Here Is The End Result Of The USOC And NBC's Over-Protectionist Olympic Nonsense

from the nice dept

When it comes to intellectual property bullying, the unholy alliance between the USOC and NBC seems to be trying to see exactly how far it can push things. Between NBC’s “most live ever” broadcast of the games that still has unnecessary delays in both its television and streaming product and the USOC’s strange belief that companies that sponsor athletes year-round somehow can’t tweet out factual results or news images of those athletes as it relates the games due to trademark law, it’s enough to make you laugh.

But it’s not only the antics of the USOC and NBC that is chuckle-worthy. Local sports coverage of the Olympics is too, thanks to the laughable restrictions NBC has put in place. Here’s my hometown sports anchor, for instance, who came up with a creative way to cover the Olympics by not covering them at all in protest.

Yes, instead of actually reporting on the games at all, Pat Tomasulo of Chicago’s WGN decided to relay just how insane NBC is with its demands for how its footage is used and how other news groups are allowed to cover the Olympics. He decided to cover a different international competition run by “one of the most corrupt organization’s in the world”, whose logo is a series of interconnected triangles and whose theme song is Bump and Grind by R. Kelly. Then he read some Olympics results over footage of his own high school wrestling days, fully crediting his own mother.

Now, this isn’t just funny, it’s also a wonderful little push back against NBC for its frankly insane restrictions on Olympics coverage. As a reward for being that restrictive, at least one local news organization decided not to report on the Olympics at all. So, NBC… mission accomplished?

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Companies: usoc, wgn

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Comments on “Here Is The End Result Of The USOC And NBC's Over-Protectionist Olympic Nonsense”

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29 Comments
Paul Renault (profile) says:

Yay for individual sports!

As a former HS wrestler myself, I applaud Pat Tomasulo’s refusal to be a ‘team player’ and to think for himself.

The CBC usually covers Canadian athletes plus the important/medal competitions even when no Canadians are involved. Right now I’m streaming Judo 90Kg men’s repechage, Japan vs. China. I don’t know if it’s available outside of Canada – it’s worth trying.

http://olympics.cbc.ca

JBDragon (profile) says:

Re: Re:

I watch a few of the things Yesterday for the first time. being a Cable cutter, all I get is NBC and my TIVO is recording everything. Then I look and see what’s on each day and then I FF through most of the stuff that I’m interested in quickly. I didn’t watch the Opening Ceremonies, and so far I’ve watch about 5% of what’s been on NBC. They can have all their commercials and other crap, I’m blowing past it all. Full Speed Fast Forward. It’s the only way to go.

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