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Why does NBC make it so difficult to watch the Olympics?

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Re: Why does NBC make it so difficult to watch the Olympics?

#12
post #3

As the last person in America with an antenna, I will note that their broadcast coverage is pretty much exactly what it has always been through the years. You turn it on and watch it.

The OTA broadcast is fine if you want to watch exactly what they want to show. But there’s tons of other, arguably more interesting, events as well.

Re: Why does NBC make it so difficult to watch the Olympics?

#13

Best experience watching the Olympics: a hotel lobby in England. Complete coverage, no chatter, no delays, and no commercials.

My coach was saying she preferred the tell-it-like-it-is British commentary ("That's a devastating defeat for the xxx who has been improving and really expected to place") to the candied-up American commentary ("all that work paid off for yyy")

Re: Why does NBC make it so difficult to watch the Olympics?

#14
I feel like NBC took a huge step back from the Olympics app from 5 years ago. It had a good organization of sports with schedules and the ability to watch replays or live events. AFAIK, streaming-wise, Peacock is the only want to watch them this year and the interface is terrible for this. Just trying to browse what is available made me decide to skip attempting to watch the games, I was willing to subscribe to Peacock too.

Re: Why does NBC make it so difficult to watch the Olympics?

#15
post #6

I've had similar frustrations to the author. We tried watching the broadcast coverage. Though I didn't time it, it felt like 60% advertising. This sounds hyperbolic, but it was really blocks of ads interspersed with highlights of events and (awful) commentary the majority of the time, and then occasional full events focused on very specific sports (swimming and gymnastics). I was shocked by how bad it was. So, wantin…

Honestly I cannot agree more. NBC is garbage and the olympics should be the one event in the world that is all access and all rights.

I cannot even find a video recap of the Tunisian swimmer winning.

Re: Why does NBC make it so difficult to watch the Olympics?

#16

It's especially difficult to watch without paying. Over the air (or locast) is about the only option but that only provides highlights or coverage of shorter events. No broadcasting of football. There was supposed to be a free tier on Peacock but everything I've seen, outside of 2-4 minute clips, requires Peacock Premium.

[deleted]

Re: Why does NBC make it so difficult to watch the Olympics?

#17
In Australia we have the 7Plus, or 7+, app which works with Android TV and allows you to choose from various sports that are currently live, plus replays.

The app requires sign in via email address, which normally would turn me away, but it's worth it to burn a throw away email address for the sake of the Olympics.

There's probably a geofence, butt if you can get an Australian exit node VPN then give it a bash.

These sports have been converted so far:

3x3 Basketball (great energy!) Table Tennis Badminton Rowing Skateboarding Gymnastics Swimming Equestrian Soccer Hockey Basketball Softball Handball Volleyball Tennis Water Polo

Re: Why does NBC make it so difficult to watch the Olympics?

#20

If you're good enough at blocking competition, it doesn't matter how poorly you do the actual job. The "AT&T" philosophy. Last Olympics I paid any attention to was because I had a C band satellite dish and could browse the backhauls and unattended camera feeds. Must have been '96 in Atlanta.

The "competition" isn't other broadcasts of Olympics. It's netflix, xbox, twitter and other sports options. It definitely does matter how well they do their actual job, and right now they're failing.
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