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De-monetize It
As NBC peacocks its Games coverage, viewers get around it
Hackers are already competing for gold medals in vaulting over NBC's rights to broadcast the Olympics.
NBC, which owns the rights to broadcast the Games in the U.S., has been delaying certain events, including the opening ceremony, for the sake of ratings. But according to an article in Saturday's New York Times, many viewers decided to watch the Olympics on foreign media websites or YouTube. It wasn't hard: Even as NBC shut down sites that streamed video, bloggers directed sports fans to others.
On the surface, this is a gold-medal performance for video technology. Rather than wait out NBC's delay, viewers could see the ceremony as it happened – from almost any source they wanted. This is also a belly flop for NBC, which spent a considerable amount of money to obtain exclusive rights to the games in the U.S. Whether or not you believe that the Olympics have become too commercialized – and I stopped watching years ago for that reason – the network's contract with the International Olympic Committee ought to mean something.
Naturally, viewers acted as though NBC was violating their rights – although I don't recall anything about watching overblown displays of nationalism in the Constitution. A Seattle blogger told the Times that "The idea of watching a 14-hour delay is repulsive." It's certainly inconvenient, but broadcasting times don't make my list of the top 10 troubling things about what is essentially a coming-out party for a market Stalinist regime.
I want to watch what I want when I want – preferably without commercials – as much as the next nerd. But if too many people watch the Olympics online, there won't be as much money in presenting it on television, and networks wouldn't be able to afford the kinds of news features that have defined the modern Games. Take them away and you're watching something else entirely.
NBC, which owns the rights to broadcast the Games in the U.S., has been delaying certain events, including the opening ceremony, for the sake of ratings. But according to an article in Saturday's New York Times, many viewers decided to watch the Olympics on foreign media websites or YouTube. It wasn't hard: Even as NBC shut down sites that streamed video, bloggers directed sports fans to others.
On the surface, this is a gold-medal performance for video technology. Rather than wait out NBC's delay, viewers could see the ceremony as it happened – from almost any source they wanted. This is also a belly flop for NBC, which spent a considerable amount of money to obtain exclusive rights to the games in the U.S. Whether or not you believe that the Olympics have become too commercialized – and I stopped watching years ago for that reason – the network's contract with the International Olympic Committee ought to mean something.
Naturally, viewers acted as though NBC was violating their rights – although I don't recall anything about watching overblown displays of nationalism in the Constitution. A Seattle blogger told the Times that "The idea of watching a 14-hour delay is repulsive." It's certainly inconvenient, but broadcasting times don't make my list of the top 10 troubling things about what is essentially a coming-out party for a market Stalinist regime.
I want to watch what I want when I want – preferably without commercials – as much as the next nerd. But if too many people watch the Olympics online, there won't be as much money in presenting it on television, and networks wouldn't be able to afford the kinds of news features that have defined the modern Games. Take them away and you're watching something else entirely.
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09:53 EDT, 13.Aug.08
17:25 EDT, 11.Aug.08