More Coverage of the Olympics, PLEASE!
So, it’s the Winter Olympics! Are you excited? I know I am. I’m actually most excited for Curling, Alpine Skiing, and Speed Skating…
Which brings up an interesting concern I’m seeing more and more with the olympics. NBC’s coverage. NBC has mentioned a few times that they’re losing money, and viewers during their coverage of the Vancouver 2010 olympics this year. And I feel like they’re not covering enough of the events. I mean, the Olympics is much larger than the portion they cover during primetime, or in the few other channels that show coverage sporadically. I’m sure there’s plenty of Americans that want to watch events that actually don’t involve a medal-contender US Athlete.
For instance, I was watching curling a little bit this afternoon, with USA playing Germany. USA lost 7-5, and most of the other curling events were done, except for the Canadian team, facing Norway, and the game was tied 6-6 heading into Extra Ends… Close, and had to be exciting to watch… But they didn’t cover it and instead went into 15 minutes of talking and commercials… Time they could’ve spent covering the curling match.
That lack of coverage is what frustrates me. And my friend Jose and I were talking a little last night about what they could do to enhance coverage, and perhaps enhance even their profit…
Why isn’t there an Olympic “Premium” network for times like these? Similar to MLB Extra Innings, or the NFL Network. I would love to see something like 5 channels playing 24/7 coverage of the Olympics when they happen. That would be incredible. Even have an online version so you can login with your same account to watch it online if you’re not near a computer.
That’d be just plain perfect. Do it just like MLB.TV currently has… pay a certain fee for the “Season” (in this case, the 2-3 weeks of Olympics every 2 years), and you’d get access to 24/7 coverage. That shouldn’t be hard to maintain at all, no? Please, correct me if I’m wrong.
This way, you can cover CERTAIN events that you know that your mainstream viewers would like to watch (like USA vs Canada hockey, and Figure Skating), but any of the olympic fans that want more than that, can pay for it. It’s a small fee (I don’t know, 40-50 bucks?)
Hell, personally, I wouldn’t even care if there were announcers or not. Atleast show me the game statistics on the screen. But that’s a personal preference that I’m sure not many others would stand by. I just suggest the lack of announcers as an attempt to cut down on production costs.
Is this too far fetched of an idea? Would you be willing to pay for “premium” access to the Olympics?
Premium Coverage counts as this:
- 24/7 Channels (I’m thinking atleast 3 of them would be required)
- Access to ALL events online (so if the event/match you want to watch doesn’t fit into one of the channel slots, you can still watch it online)
Again, I think this is completely reasonable and far from unachievable.
And there is another plus to this whole thing: Your current audience. The one that doesn’t care about the olympics and is disappointed that their “regularly scheduled programming” disappeared for the next 2 weeks? They don’t need to worry about that ANYWHERE near as much as they do now, as NBC would be taking over their main networks for coverage of the Olympics far less.
Is there any restrictions that the IOC place on this kind of solution? The only thing that I could think of as to why NBC hasn’t done this yet is if perhaps they’ve been told the olympics must be free to everyone, in the spirit of the Olympic games being for everyone.
What do you think? What do you KNOW that I don’t and that I need to learn? Give me some comments!
Home Security Systems
So there’s been a recent break in in my neighborhood, and one neighbor has installed a new security system, and another decided to put her sign out for her Broadview Security that she’s had for a while.
And it brings something up that I’ve seen all the time, why can’t I just purchase the sign?
Honestly, why do we even put the sign out? Doesn’t that defeat the entire purpose of spending 100+ bucks installing a security system and paying 15+ bucks a month for monitoring services if the criminal will simply look at the sign and go “hmm… well, not worth breaking into that house if the alarm goes off!”
Sure, there’s a chance that the robber will continue with the break in anyways, and if you don’t have an alarm, well… shit. But if you do, it only reinforces the fact that this criminal is an idiot, and he’ll be rushing out before he has a chance to steal much.
Of course, I’m realizing that if the signs were open for purchasing anywhere, then people would realize immediately that they can’t trust the signs, and break ins would actually increase for those places that have a sign in front of the house.
I’m sure a lot of people would rather just purchase the sign than spend a lot of money on the actual system.
I know I would.
hmm.
Tiger Woods
So… Apparently the news still considers the things that Tiger Woods has done to be so vital to the public that he remains on the front page…
Wait, what was that? He only did one thing? Oh, cheat on his wife? That’s it? WTF.
Holy Hell, people, seriously. That’s all he did… Cheated on his wife. I’m far from condoning his actions… I absolutely despise cheating and do not stand for it at all, and will never do so myself.
But come on… Why do we hold celebrities and athletes to such high level… Hell, a level HIGHER than we hold ourselves?? So many in society cheat on their “loved” ones all the time, but you don’t see them having to leave their jobs over it, or losing their sources of income.
Hell, Gillette is now LIMITING TIGER WOODS’S ROLE IN ITS MARKETING over this!
