Comcast/NBC Tone Deafness, Not 'Millennials' To Blame For Olympics Ratings Drop
from the we'll-adapt-when-we-damn-well-feel-like-it dept
Olympics watchers repeatedly begged Comcast for live opening ceremonies, more live events, less host prattle, and fewer ads ahead of the recent games in Rio. What did Comcast deliver instead? A smorgasbord of abysmal bloviation, tape delays, and so many advertisements that many people stopped watching in disgust. As a result, the Rio Olympics were the lowest rated Summer Olympics since 2000, with average viewership down 17% and an overall audience that was 25% smaller than 2012 in the 18-to-49 demo.We've already noted how a big reason was Comcast/NBC's absolute refusal to actually listen to paying customers and heed lessons from the cord cutting era. But a Bloomberg headline this week proudly crowed that Millennials were somehow to blame for the slide. Amusingly, the piece cites a comment from NBC exec Steve Burke, who last June described a scenario he said would be a "nightmare":
"We wake up someday and the ratings are down 20 percent,” the chief executive officer of NBCUniversal said at a conference. “If that happens, my prediction would be that millennials had been in a Facebook bubble or a Snapchat bubble and the Olympics have come, and they didn’t know it."That is, so we're clear, an NBC exec predicting that if NBC's Olympics ratings dropped, it would be the fault of Millennials living in a bubble -- not possibly due to anything NBC did. And with ratings dropping from 17 to 25%, Burke's nightmare scenario effectively came true. NBC is quick to point out that streaming was actually up, but that wasn't able to help an overall dive in ratings. And while Comcast/NBC is quick to insist it's adapting to consumer demand, people young and old found Olympic streaming to be an annoying and cumbersome experience littered with paywalls, delays, authentication issues, and other headaches:
"I’m sure NBC were patting themselves on the backs for how easy it would be to watch online this year, but that’s only true for cable subscribers, a slowly shrinking percentage of the US population, especially for Millennials. The reason NBC is losing Millennials to other platforms for entertainment is because all of those platforms have lowered the barriers to enjoy the programming. I can sign up for Hulu, Netflix, and HBO nearly in an instant. Oh, and did I mention they’re all ad free (with a premium on Hulu)?Why is streaming so clunky and difficult? Because most cable industry streaming efforts are designed to give the illusion of innovation, flexibility and adaptation, without actually providing any of these. Why? Because offering a truly easy, inexpensive online streaming service (Olympics or otherwise) would cannibalize the traditional cable TV cash cow. As such, easy, flexible and inexpensive streaming remains an intentional afterthought, and will until cord cutting finally reaches critical mass. In short, like so many legacy industries, pay TV won't truly adapt until the house is fully engulfed in flames.
Had NBC offered the entire Olympic Platform for a small fee (less than $10), they probably would have seen their Millennial numbers skyrocket. Hell, they could have charged $5 more for an “Ad Free” presentation and padded their pockets even more. But instead, they relied on the old dying models of traditional broadcast network and revenue models of years past, and it bit them in the ass.
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Filed Under: coverage, millenials, olympics, ratings, time delay
Companies: nbc universal
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Re:
Then I watched a few things I was Interested in. To do that, Fast Forward at the fastest speed to zip though most of the crap to find what I wanted. It would say in the list the most basic like Swimming, Gymnastics, etc if there wasn't anything in that recording block I was interested in, I wouldn't even waste my time scanning through it all.
That saved me a bunch of time. The cost was ZERO!!!
Ad free streaming for $5 more? That would have NEVER been a option and will never be a option. $5 for a person is not going to make up for all the programming and all the commercial breaks they're going to be showing you in those 2 weeks. If you're streaming, you're pretty much forced to sit though any and all commercials as you can't FF though it. That's even better for them then TV. You can't even channel surf when streaming and commercials come on.
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Good luck getting the other events.
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Re: here's the REAL reason they won't change
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Stupid stunts by the IOC and broadcasters in subsequent years are just nails in the coffin.
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But America is bidding on the... Oh, I see what you did there...
