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Television

Olympics Opening Ceremony Ratings Fall To 33-year Low (axios.com) 143

Ratings for the Olympic Games opening ceremony were down 36% compared to 2016, according to preliminary numbers from NBC Universal. From a report: The figures for the Tokyo Games event mark the lowest audience for an Olympics opening ceremony event in over three decades, per Reuters. Roughly $1 billion has been spent on advertising around the Olympics. Ratings are the only real metric marketers can use to justify much of that spend. About 17 million people watched the event on broadcast and streaming, according to NBC. Early broadcast numbers suggest some 10 million people watched the event on linear TV. By comparison, about 26.5 million people and 27.8 million people tuned in to the Olympic opening events in Rio in 2016 and Pyeongchang in 2018, respectively. Some of this is out of NBC's hands. Without fans in the stands, the content may not be as compelling to viewers this year as it has been in the past. Some reviews of the opening ceremony pegged it as downbeat compared to previous ceremonies, others described it as boring.
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Olympics Opening Ceremony Ratings Fall To 33-year Low

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  • Hard to have a really outstanding show when social distancing and reluctance from performers really cut down the experience. With all that is going on in Japan, it is amazing they are having this at all.
    • by shanen ( 462549 )

      It's the sunk cost fallacy.

      My prediction is that China is going to point at Tokyo when cancelling the 2022 Winter Olympics. RSN.

      Preventing Delta from infesting China is sufficient reason. Even better that it's true, but the bigger truth is that there's no way to cook the books to create even a spectral fantasy of Olympic profit anytime soon. No monetary profit nor profit in terms of public relations or any other way. And Xi is not going to commit the sunk cost fallacy.

      (And if the Chinese were clever in thei

      • A cost isn't 'sunk' if you can still capitalize on it going forward, which the Olympics (even in this reduced form) is an example of.

        Actually, I think it's pretty hard to find correct examples of the sunk cost fallacy in the real world, outside something synthetic like a dice game.

        • Sunk cost isn't about whether or not you can still capitalize on it, it's about whether it's worth the additional cost that still must be spent in order to capitalize on it. In this case, that includes the potential cost of an outbreak.

          • by shanen ( 462549 )

            Just so (I think (not being an actual economist or even involved in an actual business)). The Japanese government has stopped talking about how much more money it cost them, but at the time of the postponement they were all about the numbers.

            However I would say it isn't a "potential" thing as regards Delta in China. Considering how hard the Japanese are trying to isolate the Olympics from the citizens and how many infections have already been detected, I think it is pretty certain that it's going to happen.

          • I wouldn't call it 'capitalizing' on something if your net is negative - but yeah, agreed. And much harder to predict with the uncertainty of virus spread, vs. simply the direct monetary costs.
    • From what I can tell, if the average Japanese citizen had any say in the matter, there wouldn't have been an Olympics hosted there at all. So if the hosting city is literally treating the athletes like they have the plague, it's hard to feel all that enthusiastic about that whole affair. Beyond that, the stories of how bizarre and badly organized the safety protocols are, despite Tokyo and the IOC having a full year to figure out how to run a Games during a pandemic, that too kind of robs the whole thing of

      • Yeah. May 18 NYT: "In a survey released on Monday in Japan, 83 percent of those polled said they did not want Tokyo to hold the Olympics and Paralympics."

        I don't really understand it, because there are no spectators anyways, and the athletes and support personnel are a small enough group to ensure vaccination and reasonable precautions. But that number speaks for itself (unless the 'poll' was administered e.g. at a protest rally, and I have to trust NYT to vet information better than to do something lik

      • Make sure you bring your anti-sex bed and wokeism.
        • Make sure you bring your anti-sex bed and wokeism.

          That bed takes creepy to a new level. Maybe these athletes will invent never before tried things like sex standing up, laying on the floor, in the shower. Just not in the cardboard bed.

