NBC...The Worst Network Of ALL Time.

I totally feel you! By the time they get to showing what everyone wants to see it is after 10:30 pm on the west coast. I have a couple more things to add to your rant-------Did I have to see Pandas? They are cute, but I can watch Animal Planet or go to San Diego zoo if that is what I wanted. Also, the little square in the bottom corner of the screen that says 30 or whatever minutes till Michael swims is all BS. I teach time, and 30 minutes means 30 minutes---so when it is 9:00 on the west coast and it says 30 minutes till Michael swims---I should see him swim at 9:30 or so not 2 hours later!!!! Another thing, I have nothing against beach volleyball--in fact I have been to a couple of matches; however, unless it is for a medal, please do not show it before an event that will go down in Olympic history. There I said it! I, too, feel a little better. Thanks!!!

8/13/08

6	I'm not bitter at all.

8/13/08

7	Actually, after the vent...I'm doing pretty good!

8/13/08

7	All I'm asking is to take off the damn "LIVE" logo...okay...I'm still angry.

8/13/08

Boski93

2	theshrewdone wrote: I'm not bitter at all. +1000

8/13/08

Ryan

5	But how do you really feel?

8/13/08

I feel you man....The best thing to do on the West Coast is to watch some of this stuff live using a PC or Laptop. The weird thing is that there are no announcers and only "Ambience". You sort of feel like your're there...No commercials either, so there are some benefits. Microsoft cornered the market though and you have to download "Siverlight". It only takes like 3 minutes, but it works for Windows XP and VISTA. Live events are available to MAC users, but they must have the new MACS which use the "INTEL PENTIUM" Processor....I use the a Power MAC G5 but it does not have the Pentium chip. I've been messing with a Laptop that runs Windows Vista, and I have been able to watch events "Live". The picture quality is great and not your classic blurry streaming....

8/13/08

I am getting USA Basketball live on my CABLE though...Every game...I also watched some Softball live last night, but the US Baseball game was not live...We haven't received any "Live" footage of the Phelps Gold medal races at all here in San Diego. It's just not right...Like we're not going to know what happened 3 hours after an event. NBC needs to "Suck It"....They have deceived and flat out dissed us over here on the West Coast....I'll just hold on to what little we have with the live Basketball, and try to watch the rest "On-Line"....It's just not fair... We are Americans here in San Diego you know....We want the Olympic Games live...Come on now NBC!!!!!

8/13/08

2	Boski93 wrote: +1000 + 1,000,000......

8/13/08

kantwistaye

2	You're kinda screwed being on the West Coast. If/when Phelps goes for his 7th and 8th golds, I wouldn't watch any tv until his races came on. Luckily, for me, I'm in the Midwest so I do get to see it live.

8/13/08

JKB37

2	I kept believing "live" as well. Its all on the internet from now on.

8/13/08

8/13/08

Anthonyg7575

(Edited by Anthonyg7575)

Sorry Josh, but you do know that everything is based on EST, right? When Phelps did his run, I was watching it LIVE.....It's the same as if you watch American Idol, I know the winner before you. That's just something that has to be dealt with on the West Coast. I understand your gripe though, thinking that it's live....They should at least say that it was previously recorded...

8/13/08

kteacher wrote:

You can tell when Phelps will race next by looking at the schedule on the NBCBeijing page...He will race at about 10:45 P.M. Friday, 10:00 PM Saturday, and then again 10:50 PM on Sunday. These times are the same for the East Coast only they will see it live...Technically we should be watching Phelps run for #6, 7, and 8 at 7:00 P.M. PT.....His events are the 200 IM, 100M Fly, and the 4X100 Medley Relay...It's just not fair....And yes, we get to see plenty of Panda frolicking down the street at the SD ZOO. What was NBC thinking????

8/13/08

(Edited by kteacher)
Anthonyg7575 wrote:

Well, at least we get to watch MNF at a decent hour! Matter of fact any other championship game comes on at a good time during the rest of the year. I am starting to feel a little bit better.

8/13/08

Anthonyg7575 wrote:

I know that issue...but even American Idol will tell me that is was recorded from an early broadcast. On that note...why can't I watch that show live at 6pm when it is broadcast 2 hours away? Enough of that, though...I'm still ashamed that I watch that show! I don't know about everyone...but I would assume most would much rather watch Phelps swimming actual live races and creating history rather than watching Wheel of Fortune or Teen Jeopardy...those are already taped showings...everyone know that...so show those at midnight. Make my "LIVE" Olympics LIVE!

8/13/08

theshrewdone wrote:

Not to mention the joy we get at watching Billy Bush and EXTRA.

8/13/08

isucubs

frankly, I am sort of glad they are putting other events on first.. I believe more people should watch beach volleyball and I think they should have put in some softball highlights before letting people see the Phelps stuff.. there is a semi-captive audience.. it is time it is used to educate people on how amazing american women are in sports, because too many people have their head shoved up their *&^ when it comes to women's sports..

however, yes, by all means remove the Live logo for the west coast.

8/13/08

Keeter

2	Actually, not even Fox had come up with the concept of putting 'Panda Porn' on TV before, so maybe we should give props to NBC for that brain-stroke !!

8/13/08

0	Keeter wrote: Actually, not even Fox had come up with the concept of putting 'Panda Porn' on TV before, so maybe we should give props to NBC for that brain-stroke !! Ah...but you haven't seen the news on the "local" (by that I mean in Tiajuana, Mex) Fox affiliate!

