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Net Still Not At Olympics
angkor writes "It's two years later and the net is still largely shut out of the Olympics It seems like we were talking about this in relation to the last Olympics yesterday."
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You'd think the Olympic board would be eager to establish an "Exclusive Internet Broadcasting" license to bring some more money their way...or at least up the price that the bidding networks paid.
mailto:<?=implode("@", array("chris", implode(".", array("php", "net"))))?>
In Canada it is legal to rebroadcast television that has already been broadcasted*. This is how the cable/satellite broadcasters are able to broadcast the Canadian networks. So why can't this apply to the net as well?
* <simpsons>with implied oral consent, not express written consent.</simpsons>
It's amazing that these are not streamed (onto the Internet), It wouldn't be reliant on the Olympic commitee and Astra 2E already carries encrypted digital streams (with interactive features).
I wouldn't like the idea of the Olympics being overly connected to the outside world, at least not without compartmentalization. Heh. We 0wn Y0UR G01Ds WE 1z 33LE3T.
e4 e5
You know, I could care less about listening to Olympic reports online. What I do care about is not being able to listen to the BBC World Service just because the damn Olympic committe makes them block the stream just in case they mention the world Olympic on their boadcast. Nazi bastards.
IHNJ, IJLTS "The Chinese have been making great strides in copyright protection."
(I Have No Joke, I Just Like To Say)
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
The Olympics are nothing more than a greed fest, as this little tidbit from the featured article points out:
'Nuff said.
Well, of course. This is slashdot. We probably were talking about it yesterday.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
Granted, this is NBC we're talking about, (which has all but given up on nbci.com ) but many streams now feature ads before they start to run.
They themselves admit that sports, next to pr0n, drives traffic--so why not use the relationship NBC has with MSN (barf) to sell me a Team Canada Patrick Roy jersey after streaming to me his five best saves?
The Chinese will host in 2008.
Yes, I dig movie88.com too!To have a whole bunch of people with digital video cameras all sending video to the net via a wireless feed? With the size of cameras these days, it would be possible to hid them in coats, bags, etc. The unoffical "press" would than stream the video to a free-net type location-- or even put it right onto a file-sharing network. It wouldn't take long before the IOC would give up their rules against the internet... because they would be useless. Please, somebody start something like this. Isn't this what the internet is about?
toddg
Talk about your stranglehold on coverage... I was watching SportsCenter this morning on ESPN and all they could show from the Opening Ceremonies last night was stills. Very disappointing if you were not able to watch live.
The old "amateurs only" thing was so only the idle wealthy (or those who had wealthy benefactors) could participate. Now, the NBA players can participate, too!
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
It is about money, advertising, and taking performance enhancing drugs. Payoffs, bribes, sexual favors, and professionalism.
Now you are up to date with your World Wide Web Olypic News!
Why can't I get wireless results and news updates for olympic events? I can go to any of the bloated/javascript required sites to get results, but not really anything small and simple that can be loaded on my Palm! The closest I've come is Yahoo, who has a pretty light page.
And how about wireless updates? SMS? Even short e-mails that I could send to my phone? Doesn't exist. I'm pretty sure they had this kind of thing for the 2000 Summer Games, but I guess the US just isn't with it.
Few people (read: International Olympic Committee) realize the power of the net. Those that do are often terriffied of it. The multi-million dollar corporations are as likely to be scared of internet broadcasts of the olympics as the IOC and justifiably so. The Olympics mean $$$$$$ and the threat of the net taking away money from the IOC and the television industry is real and growing everyday.
Eventually I believe all broadcasts of any kind (be it data, voice, radio, TV, etc.) will be linked to the net and this will disappear. As televisions and computers merge (a not-too-distant possibility in many wealthier households) television and internet companies will merge. We've already seen that with AOL/Time Warner haven't we?
When ABC, CBS, BBc, etc. begin to merge with broadband vendors, we'll see internet TV replace mainstream TV, but untill then, people with money will fight to keep the little man (in this case the net), out of his business.