          • by Cederic ( 9623 )

            That bed doesn't fucking exist. Utter nonsense.

            As if athletes are fucking each other in bed during the Olympics anyway. No, they're on the kitchen table, the sofa, the back seat of the taxi, anywhere they can get it.

            • That bed doesn't fucking exist. Utter nonsense.

              As if athletes are fucking each other in bed during the Olympics anyway. No, they're on the kitchen table, the sofa, the back seat of the taxi, anywhere they can get it.

              The bed apparently exists, only not actually designed to prevent sexual activity.

              It's pretty obvious that in an Olympics, weights might vary from the biggest weight lifter, to the smallest gymnast. So the concept of a bed that will somehow collapse if two gymnasts are on it and bumping uglies, yet hold up to a single weightlifter is pretty bogus.

              These things get started as something that sounds kind of plausible, in an event where the staff wears blue biohazard suits, where you aren't allowed to give

  • by psergiu ( 67614 ) on Monday July 26, 2021 @01:28PM (#61622093)

    The Olympics already started ?
    I remember from years ago, when I was still watching broadcast TV that there were announcements about the fore-coming Olympics and they were talking on the news about: "The Olympics will start in X days, don't forget to tune in"
    I have seen no announcements between my on-demand movie streaming and my highly curated online news articles based only on my interests said nothing about tuning in. Tuning in to where ? I no longer have cable TV for a long time.
    Anyone has a magnet link for the opening ceremony ?

    • by larryjoe ( 135075 ) on Monday July 26, 2021 @01:35PM (#61622133)

      The Olympics already started ?

      This is the real reason. There hasn't been the build-up to the Olympics across all forms of media and advertising that we usually see. It's a weird/off year to hold the games. So, the general anticipation for the games has been lower.

      The "boring" aspect of the opening ceremonies is a non-factor. The only people who would suspect that the broadcast was boring would be people who actually bothered to watch the show.

      • by psergiu ( 67614 )

        So, were they boring ? Are they exciting enough to be worth watching instead of another movie from my list ?

    • by Known Nutter ( 988758 ) on Monday July 26, 2021 @01:47PM (#61622177)
      YouTube TV did a great job with this. It popped up a notification on my TV when I started the YTTV app and gave a bunch of options to record some or all of the games. Hit two buttons and have all the games (on offer) on demand. I've been able to enjoy games easily this way compared to years past. I've learned more about fencing in the last two days then I've ever known.
    • by Thelasko ( 1196535 ) on Monday July 26, 2021 @02:01PM (#61622229) Journal

      The Olympics already started ? I remember from years ago, when I was still watching broadcast TV that there were announcements about the fore-coming Olympics and they were talking on the news about: "The Olympics will start in X days, don't forget to tune in" I have seen no announcements between my on-demand movie streaming and my highly curated online news articles based only on my interests said nothing about tuning in. Tuning in to where ? I no longer have cable TV for a long time. Anyone has a magnet link for the opening ceremony ?

      NBCUniversal holds all of the IP for the 2021 Olympics. Outside of that sphere, you wouldn't hear much about it. However, when I was at the car dealer last week, the TV in the waiting room was on NBC, and they made sure you knew about it.

    • by leonbev ( 111395 ) on Monday July 26, 2021 @02:09PM (#61622275) Journal

      Comcast/NBC did their damnedest to remind us that the Olympics was starting weeks in advance. What they failed to do is make me care.

      When you really think about it, the Olympics is really just a bunch of kids with wealthy parents from around the world competing to see who can do a useless or outdated skill better than anyone else.

      • I saw promos for "Watch the Olympics live when it starts" on some streaming service but I had no idea when it was starting.

      • by Sebby ( 238625 ) on Monday July 26, 2021 @03:37PM (#61622731)

        When you really think about it, the Olympics is really just a bunch of kids with wealthy parents from around the world competing to see who can do a useless or outdated skill better than anyone else.

