2010 Olympics: The influence of advertising on quality broadcast journalism
February 18, 2010 by Megan Hueter
Filed under Olympics, Sports Journalism, Uncategorized
Imagine yourself as Linsey Vonn yesterday – a native of Saint Paul, Minnesota, who has been working her whole life, since she was 2 years old, to bring home an Olympic gold in women’s downhill skiing.
She finally does it, gives hugs to her family in the stands, and picks up a cell phone to call some close friends from home.
Only one thing – nobody wants to answer the phone. Not because they’re not interested, but because nobody has seen it yet. NBC wouldn’t be airing her performance until later that night, on primetime television, when more people were watching.
This post is about power.
We all know – money is a big driver of power. Unfortunately for all of us, nowhere is this more apparent than NBC’s broadcast coverage of the 2010 Olympics.
What do I mean? Well, advertising money, more-so than monumental athletic performances, are influencing NBC’s broadcast decisions during the 2010 Olympics.
NBC is infuriating millions of fans by tape-delaying important events. People online are freaking out, and media publications are picking up on it. Need examples? Read this article by Henry Blodget of Business Insider or today’s piece by Sports Illustrated, or yesterday’s piece in the New York Times.
NBC infuriated millions of “people like me” when they tape-delayed one of America’s treasures – quite possibly the most-discussed performance about a female athlete (ever) – the women’s downhill (i.e., “The Lindsay Vonn Show”).
Crazy, right?
Yesterday, when Vonn performed, I sent around the NYTimes alert saying Vonn had won the gold with the message “yay!” One of my WomenTalkSports friends was a little annoyed that I had ruined the surprise. She apparently was waiting in anticipation to watch in on TV later that night.
While I understand where she’s coming from, that’s not the world that I live in. I don’t “wait” for things anymore. I demand access to real-time updates and breaking news stories because that’s what I deserve as a consumer. And that’s exactly what NBC should be broadcasting.
The world of “primetime” is, in my opinion, somewhat fabricated. NBC wants us to live in a world that’s very far from reality. Vonn won the gold before any of us got to see it. And that, my friends, is a disservice to society as a whole.
Broadcast journalists have a career because we allow them to. Broadcast networks exist because the Federal Communications Commission grants them publicly-owned broadcast licenses (FCC is funded with Congressional money, i.e., our taxes), and regulates that they commit to three key things: diversity, localism and serving the public interest.
What could be more of a “public interest” than the Olympics? Broadcasters should do due-diligence and not only cover the Olympics, but do so live, in a real-time reality that we all live in, everyday. NBC is doing a disservice to the public by choosing not to. And we, as citizens, should demand more.
This article from Deadspin says that NBC really doesn’t have a POV on this. Apparently, they think Olympics are sports for people who don’t care about sports, and many Americans don’t really care what time they see the games.
Apparently, the hard-core sports fans are the only ones really upset by this issue. But sports fans are citizens, too. Citizens with a voice, and like me, they’re starting express their feelings. It will be interesting to see if anything changes in 2012.
Bottom line: there has to be a live broadcast coverage. In my opinion, this is something that should be demanded by us, right now.
I understand what you’re saying, and I agree with most of it. However, to play devil’s advocate-NBC’s-for a moment-I don’t completely blame them for the Olympic coverage being what it is-a total steaming piece of crap, but I digress.
NBC, is a business. The goal of all businesses is to make money, plain and simple. And NBC believes that “broadcasting” the Olympics-i.e, chopping them into little pieces and splicing them with inane human-interest stories, my opinion-works. The ratings seem to bear that out. Of course, just because something is popular doesn’t make it good, but that is a subjective subject for another time.
What I have a bigger problem with, is this: NBC has at least 7 channels-Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, Syfy, Universal Sports and USA Network in addition to the primary network-and they can’t show an event or a series of events in their entirety-other than curling and hockey-on ANY of them?! WTF?! That to me is the bigger issue. You have all these outlets and don’t use them. That to me is inexcusable.
One other comment, Megan. Your comments ” I don’t “wait” for things anymore. I demand access to real-time updates and breaking news stories because that is what I deserve as a consumer.” That, to me, is the equivalent of a child throwing a tantrum because they don’t get what they want. That is extraordinarily childish and immature. I hear and agree with the sentiment, but if you want people to take you seriously, you might want to consider rephrasing the words you use, because that statement comes across to me as arrogant, immature, self-centered, and childish. And those are it’s good points.