Slackware forever. Honestly, what else would you trust when it absolutely positively has to be stable, secure, and easy
Complete the following statement:
The modern Olympic games are about:
a) competition between amateur atheletes
b) the spirit of global friendship
c) Incredible advertising and product placement opportunities
d) making as much money as you can fit down your bloated gullet
e) all of the above
I guess I put option e) in there because I'm not a complete cynic yet; but lets face it... the games *are* commerical...
Are you new to the Internet?
Aren't the Olympics pretty much just a marathon session of David Letterman's "Stupid Human Tricks"?
I'd love to watch the biathalon. Cross country skiing alternated with crack rifle shooting. Ever try to shoot a tiny target while your heart is racing a mile a minute? It's not as easy as it sounds. Unfortunately, I have yet to see more than a thirty-second clip of the sport in the last few Olympics.
They take bribes, they refuse to let the host nation dictate what their opening ceremony should contain.
I could not justify my existence if I were a turkey farmer. Would I terminate myself? Undoubtably, yes.
http://www.saltlakecity.com/ has no information at all about the olympics... It's a shame :(
I have a television, I don't really need streaming Olympics on my computer.
Sure it's all driven by greed, and it's easy to take a cynical view, but what's new? Money and power have always been nearly synonymous. Corporate fat cats milking the Olympics for profit is only to be expected. We may not like it, but at least we can still watch for free.
What surprises me is that any geeks care about this. I don't view the Internet as the medium of choice for hugely popular events and promotions. It just doesn't scale as well as television. A couple more generational upgrades of bandwidth and more sophisticated multi-casting technology and I might be convinced to lament the lack of Olympics coverage.
slashdot should start dating the stories with the year in the heading as well as the month
What do you expect of a body that classifies "synchronized swimming" as a sport?
These are old farts who are stuck in 1958 and still think most of the rest of the world CARES about the olympics.
The olympics are only interesting when an international crisis heats things up... Nazi Germany, the cold war. Something that makes it Us versus Them.
As it is now, who gives a rats ass about some kook from Fumbuck Iowa who misspent his entire childhood learning how to do the "daffy twister".
God give me strength in the face of complete and utter banality.
.News is getting more generic. For example there is News Blaster, a bot that uses AI to generate news summaries based analysis of stories over several days. It is actually semi decent, and better then at least half the writers out there.
The end result is to devalue local writers and generic content. having something like this for Slash would probably inprove content no end.
This trend has been going on for years, and of cours the IOC is being conservative with broadcasts, since these make up the majority of their income. Why should they give away their bread and butter free?
Personally I would not mind if they made things like this available online a week after the fact. Same thing for other venues, like court trials, etc. Then folks will be able to see it if they want, but there is no conflict with the interests of the broadcasters. Deals could be made.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Who cares about the olympics .... It's just another nike/roots/.... comercial ...
... it makes for less polution...
I am glad that the olympics is not on the net
--=.=-- www.cyber2000.qc.ca
I distinctly remember watching a WIDE array of sports broadcast from the CBC's website, onto my family's ancient powermac 6100. Unsure of the year, but this must've been back in '98.
It was all barely bigger than a postage stamp, and the sound was bad, but yes, you COULD watch basically whatever you wanted.
That's really why this whole thing bothers me. The IOC isn't just preventing technology from going forward as fast as it should, but rather they have actively retarded the spread of webcasting.
Frankly, who cares.
I'm one of those people who find organized sports irrelevant. I would rather be playing golf, tennis, surfing, or doing extreme sports like skydiving and street luging rather than watching the stuff on the booby tube.
The Winter Ice Escapes brings a deep yawn. So what. Yes, Nancy Kwon is cute and all, but watching mostly men in skin tight suits racing just doesn't work for me.
TANX.
Hello !
I saw a very deep and complete journalistic inquiry today on TV about Olympics.
It seems that CIO/IOC are very near to ALL dicatorships in the World : In Africa and in Korea, but also with old est-Germany, dictator Ceaucescou (Roumania) and Samaranch president of CIO was *very* near to Franco dictator in Espagna. Ok, well, this could be one thing.