        Some in different circles might think the same thing about DEFCON.

        • by storkus ( 179708 )

          When you really think about it, the Olympics is really just a bunch of kids with wealthy parents from around the world competing to see who can do a useless or outdated skill better than anyone else.

          Some in different circles might think the same thing about DEFCON.

          Wealthy parents in different circles who say the same about DEFCON won't be wealthy much longer.

    • The Olympics already started ?
      I remember from years ago, when I was still watching broadcast TV that there were announcements about the fore-coming Olympics and they were talking on the news about: "The Olympics will start in X days, don't forget to tune in"
      I have seen no announcements between my on-demand movie streaming and my highly curated online news articles based only on my interests said nothing about tuning in. Tuning in to where ? I no longer have cable TV for a long time.
      Anyone has a magnet link for the opening ceremony ?

      The weird thing is I'm fairly interested in watching, not the opening ceremony, but the events themselves.

      I love the fact that we can have things so individualized and curated, but we do seem to have lost a lot of common culture in the process.

      There's a lot of huge celebrities I know nothing about, famous shows I've never seen, and now major global events that started without me even hearing about it.

      • There's a lot of huge celebrities I know nothing about, famous shows I've never seen

        You're not missing much there....

    • I think you kinda hit the point. Being that we are streaming our shows, and living in our echo chambers, we no longer really get notice that something big is going on unless it is about those scary other people who are against everything we are for.

  • 5AM live as well

  • Cable Issues? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ParkerV ( 8430389 ) on Monday July 26, 2021 @01:29PM (#61622099)
    I also wonder how much of this is due to the changes in how people consume visual media. I don't know many people in the younger demographic (21+) who even own cable. Perhaps it's more of a distribution issue rather than an 'interest' issue.
    • No mod points, but yeah, this was first thing that comes to mind. Who watches tv any more?
      • by znrt ( 2424692 )

        underdeveloped countries like spain. tv still rocks here and is a unchallenged bastion for conservative (and beyond) mindset. yes, some use facebook too but hey barely know how to write. and no, the new generations don't seem much smarter.

    • Precisely!

      Though I'm not a major sports fan, I have always been used to having the Games on as background while I'm doing other things. It's alwsys been a network exclusive but free, sponsored by advertising.

      What changed this time is that I have dropped cable. Live sports is the one thing that cord cutters can't get.

      • Live sports is the one thing that cord cutters can't get.

        If I hadn't already cut the cord years ago, your statement would have convinced to do it right now. I would hope that, in addition to not getting sports channels, I would also be unable to get live paint-drying and live grass-growing channels.

        [spoiler]Those channels are indeed unavailable when you cancel your Cable subscription.[/spoiler]

    • by fermion ( 181285 )
      My impression was that it was only on Cable or Peacock in the US. Since I have neither it was not an option.
      • I bought HD tv for the China Olympics and watch over the air. Haven't seen if it's available since I didn't know it started. But they can't measure my eyeballs either way.

    • "About 17 million people watched the event on broadcast and streaming, according to NBC."

      I guess reading isn't fundamental anymore.
    • Personally I prefer to watch clips of events on YouTube these days. I do not have the time to watch anything on TV.
    • If you subscribe to any streaming service which includes NBC, you can stream their Olympics coverage. The NBC site authenticates your streaming service, and gives you access.

      But I think what you say is still relevant. The opening was live in the U.S. early Friday morning, and NBC re-broadcast it Friday evening. But for some reason the replay wasn't available for streaming all day Friday. I gave up trying to watch it on Friday and didn't stream it until Saturday, by which time it was buried underneath rep
    • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      I think it's more of an interest issue.

      I mean, news coverage of it is fairly thin on the ground, and the excitement isn't there this year.

      I think honestly the problem is COVID-19. It's put a damper on things, and even in Japan they're going into lockdown again, and this puts a real damper on any reason to celebrate. Had Japan been able to delay the start to when they could open the games to everyone, then ratings would probably go up.

