I hate watching the Olympics in Great
Britain. Some obvious reasons exist for this spite, particularly the
fact that I am American and am less interested in British athletes
than American athletes. This reason, however, can't really be
justified because, hey, we're in Great Britain. They should be
following their athletes. The reason I hate watching Olympic sports
in Great Britain is because don't know how to cover sports.
America is so good at covering sports.
We do it all the time. Fall to Winter to Spring to Summer. You'd be
hard pressed to turn on a television in America and not be able to
surf to a sports program. This constant sports coverage certainly
translates to coverage of the most hectic and largest sporting event
in the world: the Olympics. In Great Britain, the BBC edit instant
replays with slow motion zoom in cuts of high fives. In America, NBC
actually shows the play that merited the instant replay in the first
place. BBC showcases British swimmers finishing last. BBC misses the
emotional impact of the Olympics as well. I haven't even heard that
iconic Olympic jingle that always sends chills down my spine of
excitement.
NBC does backstories of athletes. BBC
does exposes of their boring Equestrian bronze medalists. I know I'm
biased. But watching the Olympics here in Oxford has been
increasingly frustrating. Thats something I would have never
expected. But it makes a lot of sense. America is just better at
sports coverage and editing. As far as I'm concerned, its that
simple.
I completely agree. In seeing how they handle their GB athletes and other athletes, they seem to be missing the point. It's great that they take pride in their athletes and their efforts, but I feel like they glorify the tabloid aspect of being a winning (or losing) athlete. The newspapers have the most ridiculous headlines about the Olympics as well. I've seen everything about this Jessica Ennis girl EXCEPT her accomplishment (or how she accomplished) her gold medal. And I definitely agree that they're missing the emotional impact - they seem to do a horrible job of trying to get to that. They ask the wrong questions at the wrong time and it comes out worse on their part. The commentators also do a horrible job of staying on task as well. And yes, I miss that jingle too.
ReplyDeleteJust watched the NBC coverage of the men's basketball gold medal round. It was pretty bad. They cut to commercials even during play. In addition, instead of running the reply of an exciting play, we had to watch the coach's reaction replay. PLEASE!
ReplyDeleteIf you have been reading the reports of NBC's coverage this year in the U.S., audiences think NBC did the worst job they ever had. Still, audiences watched in near record numbers. U.S audiences seem to love the Olympics--just like I do!