I have heard nothing about the Olympics this year aside from the shooting competition. It’s very weird.

It was still relatively popular but the olympics has been in decline due to being shackled behind paid cable channels. Everybody’s moved to streaming but apparently they didn’t get the memo. Just knowing where you can find the olympics is such a nightmare they have a giant table explaining which channel you should go to depending on where you live

No, they got the memo. At least in the US, the Peacock app had every single event broken out into live events, replays and highlights. Or you could watch the gold medal stream and just mainline finals. They did a pretty good job, IMO.

I haven’t watched the Olympics in a long time but I thought the experience was kinda shit, especially compared to ye olden days of it being on every channel. My experience was basically:

My wife: What’s the difference between “Women’s all around final” and “women’s all around final (TV)”?

Me: googling I think we want the “TV” one?

30 second ad

20 seconds of a commentator talking over a view of Paris

2 minutes of ads

15 minutes of the camera just looking at an empty apparatus while there’s clearly other stuff going on in the background

2 minutes ads

30 seconds commentators discussing the event

2 minutes ads

Ok they actually fucking start, finally

Someone does something, 2 second MICRO AD??? This is a thing now apparently? Randomly throughout there’s these insanely short ads that are super jarring

Zoom in on Simone Biles face

Watch someone do a warmup on vault

Simone itches her nose

We can clearly hear other competitors doing things in the background, but Simone is looking to the right, so let’s focus on that

2 minutes ads

Watch a competitor do uneven bars, neat

Back to Simone, she’s talking to Suni now, we can’t hear it, but it must be important

Literally can see people doing flips and shit in the background, but let’s watch Simone as she sits in this chair

2 minutes ads

BREAKING NEWS: Simone blinks

“What did that other girl get for a score? Did they show it?”

Attempt to rewind 30 seconds. Big mistake, 2 minutes ads

Simone does a vault

2 minutes ads

…

Like I love Simone Biles, I do. Obviously I want to see all of her events. But holy shit, I’m here to watch the Olympics, not the “Simone is waiting for her turn” show. Also it was like 90% ads, they didn’t even show some of the highest scoring performances (since they only showed like 3 other people besides Simone), and half the time didn’t even show the scores they received. It was just…pretty bleh.