OLYMPICS: NBC isn't the only one

Nobody can say NBC's Beijing Olympics coverage doesn't root for the home folks. The network is hyping how it'll lead Friday night's 8 p.m. ET network coverage with a 20-minute recap of the women's gymnastics triumphs of American gold medalist Nastia Liukin and silver medalist Shawn Johnson.

So is this ugly American-ism? Bigfoot NBC execs stomping out coverage of other countries?

Not so fast, yankee. They're not the only ones. After years of bemoaning American TV's nationalistic Olympics coverage, I'm getting the chance this time to check out hours of Canadian tube coverage. A good friend in the great white north gave me online access to his Slingbox, allowing me to watch his Alberta cable channels over my broadband-connected New Jersey computer.

So what do you think Canadians could see Thursday night as NBC was showing swim phenom Michael Phelps heading live toward yet another world-record gold medal? Canada's CBC had its cameras trained on homegirl gymnast Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs finishing 16th in the women's all-around.

That's far from the only example. While gold medals were being won all over the place by all nationalities, Canadians had heavy CBC coverage of their countrymen/women, even as they failed to show in swimming (they did grab a fourth), failed to show in fencing (not even making the medal round), failed to even score against the U.S. after resuming a rain-delayed women's softball preliminary. Here's a typical newspaper headline this week up north where they're never hearing their national anthem on the Beijing medal stand: Woe Canada.

It's not like CBC isn't also showcasing the global glamour events in prime time -- swimming and gymnastics, same as NBC. But they cut away from much of what NBC showed Thursday night to offer the start of track and field qualifiers where Canadian athletes were competing. (That's shot putter Dylan Armstrong at right.) Actually, you can argue this decision two ways. Did CBC really think local-interest qualifiers were more interesting than world-record finals? Or was it NBC that was off-base by virtually ignoring the busy track and field start to saturate us with replays of Americans winning other preliminaries -- especially if they happened to involve women in bikinis? (Yes, I know beach volleyballers Misty May and Kerri Walsh are dominant athletes, too. But I'm not sure NBC would be quite so enthusiastic if they were wearing burkas.)

In other words, you can argue almost every broadcast decision two ways, or three. Or seven. It's become almost another Olympic sport to decry NBC's coverage for national bias, tape delays, and blackouts of other media outlets until the network deigns to "premiere" action that happened hours earlier. And yes, I'd rather see it live, as it happens.

Which, to a large extent, we now can -- NBCOlympics.com's new live online streams are superb opportunities to watch uninterrupted and un-blabbed-over action from two dozen sports, with at least a half-dozen often running simultaneously. All you need is access to a broadband-connected computer using a recent operating system (and downloadable streaming software that's free at the NBC site).

Choices streaming live simultaneously Friday morning included Venus and Serena Williams in tennis doubles, Rafael Nadal's live singles' match, Japan men in baseball, equestrian show jumping, women's basketball, and two women's soccer quarterfinals, including the U.S.-Canada match. The morning also offered live streams of badminton, fencing, field hockey, handball, judo, table tennis and weightlifting.

And it's all action -- no commercial breaks (only a short pre-roll ad), no tearjerking profiles with syrupy music, not even audio commentary other than the live event public-address announcements. Some streams do have running text commentary available in a box below the video window. Or, even more fun, you can choose four streams to run at once in NBCOlympics.com's amazing Live Video Control Room (just click Enlarge Video). It was easy Friday morning to follow the action in both the Williams sisters' doubles and Nadal's singles, while also keeping an eye on the two ongoing soccer quarterfinals. (Only the main window has audio, but you can swap among the four at any time.)

Is it more effort to get the streams going than to turn on the TV? Sure. But it takes less than five minutes for the computer-savvy to download the software, check the online listings, and get four choices clicked in at the Control Room. Luddites are less lucky, obviously. NBC wasn't offering the Williams sisters' doubles match live on TV at all, apparently holding this "marquee" event to "premiere" later in the day for higher viewership.

But still -- Friday morning did offer more than a half-dozen regular TV options on broadcast/cable/satellite channels, some carried live but most pre-packaged. (Get TV listings here.) Well-equipped HD homes could choose from a wealth of high-definition wonders -- three widely available HD options (NBC, USA, Universal HD) and two more temporary HD channels (Olympics Soccer and Olympics Basketball, on many cable/satellite systems).

One big remaining complaint against NBC: Prime-time coverage is limited to the big bad broadcast network. All those other cable options are blacked out from 8 p.m. to midnight ET when the majority of Americans are able to watch. Though plenty of events are simultaneously ongoing then -- say, swimming and gymnastics finals -- NBC only wants you watching the network mothership with its million-dollar commercials.

Not fair? No. But somebody's gotta pay the bills for that billion-dollar TV rights fee. And that somebody is the expanded prime-time audience. Maybe by London 2012, there'll be such big-time broadband that we'd be able to at least premium-pay our way to seeing more events live. Of course, for those games, ET prime time will coincide with a London local time of 1-5 a.m. So not much will be going on anyway.

Guess you really can't win. Even if you're not Canadian.