If Olympics coverage were a sport, we'd give Canada the gold; would NBC even medal?

Guest author Philip Michaels lives in the Bay Area, but this week he is in Canada and files this report to TV Barn on watching the CBC's Olympic Games coverage.--AB

Until I arrived in Vancouver this past weekend, I thought the Olympics had been pared down to four sports. Whenever I turned on NBC's prime time coverage, I would either see swimming (which I love), gymnastics (which I detest), beach volleyball (which I feign having little interest in so that I may preserve domestic tranquility), and synchronized diving (which I am surprised to discover is a competitive sport). And that was that -- unless enduring one of Cris Collinsworth's grin-filled, content-free personality profiles has been elevated to an Olympic-level sport. If it has, I ain't medaling, that's for sure.

Yeah, yeah, I know: There's plenty of coverage elsewhere on what have been imperialistically dubbed The Networks on NBC. You've got coverage on MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Telemundo, and -- if you hate sport -- Oxygen. But unless you've got 24 hours of free time each day and a color-coordinated spreadsheet outlining exactly what's on when, you're pretty much dependent on what NBC's showing between eight and midnight. And that, for the most part, has been four sports, some of which may not have involved Michael Phelps.

 

Now, in just the past day or so up in Canada, I've flipped on CBC's coverage and seen, in no particular order: rowing, synchronized swimming, triathalon, track, trampoline, gymnastics, diving, baseball, softball, and beach volleyball. Admittedly some of these sports, I'm not particularly interested in. But I feel like I'm getting a better flavor of the entire Beijing games instead of the handful of sports NBC deems worthy of prime time coverage.

How else is CBC's coverage superior to what NBC has stuck on the air? Let me count the ways.

• Greater depth. Yesterday, in the midst of CBC's coverage, the network aired a lengthy report on doping at the games, followed by a roundtable discussion on the issues raised by the story. It was a stark contrast to NBC's features, which tend to be light and frothy ("Cris Collinsworth hangs out with Michael Phelps' mom! Turns out, she cheers enthusiastically during his races!") or something else of the all-is-well school of reportage.

• Less mawkishness. At the conclusion of one of the diving competitions, the CBC spotlighted a Canadian who finished just outside of medal contention and mentioned, almost off-handedly, how her brother had passed away just before the Games. Now, perhaps this is an unfair question, but how many times do you think NBC might have mentioned that if the network found itself in a similar situation? Ten times? Twenty? From the start of the competition until several days after it concluded? That you are taking the time to calculate a number suggests that NBC tends to overemphasize the sentiment. And this is an Olympics where NBC has dialed down the sap.

• Better analysis. My lasting impression of Tim Daggett, NBC's analyst for the gymnastics competition, will be him bellowing "Wow!" when something impressed him or expressing disdain when something displeased him. What I never really heard was him explaining why one performance in a sport that's entirely subjective was better than a seemingly similar performance. I caught a few moments of CBC's coverage in the men's vault, and the analyst there (a former vaulter) was able to explain why certain landings were scored certain ways in such a clear, concise manner that I almost cared about gymnastics. (Another friend of TV Barn writes that the female diving commentator on NBC "sounds like Nancy Grace (and not in a good way)." And a good way would be...? --AB)

• And if that weren't enough... Watch the CBC's Olympic coverage long enough and you might be lucky enough to see this Wonder Bread commercial.

Really, NBC needs to dispatch someone north of the border tout de suite so that we can learn from our Canadian betters. Then, when 2010 rolls around, the coverage on NBC might measure up to what the CBC is putting out there -- especially if we go the extra step and stash Dick Ebersol in a meat locker for three weeks in February.

Philip Michaels works for Macworld and Macworld.com, contributes to Television Without Pity, roots for the A's and recently enjoyed fine barbecue at Arthur Bryant's.

Related stories at TV Barn:

• Aaron and WBAL Radio's Shari Elliker talked about the Olympics (MP3).

• The Olympics so far: Visuals pretty, picture isn't

Comments

[ABC]

No surprise. As a non-American, I find NBC's coverage too biased and too self-congratulatory. Look at how they display the medals tally. The IOC stipulates that those who win most golds should be on top but because US has more medals in all and fewer gold, NBC turned that formula around and shows a table with the US on top to make their country look good!!!!

[HG]

How true and very coincidental to our own sentiments. We made a weekend trip to Vancouver this past weekend and were *thrilled* to watch CBC's coverage. Believe it or not, our biggest regret in coming back from our trip was missing their coverage and an unbiased viewing of the Olympics. Very well written !

[Mint]

Amen brother. We've been fortunate living in the Seattle area in that our cable provider includes Vancouver's CBUT station, and it's been great coverage for many Olympics, summer and winter. Did I mention "live" coverage too? Not the canned stuff from NBC for the disadvantaged time zone on the left coast. LIVE! What a concept.

[SaskYenkee]

Hopefully TSN is taking notes as well as the CBC will not have the broadcast rights for 2010 in Vancouver or 2012 in London...

