Now NBC Execs Are Just Trolling: Claim They Regret Not Tape Delaying More Of The Olympics

from the are-they-serious? dept

By far, the biggest complaint heard about Olympics coverage by NBC in the US was about just how stupidly annoying the tape delay was. The excuses they gave didn't make any sense, but NBC still insists that it was the right thing to do. Hell, they're now arguing that perhaps they should have done even more tape delay, because the ratings were so good.

Though NBC drew criticism for not airing more of the games live, showcasing taped events in prime time "undeniably" helped ratings, NBC Sports Chairman Mark Lazarus said. He said he wondered if NBC should have tape-delayed more events, such as the U.S. men's gold-medal basketball game and the men's tennis finals between Andy Murray and Roger Federer, which were live.

"It's undeniable we hurt our ratings by doing that," Mr. Lazarus said in a phone interview. "We have to balance what we're trying to do for viewers across the country and our business model."

Of course, all of that assumes something that isn't necessarily true: that the high ratings were due to the tape delays. One could just as easily claim that if they hadn't tape delayed key events, that they would have received even more viewers. There's no reason that they couldn't both display stuff live and then rebroadcast the key events in prime time, and satisfy both audiences. But, that kind of thinking doesn't work inside NBC Universal, where the default mindset seems to be "gee, how can we 'exclude' people?"

Either way, the fact that they now regret not tape delaying more content shows the de facto position of NBC Universal -- and it's not about how to best serve their users.

Filed Under: mark lazarus, olympics, tape delay
Companies: nbc universal