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When the '36 games were held the Nazi party was just another political party for most people in the world. You're basing your comment on how we view them now.
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A commercial every 3 minutes
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I think there's more to it than this.
The olympics are irrelevant now. When swimmers are getting 1 million dollar deals... I'm just not interested in watching spoiled kids play sports anymore.
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Re: I think there's more to it than this.
How about Football players or basketball player. Playing what is basically a game and getting MILLIONS for doing that!! Then they also do commercials on top of that for a lot more money. Do you have a problem with that also and not watch?
I'm not a big sports person. I watch so little of it. You're changes of getting on top where you can get the millions is pretty slim no matter if it's a Swimmer or a basketball player.
I also think it's silly to pay for Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. Almost the same price at that point to just pay for cable TV. As a cord cuter myself, I get most of my TV with a large Antenna, and I have Netflix and Amazon. I only have Amazon really for the free second day shipping. I had them both before I cut the cord 4+ years ago. In fact I don't remember exactly when I last watched something with Amazon Prime. I think it was The Man in the High Castle. I do more Amazon Music if anything. It's mostly Antenna and Netflix.
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Re: Re: I think there's more to it than this.
Not the guy you're replying to, but this and other reasons are why our family refuse to watch any sports. We have zero interest in watching millionaires play catch inside taxpayer subsidized stadiums, before going out and making a fool of themselves and ending up in a newspaper arrest report.
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Re: Re: Re: I think there's more to it than this.
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I could never handle watching commercials let alone forced to sit through a show at the time they wanted to air it. I just record everything I want to watch. My Tivo has 4 tuners in it meaning it can record up to 4 programs at once. I let it record and I watch something I've already recorded skipping away all the commercials. DVR's, the greatest TV invention ever.
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The free-to-air coverage in Australia was actually pretty good, I thought.
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unable to watch the events i wanted to
So why bother?
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The Olympics are a non-event these days
They "Fuck the Olympics, I'm going to spend my time with more quality entertainment"
I haven't watched a single Olympic event (Winter or Summer) since LA (was that 00 or 04? can't recall). The only Olympics coverage I watched this year were stories about the sewage that some of the athletes had to swim in for a few of the events.
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Re: The Olympics are a non-event these days
Just an FYI, Lower Alabama has never hosted the Olympics.
Collectively they are smarter than that.
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Re: The Olympics are a non-event these days
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Re: The Olympics are a non-event these days
I watch other countries teams (particularly Japan) play. They seem to be more passionate and involved.
The streaming and On Demand was horrible. Several of the events I watched had no audible commentary at all and looked like pasted together outtakes from previous broadcasts. The ones that did have commentary were often completely out of sync with the video, like watching football on TV with no sound and listening to baseball on the radio.
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Re: The Olympics are a non-event these days
I guess the long term memory ain't what it used to be. :)
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Hated tape delay
This happened multiple times. Too much, in my mind, to be a coincidence.
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Re: Hated tape delay
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Points Gun at Foot, Shoots
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Re: Points Gun at Foot, Shoots
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Olympic interest and viewership could be way up and ratings could be down and that's not necessarily a paradox. It might be a problem for NBC since online ads are worth almost nothing compared to TV ads, but that doesn't mean there's no interest in the Olympics.
I think Burke is probably right to believe the drop in TV numbers for the Olympics is due to millennials and the way they watch television.
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Censored?
First you block and threaten everyone from talking about it on Twitter, FB and every other social media platform, and then you complain that you haven't been able to reach the users of these platforms?
I could give you a clue, but you wouldn't get it...
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Though with things like 100 TB hard drives coming out it's possible for more brick and mortar and delivery like services to supplement online streaming if it ever came down to that. You can have a 'redbox' like service with a bunch of movies on it. You stick a Netflix USB hard drive into it and it automatically transfers whatever you want onto it. You can delete movies from your hard drive while at home and queue the movies you want to add. Next time you go to the store and stick your hard drive into one of these boxes it can automatically recognize your hard drive and automatically transfer the content you requested while you were at home onto the drive while at the store. No need to hassle with any interfaces at the store since your selection was made at home and the box recognizes your drive and knows what you want based on what you selected at home. With USB 3.1 at 10 Gb/sec it wouldn't take that long.