[Fisseha]

It is really frustrating to watch olimpics on NBC. Their coverage of other great sports people from other countries is horrifying. Even if one is from USA and has bronze - he is hardly mentioned- for example the bronze medalist that competed against Michael Phelps. he did not even get as much coverage as the mother of of Michael.

[g. frost]

ONE MORE SCENE OF BEACH VOLLEYBALL,...AND I WILL,......JUST ONE MORE,....GO AHEAD.,....
MAKE MY DAY,.....
JUST ONE MORE AND I WILL,....
GGGGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!

[robert]

NBC has so much coverage of beach vollyball
( see hot babes in bikinis )that one would think Hugh Hefner produced the coverage.This is shameful exploitation and a disservice to all the great athletes who deserve to be seen

[VA]

Thank God! I thought I was alone on this one. NBC's coverage is absolutely terrible! And by the way... the olympics is NOT just about the USA. I had no need to watch the US men's synchronized diving team in the hot tub while the other teams were doing their dives. Waste of time.

[Canadian]

You are right on the money. CBC's coverage is way better. We get both NBC and CBC here in Canada, and your comments are highly accurate.

1. Lose Bob Costas, bad dye job and all.
2. What is Cris doing covering Olympics? Come on, what is he adding? Even he admits he just wanders around watching events. Nice guy, good gig, brutal coverage.
3. Ron McLean, CBC anchor, is best in business.

[Jon]

While I'm actually a fan of all the events NBC showed (except for men's floor exercises... that was just weird), I agree that it's nice to see a variety of sports.

But you forgot the most important part: CBC actually bothered to show all of us live events. If it were up to NBC, no one in the pacific timezone would see anything until hours after it happened. Sure, this doesn't affect a lot of people, but for those of us who keep an eye on the news over the net, it's pretty irritating to know all the results before you get a chance to watch it. I was rather amused the first time I watched a medal ceremony on CBC, then flipped to NBC only to catch the middle of that same event.

Not only that, but I can't count the times I was watching NBC hoping I was seeing at least a "real time" event, and the announcer kept talking like he/she knew everything that had already happened. Even if the events aren't live, at least when you hear the original, non-voiceover announcer, you feel like you're in the moment.

On a final note, I'm not very fond of NBC now, if only because they didn't have the common decency to put a mark through their little "live" symbol at the top of the screen. At the very, very least, I'd like to be told that what I'm watching it old, so I don't make a jerk out of myself by telling a friend about the "super awesome event that's happening right now on NBC." Oh, and the fact that their "nbcOlympics.com" site was only available to people with certain carriers, which I don't have. Tape delays and internet region blocking... it's pretty apparent that NBC has never actually bothered using the internet before.

[Akkobi]

Oh Please, DKC!!! The whole point of the article was about the games coverage and not whether the Chinese gymnasts were 16 or over. They might very well been 14 or 13 or whatever, quite crying about it and move on. For all you know, NBC's coverage is good enough for people like you.

With regard to the article, NBC sucks big time and I won’t be surprised to see them relaying the same way next time around. I still can’t get over the fact that we missed watching the opening ceremony LIVE.

[Heather]

Hi, I just stumbled across you blog post well catching up on the world's view of the Olympics. I live in Beijing and don't get English news anymore so I use the internet. That being said I wanted to thank you for your comments about CBC. Being a proud Canadian I have always thought that the CBC coverage was far superior to NBC's or whatever American Network was hosting the Olympics.

It might be that as a country with only 10% of the population of the U.S. we know that while we will win medals we won't qualify as a big medal winner, and therefore our network focuses on other countries and their athletes always looking for the human side of the story.

Over the years I have become emotionally involved in all different kinds of sports because I had something story or incident to hang my emotion on and care about the athlete and the event. CBC has done it that way for years.

As I mentioned, I now live in Beijing and have been part of the excitement leading up the Olympics for the past four years. In fact this is my 3rd olympics since moving here. I have watched each one of them in Chinese which can be frustrating when I don't speak the language. But this year CCTV has done a masterful job in showing the majority of the sports, not just the ones where China will win a medal. I have been much more aware of what is going on in the Olympics and it is not in English.

If there is something I really don't understand than I go to the internet to find my answers but for the most part Chinese televison sports coverage has come of age and sees the big picture. It would be nice if NBC didn't see it as just "all about the US" but embraced the One World One Dream concept and shared other triumphs.

Again, thanks for supporting CBC SPorts.

[Bryan]

Very true article. Living in Detroit has its benefits; we can watch CBC and NBC with just our chimney antenna! But, unfortunately, the Olympics will end this weekend and all coverage will return to our infamous mayor's troubles...

[Yeastman]

Thank you! I thought I was going a bit mad when I asked a friend when the Volleyball and Swimming championships were going to end and the Olympics were going to start. As a cycling and white water fan, I've been horribly frustrated at the coverage.

NBC would say "watch the mens velodrome finals online"! Oh, wait, there's no commentators. Ooops, it's on a 1:30am on a weeknight. Oh, and it's streaming video protected by MS silverlight so I cant download or record it to watch later. Super. Same story with all but about 4 of the cycling events, archery, you name it.

