During the 2-3pm ET, when 400 IM Final was live, there were 116K mentions on swimming. During tape delay 9-10pm ET, there were 160K mentions
— darren rovell (@darrenrovell) July 29, 2012
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Social Media Activity Strong During Taped Olympic Coverage
By now we've all heard about the controversy surrounding NBC's Olympic coverage. Events are streamed live online, but marquee events are aired with a tape delay during primetime television in order to satisfy advertising revenue quotas. Many debates are born out of the reality that modern technology spoils the results of Olympic events, since we can easily find out the medal winners (and losers) via twitter and facebook posts. And despite the loudest criticism coming from the social media world of NBC's decision not to live air the men's IM swimming final Saturday afternoon, the twittersphere was most lively during the tape delayed showing of the race vs. the live streaming (see the below tweet from Darren Rovell, a sports business reporter). Perhaps this is good news for the networks (and advertisers)- so far viewership does not seem to be hurt by the omnipresence of social media Olympic coverage.
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2 comments:
I WAS MAD.
As a former swimmer for almost 15 years, I love the Olympics. I love the competition and I could really care less about the hype surrounding Michael Phelps. If he wins, good for him. But to be honest, I liked the idea of seeing someone else up there, especially after I started following Ryan Lochte and his crazy training regime.
The one thing I love even more than the Olympics, are my NBC News/MSNBC news alerts. I pride myself on always been 100% current on my news. Still, I didn't think to even check my phone for Olympics updates since NBC was choosing to air events like the Men's 200 IM in Primetime. But imagine my surprise yesterday afternoon when I got an alert that Michael Phelps had come in 4th in the 200 IM (arguably his best event) and that Ryan Lochte had won!
If NBC decided that they did not want to air these events in real time, how dare they ruin the surprise!
Grrrrrrrr.....
I agree. Even more than the Olympics in Beijing, there is no escaping real time news these days between Facebook, Twitter on top of news and blogs. I'd bet reason that even if you didn't get a NBC news alert, unless you were somewhere without cell service, you could have still found the Men's 200 results before NBC showed it in prime time.
I get that NBC wants to show the flagship events during primetime, but these days it just seems fake to think people won't know the result already. I think it makes more sense the way the World Cup works, where if the important matches are on in the middle of the night, ESPN will air it live, but reply the match in prime time. Fans who want to watch it without knowing the result, can do so, and fans who want to watch in prime time can do so as well.
Last, I just thought it was funny that on NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams would show the results of some Olympic events, but not show video highlights of it. It just looked silly to me.
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