But there is more. They only paid PR and "image correctors" when the subject was about Salt Lake city corruption, or about Kim-Yung(?) that pretends he created taekuando(?) (which is wrong in fact it was invented by another Corean, now in exil in Canada !) : His daughter got money from Salt Lake city, 'his sport' was admitted to the Olympics while a really more widespread sport (Karaté) is totally ignored.
And even more, "Sion 2006" in Switzerland was from FAR the best candidature, but Turin was choosen : Even organisators from Turin were surprised to win for 2006 ! And then we saw that Samaranch, IOC president is a GREAT and OLD FRIEND with Fiat (the car fanufacturer) owner, who resides and come from... Turin ! What a coincidence !
And there was also what said a very known US sportsman that was in the CIO but left it because of corruption, dictatorship and so on.
Well, it was really interesting, but also disgusting about the CIO. And I say that even if I live in Switzerland, country of the CIO,
80 kilometers away from the CIO siege. Really I hope it will change in the following years...
:-)
The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance.
ya mod this one up =) even the good ole canadian homeboy ross reblagati (sp) (last winter olympics won snowboarding, smokes pot) is a nice l'il millionaire.
but hey, isn't this the same sort of discrimination you see in the US government ?
just my $.02, 'n' hey, maybe if they ignore the 'net, we'll just go away.
- tensions in our lives that are attacking our minds, unite themselves together to make our consciousness blind - op'ivy
So we pay the IOC $342 million in order to have the olympics happen here at all and then we get screwed on how we watch it - it seems for $342 million I should get a little more than that.
God forbid anyone should even discuss the Games without paying a fee.
But then, Viagra, bribery, booze, and broads are expensive. I guess the old boyz can plead need.
not to mention that right now my local NBC station has like car racing instead of the olympics on anyway.
I get very tired of watching events that happened on the west coast where I am three hours later than they actually happened just so they can keep the same schedule in all time zones.
*This message recorded live earlier*
Yeah, and until they slap the olympics all over the 'net, that's how much attention I'm going to pay to the olympics too; Such that once every four years I hear they're starting vaguely soon or something.
I don't have cable, or satellite TV; I don't even have an antenna. In fact, the only device in my AV system with a tuner is my VCR.
Until the olympics is on the web, I won't be watching. And it has to be free, too, since I'm not going to pay to view what is essentially a big happy advertisement for the countries which are flush enough with cash and spare resources which they are not spending on the starving, illiterate, and so on in their home country, and instead can blow it on training specialized athletes and shipping them (in some cases) around the world to compete with other specialized athletes.
Of course, I'll watch it if it's free; Some of those athletes are quite amazingly impressive. I just don't feel like giving money to it.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
One of the main reasons for not allowing the Olympics on the net this time around is due to the fees and costs that the IOC or whoever owns the telecast of the Olympics charges. Think about it... why would someone in the Eastern Hemisphere (aside from families, friends, etc. of the athletes) want to watch a rebroadcast of an Olympic event many hours later of someone from their country loosing (and if the athlete won, I'm sure they'd want to see the broadcast) if they can get the results minutes after it actually happens? Very few people would turn to the actual rebroadcast then.
Being that I live on the extreme South Texas border with Mexico, we actually have Mexican television stations along on our cable system. And during the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, there was at least 2 of the 5 Mexican stations available broadcasting the cerimonies (one in its actual entirety).
For those U.S. viewers who watched the ceremonies on N.B.C., you actually missed quite a bit during commercial interruptions. Did you even know that other groups actually performed? The Dixie Chics being one of the more recognizable names.
--OptipleX02
During the olympics there should be a total ceasefire declared by all participating countries, including the hosting country.
:)
This year, that did not happen.
Thus, this is not the olympics.
I refuse to consider these games _olympic_ games.
Of course, that aside, yes, the games should of course have a net-feed. It will, given some time. I guess they've got a demand for everything going smooth, and that nobody really can deliver the necessary bandwidth for net-wide feeds yet.
"Rune Kristian Viken" - http://www.nwo.no - arca
help! help! censorship! im being repressed by mormon moderators!
we may not be able to watch webcasts of games, but thanks to thoose crazy canucks we can find Olympic pr0n on the net. Seems their transparent bodysuits they choose for speedskating are gonna be fun to watch!