I actually TRIED to watch the men's cycling time trial live online, but with no commentary and only the option of sitting in front of the laptop at 11:30pm on a weeknight, and without any capability of recording it, I made it until about midnight before realizing work in the morning might be more important. Go NBC!

I have to say I hate the copyright abuse of Torrents but at times like this i'm tempted to search them over.

It really is unfortunate. The games have so much more to offer than what is seen in the states, many sports that might peak the interest of that teen who'll be the next cyclist, kayaker, archer, or shooter to earn a medal. I guess that inspiration just wont come from NBC.

[David]

Fortunately, CBC will be carrying the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver/Whistler, but they lost out on the bid for the next summer Olympics in 2012 to CTV, which will probably make the NBC coverage seem far superior as anything other than CBC in Canada is the same lightweight drivel that can be found elsewhere. Soundbites for simpletons.

[Seattleite]

You wanted to add that I could not agree more. So glad we can get CBC in Seattle. I also wonder why the heck NBC puts a "LIVE" logo on their screen when it is not live..and was shown on CBC more than an hour ago.

[Stu]

Good call on NBC's Nancy Grace diving analyst. I watched the same event a few minutes earlier on CBC, then switched to NBC to see what their take was on the dives and she doesn't even say what's good or bad about most dives. Last night she was just talking about other stuff during a dive, then saying "that was pretty good" afterwards. Compare that with CBC's discussion on how the takeoff was, what height the moves were completed at, how the form was on the moves, how they did on entry, if they did anything to compensate during entry (bending knees to make it look like a vertical entry to fool the judges), etc. You start to wonder if the diving analyst on NBC actually knows anything about the sport. I'm also getting a little tired of Karolyi crying about missing the bronze in vault. Yeah, she missed the landing but had a much more difficult vault. If you don't want to miss the medals don't pick easy routines.

[Joe]

You need to look fact of the times you were watching and the fact that the coverages of THOSE events were LIVE between 800 and 1200. AND, that Phelps just became arguably one of the greatest athletes to EVER LIVE, as swimming can arguably be one of the most physically demanding events of the games, and he is without question one of the greatest swimmers of all time. . . and what does that all boil down to? Well you sure can't blame them for focusing on swimming.

[Kamic]

I think two networks need to compete for better coverage. having just one doing it all, they can slack and miss stuff.

[Merri Lee]

Great blog! In the Seattle Times, Ron Judd has also been chronicling NBC's miserable coverage, specifically that "LIVE" bug that appears in the corner of the screen, even though we get it on tape-delay, despite the fact that it would make more sense for the West Coast to get the games live. I'm starting to fear we will get the Vancouver Games on a delay, even though we're in the same time zone.

[AK]

Finally!! As a proud Canadian, I am thrilled that an outsider has finally recognized the quality of CBC's coverage (and the fact that they actually got something right for a change). Needless to say we have access to the NBC coverage also, and it just doesn't compare. I too was surprised to find out about synchronized diving, but I feel like I understand it a little bit now after listening to the analyst's comments for half an hour (why I spent half an hour watching synchronized diving I'll never know). As well, the CBC analysts provide much more candid commentary rather than simply verbally fellating their athletes as is so common in NBC (in particular, a few comments of "Whitfield isn't looking so good, he needs to make a move now" on his way to Triathlon Silver). Thanks again for your comments and the much deserved recognition. GO CANADA!

[bob]

I think you are right, but then who cares. I am a Twins fan and I am in the middle of a very hot baseball race, including division and wildcard. I watch Twins game and any and all other teams that matter (Chicago and Boston for example). I do this every year they are in it, which is most. Why would I change that to watch swimming. I think what Phelps did is great, and may never be done again, but it is swimming and who cares. I have teams (college and pro) I bleed for year after year. I am not going to give them up for a 2 week thing that has sports I do not even know or care about.

[Martin]

Pretty much bang on target. Beach volleyball should be confined to the beach and I'm glad baseball and softball will be dumped for the next games. I'm fed up with Phelps mania, stunning as he was, and US centric TV coverage was summed up when I turned on the TV at the time of a recap of the womens gymnastics all around when they mentioned the US silver and bronze winners but didn't give the name or country of the gold medal winner.

[phillr]

Also of note is that CBC correctly pronunces Beijing whereas NBC (and vast majority of reporters in general) incorrectly pronounce it.

But no denying that NBC's online coverage is absolutely groundbreaking.

phillr.blogspot.com

[Barbara]

I almost totally agree with the author. So much opportunity, so much wasted. It felt like everytime I turned on the TV, there was BEACH VOLLEYBALL again! The diving commentary and the gymnastics commentary drove me to mute them out all together, since there is little of value there. Potter sounds like she is about to have hysterics; and Elfie, Tim and Al simply cannot stop talking! I hate synchronized diving but I did watch a little; I fully expected Potter to say something like 'oh, my god, he just wiggled his toe; that's a half to full point deduction. There goes the gold.'

Finally, I resorted after just a few days to recording all of it and fast-forwarding to the things that interest me. Unfortunately, some of them, as the author points out, never appeared. I have found coverage of sports in general to be more interesting other countries where the negative is not the focus.