This still assumes a basic Internet connection though which ISPs have cornered the market on. But it wouldn't require a fast connection at all so at the very least it would be a whole lot more difficult for them to justify higher prices based on bandwidth hogs. Not that their bandwidth hog excuses aren't nonsense and it's not like ISPs need a good reason to justify high prices. The only reason prices are so high is due to a lack of competition. But at the very least even a dial up connection or your 4G connection can relatively easily facilitate such a service.
The service can also optionally include a screen at the store where you can select your content to be added if you don't want to do it at home or don't have an Internet connection and don't mind messing with interfaces at the store. The store box can have one screen per box with one USB port and the rest of the USB ports around the box can just be for users that have preselected their content at home. These USB ports only need like two small lights per port, one red one to indicate that the transfer is still being done and one green one to indicate that the transfer is over.
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So you stick your hard drive into this locker and lock the door (cameras are around the box presumably so no one tries to break in and the building has security). To lock it you close the locker and swipe your card. There can also be an optional pin number you type in when you pick up your drive for two factor authentication if you wish.
You go shopping. Your selected files automatically transfer. Then you come back, scan you Netflix card (type your pin), and the locker opens. You pull out your drive and go home. The locker can optionally have a screen above it where you can select your content at the store in case you don't have an Internet connection or don't wish to select your content at home (or over your 4G on your phone perhaps). Otherwise you don't have to mess with any touch screen interfaces at the store if your content was selected at home or elsewhere over an Internet connection.
The box should also allow you to transfer free Youtube content as well as content from other sites. There may be a series of free youtube videos you wish to watch but either have a slow Internet connection or you have ridiculous bandwidth caps. Of course this assumes the Youtube user has the option of allowing the content to be watched in this manner.
If ISPs start to become too expensive there are ways to work around them. So there are limits as to how expensive ISPs can become before people do find workarounds.
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Music piracy is already impossible to regulate. I can fit years of consecutive good quality music, without repeating a single song, onto a $100 3.5 inch hard drive. With faster bus speeds it's easier than ever to trade songs among friends in a way that the government can't even come close to meaningfully regulating. and it's not like anyone respects corporate bought copy protection laws, everyone knows these laws are corporate bought. Impossible to enforce laws + laws that people know are corporate bought and not democratically passed = laws that will easily be ignored.
and with 100+ TB hard drives coming out and better video compression already in existence the same thing will happen to video.
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It was NBC's own fault.
Also, they'd advertise a specific competition, then delay coverage to air those backgrounders on the athletes, and more commmercials.
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He did nail it, it's just all generations?
This pretty much describes me since about 2000. The games in general just seem really dull to me. I figure I'll catch a highlight later, commercial free, but even that wouldn't make me feel like I was "missing out" on anything.
There's not a chance in hell I'll start watching my media with commercials interspersed anymore. Ever. No media is worth it.
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Re: He did nail it, it's just all generations?
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The Olympics Outdated
Plus, they need to update the sports. add MMA, etc. My vote would be a new sport where you get drunk and kick in a bathroom door. My guess is Hope Solo would dominate the women's
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Re: The Olympics Outdated
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how about an actual 'schedule'????
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Re: how about an actual 'schedule'????
I just season Passed the Olympic's. It was simple enough and it recorded everything!!! You could have done the same, but with more then just NBC but their other channels also if you wanted.
Google also showed listings on when whatever event you were interested in were on and what channel. There are ways to do and get what you want, with a DVR skip most of the crap.
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Fire the execs!
It's their job to put events where people will watch them, not expect people come to them. You can't blame the public for ignoring you. They're not the ones missing out - you are. The Olympics are only as important as the number of people that care.
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Re: Fire the execs!
Take Buzzfeed for example. They do have a website, but their goal isn't to drive traffic to their website to see a banner ad, it's to get their content viewed. They make discrete packages of everything and send these pieces out to flow wherever the virtual breezes take them.