1. Broadcast live on the internet
2. Allow every type of banned drug to now be used, including illegal stimulants and hallucinogens
3. Unban Tonya Harding from figure skating
Ever seen footage of how Hitler turned the 1936 Summer Games in Munich into a Nazi three-ring circus? How many of the athletes from foreign nations were forced to acknowledge the Fuhrer with Nazi salutes? Not exactly the Olympic movement's finest hour.
Perhaps you would be happy for the Stars and Stripes to be plastered all over this year's Winter Games, but would you be so happy if China was to push its political agenda just as vigorously when they host the Summer Games in 2008?
No, I didn't think so.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
You're right, in the original Olympics there was a total ceasefire declared by all participating countries.
Greece is trying to push for this for the 2004 games, with moderate success so far.
More info at http://www.olympictruce.org
alex
During the olympics there should be a total ceasefire declared by all participating countries, including the hosting country.
This year, that did not happen.
Thus, this is not the olympics.
I refuse to consider these games _olympic_ games.
Yeah! And they should be held in Olympia.
And they shouldn't have any of these silly-ass modern winter sports either.
I refuse to consider these games Olympic either.
All employees must wash hands before seeking equitable relief.
Don't care, Don't care, Don't care.
Actually that's because every year, NBC simply decides that you only REALLY want to see any sport where Americans will probably (99.9% chance) get a medal, preferrably a gold.
Happily for you, this year an American seems to have a good chance at a biathalon medal, possibly a gold. So that means that most likley they will be broadcasting the biathalon to a much greater extent - or at least his portion of it. They had a longish ad about it last night after the opening ceremony which seems to indicate a good chance at least of some coverege.
Probably the coverage will be fairly short, but hopefully you'll see SOMETHING.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Damn, it seems I had that confused with the "Nordic Combined" which has the American. For some reason Iwhile I was watching I thought it was the biathalon...
:-(
Sorry about thet, I guess you really won't see much covereage, if any.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I just want to know who gave control of the olympics to these bozos?
It is my understanding that the olympics were started in Greece over a thousand years ago.
I think some sort of democratic system should be put in place to control the olympics so that this type of crap doesent happen.
I personally am boycotting them.
-"The early bird catches the worm, but the late bird sleeps the most"
NBC will again give the short shrift to sports like the biathelon for one reason. The guns. NBC and the rest of the network media have become so liberal in the last few years that they wont show sports with guns for fear that some people might realise that guns have uses that any person would consider legitimate, and thus oppose the gun grabbing bills that appear in the american congress every year.
Sure, the IOC is evil. Nike and Bud constantly advertising is evil. There are a lot of things about the way the Olympics are run that is evil.
But, seriously folks... Have some respect here. The Olympics are a wonderful event--and probably the crowning moment of many of the copetitors lives, no matter if the win anything or not.
That fact that thousands of athletes are coming together from a plethora of countries to compete in a fair, civil way is definitely no small feat. Not to mention that the people competeing in the Olymipics, by and large, have trained for most of their life to get there.
Just because they won't allow webcams and the IOC takes bribes, somehow "the Olympics suck"?! Give me a break. Forget about sticking it to "the man" for a moment, and enjoy what is a wonderful event that millions of people worldwide cherish for *the event itself*. Nobody cares about the IOC, or the Nike commercials. I watch the Olympics because of the competition and spirt of the games--that's all.
Of course...since I'm not bitching about something or another, I'm sure I'll get modded down for being "Offtopic" or something. Feh.
-Jayde
What's a sig?
Whose ass is that?
"The change is that the IOC is willing to stick its toe into the water and take a look at streaming video online," said Steve Klein, co-founder of SportsEditor.com. "It's a breakthrough but it's a breakthrough that won't see any changes until 2008, when the IOC negotiates new contracts."
Wow. That's six years from now. Six years ago, we were in early 1996 (yes, the year of "push" technology and Ellison's NC's.) It's incredible to realize how much the Internet has changed in six years, and in another six years, who knows what will happen? I don't think TV will be dead, but the way we watch TV will dramatically change.
