| Salt Lake City |
 |
 |
| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
 |
| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
|
| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
|
| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
|
| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
|
| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
|
| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
|
| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
|
| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
|
| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
|
|
|
|
Live coverage of events? Not so fast, NBC
By Scott D. Pierce
Deseret News television editor
NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol promised before the Salt Lake Games began that 70 percent to 75 percent of the coverage would be live. And, while I haven't actually held a stopwatch to it, I won't dispute those figures.
It must, however, be pointed out that his 70 percent to 75 percent figure included all coverage across all three NBC networks — not just the broadcast network (NBC-Channel 5) but the two cable networks, MSNBC and CNBC. And all those hours of live hockey on CNBC will certainly bring that percentage up.
The fact is that lowest percentage of live coverage comes when the most people are watching — the prime-time telecast on NBC. Oh, a lot of the skating (both speed and figure) is live, but events like skiing, skeleton and bobsledding are, of necessity, on tape.
But I'm not here to complain about videotape. Well, at least not much. More often than not, I agree with NBC's decision to tape-delay competition.
The situation with the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City isn't exactly like the one with the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia. Calls for live coverage of events in Sydney were, for the most part, just plain stupid. How many people were going to stay up all night long to watch events live?
The situation is somewhat different, but the principle is the same this time around. Particularly during the work week, what's the point of showing events live when most people aren't going to be home to watch them? Tape-delaying them until prime time means that tens of millions more viewers will be watching.
And, frankly, some events are better taped and edited than live. It's one thing to watch a hockey game, speed skating or figure skating live; it's another to slog through biathlon or cross-country skiing or even every competitor in a downhill skiing race. Better they should be edited.
Let's not forget for a minute that NBC is not a charitable institution. The network is in business to attract as many viewers as possible, making it possible to sell advertising for as much as possible and make as much money as possible.
And we, the viewers, have no inalienable right to watch the Olympics. NBC paid more than half a billion dollars for the rights to televise the Salt Lake Games. And the network certainly has the right to maximize its audience.
As NBC President Randy Falco pointed out, "Who would we be serving?" by airing events live in the afternoons during the work week. (And, to a lesser extent, on the weekends.) "It wouldn't be the viewers."
Basically, NBC is giving people the events they want when they want to see them. Is it perfect? No. But it's pretty good.
DON'T PRETEND: NBC would, however, be better served by being more up front about what's live and what's on tape. Studio host Bob Costas has a habit of saying things like, "Let's go now" to some skiing event, which was obviously taped earlier in the day. (Obvious because it's after dark when it's on the air and the sun is shining brightly on the event.)
NBC is actually going to videotape. Which should be (but is not) labeled as such. It's not like we don't know it's on tape, but it's rather insulting to our intelligence to pretend it's not.
EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY: Conventional wisdom tells us that, all things being equal, American TV viewers would rather watch their sports live than on tape. But maybe conventional wisdom isn't altogether wise.
Viewers in the Eastern, Central and Mountain time zones are getting the Games live on NBC. Viewers in the Pacific time zone are getting them on a 2 1/2-hour delay.
And ratings on the West Coast are running 8 percent higher than they are in the rest of the country — a figure that's been consistent throughout the game.
Oddly, enough, NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol fought the decision to tape-delay the Games in the Pacific time zone. And there were lots of critics complaining about it.
But West Coast affiliates stuck to their guns. And, apparently, they were right.
THE RATING GAME: Day 11 proved to be another strong one in the ratings for NBC, with the network pulling a 17.1 rating and a 26 share — which translates into about 58 million people. That's 15 percent higher than the corresponding night in Nagano four years ago.
The audience peaked on Monday at 9 p.m. Mountain time — a 17.9/32 — with the conclusion of the ice dancing finals. To date, NBC estimates that 171 million Americans have tuned in to the Salt Lake Games.
Salt Lake City was again the highest-rated local TV market, garnering a 31.7/46.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com
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February 20, 2002
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