NBC Olympic Coverage Awful

Are you happy with the Olympic coverage in the United States?

I never really understood how bad the Olympic coverage in the United States was until I spent 10 days in Canada during the summer Olympics in 2004.

In Canada, as in some other countries, the Olympics are shown both live and on reply. There are no less than four channels showing various events. One channel will show recaps all day long for those who did not see an event live. The other three show events live.

And you know what? Not only events that involve US or Canadian athletes are shown. All the events, regardless of the countries involved are televised.

It is covered as a worldwide event rather than an event to make you feel good only about your own country.

In the US, NBC shows events in small recaps in primetime. Most is not live. If it is live, it is on a six second delay. God forbid, a wardrobe malfunction occurs.

During the day, when most events, take place, an NBC channel may show curling. Wow, that's totally exciting. However, so many people watched curling, because there was nothing else Olympic related to watch, that the popularity in the United States rose over 60 percent after the last winter Olympics.

US residents deserve better. During a time when the economy is poor, people need something to latch onto. The Olympics is a great opportunity that is blown by poor coverage.

Why is it so bad? It is all about money. Big surprise! NBC wants primetime big paying advertisers. One way to get that is by being sure everyone will watch at specific times. So once again US residents suffer so a huge corporation can make more money.

It's frustrating. I believe NBC could show it live several hours during the day and still make money. They could charge more for daytime advertising. People would turn the TV at work or use their DVR's to watch events in their own time.

NBC instead chooses to do it their way, which means too bad for US residents.

Another mistake involves delayed broadcasts to the west coast. Remember if the show starts at 7 p.m. in New York, California has to wait another three hours. Give me a break. Um, the Super Bowl is not shown three hours later on the west coast. Why is skiing, ice skating, hockey, snowboarding, the Opening Ceremonies etc shown later? To make matters worse, or at least more confusing, is the fact that this year the Olympics are occurring in the same time zone as those in the west coast. Yet, only residents in the US need to wait to see events. What?

Periodically, during the day via Internet or news broadcasts, we can find out who won. That pretty much takes the thrill out of watching it at 9 p.m. I just don't get as excited if I know the results prior to the broadcast. It's just out right nonsense!

US residents are not stupid, but have taken this for far too long. People need to let NBC know how they feel. Demand better coverage.

Maybe, it is time each channel bid on a sport in the games rather than the entire package. Each channel could devote full coverage to each sport. Maybe, some will even see the benefit of showing it live.

Somehow, someway, Olympic coverage has got to change.

The time to protest is now. If enough people revolt, maybe by 2012 the summer Olympics will really be a spectacular event. If not, expect more of the same for many years to come.