Anyone else disapointed with NBC Olympic coverage?

Question

They focus on a few events, and leave out others completely. I remember at the 2004 Olympics wishing to see badminton, but I never saw a dang thing. I see no equestrian, no handball and many others. Do we really need to see an entire water polo match, when we could get at least a glimpse of the oddball events. Isn't beach volleyball just glorified hacky sack? You might wonder why I would want to see badminton? Because I've never seen competitive badminton and think it may be at least as interesting as curling.

By the way, I notice no US team/individuals in badminton. Why is that? If I had tried out and no other people showed up, could I represent the US in badminton?

Answer 1

American media won't change.  They'll focus on themselves and make themselves look like the good guys, and any rivals look like the bad guys.  Go to Yahoo's Olympic page and just try to find them list a single negative news article about the U.S. and a single positive news article about China.  NBC has even gone over that line this year and turned pure evil.  They've monopolized broadcasting rights so you can't watch on youtube or through a Chinese channel via dish, and then black out half of the events, including the opening ceremony.  They do it for the money, never for the public.

Badminton has already started for quite a few days, and I've been watching on http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/live/in...

As a volleyball fan, I couldn't agree with your sentiment about beach volleyball any more.  Whoever put sand on a volleyball court needs to be shot.  Most of the professional beach volleyball players even wish they could play indoors.  The jump serving isn't as pretty, the setting is always a bump set rather than a regular set, the hitting isn't as much as a set as more of a punch, and the digging isn't digging big hits but rather trying to save tips.  If the U.S. weren't good at beach volleyball we wouldn't see it as much.

Answer 2

Don't talk about NBC!! They screwed around with the swimming so 'precious America' could have the finals at night when it is convenient to THEM! What about the rest of the world?? Like the Aussies and... um... I don't know, the HOST NATION, who have to miss the finals because they are all on during the middle of the day! Is America going to return the favour next time they have the olympics? I think NOT!

Answer 3

America is like North Corea. They can't see the world.

Answer 4

YES! Very disappointed, especially on the West Coast. Man they should just take off that "LIVE" sign because I saw the same event on a different channel 2 hours ago. So that is bull sh*t. Also the commentators always talk about U.S. propaganda, they don't even focus on the event itself!

Answer 5

I dont want to sound rude. But they try to put on the events that people will actually watch. They still have to worry about a thing called ratings. And as far as them covering mostly USA events, well they are an American broadcasting company.......hhhmmmm

Answer 6

If the US is not represented in a sport, NBC will most likely not put it on, so I'm sorry about that.  I have been impressed with the coverage that NBC has been doing.   They put the whole event on because you cannot make everybody happy, if you cut in and out of the water polo match like you would want, somebody else would be upset in missing parts of the water polo match.  I also think that if you get the cable NBC stations, you get to see more of the oddball sports in the olympics.  The main NBC is going to play the most popular sports.

As for your final question, I would not have a clue on that.

Answer 7

I've been disappointed with the coverage.  It's hard to know what is being shown at what time.  Also, when you are watching something, it's hard to know how long it will go on for and what will be on next.

I saw eventing on Sunday afternoon.  They only showed the name of the rider and horse once every 15 minutes or so.

Badminton was on also.  It's like anything though, they make it look so easy, which might be a little boring if you don't appreciate the level of skill.

I've also found it hard to find replays of things that I missed.  Like the mens 4 x 100m swimming final.  Surely worth showing over and over again.

There are standards to prevent just anyone showing up for the olympics, but do you remember that swimmer who was last by several minutes a couple of Olympics ago?

Answer 8

I read Ken Hoffman's newspaper column today and in it he was complaining about NBC's coverage because he saw no point in having to watch a badminton match or synchronized diving!  I am interesting in the diving and haven't seen a darn thing yet.  So the answer to your question is "YES", their coverage is spotty but I think the big problem is I have not been able to find their agenda anywhere.  If I could only find out WHEN they were showing an event I want to see, I could make sure to watch or record it.  

Answer 9

I've noticed a couple of matches of badminton. They had some cameo on some Laos refugee who plays for US now (#8 seed) and then went straight into a quarterfinal matchup against the chinese #2 seed where he got spanked. But it was a very good match. Of all the players I've seen on the U.S. team none seem U.S. born, which really doesn't matter, but if your non-asian and play domestically I'd fancy you wouldn't have much of a chance to represent the U.S. Although I did notice that the Canadian team had a white female player who beat the U.S. singles asian woman, so there are some anomalies.

For those who are complaining about coverage, I think NBC has done a great job of its coverage and have learned not to do all these stupid dramatic pieces and then show 15 secs of the sport afterwards. Each olympics get better and the streaming online coverage is awesome because there is no commentary and I've seen at least 6 badminton matches involving U.S. players and some matches with no U.S. players, which I think goes along way to NBC not being american-centric. I'm from Canada originally and CBC always did a c**p job of showing non-Canada competitors.  

Answer 10

I am good with it.  I am interested in swimming, basketball, diving, gymnastics, and I also like track events which will be shown later in the seek.  Perhaps Badminton is later in the week, too.

Have you gone online and Googled Olympic badminton to see if any web site is streaming it?  

the technology is in place to do it so someone, such as the British Badminton Society might be doing that.

Badminton while exciting has an antique connotation that for today's watchers might be construed as slow.