Why is NBC snubbing triathlon?

mcstrangelove

Figured there'd be at least a few minutes of coverage the day after the women's race but not a peep on NBC.  Only a blink-or-you'll-miss-it blurb between commercials.  In Bejing I remember they intercut to the triathlon, while showing track & field highlights.  This year it's no triathlon and neverending volleyball.  Last time I checked, triathlon was the fastest-growing sport in the US, but I suppose NBC didn't get that memo.

Anybody know if they are going to snub the men's race as well?

Paul Hough

No medalist = no coverage.

William Jenks

They had a 30 second (?) summary late in the prime time coverage that day along with other "minor" sports.

They did show it in full live..but that was at at like 3 am or whatever.

Spokane_Al

Gotta crank up the DVR and watch the entire event at your leisure.

Al Truscott

Live coverage and full replays are available for each and every event online, if you have a cable or sat package which includes MSNBC and CNBC. So I watched the women's marathon and the men's 100 meter sprint live on Sunday.

Then I went out and ran my intervals on Monday. I warmed up with a few all out strides. I was going slower in my all out 100 meters than the women were running for their marathon pace. And Usain Bolt took half as many steps to cover the distance as I did (in less than half the time, of course.)

Then I went home and watched the women's pole vault, live with no commentary. What a depressing event to comepte in - basically, you keep going until you fail three times. The winner, USA's Jen. Suhr, looked downright dour and devastated at the end, while the bronze medalist was quite happy to drop out before failing to suceed at a higher bar.

 

mcstrangelove

Don't have cable or satellite.  And how do you DVR a live stream on a computer???  Anyway, it would've been nice to sacrifice 30 minutes of tha gazillion hours of volleyball they're airing (yawn...) for a recap of the triathlon events.

Al Truscott

 Apparently a male Brit slowly runing away from a Spaniard is much less interesting than an Ethiopian woman doing the same to a Russian (marathon) which they showed in full twice... Same length race. Allistair Brownlee is a stone cold killer.

Coach Rich

Don't forget rowing, canoeing, kayaking, and equistrian. TGFDVR

[Deleted User]

 NBC is frustrating, to say the least. I've been out of the loop for most of the games just because the coverage is so lame, IMO. Here's one of the best alternatives I've seen yet:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/vid...rick-video

Thank goodness for LEGO reconstructions!! 

Spokane_Al

IMO the Olympics are made up of a bazillion little followed sports and events, each with its own rabid following (of which triathlon is only one). The beauty of this year's Olympics is that there are a number of other options including three or four separate, concurrent broadcasts, and live and recorded feeds of every event via the internet.

If one chooses to bypass cable and pay as you go, then one may be relegated to taking what NBC provides via the traditional evening broadcast. Broadcasting decisions are based on a massive, massive investment and bottom line revenue projections which are designed to capture as many eyeballs as possible and in turn, increase advertising rates.

And I also suppose that legacy television network management has many sleepless nights as they try to solve the dilemma of ensuring that they stay relevant and technology does not pass them by, leaving them floundering on the sidelines ala Beta video recorders, Blackberry, dial up internet access etc etc.

wieczynski

MSNBC did have the entire TRIs (both Men and Womens) and covered it live. I could not sleep one night and watched lit live at (I think 3 am). The women tri was much more intersting--probably 8 athletes went down on one curve (which happened every lap). It had rained the night before and the roads had not recovered.