It's 2012. Not understanding the internet is no longer acceptable, a solid reason, or even a bad excuse. It's pathetic.
Four years ago, Twitter was just a baby social network, and not the 140 million person Juggernaut it is today. However, today it is a lot of people who are used to operating globally and in real time, and many of whom are turning to Netflix and Hulu for streaming of video content. While Twitter and its communication challenges may be new to the Olympics, Facebook & social media are not. We've gone through the 2008, 2006, 2004, and 2002 Olympics with social media (and yes, MySpace counts as early day practice for social media best practices). Figuring out the best user experience as well as an appropriate ad model and technology for all shouldn't be this difficult.
Forgetting about social media for a second, the technological capabilities to live stream an event isn't new. CBS Sports has been live streaming the NCAA Basketball Tournament (March Madness) since 2005. They put on 16 games in two days (32 in four days) in 4 different geographical regions, and they do it flawlessly, for an entire month as the games whittle down, AND with very little preparation time as the events are happening. The best part is that a user didn't even need to have a cable package to watch the majority of the games online. They just weren't able to watch what was playing in their region. And this year was the first year they ever charged (only $4.99 for unlimited use) to gain access to viewing everything on all of your devices, the web was still free. Obviously the scale is different here with the Olympics being bigger than the NCAA Tournament, but with 7 years to improve on the technology and bandwidth, there's no excuse for NBC to be failing the way it is when it has others to look towards as examples.
So where is NBC going wrong?
1) Favoring "prime time" over "real time" online for all.
In today's world of real time global news, the words "Tape Delay" are archaic. When a person finds out the results of medal competitions on Twitter at 2pm and have to wait until 7pm to start coverage, you'll have lost all interest because you know the ending. To add insult to injury @NBCOlympics (as well as many others) are live tweeting the events AND the results. What really is the incentive to watch a game a few hours later when you already know the ending?
You can watch all of the events live on NBCOlympics.com as long as you have a cable package except the Opening and Closing Ceremonies (which in and of itself is ludicrous). According to a media study done by Deloitte in 2012, 9% of Americans have cut the chord and no longer pay for a cable package with another 11% ready to do so at the time the study was done. That's a pretty big number. So while these 9+% are *probably* online, they have no access to watching these events as they happen, and are unable to even watch during prime time, so NBC is losing out on this audience and ad revenue anyway.
2) Technological Issues For Those With Access
I thought it might have just been me, but looking at the #NBCFail hashtag on Twitter, I'm not alone. There's so much noise on the page it takes quite a while for the site to load, and when I do the feed keeps cutting out. Seemingly every other tweet is complaining about a blacked out feed, lack of consistent video, or ads crashing the site if they can get it.
3) Creative Editing during events / Lack of Knowledge & Awareness
The British media even hates NBC for this. The Guadian wrote "NBC's Opening Ceremony Mess: The Top Six Cringeworthy Moments." This just explains it all. If I could have muted Meredith Viera and Matt Lauer without muting the actual music for the ceremony, I would have.
And then there was today. When on TV NBC cut away from the Men's 400m freestyle medal race that featured Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte competing head to head to feature an interview with Ryan Seacrest and the US Women's Gymnastics team. They did this to "save" the event for later in order to have more people watching. All they did was infuriate people even more as they turned to Twitter to find out what was happening from those who are able to watch it live. Thus the creation of #NBCFail. Read the tweets --- it's fascinating.
____
People do enjoy curation when it comes to television. Usually I like hearing the commentary and the info I didn't know about the countries or athletes. With 300 events happening of course not every one of them is valuable to the majority. However, save the interviews and cutaways for different segments. Air things live as they happen on TV throughout the day and to all online (and get the ad dollars / site traffic), and then do a curated prime time special as you normally would for those that do not wish to access things online or as they happen.
We are only 24 hours into the 2012 Summer Olympics and it is clear that NBC is demonstrating a need for American businesses to take a modern look at the ways television, social media, and global communication in real time play together that can increase revenue, join together online and offline reporting, and user experience.
