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NBC Aims For Stability Through Redundancy In Athens

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the more-feeds-please dept.

Darren writes "With the Athens Olympics just 27 days away NBC is gearing up for a massive 1210 hours of coverage (that's enough to watch TV over 50 days of Olympics 24/7). The infrastructure needed to provide such coverage is huge, and the potential for problems is significant. As a result NBC are taking all precautions possible and over the 17 days of competition they will utilize three satellite network linkups and three land-based connections to ensure they always have a connection. The mind boggles at what it is all going to cost - but I'm sure their advertising revenue will make it worth their while."

13 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. Yes but... by k4_pacific · · Score: 5, Funny

    Will they eb covering the math competition?

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    Unknown host pong.
  2. Re:wow by mattjb0010 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just check out the Athens soccer stadium!

  3. In case of nuclear terrorism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Do they have a redundant Athens standing by?

  4. NBC has the backbone by toetagger1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    NBC is owned by GE, which in turn owns GE Energy. With the resent history of power outages on July 13 in Grece, I wonder how they back up against that?

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    who | grep -i blond | date cd ~; unzip; touch; strip; finger; mount; gasp; yes; uptime; umount; sleep
    1. Re:NBC has the backbone by Colymbosathon+ecplec · · Score: 5, Informative
      Same way we power stuff when off the grid or the power goes down, and what hospitals and datacenters and lots of other places use: diesel powered gensets. Plus, if they did lose feed, they have a ton of advertising and rehashed 'content' to fill the space.

      ^CE^

  5. Why the indirect linkage via a blog? by poulbailey · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This story just seems to be posted to drive traffic to a blog. Why do the Slashdot editors allow this?

    The proper stories are posted at sportsillustrated.cnn.com (printer friendly) and computerworld.com (printer friendly) respectively. Click those links instead.

  6. Advertising revenue will skyrocket... by crashnbur · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...because everyone will be watching hoping to be glued to their TV when/if a blackout or terrorist attack hits. There's no news like bad news, and nothing can replace the ego of an American who can say he/she "saw it as it happened".

    (I don't think I will intentionally watch any of the Olympics, because I'll be out looking for a job and preparing for grad school.)

  7. And after? by Trailwalker · · Score: 5, Funny
    Let's get this into perspective - if you were to watch those 1210 hours end on end you'd be watching 50.4 days worth of television around the clock!


    Death would be a mercy after that.
  8. Olympics not profitable for television by Jayfar · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The mind boggles at what it is all going to cost - but I'm sure their advertising revenue will make it worth their while.

    The networks generally lose millions on the olympic broadcasts - it's a prestige thing for them. Maybe they gain some small advantage in viewership for subsequent sports programming.

    1. Re:Olympics not profitable for television by DocScience4 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's what is known as a "loss leader" in the broadcasting industry. Not only is it (though marginally) for getting people to watch other sports, and overall "prestige", but mainly it delivers a sizeable audience to which they can promote their new and incumbent shows.

      They can also charge a premium rate for certain events on NBC (akin to the Super Bowl), and can provide more limited-appeal sports to narrowly-focused audiences in non-prime-time, as well as on their ancillary (e.g. USA) networks.

  9. Congratulations, Darren. by croddy · · Score: 5, Funny

    you got your personal olympics blog linked on the front page of slashdot.
    now go upstairs, your mom needs some help in the kitchen.

  10. Redundancy in filming American competitors by synx · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So NBC will have redundancy - so you won't miss a minute of your favourite American competitor! Most people I know joke about NBC's coverage of the Olympics - its laughable. They'll show an event, then when the American loses they'll cut to a new event.

    Contrast this with CBC and BBC which cover entire events regardless of who wins or loses.

    So those who get cable, time to watch CBC for _full_ coverage of the Olympics!

  11. So what? The coverage will suck anyway by sjbe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The major network coverage of the Olympics stinks anyway. Endless fluff pieces about athletes, almost no coverage of anyone who is not from the US, and heaven forbid they spend time on anything but track, volleyball, swimming, diving and gymnastics (again especially if no americans figure for a gold) and tape delayed coverage. Last olympics I was lucky enough to have CBC coverage since I lived near Canada but no such luck now. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the sports that do get the airtime but the coverage is usually horrible for anyone who actually knows/cares about a given sport.

    For example, the bicyling time trial last time was "The Lance Armstrong Show". I don't have anything against Lance but he didn't even win and there were lots of other good riders I would have liked to see. What little coverage was shown was poor and basically an expose about Lance's life. I wanted to see the event. If I wanted information about a rider there are plenty of ways to find out. (Yes I know why they do this but I don't have to like it)

    Anyway I seriously doubt I'll be watching much of the Olympics. The coverage will be annoying and instead of seeing a variety of sports I'll be subjected to every qualifying round of the men's volleyball team. Ugh...