If NBC wants viewers, they should make it easy to follow a country or a sport or a team or an individual. The tools are there for slicing and dicing this stuff a million different ways. The days of a single large audience that can be sold to Ford and P&G are done. That audience is still there, it's just not easily sold as a whole.
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Re: Fire the execs!
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And just like with Hollywood's recent lessons about "Reboots", they discover that this strategy has only served to alienate their existing fans, while failing to being in enough new viewers to replace them.
I have to wonder if we will ever get to a point when *all* events will be streamed live, rather than strategically assembled and packaged for the likes of American idol (and other 'reality-show') fans.
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Oh, and just the other day I got a flat tire ...
thanks millennials
this is fun, just blame millennials for everything.
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Heaad of Olympic committee..."Obviously we need to give them more commercials!" "Now get off my lawn!"
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Not a millenial and didn't watch...
After being reminded that the Olympics had started, I journeyed to NBCOlympics.com to stream shows - WITH COMMERCIALS, which would have been fine. Except, the only way to watch beyond 30 minutes was to be a cable or satellite tv subscriber. Uh, no, we aren't, and we won't.
Oh, and we are boomers, not millennials.
So, for the first time in my entire life, I did not watch one minute...one second...one iota of Olympic programming because I could not figure out where to get programming (I missed the BBC connection - darn). Would I have paid $10 for unlimited access to Olympic events, both live and canned? Maybe. I like the Olympics a lot. Maybe I would have paid $15 for unlimited access without commercials. As it is, we didn't watch, and our lives went onward. We caught the summaries on the internet, and all was just fine.
The bottom line: With the attitude of networks like NBC, network programming is doomed.
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It's like being handed a treasure map with a big red X on it, and deciding to go dig at the Y.
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Misdiagnosis
That's like saying the old dying model of supplying mountain cabins with mules doesn't work since mules just refuse to carry 5 tons like a helicopter does.
The problem is that the new models also don't work because helicopters and their pilots don't work for bays of hay and mules are lousy helicopter pilots.
The truth is, either old or new models would work just fine if you were willing to accept the respective boundary conditions of either.
Ever asked people at a party to turn down the volume? This works until somebody's favorite song comes up. Then the volume goes up. And stays. Until somebody else's favorite song comes up...
The same with greed in executives. It's only up, whenever a new model of making money comes up.
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USA messed up the Olympics for Europe - and then didn't bother to watch
Now I discover that, having made the Olympics unwatchable for much of the rest of the world, the US didn't even bother to watch it themselves. Thank you USA!!
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Re: USA messed up the Olympics for Europe - and then didn't bother to watch
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Re: USA messed up the Olympics for Europe - and then didn't bother to watch
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I'm not that into the Olympics but if I was bored and there was nothing on I'd TRY to watch some of it....but it was nearly impossible. SOOOOO many commercials, so many "coming up next" lies....followed by more commercials, then a 30 second clip of some athletes....then more commercials. Then I turned off the TV.
My wife who really likes to watch gymnastics even got to the point where she stopped watching because the events were long since decided, the results were everywhere online, and she didn't want to stay up until 11pm to see an event where she already knew what happened. Maybe if they aired popular events on delay at 8pm it wouldn't be SO bad....but to try to force people to sit through a whole night full of commercials to see what they want at 11pm is ridiculous.
We aren't millenials. We're 40-somethings. And we pay for cable. And we weren't watching.
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Get some fresh faces in there that don't default to it's everyone else's fault but mine.
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Blame the millenials
This is how big corporations and bureaucracies end up lying to themselves.
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right on the money
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NBC may be right, Millennials probably tuned out even more, unhappy with the delivery methods and amount of commercials, and with an attention span honed by the internet, they just never showed.
I can say that for the first time since the Olympics was in my home town, I didn't watch a single thing, not a moment, not a peep. I saw some news stories and read some headlines, but otherwise, the Olympics slid past like that car going 3 mph faster than you on the interstate. Didn't care that they were coming, didn't care while they are here, and certainly not worried now they are gone.
