Just finished watching the Olympic Opening Ceremony from Paris ...

[aggiesal]

If you're going to bag on the Olympics, please don't respond.

The reason I'm writing this is to show how bad the NBC Broadcasting is compared to other countries.
Each country gets the Olympic feed so that everyone can see the same thing.
But not in the US. NBC used the Olympic feed for the majority but they used their own cameras at times, mostly to show off the US athletes..

I have the ability to split my screen and watch different national Olympic broadcasts.
So I was able to split screens to see NBC (US), TNT Sports1 (UK), SuperSport (SouthAfrica) & EuroSport1 (Europe)
I did not watch the Peacock program, but I'm assuming it was the same as the NBC feed.

The reason I think NBC was bad.
The first thing I noticed was that NBC was broadcasting about 30 seconds behind.
Next, while the others were all live, from start to finish with no commercials, NBC had commercials littered throughout.
Some of the commercial were split screens when the commercial hogging the majority of the screen, but other times
it was 4 minutes of Olympic blackout. So the US audience I"m going to say missed about 30 to 45 minutes of the live show.
Also, at time the US feed would be seconds behind after a 4 minute commercial, other time they were ahead of the
other stations by seconds.
But the biggest faux pas, was when they went to commercial during the President of the Paris Olympic Organization's speech, 4 minutes lost. They came back in, I would say about 2/3rds into the speech.

Again I didn't watch Peacock. And I'm not willing to watch Olympic events taped delayed during NBC's prime time feed, where they only show US competition & Medal competition.

Peacock says that every event will be available, so that's probably where I'll watch most of the action.

Enjoy the Olympics everyone.

[msongs]

1. one suspects most countries are favoring their own athletes in broadcast terms nt

[jimfields33]

2. Yep!

[aggiesal]

6. Not at all. I listened to the EuroSport1 audio feed (English is UK based), ...

The pre-opening ceremony program was definitely TeamGB heavy, but once the ceremonies began, it was pretty much Olympic show, except when the parade of nations reached TeamGB, then they were all giddy, but once they past it was back to the Olympic show.
NBC was interviewing US athletes, taking the viewers away from the Olympic show. They literally missed the whole Statue segment.

[dsc]

20. I grew up with an ability to watch Canadian TV

and they most certainly didn't behave that way then. I can't speak to now.

[July]

26. I did, too.

Olympic coverage (Canadian) was better because they featured the best athletes, regardless of nationality, in each sport, while American coverage focused heavily on American athletes.

I also learned the Canadian national anthem early on, because it followed our anthem in the station signoff late at night.

[madaboutharry]

3. I watched it on Peacock.

I loved the boats. I thought having the athletes in the boats sailing down The Seine was just brilliant. And seeing all the people in the windows and balconies looking on was really beautiful. I loved seeing the sights along the way.

I also thought Lady Gaga's Can Can dance and performance was fantastic.

I also thought it was really nice how the opening ceremonies ended at the Eiffel Tower.

What I did not like were the NBC commentators.

[aggiesal]

8. Was Tirico, Clarkson & Peyton on Peacock? ...

Also did they insert commercials?

I loved the whole setup. Beautifully done.
Pure Paris!

[madaboutharry]

18. I have a plan with no commercials, but there were breaks.

And yes, they were the ones on Peacock. It was the same live broadcast.

[bdamomma]

27. I agree

with your last comment. Too much yanking.

[lindysalsagal]

4. Lots of gqp hit-jobs on Kamala and others. Vicious but foolish.

Murderers Kamala brought in...ridiculous.

[aggiesal]

9. During the Olympic commercial breaks? n/t

[ITAL]

5. I was only so so on the Opening Ceremony

I've definitely preferred other ones in the past, but it had some iconic moments. Not sure I'll ever be more impressed with one than Beijing in 2008 (and yes I know the Communist government probably spent a billion dollar just on the ceremony).

[FlyingPiggy]

10. Beijing was off the hook! The magnitude of the entertainment was breathtaking. I actually bought the video

Of that opening ceremony bc I didn’t want to have to watch commercials on you tube. I can’t imagine anything coming close to that. I felt bad for england to have to follow that act. Lol

[ITAL]

12. I remember thinking London did a good job actually

And I much preferred it to tonight's. But Beijing was really something else.

[FlyingPiggy]

15. I thought London did a good job too w the Industrial Revolution

But I much prefer Paris’ Olympic Opening ceremony. I loved the creativity w the boats, the lightshow off the eiffel tower, and the helium balloon cauldron. That was jaw dropping. I think that was my favorite part actually. So incredibly creative.

