Best of both worlds while watching the Olympics
By Ed Kociela
Only a few days in and Azteca, a national television network here in Mexico, has earned a gold medal for coverage of the Olympics, at least in my book.
We watched the opening ceremonies last week on NBC, the same as a lot of folks in the States. But, as the Games continued, we have had a sort of split-screen setup going on.
We’ve got the NBC broadcast on one of the laptops, while we channel surf through the satellite stations on our television.
I have to say, Azteca has impressed me.
NBC has been under fire this Olympics. A lot of viewers are annoyed that coverage is primarily relegated to prime time hours, long after the public learned about Michael Phelps’ latest medal win or that the women gymnasts blew away the competition with another incredible performance.
No such problem with TV Azteca, where we have watched, pretty much, wire-to-wire coverage of the major competitions.
We really like the enthusiasm of the commentators and the network’s overall perspective for covering the Games.
The first thing you notice when tuning in is the anchor desk is set decked out in an “Alice In Wonderland” theme, holding close to that of the London Olympics.
The three reporters assigned to that station hold court dressed to the nines and, in a tip of the hat to English tradition, enjoy a cup of tea and scones each day at tea time.
We are also not losing out on coverage. Azteca is giving us a healthy dose of swimming and women’s gymnastics right now, focusing on not only the home team, but the incredible performance of the U.S. women, who are tearing the place apart with their incredible routines and precision performances. Like in the States, we also have several other networks involved in broadcasting the Games, with one of them, of course, pretty much dedicated to futbol.
One advantage we have down here is that we don’t get as many commercial cutaways. When it’s time to pay the bills, the stations have been doing clever insets into our picture with graphics that merge with the anchors or are placed in a corner of the screen. Not a moment is wasted.
During the evening broadcasts, there also seems to be an awareness that a lot of the people tuning in already know who won the gold, silver and bronze, so they don’t linger heavily on lengthy segments of old news. We get to see what happened without a lot of superfluous stuff added in.
Now, NBC has been doing some very interesting things with its camera work, showing gymnasts in slow motion, going into the pool for up-close looks at the swimmers as they prepare to launch themselves, and, of course, with post-event interviews.
But, on the whole?
We’re really enjoying the best of both worlds.
Ed Kociela is a writer for Los Cabos Magazine. You can reach him by email at edkociela.mx@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/EdKociela.