You can’t fly to China. It’s a bit late for that.
Still, you’re not going to miss the Olympics this summer. There’s too much intrigue. There’s too much action. There’s too much of a time difference.
Ah yes, the time difference. It’s a bit annoying.
As NBC makes clear on its Web site, NBCOlympics.com, many events will be shown here after they actually happen.
After all, Beijing is 15 hours ahead of us, meaning at 5 p.m. today, it will be 8 a.m. Sunday in China.
Those differences mean you may not get to cheer on your favorite athletes in real time. You will have to settle for a pre-recorded broadcast of U.S. track stars Tyson Gay and Allyson Felix as they go for the gold, and a delayed clip of the Redeem Team shooting hoops.
Un-American, you say? Indeed. Honestly, who’s running this thing, a bunch of communists?
Oh. Right.
Still, NBC touts more than 1,400 hours of coverage on TV and another 2,200 hours online, together showcasing all 34 Olympic sports.
Those numbers are a bit misleading, however.
The live online content often focuses on lesser sports — badminton, anyone?
And TV coverage is spread out over nine stations, including NBC King 5 and cable stations such as the USA Network. Those stations sometimes air competing broadcasts.
For example, tonight in prime time, you can choose between seeing the famed U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps in a 400-meter individual medley race on NBC or watch first-round tennis singles on CNBC. What’s a person to do?
OK, bad example.
But at times, you may be conflicted. Blame the cigar-chomping capitalists, with all their fancy subsidiaries, for that glut of viewing choices. I bet they don’t have this problem in China.
Money talks, though. Glamour sports such as swimming and gymnastics will air live in prime time for some U.S. time zones, drawing bigger audiences and more advertisers. NBC, after all, has to recoup its investment. The Associated Press reported the network spent nearly $900 million for the rights to the games.
As a result, over in Beijing, swimming finals and gymnastics will be held in the morning, so U.S. households on the East Coast and in the Midwest can tune in live after dinner.
Unfortunately, West Coast viewers will still experience a lag time of a couple hours.
Apparently, it’s not rare for Olympic events to switch times, better suiting an overseas audience. For instance, rowing may happen on a timetable that better suits Europe, according to Peter O’Connell, an executive producer with NBC King 5, while some sports with international appeal, such as track and field, happen on Beijing time.
That brings us back to U.S. track stars Felix and Gay. Their events will be re-broadcast here. You can’t watch them live online. You could catch information about medal winners on Web sites, during the evening news or in the pages of this very paper before the races even air.
To avoid those spoilers over the next two weeks, you may need to make like China.
That is, censor yourself.
Herald Writer Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455 or arathbun@heraldnet.com.
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