Apparently, during the Olympics, NO politics or news will happen

[SoCalDem]

I scanned ahead on my DISH, and saw that MSNBC is completely Olympics & "documentary" programming..at least as far as the schedule thinigie goes..

It's very odd , since they(NBC) have the exclusive rights, and have SEVERAL channels to "use"..

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http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2008-07-08-olympicstv_N.htm

By Michael Hiestand, USA TODAY

Imagine the moon was colonized a few years after humans first landed. That's sort of what's happened to Olympic TV.

NBC's Beijing TV schedule, released Tuesday, includes 2,900 hours of live TV coverage — including all 32 swimming finals and the team and individual finals in men's and women's gymnastics. Those live hours, spread across NBC and its cable TV outlets, top the total U.S. TV hours — 2,562 — for all previous Summer Games combined. Technically, that's possible because organizers in Beijing — 12 hours ahead of Eastern time — scheduled big-time morning action that NBC can air live in prime time. That's a break from the usual Olympic TV tactic of holding key events — as NBC did with a comparable time difference at the 2000 Sydney Games — so they can air in U.S. prime time. And NBC, as in past Games, has access to live footage of everything. The Olympic TV feed, which captures every moment of competition, is available to every TV network that bought its national TV rights.

snip..

That live world feed tonnage also will help with something considered impossible just a few years ago: Live online Olympic coverage — specifically, 2,200 hours from Beijing. In the 20th century, that could never happen. Putting live Olympics online meant everybody would get it, playing havoc with TV rights around the globe. But once technology allowed online content to be sent only to users' specific Internet addresses — the technology that cleared the way for local TV Major League Baseball games to online without going into areas where TV rights needed protecting — the earth was no longer flat.

Various non-U.S. networks, relying on Olympic TV feed tonnage, had lots of live online coverage at recent Games. NBC tried it once, with the 2006 Winter Olympic hockey final, but now is poised to jump off a high dive into the deep end. So, could NBC belly-flop? Not likely. There's a traditional logic to its giant on-air buffet. The Games' prime cuts — swimming, gymnastics, diving and track and field — still will dominate prime time, so they won't be among the 25 sports shown online. NBC's cable channels, for the first Olympics entirely in high definition, will get events suiting their demographics, such as boxing and weightlifting on male-skewing CNBC and gymnastics recaps and equestrian on female-leaning Oxygen.

NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol says the enormity of coverage "just blows me away."

Fine, just don't blow a fuse.

[TwilightGardener]

1. I guess I'm the only one on earth who never watches the Olympics.

[PatSeg]

3. Not the only one

I have no interest whatsoever. Guess I'll be watching lots of videos, if there's no politics.

[TwilightGardener]

5. Yeah, it's going to be a long two weeks. I stopped watching about

two decades ago, when the networks decided to create storylines and narratives about the athletes--every Olympics they pick a competitor whose dad died tragically of some weird disease, or who was once homeless, or crippled, or some such schmaltzy human-interest angle, and they play it up to create DRAMA and TEARS at the medals ceremony. Or else they play up the evil-rival shit. Yawner.

[SoCalDem]

7. Same for me.. Every athlete has an "up-close & personal" mini-documentary

and of course the clothing of the 500 anchors must be discussed too.. who has time to see the sport..?

Just point the damned camera and show us..and STFU...

[2KS2KHonda]

8. I'm betting you may be surprised to discover how many others agree

and don't give a shit about them. :D

[katmondoo]

2. I only watched Ice Skating

And that is the winter Olympics. I will read more books now. The rest bores me.

[SoCalDem]

6. Me too..and I LOVED the "figures" part of the old system

It separated the "men from the boys" and rewarded techique..not just the "Octuple twisting flip jumps"...

I also liked SEEING the lead up to the final 6..It made their performances all that better, having seen the 14 yr old from Austria who finished 33rd:)

[PatSeg]

9. I like the ice skating as well

but I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it. As you said, "the rest bores me".

[gratuitous]

4. And, nothing untoward will happen in China, either

Our Chinese overlords and hosts have decreed a controversy-free Olympics, and I can't imagine NBC bucking them. So, if there are protests or smog or anything else that interferes with the smooth running of the Olympics, don't expect to see any of it anywhere. NBC has spent a lot of money for this programming; don't look for them to jeopardize it in any way.

[hedgehog]

10. It's already started - a puff piece about the Olympics tonight

on NBC Nightly News, not a word about Obama's speech in Michigan!