It could have been worse

We arrived back home in New Zealand on Sunday morning to read in the Newspaper that viewers of Prime’s free-to-air broadcast of the Olympics opening ceremony were upset that it finished 45 minutes after Sky Sport’s coverage due to ad breaks.

Comments like “Having frequent ads during the first third of the main ceremony is completely and utterly shameful” were seen on twitter.

Those who had chosen not to pay for the privilege of watching the Olympic Games opening ceremony uninterrupted by advertising also complained that Prime had gone to ads just prior to the New Zealand team’s entrance into the stadium.

Let’s now contrast this to what happened in the USA where we were. While Kiwis were able to get up at 7:30am to watch the opening ceremony on Prime’s free-to-air coverage, there was nothing of the sort for American viewers. If you wanted to watch the opening ceremony, you had to wait for NBC’s primetime coverage on Friday night which was delayed by between 5 and 11 hours depending on where you lived. And then it was full of advertising. Not only that, they cut to their own interviews including one with Ryan Seacrest and Michael Phelps.

The Olympics is a big money event, just ask Greece.

The current environment dictates that if you aren’t prepared to pay for uninterrupted coverage, you shouldn’t complain at what you get for paying nothing.

About the author

Regan is one of the co-founders of Throng Media.
He's currently watching Survivor, Homeland, House, Glee and can't wait for the return of Game of Thrones.
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  • Lance W

    Let’s not fall into the habit of saying “Other people have it worse, so you shouldn’t complain.” Otherwise nothing would ever improve, because someone always has it worse.

  • GregK

    And what about if you were trying to watch it in Syria, you would have to put up with lots of ads AND a bomb exploding in your lounge…. and if you were trying to watch it Fiji – you have to put up with even more ads AND a fascist military dictator!

  • http://www.facebook.com/reganjcunliffe Regan Cunliffe

    Kiwis complain about everything but rarely do anything to seek out change. Those that do end up in the minority. We’ve been trained to be well and truly apathetic.

    • http://twitter.com/BeingHumanist Being Human(ist)

      Hang on Regan… “We’ve been trained to be well and truly apathetic” or “you shouldn’t complain at what you get for paying nothing.” I’m confused – what are you saying we should do?

      • http://www.facebook.com/reganjcunliffe Regan Cunliffe

        Don’t complain, take action. But people won’t and the ratings won’t change. Same old story.

        • http://twitter.com/BeingHumanist Being Human(ist)

          What action? Complaining (to the broadcaster) is out. What else?

          • http://www.facebook.com/reganjcunliffe Regan Cunliffe

            The only way to affect change is to impact the revenue streams. If you don’t have a people meter in your house then you can’t impact the ratings by just not watching. Choosing not to buy products by those advertising is about the only way.

          • Max

            Dont need ‘people meters’ anymore! They’re so outdated it’s not funny.

            It’s a very limited database (1,000 people meters isn’t it?) and the results aren’t anything like ‘real tmie’ monitoring of what is being watched most.

            Pay TV Sky and Telstra (onselling Sky TV) probably have real time monitoring of their set top boxes sowing what channels are being watched most by their customers, and use the results to sell advertising space to their *real* customers, the advertisers,

            My viewing over the last fortnight has been Prime Exclusively, with the occasional breaks watching my private self programmed channel. (Watching DVD’s)

            My usual pattern is watch BBC News cvhannel, If I’m watching at all, with occasional Prime, The Living Channel, Rialto and The Arts Channel.
            I cant remember when I last watched anything on TV1, TV2, or TV3.

  • http://twitter.com/BeingHumanist Being Human(ist)

    Yeah NBC was crap, but so was Prime.They should have used it as a shop window for their Sky coverage, not the amateurish awkward cheap-ass presentation they gave us. Kiwis complain about crap broadcasters, so we seek out new ways to bypass them, eg. torrents, VPN’s to unlock geoblocks, etc. I like many others will not be watching ANY of those shows they constantly promoted during the Opening Ceremony on Prime. They have themselves to blame for that.