Posted on 02/14/2010 9:39:45 AM PST by My Favorite Headache
So, when do they actually do olympic sports there in Vancouver? Because I’m watching NBC, and it appears that there aren’t any events going on now.
There does seem to be a random women’s hockey game on.
I still haven’t seen any medal ceremonies.
There’s a great schedule here http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-schedule-results/ that you can set to your time zone and see exactly what’s happening LIVE at any moment (and see live results)
And then this full day view http://www.nbcolympics.com/tv-listings/zone=PT/day=3/index.html that will show what’s on TV at any moment on ALL the stations.
Personally I think a combination of the two is best. Of course I’m out west and long know the results before it finally airs many hours later! LOL! I’ve watched a little live streaming online when it airs out east, but those live stream sites seem to be getting cracked down on making it harder.
Ooooops! You’re right!
I like to see good athletes too, but ours should not be secondary. There are four networks showing Olympics. Our athletes should get the time. There is enough airtime to show many, but our athletes deserve the spotlight.
You can find the rest on the internet.
Horrible Olympic Coverage. NBC has 5 stations, and still can’t show us anything.
Oh, now we get to watch figure skating.
The first figure skating performance was awesome. My daughter has waited for days to see it and she was not disappointed.
I’m not as excited about watching the luge. It’s usually fun to watch just to see who wipes out, but that’s kind of lost it’s luster here. And since they are starting lower and going slower, there’s not really much excitement.
They just showed Biden and his wife at the Figure Skating events, and I think that was Valerie Jarrett next to him. I wonder how many members of her family she brought on taxpayer’s money.
“They just showed Biden and his wife at the Figure Skating events, and I think that was Valerie Jarrett next to him. I wonder how many members of her family she brought on taxpayer’s money.”
Caught that too. Bailed out GE/NBC will didn’t crop that shot very well.
How best to spread MO’s obesity campaign but to sit in at a high-ticket pairs ice skating event.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2010/02/valerie_jarrett.html
Jarrett told me one of her goals in Vancouver meeting the U.S. Olympians and enlisting them to help in First Lady Michelle Obama’s newly launched drive against childhood obesity.
“One of the many efforts we are engaged in with the athletes is encouraging nutrition and exercise, so it fits in very well with the First Lady’s initiative. We have also been working over the course of the year getting athletes, professional sporting teams more involved in voluntarism,” Jarrett said.
I live in Central NY State and we get CKWS (CBC) out of Kingston, Ontario via Time-Warner, but the picture is so bad I won’t watch it.
Short program figure skating. To me that’s a filler.
I’d rather see Non-American Men doing moguls than Non-Americans doing figure skating.
Remember the good old days when they showed the Americans? When they would break away from one event to show ANY Americans competing? So the families of the lesser competitors could see their kids?
Why are we not seeing the Medal Ceremonies either?
I’m watching Curling on the Simpsons.
LOL!!!
I love Curling!
Medal ceremonies are between midnight and 1 am eastern.
>>Medal ceremonies are between midnight and 1 am eastern.<<
My husband watched last night specifically to see Ohno’s ceremony and it wasn’t on.
I can’t find it on YouTube or the NBC site. Wouldn’t it be nice if we got to see his “history making” ceremony?
A ton no doubt...
News Corp.’s Fox and Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN plan to bid for U.S. rights to televise the 2014 and 2016 Olympics, challenging NBC, which said it would lose money on this month’s Winter Games.
Fox’s bid will reflect the costs of producing the Olympic Games, said David Hill, chairman of Fox Sports. CBS Corp. and Time Warner Inc. also are considering a joint bid for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, two people with knowledge of the situation said.
Flat advertising and higher costs for rights led NBC to project its first loss in at least three decades on an Olympics for the games that start Feb. 12 in Vancouver. The International Olympic Committee has delayed bidding for the 2014 and 2016 events until the ad market improves, said executive board member Richard Carrion. Fox’s bid will ensure that the network doesn’t lose money if it gains the rights, Hill said.
“I’ve worked at News Corp. too long and I know that having brackets around numbers is a bad career move,” Hill said in a Jan. 8 interview.
