Monday 30 July 2012

#NBCfail and what you didn't see of the Olympic ceremony if you live in the US

On Friday night all over the world, people were settling down to watch the opening of the 2012 London Olympics. Being British myself it was something I had a natural invested interest in seeing. I was excited about how they'd blow open the ceremony and show off all that is British. Being in America however it wasn't so easy.

While many countries globally regardless of their time zone were streaming coverage of the ceremony live, here in America we couldn't start watching it till 7:30PM [eastern time] a good three hours after they had started in London. Canada literally just over the boarder from sitting here in Detroit were showing it live. NBC, who have the coverage rights justified this with wanting to show it at a time when most people would be home [as they started at 9:30PM in the UK this equated to people still at work across the US]. They wanted a bigger audience.

It turns out perhaps there was another reason behind not streaming it live - NBC didn't want to broadcast the tribute to those who lost their lives during the 7/7 bombings in London - even though it was dedicated to all of those who had lost their lives due to terrorism. Watching the showing it did seem very stop start and I knew something wasn't right to the point I even tweeted about it;

 
But being far past many British tweeters bedtime nothing more came of my tweet but its interesting that my gut feeling was right. You see in the US the coverage went from the music flash back to an ad break then to an interview with an American swimmer to the athletes coming out. I knew it would never of ended at the music thing - it didn't seem right. They also cut out parts of the Artic Monkeys too, and I can't recall seeing the red arrows and there's probably other things cut out too.

The memorial to the dead tribute during the opening ceremony of London 2012. Source.

This development is something that broke over twitter more then anywhere else and it only came to my attention with NBC trending [also though the hashtag #nbcfail] - I thought it was more people taking the piss out of their poor Olympic commentating - apparently there was more to it. NBC have justified not showing this part of the ceremony because it wasn't geared for their American audience. I'm sorry but shouldn't the American audience of all people know the affects of terrorism? In the UK we constantly see broadcasts and hold minutes of silences and the like to those who died in 9/11, why isn't it two way? Aren't those innocent people who lost their lives in my home country of the UK worthy being noted, marked and remembered too? In fact I would have thought many Americans would have been able to relate to such an part of the ceremony.

I know this may or may not be a big deal to some people but as an expat it's made me very angry and it's shockingly disgusting that a media player can get away and justifying such actions. English lives and English tributes are worthy of being shown just as any one elses. 

Just saying.

30 comments:

  1. I can't believe they didn't show that, so disrespectful. I did love the opening ceremony though

    Julia x

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was very disappointed to read about the editing of the ceremony. How dare NBC patronise their viewers in such a way. Why didn't they cut the Industrial Revolution or the NHS tributes while they were at it? x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Its a wonder they didn't cut out the NHS bit seeing the uproar over Obama care!

      Delete
  3. Wow, I can't believe they would do that! That part of the opening ceremony was so beautifully done & a really fitting tribute to those that lost their lives. How disrespectful to simply edit it out! xo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. From what i've seen it looks a very fitting and lovely tribute, I wish I could have seen it with the rest of the ceremony.

      Delete
  4. I think it's disgusting that they didn't show it. We respect the dead of 9/11, so why not return it? It's incredibly disrespectful. x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exactly, things like this should be two way, and American's wonder why other countries have such a bad image of them!

      Delete
  5. Disgraceful! Why on earth would they do that?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Can you imagine if America had created such an opening and other countries had dared to leave out such a tribute to their 9/11 ....

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm really shocked and disappointed to read this. Whoever made that decision should be ashamed! I watched the ceremony live here in Canada, but the constant commercial breaks got on my nerves a bit and I felt like I missed a lot too. What I saw was fabulous though!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah that surprised me that Canada was broadcasting it live and right over the border here it wasn't! The commentary and the advertisements constantly were annoying, felt like we were watching more of the ads then the ceremony.

      Delete
  8. Oh my God that's disgusting that they did that! Quite shocked really.
    I would have thought everywhere would have shown it live, too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think most countries probably did, but in the US the advertisement industry who would have paid for slots during the showing dictate a lot of the timing of shows.

      Delete
  9. Wow that is just wrong. It really does show you how selfish Americans can be. Being self-centered and not giving people their due respect.
    I feel it's not out of the ordinary for a lot of the broadcast channels in the US to do this. The news in our area are obviously biased. I don't get much news if it isn't republican related. I don't get much news from around the country unless it's something significant.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It really won't help the image of the US aboard especially in the UK when they already had the Romney gaff last week going on about how London wasn't ready for the Olympics.

      Delete
  10. that's terrible! i saw my friend posting a bit about this on facebook but wasnt sure what it was all about. i really wonder why they chose to do this and how they thought it would slip past and be okay. we are an open country and you can't pass things like that off without noticing. you have to wonder....sigh.

    <3 katherine
    of corgis and cocktails

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know, they complain about Chinese authorities not allowing their residents to see things and they do the same in allowing media giants the same rights?!

      Delete
  11. the red arrows flew at 20:12 (8:12pm),so before the broadcasting was sent to the world. It is shocking though, to think they could do something like that, expecially seeing as it was possibly the one thing that a lot of americans would be able to relate to, asopposed to our history of the industrial revolution and the others...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah but they could of shown the red arrows too seeing everything else wasn't live.

      Delete
  12. Wow, thank you for sharing this, I didn't know!

    ReplyDelete
  13. NBC's coverage hasn't been great so far. I'm tired of reading all of the spoilers!

    http://www.glamkittenslitterbox.com/
    Twitter: @GlamKitten88

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm just wishing their TV coverage was live and not saving it all for the evening!

      Delete
  14. NBC overall is a terrible station with very poor production (you should see how the local NY news looks, very amateur). It's in very poor taste that they left that out.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I can't believe that they wouldn't show that segment, I find it ridiculous! I hope you managed to enjoy it despite the poor coverage. I would like to know what any American's take on it was!
    xx

    ReplyDelete
  16. Oh is this what the world has come too!!!!!!!??????
    How disrespectful!!!! We must remember all lives anywhere in the world that have been lost to the actions of those filled with hatred. With out information and sympathy to that what are we protecting????
    The irony to do this when the world is united together at the Olympics. Grrrrrr
    My faith in humanity sinks when I read things like this.
    Love v

    ReplyDelete
  17. Wow, just watched it, and didn't know! Thanks for sharing! xo Heather

    ReplyDelete
  18. Great post, so disrespectful doing that. There was no need whatsoever, its not like it was going to offend anyone?!
    Carissa xx

    Vanilla Crush Blog

    ReplyDelete
  19. I retweeted a couple of tweets on this - hints at the level of respect America has for it's allies really!

    Jem xXx

    ReplyDelete