Let the Games Begin!
Heather Marie and I are enjoying watching the opening ceremonies of the 2006 Winter Games, and so far it's very nice.
I'm disappointed, however, that yet another Olympiad has arrived and we're still stuck with preposterously inadequate coverage. NBC does a fairly good job (except for their silly insistence on pretending that it's live coverage), but they are just one channel. I have 200 cable channels available to me, probably five percent of which are sports-oriented, so why are there events that I won't be able to see? NBC itself controls at least five channels, so it wouldn't even have to relinquish control to show us more events!
Ultimately, what I want to happen is for the IOC to license the individual events to the highest bidders. It's a win-win-win-win proposition. The big networks will still get the high-dollar events, since they'll be the only ones who can afford them. The other networks get to attract some new viewers by airing the more obscure events. The less-watched events (Judo, curling, etc) get more exposure than ever. And the IOC rakes in unheardof amounts of money.
The fifth winner would be viewers and fans of minor sports, who'd finally get to see them without staying up until 3am to watch.
Two more years until Beijing! Somebody get this going!
I'm disappointed, however, that yet another Olympiad has arrived and we're still stuck with preposterously inadequate coverage. NBC does a fairly good job (except for their silly insistence on pretending that it's live coverage), but they are just one channel. I have 200 cable channels available to me, probably five percent of which are sports-oriented, so why are there events that I won't be able to see? NBC itself controls at least five channels, so it wouldn't even have to relinquish control to show us more events!
Ultimately, what I want to happen is for the IOC to license the individual events to the highest bidders. It's a win-win-win-win proposition. The big networks will still get the high-dollar events, since they'll be the only ones who can afford them. The other networks get to attract some new viewers by airing the more obscure events. The less-watched events (Judo, curling, etc) get more exposure than ever. And the IOC rakes in unheardof amounts of money.
The fifth winner would be viewers and fans of minor sports, who'd finally get to see them without staying up until 3am to watch.
Two more years until Beijing! Somebody get this going!
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