NBC Bogarts the Olympics
August 9th, 2008 by timbotron
The Olympics began in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece - a celebration when rival states would temporarily drop their disputes and come together to compete in the name of sportsmanship . . . and heinous profiteering and media monopolies.
I would like to continue by saying: “Both NBC and China can suck my b**ls!”
The above feelings can be best explained by the following sequence of events that happened yesterday:
• I was busy and missed the Olympic Opening Ceremonies and I expected to find video clips online.
• I do a Google search for “Olympic opening ceremony video,” and find this article on AFP.
• It says that NBC paid nearly 900 million dollars for exclusive Olympic broadcasting rights and that they are preventing posting of video footage on YouTube.
• Attempt 1: I’m a sport and so I go to the NBC Olympics Website and search for “opening ceremony” and find a list of videos . . . but first I have to download the new Microsoft Silver Bullsh!t Viewer to watch the videos.
• Attempt 2: This NBC video is called ‘Opening Ceremony.’ Nope, wait, it’s just a video of 2004 Olympians being self-congratulatory about how awesome it is to be in the Olympics.
• Attempt 3: This NBC video is called ‘Opening Ceremony Approaches’ . . . nope, this isn’t it either.
• Attempt 4: This NBC video is called ‘Opening Ceremony’ . . . oh wait, this is just some lame sketch done by an antidote for funny named ‘Matty Blake’ (a grown man goes by ‘Matty’?!?).
• NBCOlympics.com doesn’t even have the opening ceremony on their website (or they’ve hidden it)!!
• I search YouTube: the clips have been ‘removed due to copyright violation.’
• I finally find video of the Opening Ceremonies on Newsradio 1290 WJNO - they posted these clips of the opening ceremonies. I love you! [update: 8/10/08 - these videos have now been taken down due to 'copyright violation'. The Huffington Post has video footage of the opening ceremonies from a Dutch news television station]
Dear China and NBC,
You managed to sell and buy something (for 900 million dollars) that should not be sellable and should be available to the world. Neither of you own the internet. And many people are doing what they can to make the Olympics what it is supposed to be: something for humanity to share (not own).
You d!cks.
For the record:
I will not watch any Olympic footage on NBC. I will be watching footage from ‘alternative’ online sources for the duration of the Olympics. And as a consumer, I will be avoiding all companies that advertise on NBC’s Olympics broadcasts.
Suck my b**ls.
Love,
Tim.
And in the spirit of my newfound despise for NBC’s policy about Olympic footage, here is an exclusive video clip of the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, via NowPublic.com:
August 10th, 2008 at 3:58 am
Thank you!!! Apparently I’m not crazy. I’ve been teaching in Seoul for the past few months and when I got to class Friday night my students were DYING to watch the opening ceremonies. I scoured the internets for a live streaming, but to no avail. Really? The opening ceremonies should have been EVERYWHERE. Lucky for us, we’re only an hour ahead of Beijing, so we watched on a student’s cell phone. However, I have not been able to find any internet broadcasts to watch the parts I missed. (And I kinda want to see ‘em after Stephanie called raving about ‘em.) NBC can suck my b*lls as well.
Mindy
August 14th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Yeah for unitards, tiki torches and twirling umbrellas! I hope they make a sweded version of the whole olympics in their backyard. awesome.
August 23rd, 2008 at 3:22 pm
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