I was reading, or listening to something (I think it was the Colbert Report) early last week, and he was mentioning how why did we expect Tiger to be part of a “perfect family?” All along, Nike and Gillette always portrayed him as a “man’s man”… Hell, Buick’s commercials never show him in a car with his family… He’s ALWAYS BY HIMSELF.
It’s really absurd how far the media, and the public, have taken his infidelity.
Honestly, stop this pathetic obsession of celebrities and athletes, and focus on your own lives, and making them as great as they can be. You’d be surprised how much better your life can be if you drop all of this pointless drama in the lives of the rich and famous, and see what’s around you that matters far more.
Tiger Woods is a great golf player, and his personal life has NOTHING to do with my enjoyment of golf, or my ability to watch him play 18 holes… Same goes for music, and movies. I don’t care what Tom Cruise did for vacation, or that him and Kate whatever her name is broke up. It doesn’t affect how good he is in the movies he plays in.
So why care about their personal lives?
Latest Verizon/AT&T Commercials
Ever since I realized how much advertisers had to tell the truth in their advertisements, or risk being sued, and what not, I’ve tended to take a closer look at what they’re saying in their commercials.
I’ve really paid attention to the LANGUAGE, and compared them to their competitor.
Case in point is the latest Verizon and AT&T Commercials that discuss the coverage of their respective networks, and how they try to compare themselves to each other.
Verizon for instance has a string of commercials out there lately that have been bragging about the size of their 3G coverage versus AT&T. Apparently my idea of AT&T being a great network in terms of 3G was false, but at the same time, as a typical cell phone user that doesn’t travel the United States that often, or to that many destinations, a fuller map really doesn’t make a difference to me. I have great 3G coverage here in Tampa, and I get decent coverage in MA. My hometown in Massachusetts doesn’t quite have 3G coverage, but closer to Boston, as I tend to be when I’m on vacation there these days, has plenty, as far as I can tell.
So really, as long as I have great 3G coverage where I need it, why would I care if it’s everywhere else, where I don’t, or won’t, ever need it?
Well, back to the subject, because of the string of Verizon commercials attacking AT&T coverage, AT&T takes an effort to counter, and have a recent string of advertisements that say “Verizon is lying and we want to set the record straight. We have the greatest coverage in the US”.
Sadly, I can’t find that commercial on youtube easily to share.
But immediately I picked up on something: AT&T does not mention 3G anywhere in their new commercial! They’re tricking users to believe that they’re simply countering the 3G argument with the “truth” (and a larger, more complete map), but in reality they’re trying to compensate for their obvious lack of 3G coverage vs Verizon, and hoping viewers don’t pick up on this little nuance.
Don’t even get me started on Sprint. They say they have the nation’s largest 3G network, and the country’s first 4G network. If they’re so amazing, why the hell do they not have a leg up on Verizon and AT&T? And what is this 4G anyways, and if it’s so amazing, why aren’t the new smart touch-phones taking advantage of this?
I kind of feel like I’m alone in this, pointing out the nuances of advertisements. Then again, people tend to notice the lies in commercials pretty damn fast, and point them out immediately. But only the lies. AT&T didn’t lie about their coverage being greater than Verizon…. OVERALL coverage. However, their 3G coverage (according to the verizon commercials) is apparently SEVERELY lacking.
Changes and LessConf
Hello to all of my new visitors from LessConf and BarCampJax. I had an absolutely amazing time there talking to everyone.
For those that don’t know, LessConf was a conference put on this past weekend in Jacksonville, with a variety of talks for Entrepreneurs and Developers. It was definitely a great time, and I’m proud of Allan and Steve for their hard work putting this together. A complete success, and I’m excited for the next time they have it. Every one of the talks were great.
Every time I go to a conference, I always get that spark of motivation to work on my own projects, or just just feel so much better with the network connections. This time around, with all the talk on brands and what not, and Gary Vee’s very inspirational talk about brand equity and the amount of self-confidence he has really got me going about my brand, and I’m anxious to work on my own brand and side projects more.
There hasn’t been any new updates here as I have been very busy with moving into my new place, as well as out on the job search. So basically my hiatus that I figured was going to come, actually happened a little later than I thought.
I’m finally taking the time out this week to work on a couple things. Blackened Sun will have some changes being made to it, in terms of setting up my about page, as well as a portfolio/resume. So please excuse the mess if you see one.
Also, I’m working on an exciting new project that I have been putting off for far too long. When I am finished enough to have people try it out, I will be announcing it here on my blog. A lot of the LessConf’ers as well as friends of mine already know bits and pieces of what I am hoping to develop and I plan to have something to show off by the end of this week. I think I can do it!
I believe my blog will be changing direction. I’m constantly torn on if this blog should discuss personal things, be a place for me to rant, or keep things professional and only discuss things related to my field of Web Development. I always felt like the blog should stay “professional” but I notice time and time again that I end up going out on a tangent and discussing my life, and other random thoughts I may have about things that happen around me. What are your thoughts on this? Do you like the blog posts I have so far, would you prefer a change?
I am going to promise at least one new blog post a week, though, regardless. I really want to make sure I keep this updated!