This thread is mostly for the Americans who are stuck watching the Olympics on NBC and its affiliates, but if you live elsewhere feel free to talk about how the Olympics are covered on TV in your country.

I think NBC is doing an absolutely terrible job, especially during prime time. I understand they can't always be showing live action because of the time difference, but if they're going to be showing everything on tape delay, why the **** can't they cut out all the **** we don't want to see? It takes them 20 minutes to air a 40 second race. I don't need to see 10 minutes of introductions, which is basically just the athletes standing around. I don't want interviews with every American athlete after the race. I don't need to see a thousand replays. Show me another race or another sport.

They waste so much time showing Bob Costas in the studio, talking to Cris Collinsworth and Mary Carillo. I don't care about their stories. I don't give a **** about kite flying in Beijing. Show me some ****ing sports.

I'm sick of ****ing diving already. China wins every gold medal. That's great. It's still boring.

I don't want to see this gymnastics gala thing. Where is the ****ing table tennis? I think they only show it at 4am and I can't stay up that late.

**** you, NBC.

... I wanted to watch Olympic soccer and I had to wake up at 5:00 once to watch Italy loose... I also watched volleyball early 1 morning Italy def. Poland.

I disagree with this part. I like the build-up because it reminds me of a movie where they build it up so well that when you finally get to the climax of the movie you're glad you sat through the wait. NBC isn't doing that good of a job at it, though...

I agree here, I don't care.

The rest I agree with. I think they should give equal time to each event instead of focusing on just which sports the Americans are good at. I would also like to hear a little back story on some of the other favorites (to win a medal). I would like to hear some of their struggles as well.

When they were airing fencing, they aired it late, zipped through it and went back to one of THEIR sports.

There are a lot of people who like to take it all in and not just watch race after race. If you just want races or whatever then look for them on YouTube. I enjoy watching the Olympics on TV because you get the extra stuff. I like the interviews and all the extra stuff because it lets you know the back stories behind some of the people and events.

Honestly I dont think NBC has done a bad job. This is the Olympics...there's a back story and building up the big races is important. For whatever reason swimming didnt take nearly as long as the foot races...not sure why.

I definitely understand what youre saying Echoes but thats how TV is these days. The USA network and the smaller affiliates is probably what you need to watch I think.

I don't have paid channels so I'm stuck with France 2 and France 3 who are doing an ok job covering the Olympics from midday until the evening news. I guess the time difference works for us because the night events happen just around this time of our day.

We're shown the events live (whichever competition is on going) but on the side they also give updates to other events and just show highlights of a game rather than doing a documentary production out of it.

Have they showed any long jump or high jump activities going on?

Im watching it on the BBC and they are doing a great job of it.

Of course there are no adverts to start with plus we have digital choice(red button?) so we can pick and choose what sports we want to watch(great when they get boring). There is a highlight show in the evening that is well constructed and condenses the whole day nicely into an hour show for those who miss the live action. The commentary team is generally good as are the studio analysis. The build ups are relatively small and they jump between sports to fill the gaps. All in all I'm happy with the service they are providing of the games.

I'd really like to see a sport shown that doesn't involve American teams for once, no offense to anyone.

How did BBC manage to get Michael Johnson? Seriously. NBC's commentators blow.

Another thing that pisses me off that I don't think I mentioned in my first post is how they say Olympics will be on a certain channel from 1am to 1pm or something, and they'll list all the sports that will be shown, but they never tell you what will be on when.