NBC time shifting Olympic coverage....again.

[Julie's Haircut]

T
I don't know if ABC could have shown it live. Even back in 1980, local affiliates made a lot from afternoon syndicated programming and local programming. Also, who would be home at 5 PM.

Well, ABC could have offered it live 5pm Eastern/2pm Pacific and then rebroadcast it later. The affiliates don't HAVE to always take the network feed. I think in 1992, CBS showed the US/Unified Team semifinal hockey game live from France, which was about 3pm on the US East Coast.

At various Olympics, NBC showed some events live (or virtually live) in the morning or afternoon, and then repeated them in prime time. In 1988, I couldn't sleep one night and turned on the TV at 3am and NBC was showing live track & field from Korea.

 

[bcla]

Just curious, but has anyone here attended a live event at the Olympics? I only did it once when I was a kid. It was during 1984 during the Olympic soccer tournament. It was a preliminary match between Brazil and West Germany at Stanford Stadium. They spread around the soccer venues to three stadiums outside of Southern California, including on the campuses of Stanford, Harvard, and the US Naval Academy.

The game I attended had a huge attendance - maybe 80,000, which set a record for soccer in the US. Tickets were dirt cheap too. I think the cheapest tickets were maybe $5. My dad said that he had someone (a friend working for the local ABC affiliate) who wanted to give him a pair of tickets to the semifinal at the stadium, but my dad thought it would be a mess. He actually gave us another pair of tickets after we'd already bought a pair, and we brought along some friends although we sat in two different sections.

These remote venues each had their own opening ceremonies where the Olympic Flame was lit.

 

[leebee]

When we lived in Michigan, we could pull in the Canadian broadcast of the Olympics. We usually chose to watch that rather then the US broadcast (not sure if it was CBS or NBC... mid to late 1990s). We saw SO many more events, and actually watched sports, not human interest stories!

 

[Julie's Haircut]

There are a bunch of photos of tickets. Some weren't even used or perhaps left intact. The date was only on the part of the ticket that would be ripped off if used.

.

http://www.thehockeynews.com/blog/5-cool-ticket-stubs-from-important-games-in-hockey-history/

That's even worse!!!!! $67 for a lower level seat in 1980!!!!! Even the Miracle on Ice wasn't worth THAT much to attend in 1980 prices!!!

 

[bcla]

Well, ABC could have offered it live 5pm Eastern/2pm Pacific and then rebroadcast it later. The affiliates don't HAVE to always take the network feed. I think in 1992, CBS showed the US/Unified Team semifinal hockey game live from France, which was about 3pm on the US East Coast.

At various Olympics, NBC showed some events live (or virtually live) in the morning or afternoon, and then repeated them in prime time. In 1988, I couldn't sleep one night and turned on the TV at 3am and NBC was showing live track & field from Korea.

But it was back in 1980. The TV landscape was a bit different than 8-12 years later. There was probably a lot more money in it for the local affiliates to take the feed. I'm not even sure how they would have handled it with short-notice programming. The local affiliates would have needed to return any fees for commercials that would have been aired during the normal afternoon/evening syndication/local/news programming and probably find advertisers on short notice for the national broadcast.

I lived on the West Coast. We got nothing live. I watched a lot of stuff on ABC Sports, and there was hardly anything that didn't say "Previously Recorded". We didn't just get everything at the 1980 Winter Olympics delayed, but delayed 3 more hours compared to East Coast viewers. About all we got live was Monday Night Football and Monday Night Baseball. Even watching Wide World or Sports and PBA bowling was delayed.

 

[bcla]

When we lived in Michigan, we could pull in the Canadian broadcast of the Olympics. We usually chose to watch that rather then the US broadcast (not sure if it was CBS or NBC... mid to late 1990s). We saw SO many more events, and actually watched sports, not human interest stories!

NBC has had the contract for every Summer Olympics from 1988.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

Just curious, but has anyone here attended a live event at the Olympics? I only did it once when I was a kid. It was during 1984 during the Olympic soccer tournament. It was a preliminary match between Brazil and West Germany at Stanford Stadium. They spread around the soccer venues to three stadiums outside of Southern California, including on the campuses of Stanford, Harvard, and the US Naval Academy.

