Olympics not really live as on screen logo indicates

barracudacx2 said:

Phelps won the gold in the Men's 200m Individual Medley Final at 10:50 AM Beijing time, or 10:50PM EST. NBC says it has it coming up live next, and there is a big LIVE logo on the screen. 1/2 hour later is not exactly LIVE. What's the deal?

http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/SW/RPT/SWM052101.shtml

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They did that last night to with the Men's All Around finals, they replayed it at like 3am but it still said live.

every late night is a rerun

barracudacx2 said:

Phelps won the gold in the Men's 200m Individual Medley Final at 10:50 AM Beijing time, or 10:50PM EST. NBC says it has it coming up live next, and there is a big LIVE logo on the screen. 1/2 hour later is not exactly LIVE. What's the deal?

http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/SW/RPT/SWM052101.shtml

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I just rewound this on my HR21 and Phelps touched the wall in the 200m Medley at about 9:52pm CDT according to the time on the HR21's progress bar, which = 10:52 am Beijing/10:52pm EDT - since he finished just uner 2 minutes, the race started and was aired live at 10:30am Beijing. Not sure if you're watching the Olympics delayed or what, but NBC's live feed here in New Orleans was correct.

barracudacx2 said:

Phelps won the gold in the Men's 200m Individual Medley Final at 10:50 AM Beijing time, or 10:50PM EST. NBC says it has it coming up live next, and there is a big LIVE logo on the screen. 1/2 hour later is not exactly LIVE. What's the deal?

http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/SW/RPT/SWM052101.shtml

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I think we're in the same time zone - EDT? His race was on live here at 2250.

All the evening swimming events have been on live here all week.

Most of the east coast get mostly live stuff... Big things like phelps will be played at the best time for the network to get higher ratings...

The west coast is always at least 3 hours delayed... we are just screwed... and it always says live on our screen too...

Yep, except for major sports and the Academy awards very little primetime on our West Coast TVs happens at the same time as the rest of the country. It is annoying to see "live" when we know for a fact it isn't. I haven't checked the other NBC channels but I imagine daytime stuff might be actual live.

As long as the Steeler games are live!

EKrimmer said:

As long as the Steeler games are live!

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I don't know. I don't follow minor-league teams.

Here's an interesting analysis...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/sports/olympics/11sandomir.html?ref=olympics

For some of the events (gymnastics, beach volleyball, etc.), you can see a clock in the background, so you'll know when the event really happened.

I wrote my local station on Monday complaining that they call it live, but it's not. (I haven't heard back, nor do I expect to)

The problem is that they treat the Olympics as entertainment (e.g. American Idol) and not sports (e.g. Monday Night Football) and therefore they delay for the West Coast rather than show it live at an earlier time.

I guess it was "Live" when they taped it. .

In actuality none of it is "live" as there is a delay in any broadcast. Especially one coming from China to the US and then from the US to a satellite and down to our homes.

Though as the article states NBC should do a better job of letting the MT and PT folks know when they're watching...or just lobby for the Chinese single time zone system.

Ken S said:

Though as the article states NBC should do a better job of letting the MT and PT folks know when they're watching...or just lobby for the Chinese single time zone system.

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You'd think there would be an easy technology fix for that these days, but it's amazing to see how many times they just tape and re-air.

Rob-NovA said:

You'd think there would be an easy technology fix for that these days, but it's amazing to see how many times they just tape and re-air.

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I think the reason they make it difficult to remove the logo is because they don't want other media sources doing it...but that's just a guess.

Koz said:

The problem is that they treat the Olympics as entertainment (e.g. American Idol) and not sports (e.g. Monday Night Football) and therefore they delay for the West Coast rather than show it live at an earlier time.

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I'm sure if you polled people in the Mountain and Pacific time zones, the majority would want to see the events on delay during prime time rather than while they're coming home from work.

Also, I have noticed that Bob Costas and others have done a much better job of saying "Here's gymnastics on tape from last night" or "Here's how they called the action."

For the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the opening ceremony was live via satellite on the east coast (tape-delayed on the west coast so they wouldn't have to pre-empt the Tonight Show). All other coverage of those games was on tapes flown daily to the U.S., although some satellite coverage was used for news shows.

At least it is better than when they used to fly grainy kinescopes to the west coast for practically everything!

bryanw3535 said:

I'm sure if you polled people in the Mountain and Pacific time zones, the majority would want to see the events on delay during prime time rather than while they're coming home from work.

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I don't know about that. Everyone I know around here say they would much rather have the Olympics go from 5 pm - 10 pm rather than 8 pm - 1 am. On the other hand, there's a lot of bleary-eyed folks around here, so I guess NBC is getting eyeballs on the screen for the max amount of time.

bryanw3535 said:

Also, I have noticed that Bob Costas and others have done a much better job of saying "Here's gymnastics on tape from last night" or "Here's how they called the action."

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I agree with you here, in instances when it's not live for Costas. But when it's live for him (and the East Coast) and delayed out West, it still could be more clear.

And to the point about not being able to remove the "Live" logo... How about adding a "recorded from a previously live broadcast" message across the bottom like they do for Idol, Dancing With the Stars, and others.

This really shouldn't bother me this much, but it does....

Here's an interesting but apparently not enforced FCC regulation: broadcast stations are forbidden from presenting any programming as "live" that is indeed NOT "live". This actually came about after the Orson Welles War of the Worlds fiasco in 1938. In the case of the Olympics the on screen logo should actually say "Recorded Live" or "Recorded Earlier".

FWIW, the Today Show has a "live" logo on it in the central time zone, but it is actually only live in the eastern time zone an hour earlier.

mgtr said:

I don't know. I don't follow minor-league teams.

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The 3 NFL teams in FL have how many super bowls? :lol:

Maybe this little piece from NBC will help you Crack The Code.