      Instead, all we get are news stories about protests in Japan against the g

    • by ZeroPly ( 881915 )
      I really wanted to watch this Olympics - I spent a week trying to figure out how I could pay for a package online, for say under $100, but finally gave up. The problem is that NBC is still in a 1970's appointment TV mentality, which just doesn't make sense these days. I don't need replays on 3 different "channels" to try to figure out if weightlifting is on NBC-SN or Peacock or NBC. I need them to be in one place. And if it's live, I don't need a talking head narrating every split second, and pointing out
  • I started watching it but ... the exercise bikes... and the projections remind me too much of some 64k demos filled with random meaningless CG that exist for their own sake.

  • I wonder how much flag-dissing "athletes" contributed to not only the decline in Olympics viewership, but NFL and NBA and even MLB and NASCAR. All of the above are under where they were a few short years ago. i WoNdEr wHy

    So many reasons to drop TV these days... done it myself, a few years ago already. I frankly do not miss it one bit. For the past 10 years before I cut, all I was watching really was TAWOG, Rick and Morty, and F1. And when F1 dumped the pit babes and went full-retard with the electrics, I

  • by NaCh0 ( 6124 ) on Monday July 26, 2021 @01:53PM (#61622199) Homepage

    Not only did I not watch, I blocked the olympics account on twitter to get their sponsored posts out of my feed.

  • About 8 minutes of the usual headline news is dominated by the Olympics every morning - but that's on "ye olde fashioned TV", which I sometimes watch whilst eating my toast and drinking coffee in the morning.

    I'm not sure why I even bother. Habit I guess.

    I'll wait for a condensed highlights 2 minute YouTube video - "Olympics 2020, in 2021? Yeah, saw that." /s

  • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Monday July 26, 2021 @02:09PM (#61622277)

    I genuinely wanted to. But while I have a "TV" outlet in the room that connects to a cable somewhere, nothing comes out of it. If it's not on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, or Streamable for free on Youtube or Twitch I don't have access to it, and also have zero interest in paying for it in a pay-per-view or pay-per-event style system either.

    I guess those people who pay for just Eurosport or some shit like that can probably see it. For me... nada.

    I heard one of the contestants had an epic fail after coming second thinking they came first so I went to look for the video. Couldn't find it. It wasn't on Youtube. The news sites which covered it showed "this is not available in your country". I gave up.
    Same with England vs Italy. For something that was apparently broadcast for free on many over the air channels I found not a single stream of even the game highlights (just wanted the highlights, not going to sit through 90 min of that crap). No bueno. Also gave up, though apparently Italy won.

    If you want to lock yourself away behind paywalls and not adopt modern technology then expect your viewership figures to reflect that.

    • Buy an antenna. I get dozens of channels and the big networks broadcast uncompressed.

      • by MobyDisk ( 75490 )

        I have an antenna, and yet it still doesn't show up on Netflix or YouTube. Maybe I installed the antenna incorrectly? ;-)

        Seriously though: People expect things to be streamable/on-demand. The idea of "Oh, Skiing is on Tuesday at 6pm!" doesn't fly any longer. If the only way is to watch it live, or wait for a rebroadcast at a certain time slot, then many people won't watch it.

      • Buy an antenna. I get dozens of channels and the big networks broadcast uncompressed.

        And mount it where, in the middle of my apartment? Won't work, mind you I'm not sure my TV (from another country) supports the local broadcasting standard.

        Point is that viewership will reflect the fact that many people don't have access or don't want to watch public television.

      • Evidentially I get to watch 30minutes and then I need a cable subscription, so no, that wouldn't even get me through the opening ceremony.

        That's precisely my point. The content is so locked behind paywalls that it is borderline impossible to see. NPO is running a stream but it's unwatchable, they switch between sports every 5 minutes, in some cases not even showing the end of a sport that is nearly finished.

