NBC and the Olympics

In the article from the New York Times "Is NBC’s Tight Leash on Olympics Webcasts a Mistake?" author Saul Hansell speaks about the way NBC is broadcasting the Olympics. NBC is taking great strides in encouraging people to seek new media by streaming some of the Olympics on the internet live for viewers, but it is also limiting what is displayed as well. According to the article over 700 hours of live events aren't being broadcast on the internet live, and are instead being broadcast hours after their live airing. NBC claims that if it simulcast the live events on the internet, as well as on TV, it would be losing viewers from TV.

To contrast this view Mr. Hansell provides Alan Wurtzel, NBC’s president of research to provide his input. Mr. Wurtzel states basically that live simulcasting would not canabalize TV viewership, because people who have TV would rather watch the Olympics on it instead. The article concludes that even though new media is strong, old media is still much stronger and much more a force to be reackoned with.

I tend to agree with this argument, in that TV viewing, and old media are still large facets of society, and will not be replaced by a personal comupter completly. For a single person such as myself, with cable, internet and a large HD TV, I perfer mostly to watch programs on my computer. This is because I want to watch what I want, when I want, and I don't want to be limited by a broadcast schedule.

Also my tastes in viewership skew more towards the niche, and I don't find too many shows on TV all that interesting. But if I lived in a family with a wife and kids, then my viewing habits would be different. If I actually cared about the Olympics then I might actually view it on TV. The problem is I don't care, but there are still enough people out there that do care. In fact the majority still care so the old standby of TV won't be disapearing anytime soon.