Does It Bother You That NBC Isn't Showing Some Sports Live?

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Earlier this weekend, more than forty million Americans watched NBC’s coverage of the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. The next night, almost thirty million watched Ryan Lochte punish Michael Phelps in their first swimming head-to-head. Both viewer totals were American Olympic records, and if they’re indicators of what is to come, NBC could be laughing all the way to the bank.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t all been roses for the network. Despite the big numbers, scores of fans have taken to Twitter and other places to complain about NBC’s decision to herd viewers toward primetime. Thanks to the events being in England, neither Phelps vs Lochte nor the Opening Ceremonies aired live. In fact, they’d been finished for hours by the time most Americans got around to seeing them. The delay doesn’t seem to be hurting audiences, but if Twitter loudmouths are to be believed, it’s certainly hurting enjoyment levels.

According to The New York Times, the majority of advertising revenue is raked in during primetime. Since NBC is concerned letting daytime viewers see the swimming and gymnastics might split iits viewers into two groups, it’s unwilling to risk losing money. Thus, the better sports are being shown on tape delay, or via online streams for those willing to put up with slow load times.

Personally, I don’t really mind some of the events on delay. Obviously, live is better, but I appreciate the seamlessness of the network having hours to package everything together to make it look pretty.

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Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.