NBC's attempt at humiliation avoidance (?)

[escapist]

What could make a TV network (NBC West) broadcast an olympic hockey game featuring the country's national team with a two-hour delay? Was it to retain the option of censoring any potential humiliation that the team may suffer? (As it turned out, Team USA did allright, only down by one goal in the game.)

This could never have happened in Sweden. Had it happened, it would have caused an enormous public outcry. Sure, hockey is the second biggest sport in my country, whereas Americans have three or four sports they prefer to it, but I don't understand how American hockey fans could possibly accept that the provider of Olympic coverage favors a re-run of a women's cross-country skiing relay over the game.

Seeing as I just came to this country seven weeks ago, I obviously haven't quite figured out the culture surrounding sports broadcasts, but my impression so far is that some things are far inferior to what I'm used to.

Or are NBC just idiots? Since they insist on not returning from commercial breaks in time for face-offs, missing out on a handful of goals in just the first few games I watched, that seems increasingly likely.

Any other ideas?

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[The Mars Volchenkov]

The game was on delay? That's news to me.

 

[SChan*]

maybe the tv guys in the US has given up on the team which is really premature.

I feel bad for the US team.

 

[Anton Babchuk]

What could make a TV network (NBC West) broadcast an olympic hockey game featuring the country's national team with a two-hour delay? Was it to retain the option of censoring any potential humiliation that the team may suffer?

Why is this even being thrown out as a possiblity? Last I checked, they still showed the game.

So although the Evil Americans did not censor it, they obviously had intentions to and thus this joke of a theory should still be given consideration.

 

[bling]

What could make a TV network (NBC West) broadcast an olympic hockey game featuring the country's national team with a two-hour delay? Was it to retain the option of censoring any potential humiliation that the team may suffer? (As it turned out, Team USA did allright, only down by one goal in the game.)

This could never have happened in Sweden. Had it happened, it would have caused an enormous public outcry. Sure, hockey is the second biggest sport in my country, whereas Americans have three or four sports they prefer to it, but I don't understand how American hockey fans could possibly accept that the provider of Olympic coverage favors a re-run of a women's cross-country skiing relay over the game.

Seeing as I just came to this country seven weeks ago, I obviously haven't quite figured out the culture surrounding sports broadcasts, but my impression so far is that some things are far inferior to what I'm used to.

Or are NBC just idiots? Since they insist on not returning from commercial breaks in time for face-offs, missing out on a handful of goals in just the first few games I watched, that seems increasingly likely.

Any other ideas?

The game was delayed an hour in the Mountain time zone and 2 hours in the west. It was very annoying to me because I could not watch much of the Finland/ Czech game. I seriously doubt any big conspiracy to avoid humiliation was to blame. In fact that idea is incredibly laughable.

On my TV the game was played with no commercial interruptions I am not sure where you live or where you watched it from or if you are just making it up but with no commercial interrruptions there was no possibility of returning late and missing goals.

 

[escapist]

On my TV the game was played with no commercial interruptions I am not sure where you live or where you watched it from or if you are just making it up but with no commercial interrruptions there was no possibility of returning late and missing goals.

I wasn't referring to this game. I know the US team's games are commercial-free.

In Sweden-Kazakstan CNBC came back late for goals twice, which really pissed me off. I don't remember in which of the other games it happened again, but it sure did.

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

If it was delayed, it was probably delayed so that they could show it on NBC and not have it interfere with the other stuff they were showing.

 

[Baron Von Shark]

Yeah, that pissed me off too. I watched the live Czech vs. Finland game instead...

Tape delay is just not the same if you already know the results...

 

[sabresrat]

http://www.corante.com/mooreslore/archives/images/tinfoilhat.jpg

 

[escapist]

I seriously doubt any big conspiracy to avoid humiliation was to blame.

That's not really what I meant, and "censor" was perhaps not the best word to describe it with, but the fact remains that almost all Olympic broadcasts here (except most hockey games, luckily) are not aired live. Generally, it makes the whole thing a lot less interesting to me, and the incessant editing and compression of events is just annoying.

The idea I was suggesting was simply that, if the team had fallen through, maybe NBC would have skipped select pieces of the game. Usually, in Sweden, whenever hockey games are broadcast with a delay (which is very rare), especially "dull" parts of the game are cut, because watching a game with a delay is just not interesting enough,

 

[escapist]

If it was delayed, it was probably delayed so that they could show it on NBC and not have it interfere with the other stuff they were showing.

Yeah, for the all-important Women's 4x5km cross-country skiing relay and the Men's biathlon pursuit, both without American contenders as far as I know.

 

[JSmith81x]

In Sweden-Kazakstan CNBC came back late for goals twice, which really pissed me off. I don't remember in which of the other games it happened again, but it sure did.

In he RUS-SWE game, MSNBC missed the last two goals because of commercials. In today's FIN-CZE game, CNBC missed one.

 

[Hockeyfan02]

NBC networks are showing practically every game and people still complain?

 

[kingsfan28]

It's all about ratings and getting people to watch the other events. They know most people would have tuned out the second the game was over, so they put the other events before to keep the audience around and make a few more $$$ .

 

[braincramp]

I posted this in another thread where someone raised the same objections.

