7 Biggest Complaints With NBC’s Olympics Coverage
by InvestorPlace Staff | July 30, 2012 9:28 am
A record-breaking audience — 28.7 million U.S. viewers in prime time on Saturday — tuned into the London Olympics, but so far that just seems to mean a record number of people criticizing coverage[1] of the event by Comcast‘s (NASDAQ:CMCSA[2]) NBC.
After only the first weekend, social media outlets have blown up with complaints. Twitter, for example, saw countless contributions to the hashtag #nbcfail.
What were those tuning in to the Olympics most unhappy about? Have a look at some of the biggest complaints:
- NBC did not livestream the opening ceremony like BBC did, so Americans had to wait for up to seven hours to watch it.
- Many of the comments from the anchors[3] were offensive during the opening ceremony, and many of the best segments were edited out.
- More tape delay complaints: The 400m swimming event (where Ryan Lochte took the gold and Michael Phelps was left empty-handed) was aired on tape delay in prime time, instead of live.
- The men’s basketball team’s opening game was aired on a cable network while women’s cycling was on NBC.
- While NBC said it was streaming all events live online, some could not be found and the quality of the online platform was not always up to par — streaming live and replay coverage has been plagued by frozen images and crashing browsers.
- Plus, in order to watch online, you had to sign in with an account from a cable television or satellite provider, or download an app from NBC.
- Too many ads interrupted NBC’s coverage across multiple broadcast and cable outlets.
Viewers must remember, though, that prime-time on the U.S. East Coast comes when it is 1 a.m. in London, so there are no events to air live — which is why NBC has saved big events for that time period.
This is meant to allow more viewers to tune in and is also where the network makes the bulk of its advertising revenue.
-Alyssa Oursler, InvestorPlace Editorial Assistant
Endnotes:
- criticizing coverage: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/29/entertainment-us-olympics-nbc-complaints-idUSBRE86S0SD20120729
- CMCSA: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=CMCSA
- comments from the anchors: http://www.examiner.com/article/nbc-commentary-of-the-london-olympics-opening-ceremony-deemed-offensive
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