Comments on: The Olympics on the Web: Squashed by tradition

Could NBC offer a Web experience that's competitive with the television offering and end up still ahead of the game? The problem is the affiliate-based ad model.

[carolgleadhill]

No wonder Americans are so disliked when abroad, I have just heard your female basketball commentator describe how she took her children to the Great Wall of China and allowed them to carve their names on the wall! She even said what a special moment it was for them. Have they no respect for the host country or their national monuments??? This is truly appalling!!!

[tundey]

What does that have to do with Olympic coverage? I assume if it was illegal she would have been arrested. Like a few scratches by an American family will destroy a wall that's stood for thousands of years.

[rarafondon]

I find this very offensive and racist. How would we react if the same thing happened in America? Like a few scratches by a Chinese family on the White House would destroy a building that the PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES lives in. You'll probably panic, screaming that Communist had taken over the country, right?

[tamis1]

http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/livevideo has free live streaming of 9 events simultaneously - it's synched with the official Olympic website, and the TV channel (I checked) so it's definitely "live live". Don't have to reveal your location ...pretty sure non-Canadians can view. All but one of the feeds don't have audio commentary (which is nice, especially for those sports with annoying commentators!!). Some channels focus on Canadian teams when they are playing, but most are just the raw feed from the event (individual events show the entire event, regardless of who is from where)

[scammarata]

Not permitted from United States internet service providers. The only way you might be able to watch CBC live video is by pointing your web browser at a proxy server that is physically located inside Canada.

[miranda974]

Don't confuse Americans with the bimbos on TV. It is against the law here to carve your name in historical / natural sites. If only the world would not think of us as Hollywood or GW. The majority of the population wants nothing to do with either one.

[michaelsmindfield]

Here in the UK the BBC provides live coverage on both the web and TV. We watch simultaneously Phelps swimming vids from the night before online and live events on the TV. Sure, TV license fees support the BBC but the double venue feeds people to use both mediums. NBC is blowing it big time. They could be making money on both venues and feeding viewers to local stations websites to help them make more money as well. NBC is a dinosaur like the Detroit auto industry.

[KHCG]

it was good presentation

[Bunzelle]

The main reason I went NBC's web site was to see coverage of events that were either not being shown or were being shown at times I could not watch. I cannot stay up until 1 or 2 in the morning when I have to go to work the next day. I don't normally stay up that late any night, even non-work nights. I understand that China's time zone is different, but it would have been nice to see more during earlier times.

NBC's coverage seemed badly lacking. There were many events that might be whoen in little snippets of film, and many events appear to have had no film aired. I realize there is much, maybe too much to show everything on all the events, but all of the athletes and all of the competitions deserve some air time. Was there any film shown of the shooting competitions? Or the sailing?

The gymnastics "gala" that was supposedly aired by NBC highlighted only a few performers, and did not show the entire exhibition. I had to try to find video online to see the entire show or at least photos to see who actually participated. Imagine my surprise when I realized that there was even a rhythmic gymnastics performer taking part!

I am very unhappy about the coverage this time. I love the olympics, all of the olympics, and would welcome a chance to see a little more of everything and less of announcers going on and on wondering if so and so can win or if so and so could have won or on and on about stuff when I would rather watch.