One 30 second commercial in prime time paid the salaries of all seven of them and their staff. They probably had fifty million viewers for the ladies figure skating, most of them the spendthrift young. Advertisers will pay millions to reach them.
I can’t imagine what they did with that money.
It’s not like they desperately needed it. They could have tripled their Olympic coverage air time instead of showing the usual junk, and tripled their commercials.
You really can’t imagine what they did with the money?
Think about the technology involved in covering multiple venues, including not only the sports venues, but the city of Sochi. I can’t even imagine the staggering cost of all this tech. I know how much it costs for us to set up a sound system and some lights for our local ice shows–often our skating club can’t afford it, and have to go with the simplest of tech, which means that our ice show is hard to hear and poorly-lit.
And think about all the techies required to design that technology, set it up, and maintain it! I’m guessing that there were thousands of techies, production assistants, etc. These people all had to have transportation, lodging, and board while they were in Sochi, and I’m sure that Olympic prices for these necessities didn’t come cheap.
And think about all the research–this involved arranging transportation and lodging in some very remote areas for a whole crew of journalists and technies. But the research for Sochi no doubt started years ago, when the city was awarded the Olympics by the IOC. Many of these sports have a long and storied history, and part of the coverage involved re-telling that history, and attempting to place the performances of the current athletes into historical perspective.
E.g., until recently, figure skating was judged by a completely different judging system. The International Judging System used now is a points system, which many viewers find incomprehensible and frustrating. (Under 6.0, there’s a good chance that Carolina Kostner would have won the Gold Medal, but it couldn’t happen under IJS–is that good or bad?)
These types of stories need to be presented during a broadcast of the Olympics so that viewers can understand the sport that they are watching. I realize that many sports fans want to see “just the sport, thank you,” but many of us who don’t understand curling or bob-sledding really do want to see the story behind the sport.
Here’s the deal everyone–in a few years, most of us will be watching sports online, not on a television. That’s what we do with figure skating–icenetwork broadcasts almost all of the major figure skating competitions held in the United States.
My husband and I will spend the weekend watching the National Championships of Synchronized Skating, which will be happening in Colorado Springs. We’ll be cheering for our daughter’s teams (St. Louis!), and for a lot of the teams that we have gotten to know and love over the years (Chicago Jazz! Chicago Radiance! Starlights! Dazzlers! Swan City Syncsation! etc. etc.!–too many to list!)
icenetwork will show the entire competition with very few adornments. We’ll even get to see 15 minutes every hour of the Zamboni making ice! It’s the real competition–all the noise from the audience, EVERY competitor, etc.
And it only costs $30.00 a year. That’s a lot of skating for $30. It enables us to be at skating competitions that we could never afford to attend in person.
And I think that’s the answer for those who want to see “just the sport, thank you.” Online broadcasting.
Anyway, I’m sure that all the money taken in by NBC barely covered the cost of broadcasting the Olys.
Unfortunately, in case you’re wondering, icenetwork is only U.S., not world, not yet.
Wish we did. You might be watching synchronized skating on television this weekend if we had a Dick Button.