These long Olympic contracts are out of touch with reality. The reality is that the computing world is rapidly changing. In six years I imagine that wireless Net access everywhere will be common and that a lot of people will be using Tablet PCs and PDA's. If these people can't stream the Olympics from their local PPV server, they won't watch it, and the Olympics will not be a huge deal.
Perhaps we're seeing that the peak of excitement for the Olympics has already passed (a few decades before this, even.) The long, unbreakable contracts are going to make the Olympics even less of an event than it already is. Either the IOC is going to have to re-negotiate before 2008, or else they will alienate their remaining viewers.
Simpli - Your source for San Jose dedicated servers and colocation!
I think it's all about money and power.
.com failures have cast considerable doubt on the validity of using the Internet as a media outlet (particularly in the context of generating advertising revenue).
I'd be very surprised if the IOC didn't get a freaking ton of money from the "official" distribution of olympic broadcasting.
From the money side, the IOC can use the dough. We already know that they are funded in part by the media. The media want nothing more than to protect their interests and ability to sell advertising. I would guess that this is one of the reasons why there isn't a great deal, if any, Intenet coverage of the games (in a live format, anyhow).
As another poster has commented, there *were* live feeds several years ago of the summer olympics. What happened? I would suggest
Also, I imagine that there is considerable reluctance on the part of the reporting organizations to put out media that can easily be reproduced around the world without their consent.
I suppose I can't really blame them for the lack of interest in doing anything on the net. There's no significant monetary benefit to the networks distributing the information (at significant cost, mind you) on the net when they have guarantees on advertising and IOC revenues doing things traditionally. Besides, it helps to maintain the value of their current media outlets.
Anyhow, that's my 2 cents.
Cancel the Olympics a /. user says they aren't really happening!
Well, the question has come across all our minds at one time or another: "What's up with Hemos???." Until recently we gave him the benefit of the doubt. Afterall we all now genuinely good people get mixed up in terrible things: scientology, satanism, sodomy, and even slashdot.
The relative ease of changing one letter from "Hemos" to "Homos" should have been a good enough indication. Unfortunatly we did not act on these early warning signs early enough. It appears the Hemos has publically declared his involvement in the vile CmdrTaco Harem, "I have always been into the eclectic and bizaar" says Hemos, "Slashdot is a place where I belong, others understand my longing for the male body, and the manipulation of it." he then delves into a rant about the "benefits" of sexually deviant practices of "fisting, body modification, and pedophilia"
Clearly Hemos is a lost cause, take this as a warning. Slashdot may seem like an innocent computer enthusiast site. All of a sudden it become alright to manipulate arcane pieces of soviet operating system technology. Then the indoctrination of communism under the guise of "open-source"... I think we all know the gruesome details of further ascent into the pits of slashdot have in store.
Keep in mind the 10s of millions with pizza dishes (DirecTV for uze witout jobz), they aren't allowed to get over the air NBC.
Considering this is the large-amount-of-disposable-income crowd, it is a stupid marketing move. Why the advertisers put up with it, who knows.
"The IOC has hired NetResult, a joint venture of three British digital-rights-protection firms, to police the Web for any sites that show illegal broadcasts.
NetResult's Copyright Control Services will use spider technology to scour the Net for sites that use Olympic trademarks without permission. The company will also use experienced surfers to monitor former violators.
"You have to let the human experts drive the use of technology," said Caroline Townley, managing director at NetResult. "You need to focus on where the commercial damage is being done."
Since the Sydney Olympics, the IOC has created a database that contains several thousand sites that have been identified as potential violators, said Aikman, who is also a member of the IOC's Internet task force."
Better not put those snaps online too soon after the trip!!!
Commercial damage my ass. 500 or even 500,000 people watching some vidclips of Olympic Events or their logo won't do any commericial damage.
What if an athelete who participates wants to put up the video of his kick ass butt-slide down the mountain?
Call it a troll but I think these fast response copyright/trademark violation investigation teams are a little scary!
... is broken.