Let's hope the next 15 days get better, and the next Olympics are more open to all who wish to enjoy this world event.
Four years ago, Twitter was just a baby social network, and not the 140 million person Juggernaut it is today. However, today it is a lot of people who are used to operating globally and in real time, and many of whom are turning to Netflix and Hulu for streaming of video content. While Twitter and its communication challenges may be new to the Olympics, Facebook & social media are not. We've gone through the 2008, 2006, 2004, and 2002 Olympics with social media (and yes, MySpace counts as early day practice for social media best practices). Figuring out the best user experience as well as an appropriate ad model and technology for all shouldn't be this difficult.
Forgetting about social media for a second, the technological capabilities to live stream an event isn't new. CBS Sports has been live streaming the NCAA Basketball Tournament (March Madness) since 2005. They put on 16 games in two days (32 in four days) in 4 different geographical regions, and they do it flawlessly, for an entire month as the games whittle down, AND with very little preparation time as the events are happening. The best part is that a user didn't even need to have a cable package to watch the majority of the games online. They just weren't able to watch what was playing in their region. And this year was the first year they ever charged (only $4.99 for unlimited use) to gain access to viewing everything on all of your devices, the web was still free. Obviously the scale is different here with the Olympics being bigger than the NCAA Tournament, but with 7 years to improve on the technology and bandwidth, there's no excuse for NBC to be failing the way it is when it has others to look towards as examples.
So where is NBC going wrong?
1) Favoring "prime time" over "real time" online for all.
In today's world of real time global news, the words "Tape Delay" are archaic. When a person finds out the results of medal competitions on Twitter at 2pm and have to wait until 7pm to start coverage, you'll have lost all interest because you know the ending. To add insult to injury @NBCOlympics (as well as many others) are live tweeting the events AND the results. What really is the incentive to watch a game a few hours later when you already know the ending?
You can watch all of the events live on NBCOlympics.com as long as you have a cable package except the Opening and Closing Ceremonies (which in and of itself is ludicrous). According to a media study done by Deloitte in 2012, 9% of Americans have cut the chord and no longer pay for a cable package with another 11% ready to do so at the time the study was done. That's a pretty big number. So while these 9+% are *probably* online, they have no access to watching these events as they happen, and are unable to even watch during prime time, so NBC is losing out on this audience and ad revenue anyway.
2) Technological Issues For Those With Access
I thought it might have just been me, but looking at the #NBCFail hashtag on Twitter, I'm not alone. There's so much noise on the page it takes quite a while for the site to load, and when I do the feed keeps cutting out. Seemingly every other tweet is complaining about a blacked out feed, lack of consistent video, or ads crashing the site if they can get it.
3) Creative Editing during events / Lack of Knowledge & Awareness
The British media even hates NBC for this. The Guadian wrote "NBC's Opening Ceremony Mess: The Top Six Cringeworthy Moments." This just explains it all. If I could have muted Meredith Viera and Matt Lauer without muting the actual music for the ceremony, I would have.
And then there was today. When on TV NBC cut away from the Men's 400m freestyle medal race that featured Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte competing head to head to feature an interview with Ryan Seacrest and the US Women's Gymnastics team. They did this to "save" the event for later in order to have more people watching. All they did was infuriate people even more as they turned to Twitter to find out what was happening from those who are able to watch it live. Thus the creation of #NBCFail. Read the tweets --- it's fascinating.
____
People do enjoy curation when it comes to television. Usually I like hearing the commentary and the info I didn't know about the countries or athletes. With 300 events happening of course not every one of them is valuable to the majority. However, save the interviews and cutaways for different segments. Air things live as they happen on TV throughout the day and to all online (and get the ad dollars / site traffic), and then do a curated prime time special as you normally would for those that do not wish to access things online or as they happen.
We are only 24 hours into the 2012 Summer Olympics and it is clear that NBC is demonstrating a need for American businesses to take a modern look at the ways television, social media, and global communication in real time play together that can increase revenue, join together online and offline reporting, and user experience.
Let's hope the next 15 days get better, and the next Olympics are more open to all who wish to enjoy this world event.