A few thoughts about the Olympics, Cord Cutting and #nbcfail

I've been trying to parse out some of the different factors in the #nbcfail discussion on Twitter and in other public forums.  As an experimenting cord-cutter, of course I'm interested in streamed content that appeals to my family and I.  Lets be clear, we're happy to pay for it, we're not looking to free-ride. 

warning, perhaps tl;dr-ish

Seems like NBC is not just here to bring the Olympics to an interested audience, it needs to leverage the Olympics to earn a return on its significant payment for the rights. And they do this by bringing a mass audience to global brands for lucrative advertising. We're the product.

Internet streaming without tape-delay surely fragments the audience, reducing its size and impacting the magnitude of advertising sales. Also,  NBC is owned by a cable provider, which probably sees unbundled internet streaming as a threat to its legacy cable cash-cow. Tying live internet streaming to the requirement that I have a cable subscription seems like buggy-whip manufacturers requiring automobile purchasers to also buy a big box of buggy-whips. But I suspect that the more the cable providers can convince people that internet access is just an add-on feature to cable the longer they can hang on to their legacy cash-cow business. However it seems that inexorably the technology is marching in the direction of content provisioning directly over internet. I suppose the cable vendors will fight this, but the cost advantages of the new technology may be difficult to fend off forever.

(Note: Any wonder we should be worried about mega-bundling: http://technicallybca.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/comcastverizon-soon-to-offer-4-play-deals/)

Seems to me the requirements of delivering a mass audience suitably prepared for a advertising consumption experience requires over production, and elimination of tidbits that might discomfort the audience and impact their advertising experience, thus: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/28/nbc-victims-tribute_n_1713527.html

Which is why the following is a surprise: http://globalgrind.com/news/nbc-apologizes-airing-monkey-gymnastics-commercial-after-gabby-douglas-win-details How did that slip through the sanitizing cracks?

Anyway, the average jamoke looking to watch the athletes and events he is interested in real time using the awesome power of the intertubes is not the target market here. As a result, his experience isn't optimized. I think I'll go watch more of the Curiosity coverage, thanks, that seems plenty authentic.