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Did NBC Alter the Olympics' Opening Ceremony?
techmuse writes "Viewing the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony online at NBC's Olympics website, you can see that the order in which the countries were presented was very different from the actual order of the countries in the ceremony, as listed at Wikipedia. NBC skipped roughly 100 countries ahead, then jumped back and forth, apparently delaying the appearance of the United States in its home market until later in the broadcast. (In fact, the US team was shown on the infield before they were shown marching!) NBC did not acknowledge this in its broadcast. Is NBC altering the reality of the broadcast to boost ratings? Was this true only online, or also in the live broadcast?"
I looked yesterday for where I could watch Olypics videos. Looks like I needed to instal some plugin from Microsoft that only works with "approved" browsers. Silverlight?
I don't even mind if I'm bombarded with ads to see video. I would even pay for certain footage of one person I know competing in Beijing and some of the events. But a Microsoft player? No thanks.
If you had RTFA, you would know that's not the issue raised by the submitter. The question isn't how the countries were ordered, it is whether NBC's broadcast actually showed the countries in that order.
It's even more commercial if you watch it on NBC. I swear if one of the athletes so much as coughs they go to commercial. "Fuck seeing the games, here are more inspiring ads from our sponsors!"
"make something up" like apply 3000 year old rules, accepted by all for ordering countries in Mandarin?
So no, they didn't make anything up.
I just did a quick check of the recording of the live broadcast that I made. In every spot I checked, the order given on the Wikipedia pages matches the one in the broadcast. So, at least in the case of the broadcasted version, the ordering matches up.
What's keeping you from just picking a provider from the list that they give you? I just picked the first one in the list (AT&T Broadband) and it let me in and watch the online version of the parade of nations.
Guess, take a breath. Yes, NBC altered the video. They do the same thing when you see movies. They take your beloved movie and ALTER IT!!!!!! They do this to squish down time and show more things.
Now, before we freak out shit out and panic that they are hiding something from you, realize that this stuff is filmed by more cameras then you can even begin to contemplate AND is filled with people from all around the world to serve as witnesses. What does this mean? It is really frigging unlikely that NBC is hiding "the truth" from you. Far more likely, they are trying to shrink a 4+ hour opening ceremony into something that will better fit their schedule.
Worrying that they some how were altering the live feed is so dumb and inane that I can't even respond. People, take a frigging collective deep breath.
Beijing is 16 hours ahead of US Eastern Dayliight Time.
Actually, Beijing is 12 hours ahead of EDT. So says World Clock.
They always use the name collating system native to the hosting nation to create an ascending list.
I watched NBC's broadcast on TV of the opening ceremonies and followed along with the Wikipedia list for a bit (at least, the Wikipedia list as it appeared last night) from Great Britain to the United States, and they matched perfectly. I've still got it on my DVR, and if someone can give an actual example of this reordering besides linking to the NBC olympics website (not even the opening ceremony video), I can check it out, but otherwise this objection is ridiculous. A little specificity would be helpful.
Actually, editing is not an Olympic broadcasting tradition; it's an NBC Olympic broadcasting tradition. Most Olympic networks show as much as they can live, and only show events tape-delayed when there are two events worth watching at the same time (or they're showing recaps when it's night time where the Olympics are).
NBC, on the other hand, instead of showing one of the most exciting opening ceremonies ever, decided to show The Today Show and, in my area, local news (apparently some loser got arrested for a domestic assault!).
Sadly, this is not news either. Which is why most Americans who live on the Canadian border watch the Olympics on CBC.
French is one of the official languages. According to the Olympic Charter, "The official languages of the IOC are French and English." But the convention apparently is to introduce countries in alphabetical order in the language of the host country.
I don't care why you're posting AC
Dick Ebersole, who runs NBC Sports, is on record as saying that it is his goal to get better ratings, no matter what. That's why NBC doesn't post the running score of a football game, because they want you to stay and wait for it.
Have you ever watched an NBC broadcast of a football game? They show the score of a game the entire time.
Most Chinese dictionaries actually sort characters first by the radical and then by stoke count within each group of radicals. I'm curious why they used just the stroke count ordering for the Olympics.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
This is how the Commander-in-Chief behaves in front of the world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ_YhM4OGkU
Honesty, not wanting to steal something I did not pay for and US Laws. Unauthorized access to NBC systems. I hope you read the terms of their service? There are recent precedents....
If programs would be read like poetry, most programmers would be Vogons.
Sounds like the did stuff around with the order the teams marched in. They certainly had enough time to do it - it was delayed half a day from when it really happened.
Opening ceremony was at 8pm on the 8th of August 2008 (Chinese like 8 - it's a lucky number :) and Beijing is at GMT+8. Some of the folks here in Melbourne, Australia were watching it that night live (about 10pm onwards local time). Based on the twitter feeds from those in the USA who were tweeting what they saw, it looked like they were watching it around 8pm on the 8th in THEIR time zone. Somewhat impossible, no?