The game I attended had a huge attendance - maybe 80,000, which set a record for soccer in the US. Tickets were dirt cheap too. I think the cheapest tickets were maybe $5. My dad said that he had someone (a friend working for the local ABC affiliate) who wanted to give him a pair of tickets to the semifinal at the stadium, but my dad thought it would be a mess. He actually gave us another pair of tickets after we'd already bought a pair, and we brought along some friends although we sat in two different sections.

These remote venues each had their own opening ceremonies where the Olympic Flame was lit.

A friend and I flew to Atlanta for a day. We saw a late morning session for track & field, where the athletes seeded something like 30th or lower competed in heats and preliminary rounds. The stadium was perhaps 25% full; and I think the tickets cost about $30.

Then we saw a late afternoon women's indoor volleyball match, Peru vs. (I think) Poland. That cost about $20, in a gym on Georgia Tech's campus. About half full.

There were plenty of tickets available for these lesser events, at fairly reasonable prices.

 

[bcla]

A friend and I flew to Atlanta for a day. We saw a late morning session for track & field, where the athletes seeded something like 30th or lower competed in heats and preliminary rounds. The stadium was perhaps 25% full; and I think the tickets cost about $30.

Then we saw a late afternoon women's indoor volleyball match, Peru vs. (I think) Poland. That cost about $20, in a gym on Georgia Tech's campus. About half full.

There were plenty of tickets available for these lesser events, at fairly reasonable prices.

I thought that the Olympic stadium looked somewhat sad given that most of it was temporary and would be covered to a baseball stadium. Aerial shots showed it had that weird shape. The IOC apparently hated Atlanta. It wasn't simply that there was relatively little new construction (I call it "monuments to the Olympic Movement") but that transportation was a mess and they felt swindled when they figured out that the heat and humidity was brutal. At least in Rio, it's going to be relatively cool, even though it's tropical.

Since Home Depot was a major sponsor, I picked up a ticket application just to check the prices.

 

[RedAngie]

I thought that the Olympic stadium looked somewhat sad given that most of it was temporary and would be covered to a baseball stadium. Aerial shots showed it had that weird shape. The IOC apparently hated Atlanta. It wasn't simply that there was relatively little new construction (I call it "monuments to the Olympic Movement") but that transportation was a mess and they felt swindled when they figured out that the heat and humidity was brutal. At least in Rio, it's going to be relatively cool, even though it's tropical.

Since Home Depot was a major sponsor, I picked up a ticket application just to check the prices.

I almost fainted when I saw that Home Depot brochure with the ticket prices listed. Opening Ceremony $212, $424, and $636. I think plenty of gymnastics, swimming, and track sessions were well over $100 as well. Cheapest I recall was perhaps $10 for women's round robin softball games in Columbus, Georgia.

And those prices for 1980 ice hockey were outrageous as well. That game was "supposed to be" USSR vs. Czechoslovakia. For the US fans who attended, I guess it was a priceless experience. But I can't imagine more than a few diehards paying those prices for the other medal round games.

 

[RedAngie]

Hopefully baseball and softball will be reinstated.

I'm worried women's ice hockey might be dropped from the Winter Games. It's really only Canada and the U.S. at the A level. Sweden is a notch or two below. And then everybody else is way lower.

 

[declansdad]

Maybe just across the border. Not sure if it's possible today, but I remember watching the Super Bowl in the 90s at a coworker's house where he had a massive satellite dish in his backyard. He was pulling in the direct, unencrypted satellite feed from the network. It was odd because we could see the national ads, but it blanked out during the time set for local ads. I'm not sure that they even do that these days. I think a lot of digital TV signals are sent through fiber these days.

It's available anywhere in Canada if you have a cable or satellite package.

 

[declansdad]

In baseball, Cuba has medaled at every Olympics where it wasn't a demonstration sport. However, they can actually send their best athletes, while MLB doesn't suspend play such that their best players can participate. Baseball might have been saved if MLB had agreed to a break during the Olympics, as the best players for many nations play in MLB.

I guess it was a combination of "why bother if you don't send your best", that most of the voters didn't understand baseball/softball, along with resentment over domination by a few countries in Cuba, the US, Japan, and South Korea.

Baseball also didn't want to follow the WADA doping system.

 

[bcla]

It's available anywhere in Canada if you have a cable or satellite package.

