hcg


#NBCFailed the Olympic athletes

The Olympics is about the athletes, not about television ratings.

#NBCFail

Having participated in both track and cross country in high school, I was psyched for the start of the track and field events. On Sunday afternoon I was parked in front of my living room’s large screen television awaiting the 100M heats on NBC. Only to find out that I’d have to relegate myself to my home office’s computer to watch Usain Bolt on an online stream. The next day I found out that the 100M final wasn’t broadcast until around 11:00pm EST, way to keep people in their seats for 3 hours watching commercials, I gladly avoided the painful ordeal.

On Monday I went straight to the live track and field online stream and watched with little buffering the events of the day. I bypassed the prime time show for yet another day. Why sit through all those commercials for events I already knew the outcome?

Then on Tuesday the online stream was a stuttering buffering mess. To add insult to injury, there were commercials thrown in after every single heat and high jump and discuss throw and triple jump and you get the picture. 30 seconds of commercials every few minutes, it made the online stream impossible to watch. Last night we watched a movie, the Olympics were not of interest to me and my family anymore.

#NBCFail is a Twitter hashtag that affirms this blog post, I am not alone in feeling that NBC has sacrificed the Olympic spirit for ratings. Sad is the word that comes to mind. I’m deeply saddened for the athletes that busted their asses for years to get in shape only to have their performances held hostage by NBC for the sole purpose of promoting their fall lineup.

In this age of cord cutters, what keeps me from cancelling the cable subscription is because I like watching football on a Sunday afternoon, or catch a golf game, or sit amazed at the Formula 1 drivers speeding around a race course. Yet here we are at the ultimate live sporting event, the Olympics, and NBC wants to screw it all up for us. By the time Rio 2016 rolls around I’ll be ready, the cable subscription will be a thing of the past, I’ll spend my money on a VPN.

The lunatic is in the hall
The lunatics are in my hall
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
And every day the paper boy brings more