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Keeping Score
WARNING: This newspaper may be hazardous to your health. Not to mention your love of sports drama and pure competition. Get today’s
Olympic results todayIf you thought "Monday Night Football" being shown on a four-hour tape-delay basis was maddening, consider what is about to happen with the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
"Close your eyes time'' television viewing will not mean for just a few seconds. You'll be able to get a good night's sleep because of NBC's decision to broadcast the Olympics prepackaged, in prime time on the East Coast ... nearly 18 hours after an event has happened.
Friday's Opening Ceremonies will be shown in Hawaii on KHNL, Hawaii's NBC affiliate, beginning at 4:30 p.m. here. The problem is, it will be 1:30 p.m. Saturday in Sydney, right about the time men's beach doubles volleyball starts and the finals of the women's 400-meter freestyle individual medley will be held.
The worst part is, with a 21-hour time difference between Hawaii and Sydney, island viewers would only be three hours off real-time, Australian prime time competition ... if there was a live broadcast.
But there will be no live TV. No live video images on the Internet, because the International Olympic Committee and NBC have embargoed those images from use by all media sources ... including NBC.com.
KHNL has no choice but to go along with the program -- and the programming. NBC paid $705 million for the rights fees and the rights to show us what they think we want to see. Like their featured athletes in those perfectly embroidered profiles.
"We have no control over it,'' said KHNL programming director Dan Schmidt. "We're expecting a lot of grief, but there's nothing we can do.
"Hawaii was the perfect location to have it shown live, but we can't. The network is treating this as an event rather than a sporting event.''
Silly me. Here I thought it was called the Olympic Games, not the Olympic made-for-TV miniseries.
WHAT happened to "Must See TV"? We now have to settle for "Just See It When We Let You TV."
As Robert Wright, president of NBC, said in a recent interview, "When we went into these Olympic deals, we hoped to enhance NBC's reputation. And not lose too much money.''
I want my TripleCast.
NBC was ahead of its time in 1992 with its three-channel, live feed from Barcelona. The network has taken a major step backward with this tape-delay stuff.
It's as poor of a decision as opening up the Aloha Stadium parking lot 2 1/2 hours before a University of Hawaii football game.
Maybe NBC controlled that, too. So many people missed the opening kickoff, stuck in traffic, that they had to come home to watch the replay on KHNL's affiliate KFVE ... although that was only a four-hour tape delay.
There are a few alternatives. You can move to Canada and get 288 hours of live coverage by the CBC.
You can go to one of the Web sites for real-time results (no video).
Or -- and I did warn you -- you can read this newspaper.
Friday's complete results will be in Friday's paper. Photos of Friday's Opening Ceremonies will be in Friday's paper.
Don't get mad.
We don't mean to ruin your television viewing. But when boxer Brian Viloria wins or loses a bout, or Robyn Ah Mow sets for the U.S., the results will run in that day's paper.
Not a day later.
Cindy Luis is Star-Bulletin sports editor.
Her column appears weekly.