I’ve read my last post from a person from Generation W (the W stands for Whiny). The social media world of the whiny lit up after the first days of the Olympics. “I want my Olympics live.” “I hate NBC telling stories.” “Next time we will do the Olympics all with Twitter.” ”I don’t like commercials.” ”Who wants to see interviews?” 
If you are halfway intelligent, there is no need to read any more of this blog post. You get it. But for Generation W, here goes.
Dear Generation W:
- The Olympics are held in different countries, and those countries tend to be in different time zones than the U.S.
- The majority of people in the U.S. watch TV at night in what is referred to as “prime time.”
- Tape delaying, or in your vernacular “time shifting,” is a way to match the biggest audience with the best Olympic programming.
- NBC paid a lot of money for the rights to the Olympic programming. You didn’t. Commercials and sponsorships pay for your free coverage.
- NBC is winning in prime time against all other programming. On average, 32 million watch (simultaneously) in prime time.
- Storytelling makes the Olympics great and incredibly interesting. Just look at the TV ratings for gymnastics, swimming and track in non-Olympic years without the stories.
- Production values are very high. I’ll put NBC’s coverage against any silly YouTube tape (except that of my daughter singing) any time.
- Bob Costas and crew are professionals (again, beats just about anyone else trying to describe track, gymnastics or swimming)
Generation W, go back to your bulletin boards and microblogging chat rooms. The Olympic coverage was fantastic and very compelling. I even loved them more this time because I could be more involved watching TV with an iPad on my lap. It was great television, great storytelling and great results. That’s the gold, silver and bronze for NBC.
In fairness, i think most of the whininess is because the instant nature of social media platforms like Twitter led to ‘spoilers’ on many of the events. This wasn’t a factor in past Olympic events. I’m not sure what the solution to this would be, but there does need to be a change in the way broadcasting is handled to complement these new modes of communication.