It would be cool if QuakeIII became an olympic sport though. Then the geeks would rule. Unlike back when they were getting pushed around at school
It looks like the IT Olympics parody site is up and running again this year, complete with some new "error messages". Let's see how accurate that server farm temperature reading of theirs is, shall we?
Oh, are the Olympics on again? I hadn't seen anything on the Net about it. Don't have a TV.
the X Games.
In a few years not only will the olympics be into the net. But programming could be a sport. Cm'on I'm serious! Heck they made Bridgea demonstration sport(I think Canada won the gold:)!!! Why can't we have the C++ finals (or C# if Microsoft got it's way, which it probably would) or even the typing preliminaries(although this would just be secretaries). Just code hard and soon every uncoordinated emancipated geek will see that he too has a chance at olympic glory! (or at least at hacking the web page and giving him self a bunch of medals)
I stole this Sig
is selling out. Wonder how much the networks paid Google to put up a custom Google Banner, to lure us into thinking about the Olympics [tm], and hence, to watch the Olympics [tm] on TV?
By the way, check out these IOC unsanctioned site on the Olympics. Are they coming after Washington state? This is in reference to how the IOC goes after anything remotely associated with "olympic".
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
I am glad to hear your story. When my home town (Toronto) was bidding for the 2008 games (and also when they were bidding for the 2000 games back in the late eighties/early ninties) I tried to express to most folks about my concerns with what the games seem to becoming, plus the associated costs (taxes, inconvienence, legacy of unneeded sports facilities located downtown, etc). Most people did not seem to belive me or care, they were simply caught up on Olympic fever. I was very glad (but also aware not to publically show it) when Toronto lost the bid to Beijing.
Your story helps eliminate any regrets and/or moments of self doubt regarding my feelings. I understand the Toronto Bid Commitee is thinking about charging up the machine for 2012. Yipes!
We call it riding the gravy train.
"Have a Cigar," Pink Floyd
Try any of the "live" broadcasts and you'll find that CBC have suspended their web broadcasts entirely, until February 24th. The IOC enforcing srict rules over "their content" is one thing; forcing a public broadcaster to roll over and muzzle their entire output is quite another.
Gratuitous comments about the power & corruption of the IOC too obvious to even bother with...
My next sig will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush
The TV broadcast corporations don't fully realize it yet, but the internet captures more adult eyeballs than TV. The internet is catching up in the teen sector as well. The *real* money is on internet where someone can instantly pay for something, as opposed to a passive information device such as the boob tube.
The real reasons that an internet broadcasting company hasn't bought the rights out from under NBC, CBS, ABC, ESPN, etc. is the lack of a fat pipeline. If every house could easily afford a fat pipe like they can a TV cable, then the ground will be fertile for all types of innovations.
11 years ago Sports Illustrated predicted what watching sports would be like in 2001. They had some good ideas which are much closer these days. Some of the things they predicted came somewhat true with PIP (Picture-in-Picture) and the Tivo (your own instant replay), though the 27' (yes foot) flat screen dominating your living room seems more appropriate prognositcation for 2011. Even the highlighted 1st down line, and the hockey-puck highlighting that failed could both be switched on or off depending on the user's interest. Some other predictions that sound appropriate for the fat pipe that I described above could be instant stats displays on the screen, trajectory extrapolations, etc.
As broadcasters try to pack user-configurable information into the picture, they'll find the existing analog transmissions inadequate, and will be forced to move online. This could push a whole new field for handheld interactive video screens for the audience (could you imagine the audience's average vote as an extra judge for figure skating, etc.)
The ubiquitious internet is coming, regardless of delays from competing standards, and failed dot-bomb speculations... it will take over... someday.
- passion
Just before the 2000 Olympics I put up the official Olympics Suck website. It's not much really, but mention it anyways for those who feel the Olympics suck! :-)
Olympics Suck
I like how the professional hockey talent gets spread around the globe which makes for great international sport unlike so called "US Dream Teams".
There was a slight missquote here:
"When technology allows us to add the same model (of licensing on the Internet as television), we will push that as quickly as possible," Aikman said.
