises to the occasion.

Posted by: Lou at Aug 19, 2004 3:28:19 PM

Posted by: Lou at Aug 19, 2004 3:29:40 PM

Why can't someone come up with coverage that a olympic junkie could enjoy. To see each venue on a 24 hour time would be incredible. If they only created a channel like that. It would be awesome to watch the events be set up before they started and see the fans come in the door. A real behind the scenes look at the olympics with the cameras rolling non stop. Now that would be olympic happyness.

Posted by: RPG at Aug 20, 2004 5:43:05 AM

VISIT : http://www.fastweb.it/streaming/raisport.asx

FOR A LIVE COVERAGE OF THE OLYMPICS ATHENS 2004....It's Italian Coverage though!

Posted by: someone at Aug 27, 2004 7:31:44 AM

Hopefully this won't seem like a stupid post...but did anyone tape the 2004 Olympic soccer games? Especially the Argentina games? I too used my Tivo to tape them so I could watch them after work...only they were erased "accidently" by a family member (I wanted to keep them)...does anyone have these taped??? I'd willingly pay for copies..

Posted by: The Nut at Nov 14, 2004 8:39:12 PM

NBC coverage of the olympics stinks. Cable (and especially having access to CBC) will drive the archaic big 3 legacy networks off the air.

Posted by: Tom at Feb 13, 2006 4:03:53 PM

Yep, tape delay stinks. Treacly background stories stink. Just show us the events, realtime.

Even worse: the internet video downloads are seriously broken. On 2 different XP machines, using both IE and Firefox,
with latest Windows Media Player 10, I get crashes in the download-license process that keep me from seeing the
videos. (The commercials, however,
show flawlessly).

Silly IOC. Silly NBC.

-- stan

Posted by: Stan Krute at Feb 15, 2006 10:59:13 AM

Hello can u tell me why do people play in the Olympics and why

Posted by: Courtney at Nov 8, 2006 9:52:13 AM

The Olympics are almost here (tips and thoughts)

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