I don't think it's available in any American cable/satellite packages. Even CBC channels were available, they would probably be blacked out during the Olympics due to rights issues. I think some CBC news channels used to be available in the US.

I deal with a lot of rights issues. Radio station streaming switches to generic network programming during baseball/basketball/football games, because the internet rights are reserved for league pay streaming services.

 

[declansdad]

I don't think it's available in any American cable/satellite packages. Even CBC channels were available, they would probably be blacked out during the Olympics due to rights issues. I think some CBC news channels used to be available in the US.

I deal with a lot of rights issues. Radio station streaming switches to generic network programming during baseball/basketball/football games, because the internet rights are reserved for league pay streaming services.

Sorry I thought we were talking about the availability of NBC. NBC is available anywhere in Canada and it is not blacked out. Occasional, you may lose the US feed but that just means the commercials change and that never happens if CBC is the channel providing coverage in Canada.

 

[cabanafrau]

I don't think it's available in any American cable/satellite packages. Even CBC channels were available, they would probably be blacked out during the Olympics due to rights issues. I think some CBC news channels used to be available in the US.

I deal with a lot of rights issues. Radio station streaming switches to generic network programming during baseball/basketball/football games, because the internet rights are reserved for league pay streaming services.

It absolutely is carried on American cable/satellite, which is how we watch CBC regularly(metro Detroit). So very happy to have them once again carrying the Olympic broadcasts for Canada again so we are able to partake of their coverage. Blows NBC out of the water.

 

[Colleen27]

CBC coverage of the Olympics has traditionally been viewed by Americans who could get their over the air signals. They've generally covered far more than just Canadians.

And in border states, some cable providers do carry CBC. Here in the Detroit area that's been our Olympics station for a while because their coverage was just plain better than NBC's for the last games. With the big time differences and NBC's insistence that marquee events be saved for prime time even though for most of us the internet has spoiled the results by then, we prefer DVRing the live odd-hours coverage of events we wanted to see and then watching ASAP, like while getting ready in the morning, rather than waiting for NBC to get around to showing them.

 

[cabanafrau]

NBC has had the contract for every Summer Olympics from 1988.

NBC has had the American broadcast rights. CBC had been the most frequent holder of Canadian broadcast rights until maybe 2010 or so, reclaiming them for Sochi 2014. Unbelievable that NBC pays the lion's share for rights and turns around and churns out such lousy programming.

 

[bcla]

And in border states, some cable providers do carry CBC. Here in the Detroit area that's been our Olympics station for a while because their coverage was just plain better than NBC's for the last games. With the big time differences and NBC's insistence that marquee events be saved for prime time even though for most of us the internet has spoiled the results by then, we prefer DVRing the live odd-hours coverage of events we wanted to see and then watching ASAP, like while getting ready in the morning, rather than waiting for NBC to get around to showing them.

So they don't black out Olympics programming? I would expect NBC to raise a huge stink over having exclusive rights to US households, although ey couldn't do anything about over the air signals leaking into the US.

US rights holders (especially pro leagues and teams) apply all sorts of odd black out rules. The NFL had local blackouts if a home game didn't sell out, although that's been rescinded. Even the expensive satellite packages blacked out home games. I remember hearing about some bars that were sued when they grabbed a network satellite feed to show a blacked out game. Around Northern California Comcast has two sports channels that have programming for all the MLB, NHL, and NBA teams. The Kings Are blacked out in the Bay Area, and the Warriors are blacked out in the Savramento area.

 

[bcla]

It absolutely is carried on American cable/satellite, which is how we watch CBC regularly(metro Detroit). So very happy to have them once again carrying the Olympic broadcasts for Canada again so we are able to partake of their coverage. Blows NBC out of the water.

Seems a bit odd, knowing how protective NBC is. I did a bit of research, and traditionally they blacked out US shows to the CBC affiliate in Windsor, even though it shut out Canadian viewers. However, I suppose that Detroit stations reached Windsor. That was long before minimum Canadian content was mandated for CBC.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBET-DT

 

[declansdad]

Seems a bit odd, knowing how protective NBC is. I did a bit of research, and traditionally they blacked out US shows to the CBC affiliate in Windsor, even though it shut out Canadian viewers. However, I suppose that Detroit stations reached Windsor. That was long before minimum Canadian content was mandated for CBC.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBET-DT

CBC has a minimum 60% Canadian Content rule in 70s.