The Olympics and TV viewership
by Dan Empfield 9/21/00
(www.slowtwitch.com)

"I am here in Sydney, working with NBC alongside of the best features production team on the face of the earth."

He then explained with vigor his point of view, which was his reply to the following, which appeared in "the Digest" just following the men's Olympic race:

I'm not going to go any farther into what Mark said except to "stipulate" to his view. I concede every point he made.

It's just his first sentence on which I'd like to focus, because I think it illustrates a view that NBC takes to be axiomatic, yet I don't think it is true at all. Mark Allen is right, NBC is the very best sports features producer on the planet. But I think the era of the sports feature -- as a way to cover an eagerly awaited outcome -- is going, going, (and soon to be) gone.

NBC's Olympics ratings is a dissapointment. That's not because people aren't interested in the subject matter. Everybody within spittin' distance of the 49th parallel -- from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine -- is eschewing NBC's delayed features for CBC's raw, live feed. The Canadians, behind though they might be in the production of Emmy-quality entertainment, are showing Olympic events as they happen. The American viewer is opting for that, when his TV antenna cooperates. Note that this is not just the American triathlete or marathon runner who is switching to CBC, but Joe Sixpack -- armed with beer and pretzels.

Impatience isn't the only quality causing people to choose CBC. The immediate, the unexpected, the spontaneous, resonates with the viewer. Not only do we want to be surprised by the outcome, we want the announcers to be surprised too.

I am reminded of that piece of tape which still chokes me up, even though it's 36-years-old and I must have seen it 20-times. "Look at Mills! Look at Mills! Look at Mills!" The announcer of the '64 Olympic 10,000-meter race was screaming, jumping out of his chair -- jumping out of his skin -- as Billy Mills passed Ron Clarke and Mohammed Gammoudi to win the race in the final meters in a huge and historic upset.

Meanwhile, If I stick my head out the window I can hear a collective groan around my neighborhood every time NBC segues from the action toward yet another athlete vignette. I want Billy Mills coverage, and I want it because there is a Billy Mills story in every Olympics. The Canadians had their Mills in our very own sport this past week. I credit them for showing the race live. Unfortunately CBC hired Tri Canada's marketing agent Paul Regensberg to be its Olympic triathlon commentator instead of the incomparable Steve King. I'm sure I'd have been tempted to defect to Canada upon hearing King screaming, "Look at Whitfield! Look at Whitfield! Look at Whitfield!"

I think the point is now moot anyway. The next Olympics is going to be very different. Why? Because although NBC thinks it has bought the "U.S. broadcast rights" for Greece in reality it hasn't bought anything of the kind. I'll be able to watch the Greece Olympics from my TV, my computer, my oven, or my toaster. I'll get it in 36 languages from 48 countries.

The great irony is that while Americans have invented immediacy, unpredictability, and the unfettered flow of information -- we invented both the internet and the dorm-cam -- we're getting taped delays while the rest of the world is getting the Olympics live. What's more, our Olympic coverage is brought to us by "professionals." Europe actually trusts Phil Liggett to cut to commercial without a babysitter. NBC doesn't. What I'd just love to see, as track and field prepares to start, is Dwight Stones and Larry Rawson running loose and rampant all over my TV screen, without the help of Tom Hammond. Fat chance.

Perhaps NBC ought to try it both ways next time. On the Big Channel let's have Emmy-winning 24-hour-delayed features. But on MSNBC or CNBC gimme dorm-cam. I'll watch Plant or Reilly in the booth -- with Mark Allen in the field -- calling the action as it happens. You take creamed carrot and blended pears, I'll have raw steak. And so will my fat neighbors on either side of me, I'll wager.

I hope my good friend Mark Allen isn't upset that I write this. This is the trend I sense occurring, and if I'm right NBC will adapt -- in which case they'll need Mark Allen's expert commentary and professional demeanor just that much more desperately than they need him now.