With live streaming of most events, NBC seems to be doing a pretty good job of allowing us to see as much of the Olympics as possible. With one major exception: they omitted a musical number in the opening ceremonies in favor of a bland interview with a rather bland athlete. The musical number may or may not have been a tribute to the victims of the July 7, 2005 terror attacks in London. Why NBC would omit that is still beyond me, but NBC’s explanation defies comprehension:
When asked about editing the song-and-dance performance, an NBC Sports spokesman responded in a statement: “Our program is tailored for the U.S. television audience. It’s a credit to [opening ceremony producer] Danny Boyle that it required so little editing.”
I’m not sure if this is a way of damning Danny Boyle with faint praise, or if I should feel insulted that NBC doesn’t think I, as an American, could normally understand British television without the help of Danny Boyle and NBC. Either way, this is fishy.
NBC has exclusive rights to broadcast the Olympics in the United States, and it seems like we are subject to trademark warnings in almost every commercial break. Given that, you’d think they would at least have the courtesy not to blatantly edit something as major as the opening ceremony.
