Weren’t those Olympic opening ceremonies amazing? I sure thought so – YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary). Got to watch on my sister-in-law Diane’s new flat/wide-screen TV and … that surely helped make them truly awesome, to use a much-overused term of the day.
And there’s a comfortable familiarity to the way our network, NBC, covers the games – the great John Williams music, Bob Costas at ease talking to President Bush or Bela Karolyi, etc.
Before I dive into the unfortunate part of this message, let me point to a nice new addition to our Website – CNN videos, a frequently updated selection available right below the video player, in what’s known as a ‘widget’ – something added to our and our sister stations’ Websites. Click one, and the screen darkens a bit and the pop-up viewer plays the piece in wide-screen format (something we intend to move to for our own online videos in coming months, by the way).
The best thing about the CNN video addition – at least, to my work-addled eyes – is that much like our wide variety of AP news, it’s automated, which means it’s fresh and up to date, 24 hours a day, days and nights and weekends. If we can get the same thing at some point from MSNBC, then the only manual posting I’ll need to do will be our local video content. Yay!
But, alas, things aren’t going quite so swimmingly for Central Oregonians wanting to watch live streaming video or other “enhanced” video coverage of the Beijing Olympics.
I’m going to try to word this carefully here, because I know just enough to be dangerous, but basically it boils down to the fact that NBC wants to partner (read: contract) with local “TV providers,” on providing not just all that extra online video – 2,000 hours worth at the Olympics – but also on-air via the cable systems, with Video on Demand, special Olympics channels, etc. And they want to extend those contracts through the 2012 Olympics.
But there’s this big umbrella cable-operators organization that wants to instead negotiate a deal for everyone. So while NBC-Universal has been trying to work out deals with individual cable operators, some want to wait for the big package, national agreement. And those, alas, at this time include our very own BendBroadband.
I learned that the eve of the Olympics, as I wrote my Friday piece, fired up the fancy Microsoft Silverlight-powered NBC Olympics player, and hit… a message, asking for my ZIP code and which “TV provider” I have. I said BendBroadband, and it said, “We’re sorry,” and explained basically what I just explained above.
I got, um, a bit upset. Fired off some notes, both to NBC folks I know and on Websites like Lost Remote, asking what the heck was going on? I heard today – on a Sunday! – from an NBC-Universal VP who explained what I’ve said and agreed it wouldn’t hurt for folks to make their cable provider aware of their… dissatisfaction with paying for that great speedy cable-modem service, and then being unable to view one of the most unprecedented offerings of Web content ever seen, because of a contract squabble.
He said they are continuing to negotiate, and hope to get the issue resolved beore the Olympics ends.
I sure hope so. In the meantime, I’m not sure that fibbing about your “TV provider” works – I have gingerly tried, and given up. There’s still lots of NBCOlympics.com material to enjoy, including some video, if a bit… delayed. But the four-screen window of live events, etc. has to wait for the negotiators to negotiate.
(By the way, we’re not alone in this mess – I was told today the uncovered areas include about 3 MILLION customers, and MediaWeek has reported on Cablevision folks in the Northeast stuck in the same boat we are.)
Just wanted you to know it’s not KTVZ’s doing or fault, any more than the 15-hour delay to prime time of certain marquee sports coverage (and the Opening/Closing Ceremonies, etc.) I can understand NBC driving folks to the TV, even in these Net-enabled times, because… hey, they spent quite a bundle on the TV rights, and then charged quite a bundle for the commercials, so… like I always say, “Information wants to be free, but I want a raise.”
But to promote these 2,000 hours of online streaming video, and then throw a caveat/asterisk/roadblock in like this is, well, more than a bit bothersome.
I won’t put BendBroadband’s link/phone number here, but chances are, you know them already. Maybe you can help convince their powers that be that we want and deserve that live streaming video, and we do promise to watch the TV too. I believe the two are complementary, not robbing each other of viewers.
UPDATE: I should have known, my pal Jake over at UtterlyBoring wrote about the Olympics video issue back on Thursday and suggested the work-around of using another ZIP code and provider to see the stuff. Why we should have to fib to see the added video, sigh…
Leave it to Barney 
Hi. I am a long time reader. I wanted to say that I like your blog and the layout.
Peter Quinn
Thanks for the link and clarification. I figured it was something you guys had no control over, but glad to know for sure.
So far I’ve been impressed with the online coverage from NBC. Don’t like having to wait the big delay for the primetime events (watching Michael Phelps at nearly midnight is not my idea of a good time, especially considering the race had been over for hours at that point), but I do like the online coverage of the obscure sports. I watched nearly two hours of archery yesterday, and loved every minute of it.
Thanks, Peter! (And belated thanks, Jake;-)