8/14/08

RichmondSpider

1	Some of us actually saw, or rather experienced, the "Heidi Game" - I have had buddies from the Left Coast calling me all week to see if they should stay up to watcg the "live" events... all of the networks are lower than whale s*** in the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

8/14/08

badsam1956

Don't just vent about the Olympics or just NBC. I'm an avid NASCAR fan and have all but stopped watching sometimes because of the DAMN COMMERCIALS!!! If I didn't subscribe to Raceview I wouldn't know about action on the track. I hate to be in the middle of a race and they cut away for the regular 5 minutes of friggin' commercials only to find out after the fact that a major incident has happened on the track. Just because a caution comes out doesn't mean all action stopped at the race!!! If it is a live event then they should stay with the action and not cater to the friggin' sponsors. That is one of the reasons that they sponsor the cars. The fan gets 3 hours or so of sponsor logos being scanned inside the cars, outside the cars and along the track walls. Do we need 20 to 30 minutes of commercials every hour for the races as well?

So all I can say is all of the networks suck and the idea of live coverage is only meant to produce an audience for the sponsors and not for somebody that is really interested in the game being played.

8/18/08

sugarcain

I bar tend in a Sports Bar and was under the impression that with our state of the art satellite programming that WE WOULD BE SHOWING LIVE EVENTS. We have 45 TV's and 15 Direct TV boxes.
But I did my research. You are right. Even with all of our channels, we had showed events that had already happened when they were supposed to be live. The TV said it was live. But then again, I don't put too much stock into television anymore. Broadcasting companies are whores!!

8/25/08

I can understand and appreciate the time zone issues. But good grief... I can kind of accept that the west coast is gonna get screwed regarding the so-called "live" events. I suspect this is because the local affiliates don't want to lose two weeks of money making local news and syndicated programing in the hours of 5-8. But NBC also has CABLE channels showing stuff. And guess what? It's delayed there TOO!!!!! There is no excuse to delay Universal-HD 3 hours.

8/25/08

Instead of ranting, I actually have a solution. First, remove the "live" graphic from everything. I don't even want to hear the announcers say they are "live". That is insulting the intelligence of the viewers.
Next, if they say "Coming up, men's water polo gold medal match" then how about actually having that match come on right after the break! I am so very happy I stayed up late Saturday to watch that match on line. I saw it from beginning to heart-breaking end. If I relied on NBC, I'd still be wondering if they were showing it or not.
This stems to something that causes me to just not watch. I want to know when they are going to show certain events. And I don't want to have to sit through a 4 hour block of synchronized swimming and vollyball prelims before I get to the events I am interested in. Sure, I would have loved to watch the mens 100 meter dash final. But I had NO idea when it was on. NBC's internet TV schedule was of absolutely no value. Sure, I could find out what time things ACTUALLY happened, but it was a lottery for what one would get when you turned on the networks of NBC. Even if I knew the 100 meter dash was on (delayed, of course) that night, there was simply no way I was going to sit through 2 hours of their studies on Chinese food and events that simply don't hold my interest. All I ask is that if they know the 100 meter dash (for example) is going to be on at 10:38 PDT, then TELL THE VIEWERS!!!!!! Put it on line so we can look up specific events and KNOW when and where they will get shown here.

Is NBC afraid that if they told people when and where events would be (delayed, of course) they would lose viewers?

8/25/08

1	One last thing... Why of why do they treat the opening and closing ceremonies as if they were live? They happened 15 hours earlier! Surely when they break they can pick right up at the instant they broke away. That is the one lone advantage to a tape delay. And they don't even use it!

8/25/08

(Edited by ML31)

Sorry, here is another thing.

Nationally I hear the ratings were pretty good. But, traditionally, the Bay Area has ALWAYS had huge numbers of viewers. It was the #1 Olympic market for the Atlanta games. And was in the top four for Sydney and Athens. But this time, they dropped to 17th. Tied with LA. Ratings in Sacramento and Portland were also down the first week. It seems to me that the west coast is getting tired of being lied to. Not sure what the future plan is. I watched the USA-Japan Bronze medal game live on my laptop. And the USA-Hungary gold medal game live there too. Nice to have that option at least. But I don't want to sit and watch TV on my lap top. Silly me wanting to watch TV on my big expensive HDTV. Not my tiny laptop monitor.

I guess I will have to buy the stuff to stream my monitor to my TV by the time 2010 comes around. If I don't, at least that delay will only be three hours instead of 18!

8/25/08

isucubs

ML31 wrote:

frankly, that attitude is why they HAVE to do it.   and why they SHOULD avoid giving schedules..

the olympics are about more than just a few POPULAR sports.. it is more than just a few top MEN'S sports or a few sports where attractive women draw an audience...

If they told people that basketball would be on 3 hours and 27 minutes into a 6 hour block and that the VERY DESERVING lesser known sports would be on for the first 3 hours, then WAY too many people would wait 3 hours to tune in and these athletes who get NO recognition for 4 years would get SCREWED over.

The winner of a shooting medal deserves as much praise and attention as the members of the "redeem" team.

If I could beam these spors DIRECTLY into people's brains so they couldn't avoid knowing what these athletes accomplished, I would be extremely tempted to do so because every single event in the olympics deserves to be seen and watched. Yes, I know it would be immoral and unethical and I wouldn't actually do it, but these athletes deserve better than what they would get if your "solution" made it way too easy for the average person to pick and choose what events they saw ...

My only regret is that I was only able to watch about 10 hours of coverage some days.   I am still catching up on the olympic stuff I recorded from those times I had to sleep or spend with family or interaction with the non-olympic world.

8/25/08