Olympics TV Schedule: Is NBC Giving the West Coast the Shaft with Tape Delays?

Imagine the joy that those living on the West Coast felt when Vancouver won the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Vancouver, B.C., is in the same time zone as the entire U.S. West Coast.

Finally, the West Coast would see something live other than the Academy Awards.

After delayed coverage of the Summer Olympics in Beijing, all Americans, for the most part, were thrilled that our neighbors to the north had these games in the bag.

But for those living in the West, having Vancouver host the games was a bonus. We would have up-to-the-minute updates on all of the sports and not have to read about the results in newspapers or on online with spoiler alerts dotting the pages.

No more having to stay up 'til midnight, no more shutting our eyes and ears or leaving the room when TV announcers warned us in advance they were letting us know who won the ladies' figure skating long program.

It's all good now, right?

Wrong.

NBC has delayed all live coverage to the West Coast. Why?

In 2008, Dick Ebersol answered that very question:

"It's live on the East Coast and in the Central time zone, which is roughly 81 to 82 percent of all the households in the United States. Historically, we have always shown the Olympics on tape on the West Coast. We have repeatedly done significant testing or polling, if you want to call it that, on the West Coast. And they have told us—the viewers have repeatedly told us—that the vast majority of them, well in excess of 80 percent, want to see the Olympics when they're available to see the Olympics.

"They don't want to see the key events of the day happening at four or five o'clock their time. They want to get home and watch them, and that's why there's a delay on the West Coast. And you know what? Strangely enough, in every Olympics that I have done, going back to 1992, every Olympics, the audience on the West Coast overindexes against all the other regions in the United States. They love sports so much, and they know when they want to watch it, and that's in prime time." (via sfgate.com )

Well, Ebersol makes some decent points except for one small problem—technology has changed everything in the last two years.

With Twitter and other social media updating world events within minutes of the actual event's occurrence, we now know the results of anything having to do with political elections or sports scores within seconds.

So why tape delay the Olympics to the West Coast? It makes no sense.

California had to stay up until midnight to watch an opening ceremony that was over around 10:30 local time. We all heard on the Internet that one of the cauldrons malfunctioned and that Gretzky was a torchbearer.

NBC ruined the anticipation of the opening ceremony for the most populated state in the country.

Spoiler Alert: Bode Miller just won a bronze in downhill around 1 p.m., local time on Monday, so should I really wait for NBC to get its head out of the sand and show it at around 9 p.m. local time? Don't bother, NBC—I'll watch it online.

Two hours prior to the airing of the Olympics' Sunday night coverage, we knew the Chinese figure skating duo had kicked everyone else's butts. The result?

We didn't watch your Sunday night show—we watched Big Love instead. And we watched the HBO-East version so we could see it at 6 p.m.—HBO gives viewers a choice of when they want to watch something. Why can't NBC?

Why can't we call Ebersol out for the real reason NBC tape delays the Olympics? NBC cares more about capturing prime-time ratings (7-11 p.m.) than it does in delivering a product that everyone can and should see live.

NBC, a dying network, chooses to punish those on the West Coast, and right now, the masses are arising and protesting silently.

No one I know is watching the Olympics—they are going to YouTube or other sites to see the video of their favorite players or sports.

They aren't waiting for the outdated peacock to fan its feathers and show stuff hours old because this is an instant gratification society fueled by real-time technology that sates its patrons.

Just like the local 4, 5, and 6 p.m. newscasts on the verge of extinction because of CNN's and FOX News' 24-hour, nonstop, breaking updates, so will be NBC's outdated practice of tape delaying the West Coast.

How absurd is it that a freestyle mogul competition is live at 5 p.m. local time, and Californians, Oregonians, and Washingtonians—some living just hours south of the event—have to wait three hours to watch it on NBC while New Yorkers watch it live?

Ebersol needs to get with the times and change the format immediately. His views are outdated and serve no purpose other than to use the West Coast as a shill for prime time ratings.

Put all Olympic sports on live at 4 p.m., then rerun it at 7 p.m. Or, do what HBO does for its more popular programs and do OnDemand Olympics.

Everybody wins, and the network might make even more money.