I’m watching the Today show this morning and it keeps talking about the Olympic opening ceremonies beginning tonight.
But the opening ceremonies are already finished. They were finished hours ago. Because NBC is delaying the broadcast of them for about 15 hours, they deliberately distort and lie in their news broadcast. Pathetic.
I haven’t watched the Olympics in years because of tape-delay.
American television viewers are in for a 12-hour wait to see the opening ceremonies of the Olympics on Friday, as NBC is waiting until the evening in the United States to show the three-hour spectacle from the Bird’s Nest in Beijing.
The ceremony started at 8 p.m. in Beijing and at 8 a.m. on the East Coast of the United States. Because the network paid $894 million for the United States rights to the Olympics, it is waiting until prime time to show the ceremony. A wider audience will equal higher revenues for NBC, which has sold $1 billion in advertising time during the Olympics.
In an Internet age where virtually every other news outlet is covering the ceremony in real time, NBC’s lack of timely coverage irritated some would-be viewers. “The opening ceremonies are under way and ‘Today’ has a cooking segment,” remarked Charles Barthold, using Twitter to complain about the restrictions.
On “Today,” the network’s morning show which is broadcasting from Beijing for the duration of the Olympics, the co-hosts barely acknowledged that the nearby stadium was abuzz with activity. That may be because, according to TVNewser, Friday’s Beijing segments on “Today” were pre-taped. The program interviewed Michael Phelps, showcased Olympic fashion and hosting a dumpling tasting session, and repeatedly reminded viewers that the ceremony broadcast would begin at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time on NBC.
On NBC the ceremony will be part of a four-and-a-half hour block of coverage co-hosted by Matt Lauer and Bob Costas.
Because NBC is the United States rights-holder for the Games, television viewers will see little video of the ceremony during the day on Friday. But other television networks sought out unique ways to cover the event. CNN broadcast live from one of the “fan zones” in Beijing where citizens could watch the ceremony on giant screens.
On Twitter, frustrated users posted links to international live video feeds of the Games, including one from the CBC in Canada. The Rings blog has collected links to other video sources.