NBC has held rights to the Olympics since 2000. The New York-based network will be “fiscally prudent” in pursuing the 2014 and 2016 games, NBC Universal Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Zucker said in December.
Offers for the Sochi and Rio games probably won’t exceed the $2 billion NBC paid for this month’s Winter Games and the 2012 Summer Games in London, said Michael Trager, a sports consultant and former NBC Sports executive.
“It’s hard to perceive that it’s going to be any quantum leap higher than it is now,” Trager said in an interview last week. “These two games are a testament to where it’s going to be.”
ESPN’S Bid
ESPN’s bid will involve parts of Burbank, California-based Disney and its ABC network, said Russell Wolff, managing director of ESPN International.
“We intend to look at it seriously and make an appropriate offer,” Wolff said. ESPN, based in Bristol, Connecticut, has never had the U.S. TV rights to the games and holds rights in countries including Canada and Brazil, he said.
Chris McCloskey, an NBC spokesman, declined to comment. Ed Adler, a spokesman for New York-based Time Warner, also declined to comment, as did CBS spokesman Gil Schwartz. CBS last broadcast the Winter Olympics in 1998 from Nagano, Japan.
News Corp., controlled by Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, rose 23 cents to $12.76 at 4 p.m. on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Disney increased 46 cents to $29.98 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. CBS, based in New York, dropped 14 cents to $13.15, while Time Warner gained 46 cents to $28.51. NBC’s parent, Fairfield, Connecticut-based General Electric Co., advanced 60 cents to $16.85.
Vancouver Loss
NBC will lose about $250 million airing the Winter Olympics, GE Chief Financial Officer Keith Sherin said last month on a conference call. Ad sales in Vancouver will be $650 million to $700 million, he told Media Week. The network would like to retain the rights for the Olympics, Zucker said in an interview with CNBC in December.
Rights to the Vancouver games alone cost NBC $820 million, said a person with knowledge of the situation, who asked not to be named because the sales are private.
Revenue will be little changed from 2006, when NBC paid $613 million — about $200 million less — for rights to air the Winter Games from Torino, Italy, generating $650 million in total ad sales, said the person.
A 30-second advertising spot airing during the Vancouver games is selling for $500,000 to $600,000, the person said.
Production costs and setting up a separate division in a foreign country are among the “number of problems” associated with broadcasting the games, Fox Sports’ Hill said. Fox bid $1.3 billion for Vancouver and London rights when it lost to NBC, he said.
Cross Marketing
Airing the Olympics gives broadcasters a ratings boost and provides marketing opportunities that can generate revenue beyond advertising dollars, said Neal Pilson, a New York-based broadcasting consultant and former president of CBS Sports.
In addition to broadcast rights, GE paid $200 million to sponsor the 2010 and 2012 games, Pilson and Carrion said.
“GE uses the Olympics as a very strong hospitality opportunity and as a business opportunity in the host countries,” Pilson said. “GE created a lot of business in China” as a result of the 2008 games, he said.
Disney, Comcast
Disney, the world’s largest media company, could use the Olympics to promote its global theme park business, Pilson said. Comcast Corp., the Philadelphia-based cable company acquiring control of NBC Universal through a venture with GE, could use the games to grow its digital distribution platforms, he said.
NBC’s broadcasts of the 2008 Beijing Olympics were watched by 214 million people in the U.S., the network said at the time.
The IOC will likely take bids for the games before the NBC- Comcast transaction is completed, Dick Ebersol, the head of NBC Sports, said at a press conference last month. Comcast won’t influence NBC in the next round of bidding, he said.
Last year, the IOC refused to back a proposal by the U.S. Olympic Committee and Comcast to introduce a cable channel dedicated to the Olympics. There have been no further talks about the matter, said Patrick Sandusky, a USOC spokesman.
“The network is on hold, and we are not going to move forward without the support of the IOC,” Sandusky said in an interview.
D’Arcy Rudnay, a spokeswoman for Comcast, declined to comment.
I do like the moguls, because people wipe out really cool.
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