A lot of people have been critical of NBC's Olympic coverage this year. They complain because they are not showing live events during the day (they can because there is only a 3 hour time differential between Vancouver and the East Coast) so they can show them in prime time when most people are home from work and are able to watch them. I have no problem with this at all. I personally think they could do it both ways, show the events live and then show it on tape delay in prime time for the rest of us. That's just my opinion, but is not my criticism. Here is my problem...
Tonight is the biggest International Men's Hockey game of the Olympics so far(in North America anyway, my apologies to the Czech Republic vs. Russia), United States vs. Canada. Instead of showcasing this game on NBC in prime time, the people in charge at NBC Universal, are moving this game to MSNBC, which is only available in about 78 million households. I highly doubt anyone can even name, off the top of their head, the channel number MSNBC is on their cable systems. What is NBC airing instead in prime time? Ice Dancing finals...Are you kidding me? I could see if it were the Women's, Men's, or even Pairs Figure Skating finals, but Ice Dancing? Come on now. I think this is a slap in the face to International Hockey & the National Hockey League (NHL). NBC has the broadcast network contract to air NHL hockey and it would seem to me that they would help themselves immensely if they would showcase a match-up like the US vs. Canada in prime time. Both team's rosters comprise almost all NHL stars. I would think that the ratings would not only be huge, but also would help ratings for their normal NHL coverage in the long term. I also think that because hockey has pretty much been relegated to CNBC, USA Network, MSNBC (with the exception of Czech Republic vs. Russia which is airing Sunday afternoon on NBC), that the NHL will probably not suspend their season for a couple of weeks (as they have the past few Olympic years) to allow their stars to represent their individual countries in the Olympics. Instead, we may see more Minor Leaguers or amateurs in the Olympic Hockey competition, possibly as soon as the Sochi games in 2014.
I'll be interested to see if the ratings for the hockey game & ice dancing are even comparable. I'm willing to bet that the hockey game will be the most watched program ever on MSNBC, however, due to it not being in near as many households as a regular broadcast network like NBC, it won't get as big a number as it deserves...And I think that is a shame.
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