NBC's Olympics Woes, Posthumous Outing, and More

On the Media

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4.6 • 9.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 August 2012

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Criticism for how NBC is broadcasting the Olympics, the difference between venture capital and private equity, and revealing a public person's sexual orientation after death On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From WNYC in New York, this is On the Media. I'm Brooke Ladstone.
0:05.2	And I'm Bob Garfield. This week, coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics is inescapable.
0:11.5	It's essentially a 16-day Super Bowl, and the TV viewership has been huge.
0:17.2	On average, 35.6 million Americans per night. That beats 2008 in Beijing or 2004 in Athens by
0:25.9	millions. In fact, to find a non-U.S. Summer Olympics that got more American viewers, you have to go back to
0:33.4	1976 in Montreal. It's unlikely this year's TV ratings will surpass Montreal's because, one, there are now
0:41.9	a zillion other viewing options, and two, NBC can't beat the clock.
0:48.4	London is five hours ahead of New York, limiting what NBC can broadcast live in prime time.
0:56.3	NBC has offered cable subscribers the ability to stream events live online, but viewers who want broadcast quality and
1:02.3	high production values are stuck with the tape delays, which has led to a kind of a battle. On one side,
1:08.5	viewers and critics accustomed to watching TV when and how they want to.
1:12.6	On the other, NBC, which wants to maximize the ad revenue that pays for all the coverage.
1:18.7	Time magazine TV critic James Ponoisic has written about this quandary.
1:23.0	Jim, welcome back.
1:24.0	Thanks for having me.
1:25.5	The Onion had a headline this week that read NBC on Olympics coverage.
1:31.7	Sorry we didn't alter the laws of time and space to accommodate people's schedules.
1:37.2	You're one of the critics who wished they had.
1:40.4	What's your beef?
1:41.9	It's absolutely true.
1:43.5	One cannot reasonably expect NBC to air live Olympic events in American prime time because that is the middle of the early morning in London. But what NBC could easily do and chooses not to is air the most anticipated events, the ones that they know their viewers most want to watch,
2:02.2	live, and then air them again in prime time when more people have a chance to watch it.
	...

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