    • It's commercial interests that have killed off online streaming of the Olympics. I lived in the US for a few years when online streaming was still in its infancy. The first Olympics was great because I could watch the BBC coverage of British athletes online which was what I wanted because with so many athletes competing the US coverage was nothing but US athletes which was obviously understandable since it was for a US audience.

      The second Olympics when I was there was a complete waste of time. All the on
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It was on the BBC in the UK. I watched on iPlayer.

      • I hope it's better than what we got over the Channel. NPO's Olympic coverage seems to be programmed by a 2 year old with ADHD holding the remote so frantically switching between sports you don't actually have a clue what's going on.

    • by Anon42Answer ( 6662006 ) on Monday July 26, 2021 @04:44PM (#61622993)

      Even cable coverage does not cover any event from BEGINING to END.
      Have not found any source, including paid subscriptions, where I can easily find the exact event I want to watch and be able to watch the full event from beginning to end. All coverage seems to be snippets.
      In this day and age where there is a camera at every single event, there should be a simple way to see the event I want in its entirety for a modest simple payment.

  • Difficulty tuning in (Score:5, Interesting)

    by peterww ( 6558522 ) on Monday July 26, 2021 @02:13PM (#61622301)

    A friend of mine really wanted to stream some specific events, and could not for the life of her figure out how to stream it. Tried a bunch of services but they were apparently broadcasting different events.

    My guess is that the younger crowd was expecting something like "Netflix for Olympics" and it was too much of a pain in the ass, so they just did something else with their time.

    • by imidan ( 559239 )

      My wife would like to watch the gymnastics. We don't have cable. So we research, and find we need the Peacock streaming service app. Fine, we get that. We find the gymnastic qualifications in the app. Although they happened 16 hours before we were looking (on Sunday) , we seemed to be invited to watch them on Monday morning at 3:00. I haven't spoken with her about it yet, today, but I'm hoping that their 3:00 AM was just the time the video would be made available, not the only time you could watch it?

      Put si

  • Ah, the olympics. Where people from all nations get together in competitive sweating.

    Seriously, with all buzz about it on the radio, I was under the impression that it should be about over by now.

  • NBC (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 26, 2021 @02:19PM (#61622339)

    Could be that NBC is the reason no one is watching. They want you to watch the commercials on their streaming platforms, but only give you a 30 minute preview. After that they want you to pay up. Also, the people who care about all the vapid nonsense that the announcers are spouting off instead of announcing the event that is on, read about it beforehand. It also does not help that if for instance you want to watch Archery, you have to hope that NBC actually is showing Archery when they say they are instead of two minutes of the event and then 58 minutes of other sports at best and useless "stories" at worst.

    • Re:NBC (Score:5, Insightful)

      by elohssa ( 317266 ) on Monday July 26, 2021 @02:27PM (#61622389)

      I don't know why this was modded down, It's absolutely correct. I have a paid version of NBCs Peacock service (provided by some unrelated purchase). It boggles my mind when they think I'd be Ok with commercials in paid content.

    • But NBC has this heartbreaking story about how this archer once got a splinter. While learning to shoot on a wooden bow of all things!
    • I must be the only Slashdot reader who chooses to pay for Comcast cable/streaming (owned by NBC). I pay about $150/mo for unlimited high speed internet and the cable package I want with DVR and their stream app. It's a cost I can live with.

      As I type this, I say the word "olympics" into my Xfinity remote. Here's what shows up on the tiles to choose from:
      - main olympics on NBC (a lot swimming right now which I generally like)
      - tennis
      - beach volleyball
      - fencing
      - judo
      - badminton (3 channels!)
      - archery
      - table te

  • Good (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 26, 2021 @02:25PM (#61622377)
    Fuck the IOC.
  • Money pit... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by erp_consultant ( 2614861 ) on Monday July 26, 2021 @02:26PM (#61622379)

    Seriously, the only Olympics I can recall that actually turned a profit was the Winter Olympics in Utah back in 2002. Every other one ended up with these huge stadiums that went largely unused after the event was over. The 1976 Olympics in Montreal Canada was not paid off until 2006 - a 1.5 billion dollar tax bill that took 30 years to pay off. The stadium was mothballed long before it was ever paid for.

