Olympic Time - or PBS? Choose One
Olympic Time - or PBS? Choose one!
Tough choices. Are you one of the BILLION estimated to be watching the Olympics, day and night, (and that's not just in China) - or are you tuned to PBS simply because whatever the program may be, it's going to be more worthy of your time on the tube! NBC would love to have that demographic in detail, not only because it might help to justify the more than 700 million dollars spent to acquire the broadcast rights to the 2008 Summer Olympics - but it may assist the powers that be to decide whether to go for other television spectaculars ranging from Political conventions to Super Bowl gladiatorials that make every winter worth waiting for - by the tens of millions!
Olympics are a unique event. No doubt about it. Everything from the super-spectacular opening ceremonies - to the non-stop broadcasting of a melange of athletic competitions that challenge the mind, the eyeballs, the patience demanded by frequent breaks for commercials and background video of totally unknown competitors and their early childhood. It's a bit much for many - too much for most (according to a poll of two families by ViewPoint!).
Sure there are highlights in watching and waiting to see if Michael Phelps will actually gather 8 gold medals - or a second or third look at little Chinese girls executing incredible spins in the air, flipflops across the marked area, and feats of arm and shoulder strength as they whip their way from one parallel bar to another several feet away - all the while viewers are thinking 'are they really over 16?'.
Swimming is a favorite, not only to see who wins by a fraction of a second - but to marvel at the speed of free style racing that makes a dip in the backyard pool something akin to dangerous driving on the freeway. The real question is: do you viewers truly care? - or is this another exercise in audience paralysis stemming from the inability to find the remote - so keep watching - maybe someone will veer out of lane - and CRASH! - the first Olympic pool panic to be seen LIVE!
Of course, it has been highly touted that there is so much at stake in these events, that the corallary is there's something for everybody. Naturally, that must include 'women's volley ball! After all, what red-blooded male would pass up the opportunity to watch young nubile females in nothing more than bikinis, run, jump, fall, spread eagle, and hug and pat each other after every winning point - until boredom finally wins out at the TV set - no matter who wins on the sandy court!
Is it fair criticism to denigrate the premier sporting event of all the civilized world's contenders? After all, the countless hours spent in gyms, pools, on athletic fields, or tracks, the buckets of sweat, the thousands of dollars, euros, kopeks, and whatever, all directed to a brief moment in time when the payoff may be a metal medal - or possibly a first step in a career bolstered by hugely profitable advertising contracts.
Would it be fair to say that from the early Greek Olympics to today's out-of-sight concentration on the event itself, rather than the individual participants - there has been a diversion of Olympic origins from the lofty premise of the best that humanity can deliver to the most comprehensive marketing device the world has known!
Where will it end? How big will the stadiums become? How many Viewers worldwide will tune in - at least for one event or another? How many Billions will be devoted to mounting the event, building the facilities, broadcasting every flip through the air, splash ino the pool, dive off the board, start of every race, and on and on, day after day, night after night, until the demographics provide the biggest news of all - the numbers are going down, PBS is going up, the remotes are readily available, the world of 20xx has had enough. And Greece has a suggestion...
Richard Carlton
Issue No.40
August 15, 2008
Tough choices. Are you one of the BILLION estimated to be watching the Olympics, day and night, (and that's not just in China) - or are you tuned to PBS simply because whatever the program may be, it's going to be more worthy of your time on the tube! NBC would love to have that demographic in detail, not only because it might help to justify the more than 700 million dollars spent to acquire the broadcast rights to the 2008 Summer Olympics - but it may assist the powers that be to decide whether to go for other television spectaculars ranging from Political conventions to Super Bowl gladiatorials that make every winter worth waiting for - by the tens of millions!
Olympics are a unique event. No doubt about it. Everything from the super-spectacular opening ceremonies - to the non-stop broadcasting of a melange of athletic competitions that challenge the mind, the eyeballs, the patience demanded by frequent breaks for commercials and background video of totally unknown competitors and their early childhood. It's a bit much for many - too much for most (according to a poll of two families by ViewPoint!).
Sure there are highlights in watching and waiting to see if Michael Phelps will actually gather 8 gold medals - or a second or third look at little Chinese girls executing incredible spins in the air, flipflops across the marked area, and feats of arm and shoulder strength as they whip their way from one parallel bar to another several feet away - all the while viewers are thinking 'are they really over 16?'.
Swimming is a favorite, not only to see who wins by a fraction of a second - but to marvel at the speed of free style racing that makes a dip in the backyard pool something akin to dangerous driving on the freeway. The real question is: do you viewers truly care? - or is this another exercise in audience paralysis stemming from the inability to find the remote - so keep watching - maybe someone will veer out of lane - and CRASH! - the first Olympic pool panic to be seen LIVE!
Of course, it has been highly touted that there is so much at stake in these events, that the corallary is there's something for everybody. Naturally, that must include 'women's volley ball! After all, what red-blooded male would pass up the opportunity to watch young nubile females in nothing more than bikinis, run, jump, fall, spread eagle, and hug and pat each other after every winning point - until boredom finally wins out at the TV set - no matter who wins on the sandy court!
Is it fair criticism to denigrate the premier sporting event of all the civilized world's contenders? After all, the countless hours spent in gyms, pools, on athletic fields, or tracks, the buckets of sweat, the thousands of dollars, euros, kopeks, and whatever, all directed to a brief moment in time when the payoff may be a metal medal - or possibly a first step in a career bolstered by hugely profitable advertising contracts.
Would it be fair to say that from the early Greek Olympics to today's out-of-sight concentration on the event itself, rather than the individual participants - there has been a diversion of Olympic origins from the lofty premise of the best that humanity can deliver to the most comprehensive marketing device the world has known!
Where will it end? How big will the stadiums become? How many Viewers worldwide will tune in - at least for one event or another? How many Billions will be devoted to mounting the event, building the facilities, broadcasting every flip through the air, splash ino the pool, dive off the board, start of every race, and on and on, day after day, night after night, until the demographics provide the biggest news of all - the numbers are going down, PBS is going up, the remotes are readily available, the world of 20xx has had enough. And Greece has a suggestion...
Richard Carlton
Issue No.40
August 15, 2008
Richard. Especially liked this column. Truth is, I'm not watching most of the olympics (unless walking thru a room where someone else is watching) mostly because they have become sooooo commercialized, it's no longer interesting. Also, all these streamlined "uniforms", clothing, shoes, etc., makes me think that no one is really breaking records of Olympians who made records 30 or 40 years ago. The "costumes" are breaking the records not the athletes. Write a column on present day television programming and I'll really use the 3000 characters I'm allowed. Have a great week. N
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