Just Caught the Fever

My television in Stockholm gets only four channels and I had not thought to check for any Olympic coverage until today. After four hours, I think it's safe to say I'm hooked. In fact, I'm almost ready to recognize short track speed skating as a "real" event (compared to "ski cross" anyway).

I have always found Olympic coverage in the States to be virtually unwatchable, and skimming the TV listings for my hometown, it looks like this year would have been no different. The "glamor" events are sliced, diced, and saved for prime time where they are sandwiched between numerous ads and lengthy athlete "profiles".

Here I'm getting non-stop coverage--much of it live--across three channels. Ads are few and far between, and events are shown in their entirety. Extended replays and highlight reels are used to fill in any dead spots. For example, I watched Bode Miller win gold in the super combined as it happened, and then two or three hours later, during a break in the biathlon coverage, the final four runs of the combined were replayed, followed by a brief interview with Miller himself.

I realize NBC pays a lot of money to package its Olympic coverage however it likes, and I know the economics of foreign broadcasters are far different, but I also know that 1) the Olympic coverage I've seen in China, Thailand, and now Sweden blows U.S. coverage right out of the water, 2) U.S. viewers are held hostage while the rest of the world celebrates an "unadulterated" Olympics, and 3) U.S. sponsors are essentially subsidizing all of this great coverage that is viewable everywhere but the media capital of the universe. Incredible.