Apparently there is now an Olympic Channel: 24/7 coverage of Olympic sports and athletes

[mb23100]

I enjoy the summer Olympics. Gymnastics has always been my jam. I've struggled to care about the winter Olympics, though.

I enjoy the patriotism and camaraderie among the athletes, and I can appreciate the idea of a sports contest that brings the world together.

Im the complete opposite. I enjoy luge, bobledding,ski jump, biathalon, etc and couldnt care less about track and field

 

[VulcanNervPinch]

Damn, there's some serious negativity toward Olympic sports around here. I did not expect that.

Yeah, I don't mean to piss on your fun, but the more I reflect on it, the more I really dislike, bordering on hate, the Olympics.

• When I was young, I got into the whole "root for America" thing. It still seemed important to outperform the Cold War Russians. But the USSR fear is gone and nationalism is generally unpleasant.
• When I was young, I liked rooting for these "plucky young athletes, doing it for the love of the sport". But then they changed the rules so that pros could play, since most countries were just abusing the "amateur" bullshit to death. Between me getting wiser and circumstances changing, when I look now, I see a lot of pro athletes doing it for the money - pay, sponsorships & endorsements, whatever.
  
• The Olympics used to feel more pure in other ways, too. Since there was no cash prize, there was real incentive to cheat, right? Yeah, so much for that. The "a few may juice, but those are rare exceptions" delusion died long before the same delusion died off in MMA. We know now many (maybe even all?) nations even have organized, formal, national doping programs.
  
• Some events - gymnastics in particular - are extraordinarily unsavory and little more than institutionalized child abuse.
  
• Whenever it comes time to pick a host city, the flood of lies always begins about how much it's going to stimulate the economy and how all the new facilities will be permanently useful. And then, when it's all over, big tax dollars have been spent making it all happen, while not nearly as much has been collected to offset it. And stadiums sit empty, rotting, and useless. But the politically connected construction firms and other relevant companies have (literally) made out like bandits. And the politicians have plenty of favors in their pocket to call on later.
  
• Even forgetting all that (which I can't), it's still just a bunch of B through D level sports that I mostly don't care about. And even if I were to watch, I probably wouldn't learn much about them. The networks are too busy selling human interest soap operas to actually spend much time teaching you about the sport itself.

 

[koolinkunming]

4 years is an awfully long time to fill with content of an event that lasts like 10 days or whatever. Even if you factor in the Winter Olympics still.....

 

[Guestx]

Out of the ones listd on that page: The equestrians(blah blah blah, yes I know horses are cool), golf, sailing for a start. A lot of the categories contain a bunch of the same shit to. Like the cycling, swimming, and gymnastics. No one unless they normally follow it I imagine thinks "Oh shit, the 200m trans butterfly is on! But so is the gold medal "trampolining", I can also catch the 1/4 final ping pong! Ching chong chang is a lock this year!".

Well I think we should acknowledge that just because you or I don't care about a particular sport doesn't mean that it's not worthy of some recognition. In fact, one of the main reasons I like the Olympics is because they shine a spotlight on to sports that usually don't get a lot of attention. It can be refreshing to check some sports out there aren't the usual line-up of football, baseball, basketball, hockey and so forth.

For instance, you mentioned ping pong and spoke of derisively. I don't have any personal love for ping pong, but I did watch this documentary not too long ago called Top Spin and it really opened my eyes to how much skill and athleticism is involved.





So even though it's not for me, I'm happy to see these guys get a big stage upon which they can show their skills.

The one that I might agree with you on is trampolining, simply because it seems a little too insubstantial to be recognized. But gymnastics as a whole is actually THE major reason that I watch the Olympics every year.

 

[Guestx]

4 years is an awfully long time to fill with content of an event that lasts like 10 days or whatever. Even if you factor in the Winter Olympics still.....

Well it's 24/7 of the actual Olympics, but rather year-round coverage of the sports that are in the Olympics. For instance, today most of the coverage was of the 2017 FINA World Aquatic Championships, so diving and shit.

