NBC, the rights holders for this year’s Olympics, didn’t want Americans to see the opening ceremony until 7:30 p.m. EST, when the 9-5 (or more likely 8-6) workers would be home and able to watch the festivities and, more importantly, the commercials. Of course anyone with an international TV package, or even easier, Internet, could find the ceremony elsewhere.
Record-breaking ratings
However, that didn’t stop Americans from tuning in. The opening ceremony was the most watched Summer Olympics ceremony according to The Washington Post, with an average of 40.7 million Americans tuning in.
The next night was no different. NBC held the tape of the highly anticipated Ryan Lochte / Michael Phelps showdown until prime time, hoping that many Americans wouldn’t have already seen the result, and those who did would still tune in. NBC got its wish, with another record-breaking night. Yet again, a record was set, with 28.7 million Americans making it the most-watched opening night of the Summer Olympics’ events ever, according to the Los Angeles Times.
While NBC may be pulling in huge numbers, its viewers, by and large, are not happy with the coverage. A quick search of #NBC on Twitter shows almost every result trashing the network. NBC hoped to please everyone by offering a live stream of every sport, but the system has been lagging and freezing, making for a very painful viewing experience.
In it for the money
All of this being said, NBC is not NPR or the BBC, and its job is not to provide what the people want. In fact, NBC’s viewers are not consumers; as any knowledgeable media member can tell you, the viewers are the product. NBC’s goal is to sell these viewers to the advertiser, who is hoping to reach as many eyeballs as possible.
One can’t blame NBC for making business moves. It is not as though they are not showing any Olympic programming live, or never broadcasting the biggest events. For those sitting in their office looking for a work break, NBC was showing water polo and handball, two of the more entertaining sports, during the day Monday.
NBC mistakes
Of course, even NBC has given away the result of a race before broadcasting it. On Tuesday night, 17-year-old Missy Franklin took gold for the US, and those few who did not already know the result likely found out immediately before the race, when NBC ran a promo about Franklin seeing her parents for the first time after winning gold. This is likely a case of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing, with the advertising department paying no attention to what events are on when.
One complaint I do have, however, is that NBC has devoted an entire channel (CNBC) to Olympic boxing, a sport that turns many viewers away simply because of the violence. Unless the advertisers on CNBC were hoping to reach the same demographic that watches boxing, it seems as though another Olympic sport - or an array of different events, as the other channels display - could have drawn more channel surfers in.
Mark's Reply
Just Gimme Phelps/Lochte at 9 p.m., Please
I understand your complaints with NBC’s coverage of the Olympics. It has obviously left so much to be desired, but it does so in a way to maximize ratings. Sure, my Twitter feed informs me of which American just fell off the pommel horse every few minutes, while I won’t be able to see the tumble for a few hours. And Facebook statuses eloquently notify me that “USA JUST WON THIS SWIMMING MATCH LOL,” and I silently curse at the all-caps informant. But, just because I know the result, does that mean I don’t watch later in the day? Absolutely not.
It detracts from the viewing experience, but, as a “busy” intern who’s at work from 10-6 each day, I still get that viewing experience. When I come home, Natty Light-and steak’ems-wielding, arguing with you about something stupid, I can sit down on the couch and watch Lochte vs. Phelps. As an extremely casual fan of the Olympics, but a large fan of Am’urrca, I want to see the biggest American events. And at 9 p.m., when the rest of the U.S. and myself are home and able to tune in, I want those matches to be televised – even if they already happened eight hours earlier. If NBC is giving me the option of watching live or watching the most exciting events, I – and everyone else, even if they’re lying – want to watch the day’s most noteworthy competitions. But, right, I don’t want NBC to inform me of the winner five-goddamn minutes before the race. Good thing It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia satisfied my commercial break yesterday, or else I’d have punched someone and set fire to the apartment. I have anger issues.
I think everyone needs to be mindful of the alternative to NBC’s decision to allot specific events into different timeslots, regardless of when the events actually took place. The network, as has been noted in every TV blog ever, is struggling for ratings. Brilliant shows are being canceled or shrunk down because the eye views just aren’t cutting it. Without NBC maximizing its profits by showing the Games on a tape delay, who knows if the network would be in a fiscally safe place to air the events four years from now? Much, much more problematic than airing the events on a tape delay is not televising the events at all.
As a passionate and insufferable (as you can attest) disciple of such classics as Arrested Development and Community, I’ve become far too accustomed with Nielson’s ratings, page views and pretty much any metric of eyeballs on screens. I’ve seen what happens when a show – despite its status as a critic’s darling – does not generate the mindless pupils it must in order to be a financially viable option for the network. I’ve cursed mainstream America – whomever that is – while self-indulgently prattling on about the network’s inability to recognize artistic brilliance. This all is to say, I wish network TV wasn’t about sheer popularity, but it is. And if NBC is to stay in business, and if the Olympics are to be shown in their entirety four, eight, 12 years from now, that means the network has to sacrifice some real-time airing for some big-time ratings. And I’m OK with that.
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