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Olympics 2012 - non-BBC specific

Split from The Sport Thread (June 2012)

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TH
Thomas
noggin posted:
Inspector Sands posted:
40 million doesn't seem that much for a country of 300 million.


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?


I've never understood why America seems to have much lower viewing figures than Britain. X Factor UK gets almost as many peak viewers as American Idol, despite the huge population difference. Why is the American market so much more fragmented?
BR
Brekkie
Is it just a case of Americans having more of a life than us Brits? Wink
GM
Gary McEwan
Thomas posted:
noggin posted:
Inspector Sands posted:
40 million doesn't seem that much for a country of 300 million.


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?


I've never understood why America seems to have much lower viewing figures than Britain. X Factor UK gets almost as many peak viewers as American Idol, despite the huge population difference. Why is the American market so much more fragmented?


The vast amount of channels, and also the vast amount of programming that's on offer by the various networks might have something to do with it.
LE
levaniX_4
I'm about to make couple of screenshots of olympic broadcasting of Belarus 2 tomorrow.

The Sports Room of Belarus 2 in Media Centre looks quite amateur, back just made of plastic. So cheap.
MA
Markymark
noggin posted:
Inspector Sands posted:

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


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.


Someone told me this week, that NBC only showed 1 min and 37 seconds actual live coverage of last year's Wimbledon Men's Final ?
NG
noggin Founding member
Thomas posted:

I've never understood why America seems to have much lower viewing figures than Britain. X Factor UK gets almost as many peak viewers as American Idol, despite the huge population difference. Why is the American market so much more fragmented?


Much more fragmented market, with cable dominant, and some of the cable channels offering network quality content.

Networks don't control what the viewers see on the stations that broadcast their shows - unlike the UK.

NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox have SOME stations they own and operate, but many of the channels are local affiliates who can do what their like during large portions of the day. I get a feeling whilst this can strengthen local programmes, it can also weaken network identity - particularly outside primetime. As a result promotions can be less 'blanket' and less tailored.

I also think that the UK is still better at 'doing' event telly.
GI
ginnyfan
^ Of course it is, the whole US concept is really bizarre, to me.

From what I could see on some streams, a typical schedule on one of big 4 consists of a network morning show which goes nation wide then local stations put different talk shows/soaps/local news shows followed by the prime time they all share. National news is sometime before 8 when the prime time starts, I guess? All of this filled with gazillion ad breaks of course. Not sure what goes overnight,different local programing I guess.

West coast gets taped 3 hour old morning shows. I presume it's the same with main evening news bulletin. Shocked
BR
Brekkie
I think so, though one of the networks (ABC I think) did introduce a live West Coast bulletin after Peter Jennings retired, though whether they still do it I don't know.

The US networks pretty much all follow the same kind of pattern with local news, breakfast, daytime, local news, national news, primetime, late night chat shows and news
MI
Michael
Brekkie posted:
I think so, though one of the networks (ABC I think) did introduce a live West Coast bulletin after Peter Jennings retired, though whether they still do it I don't know.


He didn't retire. He took time off to get treatment for cancer which was unsuccessful and then died.

You could of course be referring to Charlie Gibson, one of his successors, or Dan Rather on CBS, or Tom Brokaw on NBC.
GM
Gary McEwan
Is the Al-Jazeera Sports studio next to the This Morning studio? Their logo seems to be right next to the This Morning window....
AC
aconnell
Gaz McEwan posted:
Is the Al-Jazeera Sports studio next to the This Morning studio? Their logo seems to be right next to the This Morning window....


I noticed that too this morning - not exactly hard to miss in their window shots. Getting a little publicity from their current location outside by the Thames!

I suspect This Morning won't be doing many features outside for the duration of their stay, not least because of the variable weather too!
UK
UKnews
Markymark posted:

Someone told me this week, that NBC only showed 1 min and 37 seconds actual live coverage of last year's Wimbledon Men's Final ?

Seems unlikely, I believe the finals were about the only thing they did show live in full.

All different now ESPN have the exxlusive live rights- extensive live coverage, where as they previously had to go off air during NBCs broadcast.

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