The 2014 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony began at 11AM EST in Sochi, Russia. Great Britain and Canada decided to air the ceremony live despite the time difference, while NBC in America decided to air it on tape delay in prime time.
NBC owns five stations: NBC, NBC Sports Network, CNBC, MSNBC and USA Network. Despite all these choices they chose to keep America waiting to air it in prime time. There is an NBC app, but it is buggy and crashes and they chose not to stream it on their webpage.
It is the 21st century and the digital age, but with little access online viewers wonder if NBC is stuck in 5th-Century BC Athens. There are bootleg live streams plus Twitter and Facebook, which means spoilers everywhere. NBC was guilty of spoiling Missy Franklin’s gold medal with a Today show promo right before they aired the tape delay in 2012.
There were many people who took to Twitter to express their frustration at NBC. Here are a few examples.
@NBCOlympics I would like to be ready but your app sucks and never opens
— Angry Chef (@restaurantbitch) February 7, 2014
Was trying to find streaming video on the NBC Olympics site. Got JS debug alert instead pic.twitter.com/lbDGtjnB9O
— Jesse Emery (@ejesse) February 7, 2014
I hate how the @NBCOlympics are not on TV live in the United States. Sucks. So. Much. Ugh. #Sochi2014
— Matt Young (@Matt_Y163) February 7, 2014
The whole world is watching the #Sochi2014 #OpeningCeremony but the Americans. Lol Hint: @NBCOlympics this ain’t the cold war!
— RNM (@ryannolanmckay) February 7, 2014
This is also a special Olympics because it is the largest U.S. team ever sent to the games. There are 230 members: 105 females and 125 males. 106 of them are returning Olympians and 99 won medals at the 2010 Vancouver games.
Viewers can find the TV schedules at the NBC Olympics website.
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