Summer Olympic Games 2020 Broadcasters

[Vektor 3,326]

People are losing interest in sport just in general. Here the EURO2020 matches of Hungary had worse ratings than in 2016, despite that we played against three star teams and it was hyped up to high heavens. Streaming is killing the broadcasters, young people are less and less likely to watch something like the Olympics when they can just binge watch the next series on Netflix. It's not "cool" to watch the Games, that was even true for my generation and I am not that young anymore. 

[Quaker2001 251]

5 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

 

But if NBC gives the audience what they want then the viewers drop makes no sense? Because that suggests NBC doesn't give the people what they want. Unless US people don't bother to watch SOG at 3am in the morning no matter what happens and in this case nothing will stop the ratings drop.

You do realize there's like 4 cable channels with live Olympic coverage at 3am, right?  Please every event streamed on the app.

 

This is a country of 330+ million people.  Everyone wants something different.  Those who are enough to seek out the coverage they want are more than content with it.  For most of the rest of the crowd, it's easier to bitch and moan about how it's too difficult to use an app.  There's a reason NBC tends to cut out parts of the ceremonies on their edited version.  Viewers tune out during certain segments.  That's a proven fact.  Everyone says they want to see the entire ceremony.  Actual data shows that's not necessarily the case.

 

And yes, many Americans are almost offended by the fact that the Olympics are held at inconvenient times, as if the rest of the world has an obligation to make it easier for us.  Again, the ratings drop is due to a dozen different reasons.  I'd still like to see what it looks like when we get to an Olympics not affected by a once in a century global pandemic.  We have at least 3 years until that happens

[Monzanator 4,487]

Just now, Quaker2001 said:

You do realize there's like 4 cable channels with live Olympic coverage at 3am, right?  Please every event streamed on the app.

 

This is a country of 330+ million people.  Everyone wants something different.  Those who are enough to seek out the coverage they want are more than content with it.  For most of the rest of the crowd, it's easier to bitch and moan about how it's too difficult to use an app.  There's a reason NBC tends to cut out parts of the ceremonies on their edited version.  Viewers tune out during certain segments.  That's a proven fact.  Everyone says they want to see the entire ceremony.  Actual data shows that's not necessarily the case.

 

And yes, many Americans are almost offended by the fact that the Olympics are held at inconvenient times, as if the rest of the world has an obligation to make it easier for us.  Again, the ratings drop is due to a dozen different reasons.  I'd still like to see what it looks like when we get to an Olympics not affected by a once in a century global pandemic.  We have at least 3 years until that happens

But my point is not about the lack of TV/stream access but about lack of effort of US society. If someone wants to sleep at 3am rather than watch Olympics then it doesn't matter if NBC puts up 36 cable channels to broadcast everything. Maybe US society only wants to watch things at 6-8pm and that's the end of it. And I presume NBC would know about it for years already hence why they force to have swimming finals in the Asian morning times for instance.

[Orangehair43 251]

1 hour ago, Vektor said:

People are losing interest in sport just in general. Here the EURO2020 matches of Hungary had worse ratings than in 2016, despite that we played against three star teams and it was hyped up to high heavens. Streaming is killing the broadcasters, young people are less and less likely to watch something like the Olympics when they can just binge watch the next series on Netflix. It's not "cool" to watch the Games, that was even true for my generation and I am not that young anymore. 

The UK was like that for Euro’s until the final which broke all modern records. 

[NaBUru38 208]

23 hours ago, Grassmarket said:

I have a theory as to why the TV coverage of the shooting in particular has been so awful this Olympics. Copied from a UK website to which I belong.

 

Exactly: it was extremely badly presented here. The English guy on the commentary is the one who does the regular ISSF broadcasts & he was complaining about it.

I’m wondering if this & other broadcasting problems are a product of COVID. Usually Olympics TV production for specialised sports is outsourced to TV producers who cover the same sports week in week out. But if they are not able to travel, it will just be done by Japanese TV crews who don’t necessarily understand what camera placements, on-screen graphics, replays etc etc are needed for that particular event.

The coverage of the peloton road cycling races had graphics with the usual lead, chase and peloton time gaps.

 

The triathlon races didn't, so it was much harder to follow.

[NaBUru38 208]

I was eager to share highlights videos across the different Reddit communities I'm on.

 

But people started complaining that the videos were geo-locked.  Marca Claro has the rights for Hispanic America, so I understand that those videos aren't available in North America and Europe. But the issue also happened with videos on the Olympics official channel!

 

Then I realized that the highlights videos in that channel are narrated in Spanish (I guess with Marca Claro announcers), and many of them focus on Hispanic American teams.

 

So the IOC is pushing highlights targeted to different regions of the world, which is nice. But there's no standard highlights (maybe with ambient audio?) open for everyone to enjoy together, which is sad.

[Federer91 2,728]

People are just tired of being inside for an year+ and just sit infront of a screen. Everyone is taking advantage of the summer to be outside and actually do something. You can't make a big conclusion of different numbers, because there many factors that are in play. Sure they don't seem like blockbuster numbers, but i don't think they are bad, especially with all the saturation in the media.

[Quaker2001 251]

3 hours ago, Monzanator said:

But my point is not about the lack of TV/stream access but about lack of effort of US society. If someone wants to sleep at 3am rather than watch Olympics then it doesn't matter if NBC puts up 36 cable channels to broadcast everything. Maybe US society only wants to watch things at 6-8pm and that's the end of it. And I presume NBC would know about it for years already hence why they force to have swimming finals in the Asian morning times for instance.

That's exactly the point though.  People in other countries are accustomed to sports happening outside their borders and will adjust for it.  Not here.  It's astonishing the number of people out there who won't put in the minimum possible effort to watch the Olympics and then just give up because logging in to an app is too difficult for them.  You're 100% right that it's ingrained on a lot of people that the Olympics happen in a nice neat package every night and they expect NBC to present them that way.  Sure, they'll got out of their way to move events into US primetime at the expense of the rest of the world.  Perhaps that fuels it a little of the narrative.  I understand people not wanting to be up at odd hours to watch the Olympics, but that doesn't seem to stop the rest of the world from doing so.

[pdr4332 218]

I am wondering what will happen in Paris. Will the swimming finals begin at 02.00/2am in order to be able to broadcast at 20.00/8pm Eastern? 

[Quaker2001 251]

33 minutes ago, pdr4332 said:

I am wondering what will happen in Paris. Will the swimming finals begin at 02.00/2am in order to be able to broadcast at 20.00/8pm Eastern? 

NBC is good, but they're not that good.  They'll figure out a way to deal with the Olympics being in Europe.  Bigger question is what happens in 2032.  Does NBC beg FINA to swap them like they did here or will the Aussies tell them to piss off?  I'm guessing it's the latter