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Post by ironhammer on Aug 17, 2021 21:52:29 GMT -5
It's laziness, if you ask me. EVERYONE doesn't want to know more. But the media wants to grab the low-hanging fruit. Just look at women's gymnastics if you want an example of what COULD be done. I suppose laziness does play a part. But the bigger factor is that from the media perspective, they want to focus on athletes, sports and stories that can garner higher ratings and readership, so their logic is to naturally focus on the more famous athletes, because there is already a ready-built foundation in terms of their fame and fans. I mean, that is their business model, and you can't deny it works, otherwise they wouldn't be doing this for every Olympics, right?
I mean, from their view, a lot better to focus on sports with athletic stars like basketball (KD as mentioned) and swimming (Phelps in previous Olympics). Obscure sports like equestrian for example, is not going to be prime time material because very few understand or care about the sport.
I don't like that arrangement of course, but I don't get to decide which Olympic Sports should be on prime time, so what I can say?
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Post by azvb on Aug 17, 2021 22:04:38 GMT -5
Maybe if the entire team had thrown off their jerseys and celebrated in their sports bras?
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Post by mervinswerved on Aug 18, 2021 6:21:09 GMT -5
It's laziness, if you ask me. EVERYONE doesn't want to know more. But the media wants to grab the low-hanging fruit. Just look at women's gymnastics if you want an example of what COULD be done. Olympic volleyball isn't a tenth as popular with the Olympic audience as gymnastics. NBC puts that kind of effort into broadcast because the non-sporting fans which make up a huge part of their audience love it. Just like figure skating.
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Post by gobruins on Aug 18, 2021 7:42:57 GMT -5
The time difference really didn't help. MAYBE in North or South America and prime time coverage it would have made a difference. What I do not understand is why basketball gets so much attention, even the women's game. When I think Olympics, I never used to think basketball. The great thing about the Olympics has always been the OTHER sports. But no longer, I guess. Don't even get me started on MEN'S basketball. Well when you get NBA superstars like Kevin Durant on the team, the media attention would naturally gravitate towards them. And on the US women side you got Sue Bird, the fact she is married to US soccer's Megan Rapinoe certainly attract media attention. Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe are engaged. Not yet married.
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Post by ironhammer on Aug 18, 2021 7:53:05 GMT -5
Well when you get NBA superstars like Kevin Durant on the team, the media attention would naturally gravitate towards them. And on the US women side you got Sue Bird, the fact she is married to US soccer's Megan Rapinoe certainly attract media attention. Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe are engaged. Not yet married. Well, soon-to-be-married then alright, happy? They pretty much act like a married couple anyway.
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Post by ironhammer on Aug 18, 2021 8:01:33 GMT -5
Maybe if the entire team had thrown off their jerseys and celebrated in their sports bras? Now that you mentioned it, I remember very well, I was watching it live when Brandi Chastain ripped off her jersey and let out a yell. That has since become an iconic scene in US women soccer history. But now...I am not sure if the volleyball team had they done the same at the podium, would have the same effect. Or maybe it would...who knows.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2021 17:12:02 GMT -5
It's laziness, if you ask me. EVERYONE doesn't want to know more. But the media wants to grab the low-hanging fruit. Just look at women's gymnastics if you want an example of what COULD be done. Olympic volleyball isn't a tenth as popular with the Olympic audience as gymnastics. NBC puts that kind of effort into broadcast because the non-sporting fans which make up a huge part of their audience love it. Just like figure skating. Chicken and egg, imo.
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Post by mervinswerved on Aug 18, 2021 17:26:03 GMT -5
Olympic volleyball isn't a tenth as popular with the Olympic audience as gymnastics. NBC puts that kind of effort into broadcast because the non-sporting fans which make up a huge part of their audience love it. Just like figure skating. Chicken and egg, imo. I suppose NBC could be wrong and women's indoor volleyball is just waiting to explode as a spectator sport every four years, but they *do* have the benefit of decades worth of ratings data. (which is why women's beach gets a ton of airtime every Olympics)
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2021 17:32:41 GMT -5
Again, chicken and egg.
Also, there's no reason to paint this as two extremes. How about just *some* of the coverage that basketball and gymnastics receive?
And, to me, beach vb is the perfect example of my point. It's (maybe) half the sport that the indoor game is and look at the coverage.
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Post by mervinswerved on Aug 18, 2021 17:39:11 GMT -5
Again, chicken and egg. Also, there's no reason to paint this as two extremes. How about just *some* of the coverage that basketball and gymnastics receive? And, to me, beach vb is the perfect example of my point. It's (maybe) half the sport that the indoor game is and look at the coverage. I don't know what you're arguing. Are you trying to say that if they put indoor volleyball in the best time slot in front of the most viewers, it would become more popular? Volleyball *is* on TV. The college game is all over TV and draws middling ratings. It's a horrible pick for NBC primetime because they are never going to show more than 10 or 15 minutes of anything on the main broadcast. Even men's basketball gets pushed off to the cable channels so they can show the entire game.
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Post by mervinswerved on Aug 18, 2021 17:43:55 GMT -5
The tradeoff, of course, is that nobody cares about or watches gymnastics the other 3 years and 11 months every quad.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2021 17:51:56 GMT -5
Again, chicken and egg. Also, there's no reason to paint this as two extremes. How about just *some* of the coverage that basketball and gymnastics receive? And, to me, beach vb is the perfect example of my point. It's (maybe) half the sport that the indoor game is and look at the coverage. I don't know what you're arguing. Are you trying to say that if they put indoor volleyball in the best time slot in front of the most viewers, it would become more popular? Volleyball *is* on TV. The college game is all over TV and draws middling ratings. It's a horrible pick for NBC primetime because they are never going to show more than 10 or 15 minutes of anything on the main broadcast. Even men's basketball gets pushed off to the cable channels so they can show the entire game. I am arguing that it needs more publicity than it receives. In the past, the gold medal game -- at least -- wasn't shown at 1230am ET. They also need to pay more attention to the athletes, which they almost never do. Contrast that to how they dote on beach players or gymnasts. It's a great sport. It deserves better than it gets.
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Post by mervinswerved on Aug 18, 2021 18:01:58 GMT -5
When should the Gold medal match have been shown? At 8pm eastern?
I watch a *lot* of Olympics coverage and they don't dote on anyone in the team sports like they do gymnastics/swimming.
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Post by ironhammer on Aug 18, 2021 21:53:28 GMT -5
When should the Gold medal match have been shown? At 8pm eastern? I watch a *lot* of Olympics coverage and they don't dote on anyone in the team sports like they do gymnastics/swimming. The best solution is for other networks to be granted the right to broadcast Olympic events. I never liked the idea of NBC getting the exclusive rights to Olympic broadcast. Sure, IOC will have to charge less for broadcast rights per network if that is the case. But it will benefit the viewer in having more choices to watch different sports if there are more TV networks airing the Olympics. If the IOC truly cares about getting more people to care about the Olympics, that is what they should do.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2021 6:36:32 GMT -5
The main impact is that the 2021 team broke through a mental barrier.
I expect future teams won't feel as much pressure to win gold, knowing it's been done before.
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