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Re: "... pretty much FUBAR..."
We had plenty of (ad-glutted) access to over-the-air channels or could have employed Kodi, and we watched nothing.
- a boomer and his bride
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In all seriousness, though, nail on the head and all that.
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Rule 40
#Rio2016
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Olympic stuff
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Blame Techdirt
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Olympic coverage
Most of the BBC coverage, including the streams, was in HD. There was one streaming channel dedicated to highlights and catchup. In addition the BBC websites sports pages had a dedicated Olympics section with links to the on-line streams.
On one evening because of weather and other factors a couple of races, including one with Usain Bolt was delayed. The coverage on the main BBC One channel stayed with it live, and the main evening news was delayed for ONE AND A HALF HOURS! This was in "Prime Time", the news was scheduled for 10pm and eventually went out after 11:30pm. audience figures suggest that although the audience did dip, it was not by much.
So shame on you Comcast and NBC for being idiots. Is this what a TV system should be in a so-called "free market economy"?
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I Tivo Olympics, my kid streams a video game tournament
Meanwhile, my kid was glued to a streaming broadcast of a multi-million dollar world-wide professional VIDEO GAME tournament. I was stunned. There was an ironic panel of bloviators behind a big Sportscenter-style desk. My kid was laughing his butt off--"oh Dad, you'd have to know about the feud between so-and-so and their hats." Ask your kid about hats.
To my kid, this is sport--the exact same game he plays, only with a dozen world-class players and a million-dollar purse. At one point I ask about an interview and learn that the expert was never a great player, but established a reputation for explaining the game "mechanics" to others. Ask your kid about game mechanics and balancing.
Meanwhile, this old fart watches team volleyball and cycling because I played it in ancient Greece and enjoy seeing it done right.
As others here have noted, once the US lost, coverage ended. I would have appreciated more fencing, table tennis and badminton. Instead, we get coverage of shot-put foot-faults and endless talk about running.
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I'm waiting for IO(censored for copyright infringement and trademark violation)C finally securing the O(censored for copyright infringement and trademark violation) so completely no-one is able to watch it.Then they'll finally be able to rest assured it is theirs and theirs alone. Their Presssssssssious.
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heck, I'm 50+
Would have paid NBC a premium in a heartbeat but they didn't offer that option to non-cable subscribers. Wake up and smell the Internet, broadcasters.
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Olympics are a huge waste of money and time
Now, it is a commercial-fest with annoying commentators talking the whole time. Seems like everyone is taking illegal performance drugs, and the Olympic venues are quickly abandoned and left to corrode as a painful reminder of all that money wasted.
Olympics are a corrupt, stale, and boring affair that benefits only a tiny percentage of those countries that can afford to train their athletes.
No thank you, I will be playing Elder Scrolls Online instead.
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At this point, I just said fuck it, pulled up my list of VPNs and tunneled over to London to get the BBC streams. These were amazing with little to no commercials during events, though we were still a bit limited on what we could watch events wise.
Then I pulled out a fresh list of IPTV streams and was able to watch all the channels I wanted at 1080p from all over the world and we were able to catch all kinds of events that we didn't even know about since NBC pretty much only streamed events that the US was competing in.
Moral of the story? When your viewers find it easier to go through hoops and break the law to view your content, you're doing something wrong.
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Executive Leadership
Seriously, the board should just wipe it's O-level ass.
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I'm a little late commenting on this (I was in a film festival bubble), but how ignorant do you have to be of what those services actually do? They're primarily used for people to share information with each other about things that interest them.
In other words, people using Facebook and Snapchat were not unaware of the games being on. Anyone remotely interested were using those services to talk about them. Which may have been their only option in cases where the US streams were delayed (forcing people to talk about the games with people outside the US) or where ad breaks were causing them to miss important live details.
Now, it's true that many would have been using those services instead of looking for an NBC stream, but the idea that people would have been ignorant of the games themselves is laughable. I can understand the concern about people using those services instead of passively watching whatever NBC finds most profitable, but he might wish to address how those services are actually used in reality.
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