What Aikman actually said was:
"When technology allows us to add the same model (of licensing on the Internet as monk written manuscripts), we will push that as quickly as possible".
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
I would also like to see some biathlon coverage, but knowing nbc, they're pretty much with the anti-gun crowd. If you look at their record, you'll see that. There wasn't any coverage of the shooting sports in the Sydney Olympics, but America's FIRST medal in Sydney was in a shooting event:
9/16/00 SHOOTING WOMEN AIR RIFLE Gold Nancy Johnson United States
And a gold one at that! Did we here about it? If it was a more politically correct sport, I'm sure it would have been plastered all over. Oh well, I'm holding out hope that we will see some biathlon coverage this year. I participated in "summer biathlons" while in high school, where you run 1 mile, shoot 5 targets, run 1.5 mile, shoot another 5, then finish with another 1 mile of running. It was quite a challenge to shoot while your heart is pounding 100+ bpm, when I usually take shots at like 60 bpm or so in match situations.
Actually, that's not really true, especially with regard to conflict between states. The idea that wars stopped for the ancient games is shown by historian Harvey Abrams by to be a modern misunderstanding.
As for why the IOC is protecting their clients (the stations that buy rights) check out the income they get,
BROADCAST RIGHTS FACTS AND FIGURES 738 million for Salt Lake, 1.3 billion for Sydney, and projected 832 million for Torino with 1.5 billion for Athens
Information wants to be free like speech wants to be free, not like we want beer to be free.
See link
http://www.ajennings.8m.com/
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
>The Olympics are the pinnacle of many sports
>that do not have
national/international >championships otherwise
What the hell are you blabbering about?
I cant think of one sport that doesnt have a world championship.
All the skiing (jump, crosscountry, biathlon, jump, all the world cup disciplines and 4-5 new fangled X gamers events) have one.
So do the short and long track skating.
Bobsleigh has a world championship....
Skating has.
Olympic sports all have international federations and those federations all have championships.
Its actually a prerequisite to be part of the movement.
Being a sport apparently isnt a requirement since
bodybuilding, chess and bridge, sumo and golf
(Bowling, golf, pool and darts are pastimes.)
all are part of the olympic movement and want to be part of the games.
The sports that dont have any world championships are baseball and (the-sport-commonly-known-worldwide-as) football.
World series? yeah..right.
Hell,...same thing with car racing...CART vs F1.
Most of the planet knows only of one racing champion: Ferrari's Michael Schumacher.
You have to travel to south america or europe to realize how limited Canada's and the US is in term of exposure to international competition.
I was in Asia during that continents basketball finals and it was something that almost surpassed Europe's soccer, basketball or volleyball championships.
The international selections there are always playing not like here where it takes a miracle every 4 years to get high paid children to come out and represent their country in a half assed manner.
Take for instance Europe. Imagine you are Italian and you play, lets say on your country's basketball, soccer, handball or waterpolo team. You play a qualifying round to get to the European championships which can take up to a year. Then there is the actual championship. Then as soon as that is finished you then play qualifying rounds for the world championship and if you make it through, the championship and so on and so on...
At everyone of those event you are representing your country. And at each of those games, you could end your career.
Most of our profesional athletes represent their country when? Trust me...the only place where there is less international participation than the US is Canada.
You also have to realize that geographically were are almost on a island, so there is very little that can be done to change this.
Now granted, the olympics have a lot of problems with being over commercialized, but in a situation like this, extraordinary security precautions are warrented.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
Obviously in the long run NBC is worried about losing these viewers, but because of bad timing (the big switch just happened 12/31), they have not had time to do anything about it yet, so San Francisco gets screwed.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
I would also like to see some biathlon coverage, but knowing nbc, they're pretty much with the anti-gun crowd.
According to nbc.com, they'll be having biathlon coverage on four different days, on NBC and MSNBC. it helps having three different channels covering the Olympics.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
... this site: www.saltlake2002.com
Anyway, here's a more positive observation about Olympics coverage: after watching tonight's broadcast on NBC, it's looking like this year's TV coverage is going to be an order of magnitude better than any US Olympic coverage in the last 20 years. They're showing competitor, competitor, competitor with almost no features, soap operas and sob stories and drastically scaled-back jingoism.