 

[koolinkunming]

Well it's 24/7 of the actual Olympics, but rather year-round coverage of the sports that are in the Olympics. For instance, today most of the coverage was of the 2017 FINA World Aquatic Championships, so diving and shit.

Yeah, but still....

 

[Guestx]

When I was young, I got into the whole "root for America" thing. It still seemed important to outperform the Cold War Russians. But the USSR fear is gone and nationalism is generally unpleasant.

I am still that way! I don't understand why anyone wouldn't want to support a member of their community, and on a global scale the United States is our community.

The Olympics used to feel more pure in other ways, too. Since there was no cash prize, there was real incentive to cheat, right? Yeah, so much for that. The "a few may juice, but those are rare exceptions" delusion died long before the same delusion died off in MMA. We know now many (maybe even all?) nations even have organized, formal, national doping programs.

Well sure, I don't like that either. But I think that it's like that in competition. Where there's incentive to win, there will be cheating. I don't think that's avoidable, but I also don't think it's specifically an Olympic thing.

Some events - gymnastics in particular - are extraordinarily unsavory and little more than institutionalized child abuse.

C'mon man, "institutionalized child abuse"? Don't you think that's overstating it a bit?

I love gymnastics, BTW. As I just said above, that's my #1 reason for watching.

Whenever it comes time to pick a host city, the flood of lies always begins about how much it's going to stimulate the economy and how all the new facilities will be permanently useful. And then, when it's all over, big tax dollars have been spent making it all happen, while not nearly as much has been collected to offset it. And stadiums sit empty, rotting, and useless. But the politically connected construction firms and other relevant companies have (literally) made out like bandits. And the politicians have plenty of favors in their pocket to call on later.

I also wouldn't blame that on the Olympics. Blame it on the individuals who made that happen.

We hosted the Olympics here in Salt Lake City. It actually did a lot for Utah. Salt Lake has never been the same, in a good way.

Even forgetting all that (which I can't), it's still just a bunch of B through D level sports that I mostly don't care about. And even if I were to watch, I probably wouldn't learn much about them. The networks are too busy selling human interest soap operas to actually spend much time teaching you about the sport itself.

I would encourage you to not throw the baby out with the bath water. It's like saying, "Government is corrupt so we just shouldn't have government. Let's abolish all government and let anarchy reign!"

Is there value in the IDEA of the Olympics? If so, then there is value in the Olympics itself. Sure, maybe there are problems that need to be cleaned up, but that's the way it is with anything.

 

[Guestx]

Yeah, but still....

But still what?

There are something like fifty sports in the Olympics. It seems like surely they can find a way to fill the airtime.

 

[koolinkunming]

But still what?

There are something like fifty sports in the Olympics. It seems like surely they can find a way to fill the airtime.

I guess. I just can't imagine someone regularly watching it, being that interested in a big enough portion of the sports to sustain a sizeable audience.

 

[Guestx]

I guess. I just can't imagine someone regularly watching it, being that interested in a big enough portion of the sports to sustain a sizeable audience.

We'll see what happens with it. Maybe it will succeed, maybe it will not.

According to the article I linked in the OP the idea started floating around all the way back in 1994 and the channel's been allotted a 5-year, $600 million operating budget.

I have no idea how much I'll watch it but I do like the idea of it.

 

[koolinkunming]

We'll see what happens with it. Maybe it will succeed, maybe it will not.

According to the article I linked in the OP the idea started floating around all the way back in 1994 and the channel's been allotted a 5-year, $600 million operating budget.

I have no idea how much I'll watch it but I do like the idea of it.

I agree it's a nice idea, but I think most people's interest is only really peaks around a month or two before the event until it's finished, then nobody really cares anymore except for people involved in those specific sports.

 

[Guestx]

I agree it's a nice idea, but I think most people's interest is only really peaks around a month or two before the event until it's finished, then nobody really cares anymore except for people involved in those specific sports.