NBC wants this game in the West time slot where there is the largest audience available. This makes the games more practical, economically, and also helps hockey by exposing larger audiences to it, and making it available to more current hockey fans.

You're getting a free broadcast in HD with no commercial interruptions of play, good announcers and camerawork.

It's your own fault if you don't check the broadcast schedule before you start checking the results.

 

[escapist]

NBC networks are showing practically every game and people still complain?

Sure, it is very good of them. And it was a very nice surprise. I didn't know what kind of coverage the tournament would get. Still, you do have a billion channels so showing some hockey games on one of them in the middle of the night and in the morning shouldn't be too much to ask, right?

 

[escapist]

NBC wants this game in the West time slot where there is the largest audience available. This makes the games more practical, economically, and also helps hockey by exposing larger audiences to it, and making it available to more current hockey fans.

Sure, that's a good reason... if you like money more than hockey.. which I guess they do. Good, now that's established.

It's your own fault if you don't check the broadcast schedule before you start checking the results.

Eh.. that's the thing. I didn't. The announcers told me, mid-way through the CZE-FIN game, when the broadcast of the other game had just started. Anyway, I didn't bring this up because I wanted to see the game. I was only mildly annoyed by that. I brought it up because I don't understand how American hockey fans can accept it.

 

[Riposte!]

The one thing I had a problem with was during the intermission between the Finland-Czech game, they gave away all the highlights to the USA game before we got to see them on TV.

Between the 1st and 2nd period during the USA game, I flipped over to the Finland game, and they started showing the 2nd period highlights, and I saw Bondra's goal before I actually got to see it during the game. That was poor planning; completely threw off how into the USA game I was.

 

[Seph]

I posted this in another thread where someone raised the same objections.

NBC wants this game in the West time slot where there is the largest audience available. This makes the games more practical, economically, and also helps hockey by exposing larger audiences to it, and making it available to more current hockey fans.

You're getting a free broadcast in HD with no commercial interruptions of play, good announcers and camerawork.

It's your own fault if you don't check the broadcast schedule before you start checking the results.

I would think this was fairly obvious. For people on the west coast, playing a game at 9am on a Saturday is not going to draw many viewers. I doubt I'd have even bothered. 11am is far more realistic. and 2pm for us on the east coast was preferable as well.

Most of the sports are on delay so that they can show it at primetime to maximize viewership. In sports where seeing an entire game is less important to viewing enjoyment, they can also edit it down to the essentials and show it faster, thereby widening the number of events they can cover during the times where they'll draw the biggest audiences.

 

[bling]

Sure, it is very good of them. And it was a very nice surprise. I didn't know what kind of coverage the tournament would get. Still, you do have a billion channels so showing some hockey games on one of them in the middle of the night and in the morning shouldn't be too much to ask, right?

As pissed as I was about the delayed broadcast the truth is they have had hockey on from 3:00 in the morning MST until around 4:00 in the afternoon...over 12 hours of hockey today and if IRC a similar schedule Wednesday and Thursday.

As with many people who immigrate here.....all we hear is how much better everything was in the old country, if it was oh so much better back in Sweden, why are you here?

 

[ILuvLA]

The game was on delay? That's news to me.

It was delayed on the west coast. NBC WAS showing the games live in the west, but this one was delayed for some reason.

 

[Jazz]

I think delaying it would decrease the eventual ratings.

Think about it - hockey fans will somehow find out the score, whether on purpose or not, and then it is hard to watch a game after already knowing the final result. Thus the final viewership would be less

 

[escapist]

I would think this was fairly obvious. For people on the west coast, playing a game at 9am on a Saturday is not going to draw many viewers. I doubt I'd have even bothered. 11am is far more realistic. and 2pm for us on the east coast was preferable as well.

The game started at 11am PST, but was delayed for two hours. If the reason for the delay was to maximize the audience, why didn't they delay it until 7pm or something? That doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Hockeyfan02]

Still, you do have a billion channels so showing some hockey games on one of them in the middle of the night and in the morning shouldn't be too much to ask, right?

Considering they have normal programming in the mornings that might get better ratings than the hockey games, it might be much to ask of the network to show the games. They are doing a pretty good deed here, considering how they probably make more money off commercials and spend less on production with other programs. If a two hour tape delay is the worst thing they've done and a few ill timed commercial breaks, then it's a pretty good job they are doing.

I'm just tired of people complaining in general about TV coverage. First it was ABC/ESPN ruining everything showing the same teams. Then OLN/NBC were supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but people complained about things they are doing. Now NBC shows every game of the olympics and because of a tape delay, they are doing a terrible job. The most important event in american hockey history was shown on tape delay. If people want to complain about it because they already know the results and it's not the same, then here's an idea: don't go on the internet or get updates from people. Pretty simple solution to that problem. I believe even in Canada they are not showing games in their entirety and cutting to other events during some of the Canadian games (edit: thought this was the case, but I must have misread something in a GDT). Guess people will just complain no matter what.

 

[Drake1588]

NBC is airing 12 hours of hockey per day. Considering some of the games are taking place simultaneously or are overlapping one another, in duel venues, that's an impressive logistical challenge and it demonstrates quite a commitment to the event during these crowded events-filled Olympics.

Sorry, but if anything, the network's sheer volume of men's hockey deserves a grateful nod. They're only showing every single game, and every minute of the US games, commercial free.