Sorry to be posting the column so late this week, but I’ve been busy working on this great app idea. It’s called Spoiler Alert, and it promises to wipe any breaking news about who won
the 200 IM at the Olympics from every aspect of my life until I’m good and ready. It’ll monitor Twitter, the front page of nytimes.com, NPR News, while I’m indulging my carpooling
hobby, you name it. I can’t wait to inhabit this beautiful bubble this app will create, and I bet you can’t wait, either.
Just think of the possibilities! No more finding out
inadvertently that Lane Pryce killed
himself on “Mad Men,”or that Derek Jeter is going to undergo a sex-change operation, or that Ryan Lochte didn’t turn out to be the next
Michael Phelps, but does urinate in the Olympic pool.
This is earth-shattering stuff, not to mention, important for the future of
the species, as anyone who tweeted the #NBCFail hashtag will tell you. Maybe, a week ago, you thought it was time to be freaked out about global
warming, but now it’s all so clear. What you really should be freaked out about is that you knew that Jordyn Wieber didn’t make the cut for the women’s gymnastics
all-around finals, hours before NBC’s TV coverage told you.
(Somewhat) more seriously though, the so-called first social media games have told us volumes about what a social
media-saturated world looks like. And – spoiler alert! -- in this case, it’s not as much of a game-changer as you might think.
My real-time philosophizing here has to do with two
observations about the Olympics:
1. That NBC is attributing the complaints about its coverage to “a vocal minority,” flying in the
face of conventional social media wisdom, which says you must listen, and take heed, at all times. According to this story in the New York Daily News, NBC Sports chairman Mark Lazarus even
went so far as to say: ““It’s not everyone’s
inalienable right to get whatever they want.” Wow. I think I’ll hire that guy to have a little chit-chat with my eight-year-old.
2. Despite the fact that the results of every event are revealed in real time, and harder and harder to completely avoid – until the launch of my
app, that is – TV and online viewership of the London Games are up. This struck me as pretty
surprising, when you consider that so many events are available online and that real-time results, while available back then, weren’t nearly as ubiquitous. The long and short of it is that
knowing who won doesn’t dampen ratings; in fact, it’s clearer and clearer that social media helps ratings, spoiler alerts and all.
I’m sure
some readers will find my cavalier attitude toward the NBC Olympics haters wanting, but the complaints forget one essential fact about NBC’s coverage of the Olympics: the broadcast exists so NBC
can make money. While the network has received some useful, um, input into how it might reconsider coverage in the future, the fact remains that, even with the glitches, NBC’s formula works.
When most of the money is made from TV, why would you air the finals of a big event in real time when real time is at 11 in the morning, instead of during prime time?
It should also be noted
that NBC, like many a TV network, is more or less forced into providing live-streams online to satisfy its audience whether it’s a good business proposition, or not. The good news is that online
traffic is up by 8% – with some 1.5 million, for instance, watching the women’s gymnastic team final as it happened. But if you think NBCOlympics.com is a cash cow, you’re probably
wrong – unless the network has managed to rewrite the rules of online advertising.
At its core, NBC’s Olympics coverage is where old media business models are intersecting with a
newer one. But, even if you’re a true believer in the future of digital, it’s just about impossible to pretend that, for a network paying over a billion dollars for Olympics rights,
the newer, digital business model is the one to emphasize. The money just isn’t there.
Now, back to building that app. Enjoy your tape-delayed weekend, everyone!