I'm already hearing reports of US swimmers being coached to refer to the time of their race in US broadcast time rather than Beijing time. Ummmmmm - WTF?
So yeah, if you've got HOURS between recording the event and showing it then making any changes you want is a piece of cake.
I left my body to science, but I'm afraid they've turned it down...
I did, in fact, watch the entire broadcast. The countries were not broadcast in that order.
I watched the entire broadcast (TiVo'd it) and was so impressed, I stayed up until 4am and watched it all over again. While I don't have the countries memorized in the order they appeared, but from what I do remember, it seems about the same as on the Wikipedia article. The US came in about 2/3 of the way down the list in the broadcast and they're #139 of 204 in Wikipedia (or roughly 2/3 of the way down the list).
I did notice that a number of small countries got very short screen times and seemed "clipped", so I guess they edited out some content to shorten up the whole thing.
Since you asked, it was in 1969. However it wasn't until 1992 that a clearly superior team from another country was allowed to win.
They then won again in 1993, and the 1994 World Series was canceled when it looked like a foreign team was going to win for the third time in a row and the US teams refused to play unless the rules were changed in their favour.
Now you know.
you don't get an award for being jaded.
Actually, you do.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Nice 1994 post. Ever since Sunday Night Football moved to NBC, there's been a running score line at the bottom.
Olympic Events have always been rearranged when on a Tape delay, I expect it, and why not ?
It is not even displayed in correct order when it's hosted in the USA.
We are Dead Stars looking back Up at the Sky
I have to agree. But the real story isn't just the parade of nations order.
I watched the NBC version during US prime time, and then downloaded the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corp) HDTV version without any adverts and watched it today on a tip from a friend online.
You will be simply stunned at how much more of the ceremonies (easily HALF of the stadium performances were edited out by NBC) there really was, as well as the abbreviated parade of nations, presenters, even just fireworks displays over Beijing.
Not only does NBC insult the viewer by editing out a large portion of what most really wanted to watch (the artistic presentations) but they insult China and the countries participating by making their own version of events and expecting us to swallow it between sappy commercials.
The olympics do not stop for commercial breaks... Obviously there was at least some editing done to catch up.
I don't know about the web site version but I watched the entire NBC broadcast and I can tell you without a doubt the US team was shown first marching. I was keeping a careful eye out of curiousity of how the US team would be dressed (The suites and hat were kind of a let down in my opinion) the very first time they were shown it was when they were announced in the parade.
Now there were times when the camera shifted back and forth between marching and infield *after* their initial apperance..but this was artistic license by the people editing the broadcast.
I can't speak for the web content and don't have a photographic memory of the the NBC broadcast but it does appear to me to jive with the ordering as I remembered it from the wikepedia list.
I at least know for a fact that Russia and then Syria were played directly before the US in the origional NBC broadcast.
viewing the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony online at NBC's Olympics website, you can see that the order in which the countries were presented was very different from the actual order of the countries in the ceremony, as listed at Wikipedia. NBC skipped roughly 100 countries ahead, then jumped back and forth, apparently delaying the appearance of the United States in its home market until later in the broadcast. (In fact, the US team was shown on the infield before they were shown marching!) NBC did not acknowledge this in its broadcast. Is NBC altering the reality of the broadcast to boost ratings? Was this true only online, or also in the live broadcast?"
emphasis mine
To sum up NBC's 12 hour tape-delayed broadcast was in order, while the online version was shown out of order either due to NBC wanting it like that or, more likely, whoever put the parade online didn't pay attention as he/she was supposed to.
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Your tinfoil hat is a bit tight there buddy. I watched the NBC West Coast Broadcast, and the crowd was far from monotonous. They cheered at all the countries you would expect the Chinese to cheer at. I think your European friends are having a laugh at your expense.
FWIW, I was following the NBC West Coast broadcast while looking at the order on Wikipedia (so I could take bathroom breaks without missing countries I care about), and it seemed to be following it spot on.
Nice revisionist history. The players went on strike because the owners wanted a salary cap. It had nothing to do with the Montreal Expos. Though it is true that the strike pretty much destroyed the Expos.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Major_League_Baseball_strike
"Film at 11" predates Slashdot by a fair few years. Check the Jargon File..
I was behind the scenes at the Olympics in 1996 at the boxing venue and I was amazed at how mediocre the average Boxer is! Seriously most of them would be as likely to get asses kicked out on the street as any of us, i was amazed some of them didn't get their heads handed to them. I actually had to escort a Moroccan Boxer out of the building because he was smoking after he lost his match! Anything you see on the television has been hand-picked by the network and shot by the media-pool feed. The Boxing had matches going 12 hours a day for a week and the networks worked in shifts. Some of my guys got put in the ring to shadow-box so the crews could practice before the event started.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds