Fans of the Olympics should have no trouble finding their sports on television. After all, the Beijing Olympics had record ratings despite the massive time difference that meant the results were available hours before NBC broadcast the events. And the next Olympics will be in Vancouver next winter. But that's not whats happening.
Last year sports like Alpine Skiiing were shown on Sunday's on Versus. Yeah, I know. "I don't have Versus". Well, yes, you probably do. Check you listings. It's on the basic package of most cable systems, but this fiction persists. Bobsledding was on Speed, the home of Formula One. Figure Skating gets network coverage of course.
This year, forget it. NBC & the IOC have apparently made a consumer unfriendly decision to put all olympic sports on something called Universal Sports, which is owned by NBC or is at least part of the ownership group. Never heard of it? Me neither. The channel is only on a few cable systems(not in the bay area), not on satellite, so you have to watch on line.
Now I have to admit, the website has lots of video. And it's up-to-date. This morning I was watching bobsled competition that was only a few hours old. But that's not the point. Most people don't know this website exists. If you want to build a sport, this is not the way to do it. Yeah, skiing is popular in the olympics, but how many people know there is a world cup season going on right now? I'm guessing not too many. Yesterday I watched Bode "party hardy" Miller finish second in the downhill.
Let me explain, skiing is my favorite olympic sport, not winter olympic sport, overall favorite sport. But I have to watch on line. What is NBC thinking? In the past world cup skiing was always on cable or independent stations, but now we get this exclusivity that hurts the sports. Just another example of what is wrong with sports today. While Universal Sports does show events in their entirety, like both bodsled or luge runs(2 hours long) it is still not available to most people, who like I said, don't know this website exists. Whats next?
Irina Shayk
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