On second thought

Or whichever thought this is, I am going to shift the blame for the lack of quality of Olympics coverage.

It’s not the money it’s the technology.

Back when instant replay was cutting edge and getting 5 or 6 hours of coverage a day was a major accomplishment there was no thought given to this kind of hack editing of things.  The focus had to be on just getting the event broadcast.

These days they can easily jump back and forth between events and between different recordings or between live and recorded if that comes up.  The temptation is probably too much to resist.

London 2012 TV coverage

Even with all the problems it’s still not quite as bad as Seoul where Bryant Gumbel seemed to care more about getting his own face on TV than showing the Olympic competition.

I’m pretty sure that was also the Games where they showed a pre-recorded feature on an athlete Instead of the Live Race that was Being Run at That Very Moment!

Then they came back and showed the recording of the race. 

I mean really, who the hell does that?

Is it really what they say it is?

I know I can’t trust the NBC commentary because they may already know the outcome of any event. 

So when they tell me it’s a four way race for the women’s gymnastics gold between the US and Russia how do I know that’s true and not someone reliving some Cold War fantasy?

Another Olympic rant

I know that I am seeing this through the lens of my own bias.  Still, it seems to me that when I was young there were fewer commercials.  Quality of coverage aside there just seemed to be fewer breaks.  I know that even in the days of my youth when I liked the coverage the network was trying to make a profit, but honestly, they just didn’t seem to have as many commercials. 

Some time in the 80s it all seemed to change from wanting to show the Olympics to wanting to produce an event.  Personally I think when a different network got to cover the Games they tried to show that they could do it better than ABC and to them better meant flashier.  Money is also a problem.  Of course the whole point of a TV network is profit, just like any corporation.  That’s fine.  I’m not complaining about that – except where it damages the product.  Namely the TV show.

I’d also lay some of blame on the Olympic Committee as well as the network.  I have no evidence but it seems to be less the Olympics these days and more The Olympics ™©®$$$$.  And naturally when you have to bid outrageous amounts to get the TV rights you have to make up the money to show a profit.  So there are more commercials because you can only charge so much per minute.

But since there are only so many natural places for a commercial break you have to manufacture them.  You edit and cut out parts of the events; show most of the US and only a few of the other countries’ athletes; take a break in the middle of a match and come back after a few goals have been scored; cut out the parts you think are boring.  After all, real or perceived, you have to cater to the American short attention span and what better way than to make it all one big highlight reel where more commercials can be squeezed in.

Actually, to me it feels more like a lot of commercials with a few sporting events squeezed in.

You can edit for time, cut and paste parts of events to fit your artificial narrative and show things out of sequence and modified for whatever reason.  But you lose the spontaneity and the progression of events that builds the tension and leads naturally to the climax at the end.  There is no end because you have no idea what happened when because it’s all out of order.  There’s more flash and less substance.

Rather than being compelling it’s disorienting.

Maybe I’m being too critical.  It isn’t possible to show everything when so much happens at the same time and watching the Olympics in real time can be tedious and boring.  It’s the nature of an event like that where there is so much going on concurrently but there is also so much down time and repetition. 

I’ll relent.  It’s an overwhelming spectacle that needs to be managed to make it comprehensible.   Maybe the experience can be improved with judicious editing.

Except that isn’t what’s going on here.  The editing is choppy.  And it’s so obvious that someone who likes to look at the women gymnasts – not competing, just look at them – produced this thing it isn’t even funny.  You get more shots from the profiles than of competition.  They have a theme song for crying out loud.

So edit, but do it better.  What we’re getting now is crap.

Here’s the problem

Athletes train hard, often for their entire lives, to compete at world class levels and represent their countries at the Olympic Games.  It is typical that there is sacrifice from the athletes and their families, support from friends and neighbors.  In countries where there is no fully supporting national program communities will come together to support the athletes.  Dreams are realized and broken in the effort to reach the Olympics and during the Games themselves.

The Olympics are about individual and team effort, skill, support, endurance and character.  They are about elite athletic ability and performance.  There is a natural drama and elegance to Olympic competition.

That drives the network crazy.  They want to be in control.  They want to be the ones who create the story so that the Olympic Games are about the presentation.  Otherwise, what are they there for?  If the Games come with a built-in narrative then who needs a network and its commentators to build that narrative?  If you care about the sport and the athletes, then all the TV needs to do is point the cameras and provide an audio program so you know who is who.

But then the Olympics would be about the sports and the athletes and not about the network and there’s just too much ego there to let that happen.

I am a grumpy old man

I’ve been watching the Olympics, well, NBC presents the Olympics because this is more about the network and the presentation than it is about the games.

In three hours there have been 6 – 8 floor exercises, half a dozen vaults, not quite as many uneven bar routines, a couple gymnasts on the balance beam and maybe 6 swimming events.  That comes to about an hour for the competition and time in between, maybe a little more.

A typical hour of programming has 18 minutes of commercials.

Also, there was only 1 woman gymnast not from the US shown.

What happened to the other countries and the other hour?

I miss the experience I had as a kid.  There were fewer commercials, which was true of all types of TV, but they really seem to pack them in now.  It seems to me that the Olympics I watched back then were shown live.  I’m sure some of it was taped, but even then I don’t remember the extensive editing.  I don’t think that started until the 80s and for me it ruins the experience. 

I feel like I’m watching a reality show and not a live sporting event.