Author Danny Vinik

NBC’s Olympics Coverage: A Disaster

Danny Vinik 6 Comments

I meant to comment on this Monday, but didn’t have time so I’m a few days late in agreeing with every other American that NBC has completely ruined the Olympics thus far. The station’s coverage has been nothing short of despicable. The biggest, brightest international event of the year (of the two years) and NBC has looted every last cent out of it.

Their online streaming has been brutal with streams going down constantly and advertisements popping up at the most inconvenient moments. For the best events, NBC won’t even show them live, waiting for prime time instead. That means all of us sports fan are forced to watch on a miserable stream, many times missing the event because of it. Even worse is when a commercial comes on right at the peak moment. I can’t begin to say how outrageous and utterly appalling their coverage has been.

Over at Grantland, Shane Ryan went on a rant like the rest of us on Monday:

But we are living in the age of the spoiler. People are going to find out the results if they’re around the Internet, television, or other humans. They just are. And if they don’t want to know? They’re going to avoid everything, including NBC stations. So, my question: How does it change anything if you broadcast the events live in the afternoon?? (emphasis Shane’s) The people who watch prime time are still going to watch prime time. They’re ALREADY avoiding TV, presumably while at work, and it wouldn’t change anything to throw the rest of us a bone and put the swimming on CNBC. I mean, they even announce the results on the NBC news show that leads into the prime-time coverage! Even the rest of NBC isn’t avoiding spoilers! AHHHH THIS RAGE IS GOING TO KILL ME! I should probably just give up and light my TV on fire, right?

While I can’t be sure of this, but I think NBC makes more money off advertisements by showing the event on TV just at night than twice. If NBC showed it twice, the large chunk of us that would watch it live on CNBC would not tune in at night. The ad revenue would be split between the live CNBC showing and the prime time NBC one. Certainly, the NBC advertisements would be worth less than they are now and CNBC would receive greater ad revenue from showing it live.

However, I hypothesize that NBC receives greater revenue from showing it all in prime time. Why? Because a lot of us are watching twice: once during work on our crappy little streams that fail constantly and again in brilliant HD with American announcers while laying on our coaches. That means that NBC is getting revenue from those internet ads and from the NBC prime time showing, much more than they would receive if they showed the events twice on TV. I think that’s just how the math worked out. Putting all the viewers together at one time was just more economical for NBC.

Now, it’s still an extremely slimy move. It’s the Olympics. NBC should have just sucked up the loss. In fact, if they had covered it well, they could have gained regular viewers for their other shows, but nope, instead they chose the greedy route. Well, the station has rightfully taken a huge amount of backlash for their coverage and if anything, will lose viewers. That’s entirely deserved, but it doesn’t make it any better for the rest of us who are continually frustrated by this pathetic coverage.

Legalize Online Gambling

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Image via dupo-x-y

The New York Times  reported today that Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker have come to an agreement with the U.S. government to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for illegal online gambling and fraud. Now, Full Tilt Poker had effectively set up a ponzi scheme, taking money from players and putting it in their pockets. Players saw the money in their accounts and Full Tilt said that they could withdraw it at any time, but it seems that was not the case.

These settlements seem fair since both companies certainly broke the law, but there is a bigger question lurking beneath them: what exactly is the problem with online gambling?

I know opponents of it point to the ease of access and the social problems it could create. But not just do I not think that is a valid reason for banning it, I don’t even think the reason holds up under scrutiny.

Opponents to online gambling are generally the same opponents of gambling in general. They have a strong dislike for it, believing it causes a vast array of social problems including the destruction of family values. This may well be the case, but it is also an extremely paternalistic point of view. Many Americans enjoy gambling and do so responsibly. Ever since the rise of Las Vegas in the early 1930s, gambling has been an accepted, if sometimes looked down upon, part of life.

The question then becomes whether online gambling poses such a greater risk to society than in-person gambling that it should be banned. On this, the answer is unequivocally no: online gambling may in fact pose less of a risk to society than its brick-and-mortar counterpart. Continue reading “Legalize Online Gambling” →

Punching (and Padding) Doors

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Ryan Sweeney broke his pinky finger

Update: Here’s Sweeney talking about the injury before today’s Sox game: “I’ve talked to a lot of guys. Everybody’s thrown their helmet or thrown their bat or hit something.” As I said, players hit things out of frustration. It’s a human reaction. Let’s protect them.
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As Sox fans now by now, Red Sox backup outfielder Ryan Sweeney is likely out for the year after fracturing a knuckle in his pinky finger. Sweeney was frustrated after going 0 for four Monday night and took out his rage against a door. The door won.

Now without a doubt, it was a dumb move by Sweeney. But it was also unlucky. Players punch things all the time. That door has punched many times this year. Just look at what Valentine said after the game:

“The door he had actually hit was dented, so it wasn’t the first time. He must have went at it in the wrong direction, because there’s been multiple whacks at it.”

First off, if players are punching the door enough to dent it, it’s time to pad the thing already. Baseball can be extremely frustrating and players need a place to take their frustration out. Anybody who has played the sport can attest to that. There are plenty of times when you come back to the dugout and just want to punch something. In a little league season with a game every few days, that frustration dissipates in between games. In a 162 game season where that frustration has the chance to build game after game, often it can explode.

So here’s an idea: knowing this, why not protect players? We can call them dumb all we want, but frustration boiling over is a human trait and we see it happen all the time. Think how many times you see SportsCenter show players throwing a water cooler or smashing a bat or something like that. I’m sure it happens frequently down the tunnel and in the locker room too, as Valentine indicated by saying the door has been punched before. How about we pad these things then? Or even better, put a punching bag there, put a punching bag in the dugout. Give the players something to take their frustration out, not something int he weight room, but something immediately as they come off the field. It’s not going to stop all the dumb injuries, but it can certainly help. (Image Via)