One thing I did not like was the constant going back and forth w the fashion show. I liked the fashion show as it is such a big part of Paris, but have preferred one showing instead of going back and forth.

[ITAL]

17. I liked the IDEA of the boats

But they didn't really do the usual rundown of interesting tidbits of the countries and I actually love that stuff. I thought it sorta took the focus off the athletes. Didn't really like most of the "show" stuff...whether it was Lady Gaga or the various dancers through the streets (and I hated the fashion show...something that probably seemed great in the idea stage). I don't know some of it didn't work for me personally. I did love the mechanical horse thing and once it was dark, no city is prettier than Paris. The cauldron was great, and it's been better than the last couple anyway. I really loved Sydney's and Barcelona's. Not sure anything will ever top those two cauldron lightings for me. Dion was great.

IMHO, I'd say it was a mixed bag. But I won't argue with anyone who loved it.

[FlyingPiggy]

7. We watched it on peacock and it was way better than what you described on nbc

Peacock had tons of commercials but at least we got to see the live feed next to the commercials.

That’s too bad that nbc cut out the french Olympic organizer’s speech (Inguetine or something like that). It was a REALLY good speech that made me tear up a bit. The Older gentleman, olympic ceo or whatever, wasn’t nearly as good. His dragged on too much for me.

[aggiesal]

11. At least it wasn't full screen commercials, but I find NBC just money grubbers ...

It was a very good speech.
I loved when he turned to Team France, and told them (I'm paraphrasing)
every time you have tears joy on the podium, France will join you.
When you ..., France will join you.

[GoneOffShore]

13. Watched in on France2 - No commercials, no breaks, full coverage - And Celine's performance?

Totally brilliant.

[aggiesal]

14. Good for you! I can't get France2, I think everything was brilliant ...

except it took too much time to get that horse to the Eiffel tower.
30 seconds of that would have worked perfect but it took however long it takes to go 6 km on water.

[GoneOffShore]

16. We were at a party in Aix-en-Provence, so saw the entire thing

Yeah, the horse took a little too long.

Lots of iconic French imagery, including the train from the Lumiere brothers, Georges Melies, Saint-Exupery, and the Minions.

[Raftergirl]

19. I recorded the live.broadcast on NBC and watching it now. There are no commercials, just a "commercial free brought

to you by fill in the blank company,, on the top right of the screen.

I think when they switch sponsors they have it in the bottom of the screen. But there are no commercial breaks at all..

[aggiesal]

23. I was watching NBC-New York. They had plenty. n/t

[alarimer]

21. NBC has ALWAYS sucked

I was glad, this year, to be able to watch the feeds during the day, instead of just the packaged stuff at night (from events we will already know the results of), but still it's NBC.

They never improve, no matter the criticism and of course few of have the ability to see the CBC or BBC feeds either.

The jingoism has always been pretty gross.

[Raftergirl]

22. Oh, just saw first commercials (split screen) I'm an hour in and this is the first ones. 😔

[Deminpenn]

24. Thought the ceremony was pretty spectacular

and very French. Thought the cauldron lighting ceremony went on a little too long.

The split screen commercials were annoying in that the ads gobbled up 2/3rds of the screen.

I could've done without Peyton Manning who has become ubiquitous.

[allegorical oracle]

25. I still relished what I got to see. Every moment of it. Just happy I lived long

enough to see a new generation of gorgeous athletes able to show their years of training for the world to see.

Be glad to just be.

[Tarc]

28. I actively seek out non-US coverage of international sporting events

Tour de France, the Euros, COPA America, World Cup, and hopefully now Paris 2024. Tired of our ads and our jingoism.

[aggiesal]

29. Just watched the Prime Time Opening Ceremonies ...

After watching it LIVE, this was flat out awful.
They butchered the edits. Beyonce was not in the Opening Ceremony, but she was in the NBC Prime Time version.
They edited out sooooo much out and inserted non-opening ceremony video.

Also, explaining what we missed doesn't make us experience the actual event.
They skipped both the President of the Paris Olympics Organizing Committee and the following speech, by the President of the Olympic Organization.

[tenderfoot]

30. I watch Canadian coverage - far superior than NBC

So far it's been fun.

[aggiesal]

31. Was it LIVE? And what Channel? I looked for a channel in Canada ...

but the Program Guide kept saying "No Programming Available".

[tenderfoot]

32. If you have VPN - watch on CBC - yes it's live.

eom