    I'm wondering why anyone would want to host this event. Long ago this stopped being an amateur athletics event. Drug use among athletes is rampant, despite testing efforts. The IOC is one of the most corrupt international agencies on earth - and that's saying a lot considering all the competition it has.

    The Olympics used to be about national pride. These days its more about pissing on the flag to gin up your Instagram feed.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It brings benefits that are difficult to quantify. In this case it was supposed to sell a lot of Japanese TVs.

      I've been enjoying it. The skateboarding was fun, and I doubt the 13 year old girl who won gold today was on drugs, but if she was I still enjoyed watching it.

    • Seriously, the only Olympics I can recall that actually turned a profit was the Winter Olympics in Utah back in 2002

      If I remember correctly, that was because they got a $300million grant from the federal government.

      • I wasn't aware of that but that only reinforces my original comment. Someone pointed out that the 1984 Olympics in LA made money. That now makes it the only genuine money maker - without any pump priming from the government. I'm not suggesting that it's necessarily a bad thing for the government to get behind the Olympics from a monetary standpoint, but my stance on it is that it can't stand on its own merits.

        Just ask our friends in Montreal how happy they were with footing a 30 year bill at taxpayer expens

        • Brisbane 'won' the Games last week. Expenditure is actually pretty modest because no one else put in a serious bid.

          It's an opportunity to announce itself as Australia's third city, sorry Adelaide and Perth. by promoting itself on the world stage. By passenger traffic, when international tourists think of Australia, it's Sydney and then the bits that aren't Sydney.

          And while they'll get federal money, the promotion alone is supposedly worth the "money pit", more so than hosting it in established "world cities

    • Seriously, the only Olympics I can recall that actually turned a profit was the Winter Olympics in Utah back in 2002.

      Either you're quite young or your memory's bad because the 1984 Summer Olympics [wikipedia.org] were very profitable for the host city, Los Angeles.
    • by kaur ( 1948056 )

      I go swimming to the pool that was built for the 1980 Olympics.
      The main event of 1980 took place in Moscow. My hometown (Tallinn) hosted sailing competitons, and the main sports centre is still in active use and doing well. It has a hotel, a harbor, several gyms, restaurants, etc.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
      https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

    • Dialog going on over the last 5 years:

      Utah: We want to run the Olympics again. We know how to do it right.
      USOC: Other cities are interested in it.
      Other cities: No, we always lose money. We don't want it.
      USOC: Oh, well, we don't want Utah to bid for it because they'll get it, and then we won't be able to get summer olympics.
      Utah: ... seriously?

      We still have all the facilities. I'm sure some updates are needed, but it's likely we could run winter olympics with only a year or so notice. But no, let's go sp

  • by Hmmmmmm ( 6216892 ) on Monday July 26, 2021 @02:26PM (#61622383)

    The Olympics presented by NBC really suck. More than half of it is simply a story about the athlete, and not about the sport itself. They present everything as a drama. It's horrible. And if the US doesn't win a metal, they likely don't even bother showing the metal ceremony or even the event. Between all that and the damn commercials, is it really worth watching?

    It's like their Ninja Warrior, it's 80% bullshit, and 20% actual event. The original Japanese version was WAY better, as well as fun.

    I wonder if other countries do the same.

    • This has been the Olympics for that past 40 years.
      The Sports event they cover usually lasts 10-20 minutes, then they spend a good portion of the time introducing the Athletes, so we know who this previously unknown person is so we can root for them.
      I mean in 1984 would we really know about or really car about Mary Lou Retton? Unless we got a lot of backstory. Who really cares about Gymnastics anyways.

