Olympics 2012 - non-BBC specific

Although they won't care - they got the highest ever figures for a non-US based Olympic opening ceremony - 40.7m, only beaten by the opening of Salt Lake City a decade ago.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/07/olympics-opener-posts-best-overnight-rating-for-non-u-s-opening-ceremony/

40 million doesn't seem that much for a country of 300 million.

I've not seen anyone have a good word for NBC's coverage. The latest is that they time delayed the big Phelps-Lochte swimming final, meaning that the result was all over the internet as soon as it happened even though US TV viewers hadn't actually seen it.

It seems incredible in this day and age that they are time-delaying so much. Social media has been great for live and 'event' TV... but NBC don't seem to have realised that and are denying their viewers a chance to join in

I've read that the NBC Nightly News lead with the story of Phelps not placing before NBC had even shown it on their Olympics programme.

30 million is about the mark American Idol finals get, I believe. That's nowhere near Superbowl level though.

It's pretty massive. The US has an incredibly fragmented TV landscape - far more than most European countries - so their ratings are actually a lot lower than you might expect for a country of their population.

Does make the BBC's 27m peak look pretty impressive - that's nearly 50% of the population, which would equate to around 150m in the US?

It doesn't bother them - they fully realise it - they just don't care.

What matters to them is maximising ratings AND delivering the right demographics for their advertisers. If more of the right people watch tape-delayed (*) than watch live, then they'll tape-delay. Simple as. They have invested so much to get exclusive rights to the Olympics they are squeezing every last cent out of them.

The thing to remember about the US networks is that they aren't networks. They are only on-air in many areas for certain times of the day, with local programming scheduled at other times of the day. If events were networked live during local programme times, some stations wouldn't show the network feed, and would instead show their own programmes, which they sell advertising within rather than than the network. It's a crazy system for major events - but welcome to a fragmented TV system operated by the free market...

At least, unlike Beijing, NBC are now offering live on-line feeds - apart from the ceremonies (which are classed as entertainment rather than sport apparently) - but these are only available to those who get cable internet I believe... No doubt those streams carry advertising.

Yes, the internet streaming isn't just for anyone, it's only those who have cable subscriptions for some reason. Even then you get a load of adverts, and I've seen people report having the streams interrupted by adverts due to problems.

We're very lucky over here with 26 free and advert-free channels available to all

that is if you can get the video to work at all. all i was able to get was the audio from the video

You'd think that, with the amount of money NBC are spending on the Olympics, they'd be able to afford a real phone box, rather than this shoddy effort:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7266/7666608544_e76b66220a_z.jpg

If you have to move it between locations (i.e. are using it as a location device) - then a real one is going to be a little on the heavy side, whereas a wooden prop is probably a bit more practical...

(But don't get me started on the NBC London 2012 logo you can see on the crash barriers. I don't think I'll ever 'get' US broadcast graphic and set design)

Yep - lots of complaints that the NBC online streams (restricted to cable subscribers) are poor quality and constantly buffering. #nbcfail is quite a popular hashtag on twitter at the moment.

Does make you realise how lucky we are in the UK. The BBC Olympics 1-24 streams are great - and, on the Sky platform, the UI that lets you see what is on and when is really good.

It is very incorrect to "blame" the free market for the US broadcast network system. If it had been completely left to the free market, the big networks would simply have set up repeaters around the country that mostly broadcast the same programming nationwide. The system with many affiliates owned by different companies has been actively maintained and promoted by the FCC, and has been quite successful in promoting a local broadcast media sector.

It does of course require some negotiations when networks want to broadcast outside their usual slots, but the advantages far outweigh those problems.