NBC’s Olympic Failure To Communicate

What we have here is a failure to communicate! All these events were shown live! Every bit of the Olympics is available live as it happens. The NBC Television Network (your local NBC station) is just one of many places to see the games, but it is by-and-large not the place to see them live!

We’ve been watching the Olympics a good part of today.

“I know how this one came out,” Helaine said more than once.

That is the curse of the early 21st Century. She, along with some Facebook friends wonder why they’re suffering through tape hard drive delay? The results have already been on Twitter and Facebook. The cat’s out of the bag.

Steve Schwaid, the über competitive Bobby Valentine of TV news directors, tweeted:

Curious – does it bother you that nbc is not showing some of the major events live- like the Phelps/Lochte? Pls send me ur thoughts.

What we have here is a failure to communicate! All these events were shown live! Every bit of the Olympics is available live as it happens. The NBC Television Network (your local NBC station) is just one of many places to see the games, but it is by-and-large not the place to see them live!

NBC (seen on WVIT-30 here in Connecticut) is more a “Best of” channel with recorded coverage that’s been sliced, diced and produced for maximum TV effect. It will be the most exciting channel with the most motivating backstories… as long as you’ve kept your head in the sand until you watch.

That TV savvy people like Steve Schwaid and my wife don’t understand the game plan is NBC’s fault! Along with my complaints about the difficulty in seeing their streaming coverage, NBC has failed in explaining and showing people how to watch what they want to watch.

What NBC is doing as far as depth of coverage is concerned is unprecedented. They’re getting almost no credit for that! No one in their audience will get it without a little educating.

The Google Play Store shows NBC’s Olympics Live app with 100,000+ downloads and around 3,000 raters. That’s a sad installed base.

There’s almost two weeks of coverage left. I wonder if NBC’s online and secondary channel strategy will change?

3 thoughts on “NBC’s Olympic Failure To Communicate”

  1. My issue with NBC is twofold, Geoff. 1: This constant nattering on about live streaming? It’s only available if you’re ALREADY a cable/satellite/telco subscriber. Really? Then it’s not free, folks. 2: I’m still massively upset that NBC cut out 5 minutes of the Opening Ceremonies for a *Michael Phelps* interview? Just play the darned thing. I don’t need Matt, Meredith and Bob to tell me there’s a pastoral scene. I can see it, thanks. And I’m pretty sure I know more about Madagascar than it’s known from a kids’ movie.

  2. As with all dinosaur-sized media operations, change is slow and methodical. This is the antithesis of technology, where change happens fast, and whatever works best survives. If ever a better system were to emerge, perhaps it would begin on the internet, rather than existing as a tv station or a newspaper, trying to reinvent itself into a medium it was never designed for. Those networks have yet to emerge.

  3. NBC can’t blame Ann Curry for the horrible mannor in with it presented the Olympics. Senior management should be replaced. Many people I know no longer watch NBC. I have just joined them.

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