Olympics: Win-lose deal for athletes (mostly), NBC

For the U.S. athletes as well as the U.S. broadcast partner, the Olympic Games present pretty much the same opportunity every few years -- and it's not exactly a win-win proposition. It's often a win-lose thing.

For the athletes, that means a small group does well and gets praise and the accompanying set-for-life recognition and sponsorships, or they try hard, lose and get a nice parting gift in the form of good-try kudos and kind words. At least they got some attention for a sport many mainstream fans and viewers pay attention to only occasionally, at best.

For NBC -- which has established itself as the Olympics network in the United States and, as a result, a major financier of the Olympics (including $775 billion for these Winter Games) -- the win-lose situation means hypersensitivity and reaction to each and every action and on-screen moment.

It's a slightly unfair process and standard for the athletes, but not so much for the broadcaster.

That's because NBC has time on its side. And because, for the Winter Olympics in Sochi, the network has a nine-hour time difference to use to its benefit. Also any criticism becomes a lot easier to slough off when the network draws its typically huge ratings.

The time difference means almost everything NBC shows in prime time is old news, but it also means its approach and stories should be sharp and solid (so far, they have been) and that when the network misses on something it's worth noting.

Take the Opening Ceremony, for example, preserving the live feel is important for such an event but parade-of-nations coverage lacked consistency and perspective that NBC had the time to improve upon. The network correctly showed what little news there was -- that one of five Olympic rings failed to light properly. Again, it's not huge, but it's at least honest, as opposed to the rehearsal footage that Russian TV used to mask the mistake.

At the same time, NBC missed on things viewers saw -- especially the multi-covered fingers on the gloves of Greek athletes. Curious viewers had to think it was a human-rights protest statement, but the fingers were actually the color of the Olympic rings. So its was an Olympics statement from the country were the movement got its start. Good information either way, and information that was not shared either way. Just silence.

Conversely, host Matt Lauer took time to point out that the multicolored attire for athletes from Germany was not a human-rights statement. Both the colored fingers on the gloves and the bright coats and red pants were obvious to viewers. They should have been obvious to someone from NBC at some point before the broadcast aired all those hours later, too.

Still, that's nitpicking, fair nitpicking but about as high as the criticism of NBC should get during the Olympic Games. The network is there to tell a story and viewers do not care (though some media critics might) that they limited the length of the speech by the International Olympic Committee president.

NBC knows how to approach the event to draw ratings, and at the end of the day that's what most viewers expect -- a snow-covered TV show with some competition and a red-white-and-blue underlying theme to get them through the next couple of weeks of prime-time viewing. It's a delicate balance for NBC as 1) a paid supporter of the Games, 2) an entity there for journalistic purposes and 3) a group of people with tight ties to the IOC and USOC who just want to cover a sporting event.

However, unless there's a catastrophic injury to a U.S. athlete or some terrorist action that shapes the Games in general, NBC's approach should work well. With online results and streaming video, as well as NBC Sports Network, CNBC, MSNBC and USA Network as options, NBC provides live coverage of almost everything. It then reshapes and shares the bet stories in primetime -- and 31.7 million people watched the Opening Ceremony, with 25.1 million tuning in Saturday night.

Advertisers are happy, broadcasters are happy and viewers are happy. Beyond that, specifics matter only slightly.

That said, figure skating analysts Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir have been entertaining and solid on NBC Sports Network. Kudos to Terry Gannon for giving them room and reeling them in at times, too. they sound fresh, honest and unrehearsed. Maybe a little gushy at times, but good. And, hopefully, veteran reporter Andrea Joyce, who handles figure skating interviews, will stop asking skaters during one-on-one interviews to share their feelings "in their own words." Who else could talk for them in such situations?