Would it kill NBC to ease delay a bit?

Interesting article about NBC Olympics telecast scheduling.
It really is ridiculous the way they're doing things...at least here in the West.
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Gwen Knapp

Thursday, August 14, 2008
(08-13) 22:54 PDT --

Have a lot of people been coming to work bleary-eyed this week? Blame it on NBC. The Olympics are keeping viewers up past midnight, which is unavoidable on the East Coast, but not here in the West.

The men's 400-meter freestyle relay, one of the greatest races in Olympic history, didn't appear here until almost 11:30 p.m Sunday. It also appeared at 11:30 in the East, but it was shown live there. Here, it was on tape, held for three hours.

A lot of people have expressed frustration that the Games' major events aren't airing live in the West. I'm not asking for that. I understand that NBC has to appease sponsors, so prime-time scheduling trumps all other considerations. Besides, I'm well-schooled in the ancient Olympic game of "Don't tell me, don't tell me."

But why do we have to wait an entire three hours? Why not scramble the tape a little, so that the best events have aired before 11 p.m.? Or start the telecast two hours behind the East, at 7 p.m. Pacific instead of 8?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/13/SPN112AJUT.DTL

If it was on at 5, I'd totally watch it at 5. Ditto for 6 and 7. But 8? Seems silly.

I think they're doing a dreadful job of coverage. :(

Hell, they would probably have tape delayed the Moon Landing if they had had sole rights.

It is so ridiculous how they think that they can embargo information in 2008 and usn't it funny how they have all kinds of whiz-bang gadgets like the world-record moving graohic in swimming yet they lack the technical ability (according to them) to even remove the 'Live' bug from the upper right hand corner of the screen when it's delayed.

One more thing. Since when is 1:30 AM 'Prime Time' anyway? Requiring left coasters to stay up until 1:30 AM to watch a broadcast on a three hour delay is just plain retarded.

when anything is live on national TV, unless it's some breaking news story like a plane crash or a fire.

On the Today Show, I think they put up "LIVE EDT" so we know it's three hours old.

Why can't they do that during the Olympics? It's dumb.

is disingenuous. Obviously, the real reason they keep the bug is to maintain the illusion that it's a live broadcast which is a dishonest use of our airwaves. Maybe the FCC could kick NBC in the nuts for us.

The Olympics brought to you by NBC with fake fireworks, fake singing and fake live telecasts. Please support our sponsors.

But the real problem isn't the bug. It's the fact that it's delayed in the first place. Remember that they did the same thing with the Utah Winter Games. The East got to see it live; Utah and the rest of the West had to wait three hours. :shrug: