This coming from TechCrunch? I ended up turning on NBC (because the enemy of my enemy must be my friend).
I had this reaction too. :) Although, I haven't had any kind of problem of the Adbuster type with NVC.
Please Don’t Watch NBC Tonight. Or Any Night
41–50 of 99 posts
Re: Please Don’t Watch NBC Tonight. Or Any Night
#42I understand the frustration, but NBC is just trying to optimize for primetime viewers so they can extract maximum advertising dollars. They paid over $1 billion dollars for the right to broadcast the Olympics and now they must recoup that investment.
That model no longer works in the modern age. Simply put, there is demand for viewing coverage of the olympics that is not being met, thus they are leaving money on the table. Unfortunately for them and for their potential customers they are constraining themselves to a business model that is obsolete. They are doing the equivalent of covering the olympics via newspaper in a television era. They need to provide live…
They do. I watched the swimming race in question today live in HD with NBC's iPad app. It's a shitty app, no true full screen (there's an ad) and I can't send it to my Apple TV, but it was free with my TV subscription and provides a dozen or more live feeds in very high quality.
Re: Please Don’t Watch NBC Tonight. Or Any Night
#43I do not see any issue here. They are broadcasting the Olympics when the majority of people can actually sit down and watch them instead of in the early hours of the morning when most of us are sleeping. Some people could probably DVR what they want, but not everybody can (the majority?).
I have not looked thoroughly, but from what I have read and seen briefly, NBC is working hard to make it easy to view and access online streams of the individual events if you know what you want to watch. I could be wrong though on actually how easy it truly is.
Also, the argument about money. They are a company that is in business to make money. Is this not the one of the main reasons for going in business? To make money. Why would they spend all that money on exclusive access if they were going to lose it all?
Re: Please Don’t Watch NBC Tonight. Or Any Night
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
That model no longer works in the modern age. Simply put, there is demand for viewing coverage of the olympics that is not being met, thus they are leaving money on the table. Unfortunately for them and for their potential customers they are constraining themselves to a business model that is obsolete. They are doing the equivalent of covering the olympics via newspaper in a television era. They need to provide live…
They do. I watched the swimming race in question today live in HD with NBC's iPad app. It's a shitty app, no true full screen (there's an ad) and I can't send it to my Apple TV, but it was free with my TV subscription and provides a dozen or more live feeds in very high quality.
Did you also get 100 channels for free with the subscription?
Re: Please Don’t Watch NBC Tonight. Or Any Night
#45Despite how many people on this site and sites like it don't have some kind of cable or satellite service... we're a pretty small minority. Especially when it comes to the group of people interested in watching sports, where live is king, and the online options suck unless you live out of your teams' TV markets. I'm not surprised they're not going out of their way to cater to us. For all the "the model no longer work…
I wouldn't mind the requirement to have cable so much if that was all it was.
I have cable, but my cable provider does not offer a package with MSNBC so I'm out of luck.
Re: Please Don’t Watch NBC Tonight. Or Any Night
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
That model no longer works in the modern age. Simply put, there is demand for viewing coverage of the olympics that is not being met, thus they are leaving money on the table. Unfortunately for them and for their potential customers they are constraining themselves to a business model that is obsolete. They are doing the equivalent of covering the olympics via newspaper in a television era. They need to provide live…
How can you say the model no longer works? The model just doesn't fit your view. There's no requirement to provide live streaming online. In any case they do have online streaming if you have a cable subscription, I've heard it could be a better service but it's there. The only people complaining about this are tech savvy, and if they were to get free viewing online with just some ads how many of those people would u…
Traditional television broadcasters and networks are under immense commercial pressure now. There's no secret about that.
What's not clear, as with the newspaper industry, is what the alternative is.
Henry Blodget, tarnished prophet that he is, has been beating this drum loudly and fairly convincingly for a few years now:
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2009-06-12/tech/30062877...
Re: Please Don’t Watch NBC Tonight. Or Any Night
#47> They’re doing this for a reason: m-o-n-e-y. Uh, yeah. It's something you need in order to run a company. A company that employs people and gives them, guess what? m-o-n-e-y. And how does it do that, and how does it continue doing that? By being profitable, which it does by having (among other things) exclusive content and advertisers who want to be seen alongside that content. But no, NBC should just put all their…
The point is that they are pursuing short-term profit and sacrificing customer satisfaction. That's a terrible way to run a company.
Re: Please Don’t Watch NBC Tonight. Or Any Night
#48How about just don't watch the Olympics at all? The IOC is an awful, awful organization.
Re: Please Don’t Watch NBC Tonight. Or Any Night
#49Despite how many people on this site and sites like it don't have some kind of cable or satellite service... we're a pretty small minority. Especially when it comes to the group of people interested in watching sports, where live is king, and the online options suck unless you live out of your teams' TV markets. I'm not surprised they're not going out of their way to cater to us. For all the "the model no longer work…
IMO, they can easily give people an online only option and still make more money. 500$ for the entire Olympics seamed to any device for the next 2 years. Bean counters say that's not enough, fine 1000$ or whatever, but there is nothing for NBC to gain from not even having the option.
PS: Then again I have cable and I have yet to watch any of the Olympics this year, but I assume some people care.
Re: Please Don’t Watch NBC Tonight. Or Any Night
#50Like many people here I would like to believe that the state of the world that ensures the highest profits and the state of the world that makes the most people happy are one and the same. I am coming to think that isn't true.
Coming to think? Here, let me help you along. A mining company or an oil company can ensure highest profits by cutting corners (on worker safety, on disposal of toxic waste, on the rights of those around them). Those profits come at the expense of the workers, the people who live near the facilities, the environment around those facilities. Examples are almost too numerous, so I'll give a few recent ones: Massey Ener…
Oil companies have reputations, and are playing repeated games, not just one off games... in addition they have incentives not to behave this way, such as the large fine and giant loss in shareholder value after BP spilled oil into the Gulf.