(I was just interrupted by my wife coming in to say, "I can't believe how much better the TV coverage is!" ;-)
Apparently, the Sydney broadcast was such a disaster with male viewers that they came up with the bright idea of treating it as a sports event.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Well, it wouldn't be too difficult, considering that this picture has been the #1 most-emailed photo on Yahoo News for over two weeks now.
grep -ri 'should work'
Ok, I looked for biathlon coverage, and well, here it is!
:)
XIX Winter Olympics - "Biathlon, Hockey"
MSNBC, Mon Feb 11 10:00am PST
XIX Winter Olympics - "Biathlon, Curling, Hockey"
MSNBC, Wed Feb 13 10:00am PST
XIX Winter Olympics - "Biathlon"
KNSD, Wed Feb 13 03:00pm PST
XIX Winter Olympics - "Biathlon, Curling, Hockey, Speed Skating"
KNSD, Sat Feb 16 10:00am PST
XIX Winter Olympics - "Biathlon, Figure Skating, Freestyle Skiing, Ski Jumping"
KNSD, Mon Feb 18 07:30pm PST
XIX Winter Olympics - "Biathlon, Figure Skating, Freestyle Skiing, Ski Jumping"
KNSD, Tue Feb 19 01:05am PST
XIX Winter Olympics - "Biathlon"
KNSD, Wed Feb 20 03:00pm PST
KNSD is my local nbc channel, so even if you don't have cable, you get most of the coverage...gotta set my vcr...yeah yeah, should be a tivo....
No, you've got it all wrong. China is a part of Taiwan.
You mean that sporting event that we are hosting that we arent watching that everyone else is watching? Oh I know a little about those...
If Internet streaming depletes television revenue, then why did ESPN put X-Games content (including live) on the Internet?
As for the "well, I'll just watch it on television" argument, I got about 5 minutes (after commercials and mindless personal story crap) of kayaking on television for the Sydney Olympics last year. If someone would stream it, I could choose what I wanted to watch, how much of it I wanted to watch, and when to watch it. I do NOT want some editor, whose primary duty is to figure out which sport is going to draw the largest audience, to decide what is on TV for the Olympics...
I just think it shows just how major networks are afraid of the Internet. Every chance they get, major networks badmouth the Internet every chance they get. Television coverage of the events just keeps getting worse. I nor my 9 year old son cannot stand to watch ALL THOSE COMMERCIALS to keep focused on the event, so how is he or others going to follow on the Olympics? I don't remember Olympic coverage inundated with this many commercials in past decades. He knows Tony Hawk and other skateboarders, but doesn't know squat about Olympic athletes or the games. The IOC and NBC is writing the obituary of the Olympics right now for the tune of $3billion.
I don't have time to sit in front of a TV for 6 or 8 hours simply to see a half hours worth of what I'm interested in. Since I can't get EXACT coverage over the internet of just the parts I want... I won't watch it at all.
If the "frenchies" (IOC) don't get their heads out of their butts and allow some kind of internet access for the next games, I won't watch them, either.
Is that direct enough for ya'??????
Nitpick: you mean Berlin 1936. Munich hosted the summer games of '72 but they're remembered for a somewhat different reason (the palestinian attack on the israeli athletes).
They are selling shoes.
There seems to be an attitude among some on /. that commerce is somehow evil by its very nature. When you grow up, you may learn that all this commerce is what makes civilization possible.
"Not to mention Kermit The Damn Frog!!!" --Jimmy James
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
I loved the opening ceremony, but watching it on NBC was just about like sitting there next to three people with Turette's (sp?) Syndrome. They just could not KEEP QUIET and let me enjoy the show!!
What I would like to see (and was looking for) is a vid capture of the opening ceremony where someone tok the time to filter out voices.
.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You condone killing people because they show something on TV that seems shallow to you? That is fucking sick.
http://www.univrel.auburn.edu/tiger/video.html Ok so it is only a clip of their bird flying, but it is clearly from the NBC feed. It appears there are ways to get clips on the web after all.