Tuesday, February 11, 2014

NBC's Sochi Olympics TV broadcasting schedule is just killing me

Last night shortly after 12:00 am EST there was curling happening live at the Olympics.  I was hoping to watch it on TV, but NBC took it upon themselves not to air it until 3 am.  I realize not a lot of people are big curling fans, but I like it.

This isn't really about curling anyway, it's about the fact that NBC decides not to show events live.  What do they have to lose?  At that same time the NBC Sports Channel was airing a rerun of a British soccer show, MSNBC and CSNBC were rerunning news talk shows, on USA there was an episode of  NCIS Los Angeles (obviously also a repeat), and regular NBC was televising a rerun of their prime time Olympic coverage from earlier that night (which wasn't even live to begin with).

I get it that they want to pack all the stuff they think we want to watch into prime time (which on the west coast is still going till 2 am EST), and that's fine.  But how can it hurt to also show things live, particular the things they don't even intend to air in prime time?  It infuriates me that they have all these channels they could be using to televise stuff as it happens, and they don't even bother.  All the housewives are still going to watch figure skating before they go to bed even if you give people like me an opportunity to watch curling live at 1 am.

It seems like a simple formula for NBC to use; air everything live on various cable channels, and then still pack whatever they want between 8 and 11 pm.  I don't think anybody will complain about turning on USA late at night and not getting to see an episode of NCIS whatever from 3 years ago.

And here's the explanation for why I'm using the above logo for my own personal Sochi Olympics commentary.

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