TV’s Dead Zone: How the Cable Sector Is Killing Off Struggling Networks

[harshness]

For two weeks every fourth year, a large %age of Americans watch sports (and non-sports judged things) which they do not understand and would not watch any other time if they were held in their front yard.

An Olympic Games is held every two (2) years alternating between the Summer Olympic Games and the Winter Olympic Games. I don't dispute your other observations.

 

[ncted]

For two weeks every fourth year, a large %age of Americans watch sports (and non-sports judged things) which they do not understand and would not watch any other time if they were held in their front yard. These obscure sports are actually followed by tiny niches of people.

So Comcast is going to show this stuff the other 206 weeks of the cycle. Good luck with that.

In other words, as they used to say when SportsCenter actually covered sports, "the only thing more boring that track, is field."

The Olympic games used to be the only sporting events I truly looked forward to, but that isn't even the case any more. I watch some of them, but they have gotten too corporate, too packaged, and too boring, which is really too bad for the athletes, who work their tails off to compete.

 

[SamCdbs]

The Olympic games used to be the only sporting events I truly looked forward to, but that isn't even the case any more. I watch some of them, but they have gotten too corporate, too packaged, and too boring, which is really too bad for the athletes, who work their tails off to compete.

Old guy mode on.

Not that long ago, the Olympics were a part of the Cold War. The USA, and the rest of the west, sent actual amateurs. Other than a very few sports not only did these people not make money off the deal at that point, they never were going to make any money. The godless evil commies sent de-facto professional. And they were chock full o' steroids and many of the "women" needed a shave. ABC (mostly, back then) was thus full of "up close and personal" human interest stories about some fresh faced American teen whose mom sold her house so she could walk 15 miles uphill to practice.

Today, there are more true believing communists in a typical college faculty lounge than in all of Russia. The USA team, and everybody else, are professionals, some paid fantastic sums considering the limited appeal of their sports. Every country has been busted for steroids. Russia is our ally. Yet NBC still trys to market the event in the same manner. At least to me it totally falls flat.