And so it began - the 2010 Winter Olympics on NBC. For weeks now, the network has been whining about how much cash they're going to lose ($250 mil). I guess that's why they're airing hours and hours of ads occasionally interrupted with sporting events.
Part of the problem going in was there was no big-name star, specifically a female figure skater. Gone are the days of ice princesses Peggy Flemming and Kristi Yamaguchi, drama queens Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding. Divas and drama are the basic concepts that reality/competition shows thrive on. This year, there's nothing. And unlike a reality show, the producers can't really create anything, either.
So, no skating queen. And there are very few athletes who are household names. Taking all of this into consideration, NBC projected a loss. I suppose to compensate for cheaper ads, they sold more time. I'm only supposing this because all weekend the ad-time seemed to be more important that any of the games. During pairs figure skating, they'd cut to commercials before scores were announced. Moguls and luge, each about 25-seconds per run, were given two runs before a 60-second break. It is impossible to build any anticipation or excitement when every 30 seconds it's broken up with an ad for E*trade, Coke, or McDonalds.
NBC's Olympic problem stands for the whole network: They don't know how to build a good program block without getting in the way.
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