Vancouver 2010: What You See Is What You Get

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Every Olympics, it seems, people complain about NBC's handling (or mishandling) of the events it covers, and when it chooses to show them.

The Winter Games in Vancouver offers a better opportunity for NBC to show more events live than it did for the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, simply because the time difference is much less daunting.  However, to recoup their considerable investment in the eyes of advertisers who want to appeal to 18-49 women, they hold the best events that might appeal to that demographic in prime time.  That's why you won't see much live streaming of events on your computer, because NBC needs every eyeball they can get.

Take Wednesday night, for example.  Lindsey Vonn's gold medal run in the women's downhill was held for broadcast until midway through the prime time show, sandwiched between live coverage of men's snowboarding and speed skating. (Although we could have done without witnessing that private moment between Vonn and her coach/husband after she had won the gold.  It was uncomfortable to watch.)

Those sports not considered quite as desirable to the young and distaff by advertisers are relegated either to late afternoons and weekends (for biathlon and cross-country skiing), or to cable networks not normally associated with sports (that would be ice hockey and curling).

And then there are the often-ridiculed profiles of athletes who have Beaten The Odds, or whose motivation comes from a relative who's dying of a fatal disease.  Those have been around since the days of "ABC's Wide World of Sports".  Come to think of it, the evolution of Olympics TV coverage stems from that show alone.

It must be working.  Thus far, the Winter Olympics have been enjoying the biggest increase in viewers since the Salt Lake City Games of 2002, the last time they were held on this continent.  They've even edged out "American Idol", the Fox show that took them to the cleaners in 2006.

Get used to this, folks.  No matter who wins the American broadcast rights to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia and the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, embargoed coverage and targeted marketing will be the patterns we're stuck with.