      • I'm not sure why we need to know about the athletes to care about a sport. I don't know the ins and outs of every American football player, but I don't mind watching a game and seeing great feats. And the commentators don't go ad nauseam, about the life stories even though in fact if they did many of them would talk about how they grew up in a ghetto, etc. Very few sports present sports in such a manner.

        Gymnastics is the same as any other sport, you watch it for the feats, that normal people can't do, no

    • I wonder if other countries do the same.

      Based on the small amount of coverage I have seen in different countries: yes and no. The back story thing seems to be mainly American and I agree it is incredibly irritating. Not showing the medal ceremony when none of that country's athletes is on the podium is pretty much universal. Practically never showing any athletes but your own country's is just an American thing but I can understand it to some extent given the number of athletes they have but I do think it a bit unfair when they do not show the w

    • I agree. The event on TV has been shit for a long, long time. However going on 5 Olympics overall (summer and winter), you can still watch all of the events online though NBC's App or website. Unfortunately, this year for the first time you don't have the option of watching without the announcers unless you just turn off the volume. Before this iteration you could watch it with just the crowd noise or even with the announcers from other countries if they US wasn't competing. Which as someone with 3 nation
    • by OhPlz ( 168413 )

      NBC does the same thing with the Tour de France. Gets worse every year. The announcers are often wrong, tons of scripted dramatic videos of the riders and teams, helicopters that forget there's a race on and go sight-seeing, even a stupid "3d" table thing that they use to somehow show what techniques the riders are using in the pack, which is just pointless. And the commercials, it's nearly all commercials. Just shut up and show us the competition. I might even pay for that, so long as there's a guaran

  • 90% of the headlines I have seen about the Olympics this year were "bad news" stories about covid problems, protests, people getting kicked out, etc. The "news" wanted me to think that the Olympics were either bad or cancelled.

  • I watched some of the opening ceremony. Boy, was it annoying to see all the Japanese people lined up where the athletes walked waving as if encouraging the (non-existent) live audience to cheer them on. It was incredibly awkward to see. Many athletes looked like they'd rather be taking a nap. Some were laying down. It did not deserve to even be broadcast or streamed. It was a farce. The only people having a good time were in the crowd outside of the stadium that enjoyed the fireworks show. Bad. Just bad.
  • For those of who missed the opening ceremony, where can we watch it?

  • Do I really need to say anymore?
    Bring in gladiatorial games, I'd watch that.
    • by tomhath ( 637240 )
      Do they also still have the washed up gymnasts dancing around with ribbons and inflatable balls?
  • The timescale matters a bit, but it helps to remember we are talking about an event that is happening in a timezone that is much more difficult to follow live. And I do not see anything in this article that talks about the impact of streaming, which keeps getting easier.

    I wonder how this compares to viewership from 2008, and what kind of ratings the Olympics are generating outside the US.

    END COMMUNICATION

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
    It is unfortunate due to Corona, but the opening ceremony BGM was excellent, and featured music from many video game franchises
    Monster Hunter's "Proof of a Hero", and Kingdom Hearts' "Olympus Coliseum" were particularly appropriate
    • Dragon Quest - Roto's Theme
    • Final Fantasy - Victory Fanfare
    • Tales of Zestiria - Soreys Theme The Shepherd
    • Monster Hunter - Proof of a Hero
    • Kingdom Hearts - Olympus Coliseum
    • Chrono Trigger - Frogs Theme
    • Ace Combat - First Flight
    • Tales of Graces - Royal
  • if you hop the boring bits. 200+ teams coming in? Yawn... IOC president speaking... As if he'd say anything of interest. Etc etc. But some of the effects were impressive, so I'm pleased I made the effort, but don't try it live!

  • I am watching as much as I can.

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