
The Olympics didn’t stumble because of Millennials, but because of NBC - jwebb99
https://medium.com/@brentonhenry/no-bloomberg-the-olympics-didnt-stumble-because-of-millenials-it-stumbled-because-of-nbc-17435801e8#.d1u79uspd
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mark_l_watson
The article makes a good point that cable-cutters have to do some extra work.
Another separate issue is that MSNBC's (or the General Electric News Network,
as I call them) really did a poor job on the coverage. I thought that a few of
the announcers were consciously dissing on non-USA athletes. Isn't the
Olympics supposed to be about good will and respect for athletes from around
the world?

Another issue was in the choice of which events to cover. MSNBC would
sometimes play USA athletes' performances over and over. Once would usually be
enough, to make time for showing more sports venues.

This isn't just my opinion. Literally everyone I have talked to about the
Olympic coverage did not like MSNBC's coverage.

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codeddesign
Good will? That's why they have competitions based on country to beat each
other with elevated podiums displaying they are better than the rest (gold,
silver, bronze)? The good will is allowing every country to compete, the
competition itself is not for goodwill.

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audleman
> That's why they have competitions based on country to beat each other with
> elevated podiums displaying they are better than the rest (gold, silver,
> bronze)?

They also start the Olympics with the walk of nations. Maybe not as many
people care about that, but I love to see each team walk down the way in their
national garb waving to the crowd.

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JauntTrooper
Yes! I had a similar reaction to that Bloomberg article. My wife and I wanted
to watch the Olympics, but were unable to do so because we're not cable
subscribers (we mostly use our Roku).

This quote from the article was just so tone deaf:

[CEO of Time Warner’s Turner division] Martin said, “I wonder if there was
less content available -- and people felt more compelled to tune in to the
traditional network -- whether that would bolster ratings.”

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samk3nny
Totally agree. I love the Olympics but couldn't bear to watch it on NBC. I
went on vacation to the Czech Republic and the coverage was so much better -
fewer adverts, actually real-time, and a good cross section of sporting
events. My kids loved it, especially the Mongolian wrestling controversy. So
sad NBC are looking to blame someone else for their out-dated and over
commercialized offering.

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pc2g4d
#nbcfail

[https://twitter.com/search?q=%23nbcfail](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23nbcfail)

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Feneric
What's amazing to me is that even with broadcast TV, theoretically the medium
that they have the most experience with, they still delivered an abysmal
product that the author was kind in describing as "tolerable".

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brenton07
Ha, Author here - I believe I had originally typed "tolerable at best", but
must have rephrased it at some point for some reason.

To me the whole thing felt like an awful extended episode of The Today Show.
Watered down to make it just digestible enough you might put up with it.

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pjkundert
Similar experience, in Canada.

Couldn't figure out how to legally watch the Olympics, using any available
device.

If a provider can't be bothered to supply a legal, payed option using tools
available to a large segment of the population, perhaps their marketing
department needs an overhaul.

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suda50
Was CBC not streaming through their app and website? I didn't watch the
opening ceremony, but I was able to watch events through the app. I also do
not have a cable subscription and CBC worked well for me.

