DominicDecoco said:
I have just read that NBC, during their broadcast of this years Olympics, shows 20 minutes of commercials every hour.
Is that really true?
Probably, if not more. I usually zap through because I record it, so it doesn't bother me. They paid 1.18 billion dollar (where does that go?), so they need to make that back and then some.
Their coverage is generally good, around 4-6 channels during the day/evening with coverage of most events of that day. Obviously it's generally "biased" towards american participation, which is understandable, and most broadcasters in other countries would do the same. Since the US has such a huge delegation, you get to see a lot of events.
They have made some mistakes though; call it liberal editing techniques - I read they edited out a mistake in a gymnastics competition to create, otherwise absent, suspense during prime time; the delayed the broadcasting of the opening ceremony, so they could run it at prime time (also when most people are at home); the editing out of a part of the opening ceremony, to be replaced with an interview with Phelps; a bunch of commentators that are not knowledgeable, or plain patriots, etc.
Their live app is quite good, pretty good stream quality, and with more coverage, generally of sports the US doesn't or barely features in. The problem here is they insert ads, seemingly at timed intervals, which means the placement doesn't always makes sense (i.e. when you are supposed to see a score, or a result, they cut away)
In general, in the US, I have noticed on other other channels, for example when they show a movie, they leave the last 5-7 minutes of the movie behind a frustratingly long commercial interruption. Meaning, if you really want to see the end of the movie, you'll have to sit through at least 10m of ads. I think a 1.5 hrs movie often turns into a 2:30 hrs recorded event.