A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics
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A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics | |
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August 20, 2004Free the Olympics!I think the Olympics isn't enough of a media circus. In particular, I think that the IOC's monopolistic licensing rules are so last century and should be scrapped in favor of something that lets more than one company per country broadcast Olympic TV coverage, without limitations on where they can broadcast. I've become used to choice and thorough coverage in most events. It often, even usually takes at least two sources for me to be happy with my understanding of events that interest me. And I can increasingly often get that level of choice. Watching an event covered by the old monopoly-coverage model often gives me a strong urge to turn it off and go do something else, something more under my control. Kudos, by the way, to the Beeb for trying something deeply cool and accessible with their Olympics coverage, multicasting five digital video streams to the UK Internet at large (to be fair, they'd probably multicast it worldwide without IOC monopoly rules). Of course, if I was in Britain, I'd probably be grumbling about the five streams being all so similar.... What I'd really like is to be able to see both NBC AND the Beeb. Because then I'd see more different sides of this incredibly complex and global event, and probably NBC and the Beeb would feel more pressure to do a good job. UPDATE: I just realized that I didn't have enough patience with the news to be interested in current events until the Internet came along and gave me practical and easy choice for the first time.
SON OF UPDATE: GET YOUR COMPLETE IOC REPRESSION COVERAGE HERE! The
IOC
forbids
blogs. An interesting aspect to this bit of pettiness is that the
IOC must be afraid that the media will be afraid of their value being
challenged by blogs. I also heard a rumor that the IOC has a team out
in the stadiums removing clothes and other items with the brands
competing with IOC big sponsors.
Comments
C'mon will we ever be satisfied until we have complete on-demand access and editing capability? I think not. IMO, the networks currently make the Olympics as hard to watch as they can. Let's face it, we viewers are not the network's customers, we're the product they're selling, eyeballs for advertisers. The broadcasts are tape delayed, but they sync that broadcast so here on the east coast you have to stay up until midnight to watch Paul Hamm win the gold medal you already knew he won. And they still have to stretch the coverage over 4 hours, because the content we want is only the vehicle for consumer sales opportunities. When I visited Montreal a few years ago, I learned that they are still paying off the debt incurred for the 1976 Olympics. That's insane! Posted by: bk at August 20, 2004 09:35 AMMore choices would definately help. I've been disappointed by NBC's American-centric. Granted, we're most interested in American athletes, but there are some great stories to be told about many of the other competitors. For example, Svetlana Khorkina's competing in three Olympics and now failing to win a gold in the women's all-around gymnastics title is fascinating given the intense pressure she'd put on herself to win. That is psychological drama at its best! And despite the cute nickname for Ian "the thorpedo" Thorpe, we really don't know anything about him. But for me, the most disappointing aspect of engaging in this year's olympics is the time difference between the US and Greece. It's just not the same when you're watching a heavily edited recording. Posted by: Steven Brown at August 20, 2004 09:55 AMOne of the smartest things the people of Colorado ever did was vote to NOT have the 1976 Winter Olymipcs. For all of Dick Lamm's faults, that one cause of his endeared him to me. Posted by: Tully at August 20, 2004 12:10 PMgood Posted by: mel at October 18, 2004 10:17 PM |
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