Sunday, February 19, 2006

Great Olympic Action

I'm really enjoying NBC's coverage of the Olympics, and especially the hockey- both men's & women's.

It's been tough for the USA so far, with the women losing to someone other than Canada for the first time ever, in more than 100 Olympic games, and with the men struggling to qualify for the next round.

NBC has provided excellent coverage for the hockey. They air entire games on any one of their various networks. CNBC has hosted a great many, and this morning I watched Germany-Switzerland and now Russia-Latvia. The USA plays at 10:30 EST this morning, and I can't wait.

Very rarely were entire games aired in previous Olympiads. With single networks juggling a variety of sports, you might get to see five minutes of hockey, and then luge and skiing, missing key moments of games, sitting in suspense over what you couldn't see. Seeing the whole USA-USSR game live was a rare event, and the Miracle On Ice completely justified it. That game made me a hockey fan forever, and an Olympic hockey fan.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mike,

I must correct you. The 1980 US-USSR game was actually taped. The reason I know this is that I heard the result between 7:00 - 8:00 on a Friday evening. ABC broadcast it a little later that evening. It was a fantastic event even if you knew the result. Because in the end, you knew the "good guys" won. But, you are right about the complete coverage on CNBC and MSNBC especially since those events are live.

Mike Kole said...

That's right! It *was* taped. Now that you mention it, I recall getting that tidbit on an anniversary TV special on the Miracle On Ice.

I was 12 years old at the time, and I had no idea that it was taped, or that the USA had won. It came off to me as a live event would.

TV and media was so much different then. I expect live and entire broadcasts now. You didn't back then. Gosh, I feel old!