NBC Olympic Coverage

According to the Associated Press, NBC, which has broadcasting rights to the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, is planning full-blown media coverage of the games. Six of its broadcast/cable/satellite television channels (how many does my cable service provide?) will be broadcasting different events. But it is on the Internet where NBC has revealed its biggest ambitions, pretty much making everything available to users who only need to “click in” on the part of the Olympics they want to see. Although events that NBC is broadcasting on TV will be delayed for Internet use (in order to encourage people to watch TV along with the commercials), this is a new step forward that I would like to take advantage of. For there are not only certain sports and events that I am interested in following (like distance running and bicycle racing), but there are also others that I would like to get to know better (such as field hockey). Criticism has befallen NBC, however, for its insistence of exclusive network coverage on the Internet, keeping other news groups from even broadcasting small clips there (NBC does allow this to a limited degree on television). But it will be fun to try out their Olympics website and see for myself whether or not the reality of promised coverage lives up to the billing. One problem that I’ve had in past Olympics with the television coverage has been overemphasis on the American athletes (even when they’re clearly out of the running for medals) and underemphasis of sports in which the U.S. is deemed unlikely to win a medal. Hopefully, with the new setup, this will all change. The NBC website for the Olympics is: NBCOlympics.com.

On a side note, University of Florida basketball star Nick Calathes is traveling to Greece to try out for the Greek national team to compete in the Olympics. He has dual citizenship, both as an American and as a Greek. I’m looking forward to seeing whether or not he makes the team (he should). Nick is a very talented player who will only be a sophomore this coming season for the Gators. It will be interesting to see whether, with NBC’s hyped Internet-access innovations, I’ll be able to watch the Greek team play its games during the Olympics.