I think maybe the hope is that the people who ARE interested in those specific sports will be able to provide the bulk of the revenue, and that the channel can also pick up some extra viewership in the form people who are curious about sports outside the mainstream as well as those "sports people" who don't really give a fuck what the sport is, they just like to watch people compete.

I've actually had it on in the background for the past few hours so they've managed to at least get a little viewership out of ME.

 

[riddleofsteel]

We'll see what happens with it. Maybe it will succeed, maybe it will not.

According to the article I linked in the OP the idea started floating around all the way back in 1994 and the channel's been allotted a 5-year, $600 million operating budget.

I have no idea how much I'll watch it but I do like the idea of it.

I think they'd plan on showing the world championship tournaments/games in non-Olympic years, various championships such as European Championships for sport X and Asian Championships for sport Y. Plus for the Olympic games, some sports have qualifying tournaments, so they could show those, for example, wrestling has been restructured again, 16 entries per weight division, only one entry per country plus the host country (At least I think the host country isn't included in that 16) so there are several qualifying tournaments.

And as you stated in another post, they'll have info pieces on various athletes; I imagine as the Games drawn near they'll really promote those.
I'm guessing the channel will probably end up revolving around track & field sprints, swimming and gymnastics.

 

[RawHawg]

We need 24/7, a channel - The Big C - All Curling, All The Time

 

[Guestx]

I think they'd plan on showing the world championship tournaments/games in non-Olympic years, various championships such as European Championships for sport X and Asian Championships for sport Y. Plus for the Olympic games, some sports have qualifying tournaments, so they could show those, for example, wrestling has been restructured again, 16 entries per weight division, only one entry per country plus the host country (At least I think the host country isn't included in that 16) so there are several qualifying tournaments.

And as you stated in another post, they'll have info pieces on various athletes; I imagine as the Games drawn near they'll really promote those.
I'm guessing the channel will probably end up revolving around track & field sprints, swimming and gymnastics.

I hope they provide a variety of sports. One thing about the actual Olympics is that it seems like 80% of the coverage is on about 20% of the events. Stuff like archery, fencing, taekwondo, etc never get much airtime so I'm hoping this channel will at least provide some coverage of those lesser seen events.

What I'm also wondering is what they're going to do during the actual Olympics. I know NBC usually has the rights so I would think that they would want to retain those exclusively. So is the Olympic Channel going to show the actual Olympics when that time comes? And if not, what they are going to show?

 

[riddleofsteel]

I hope they provide a variety of sports. One thing about the actual Olympics is that it seems like 80% of the coverage is on about 20% of the events. Stuff like archery, fencing, taekwondo, etc never get much airtime so I'm hoping this channel will at least provide some coverage of those lesser seen events.

What I'm also wondering is what they're going to do during the actual Olympics. I know NBC usually has the rights so I would think that they would want to retain those exclusively. So is the Olympic Channel going to show the actual Olympics when that time comes? And if not, what they are going to show?

I think 20% is high. Anyway, they definitely focus on a few events in a few sports (2016 Olympics had 28 sports with a total of 306 events). In 2016, a couple of sports had less than 1 hour of TV time in the US market.

I get the feeling this will turn out like the NCAA conference channels - Pac12, SEC, B1G - they all stated their channels would feature all sports and wouldn't just be for football & basketball...didn't take long for that scheduling to fall apart & football and bball began the focus with shows about coaches, teams, airing games from the 1980s. They do show other sports but they've pushed most of them over to their websites, which surprise, surprise isn't covered cable/satellite packages. So, on the B1G channel you get one hockey game & one wrestling dual meet a week while getting to watch shows about places to eat in B1G towns every other night.

 

[ufcfan4]

In before Real World-esque reality show about the Olympic Village.

 

[LATEXXX COMMANDO]

I don't watch the event, dafuq would I want to watch their training and build up to it.

 

[Stargazer Rex]

Will they be showing chess, TS?

 

[Guestx]

Will they be showing chess, TS?

I sure as hell wish they would!

FIDE (the international governing body for chess) has been pushing to get chess into the Olympics for years but it never happens. There's currently a bid to get chess into the 2020 games.