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Given that the event is in Japan, I'm curious why someone would hire a US-based service to stream it rather than just a Japanese based one. Actually, I'm surpr

Given that the event is in Japan, I'm curious why someone would hire a US-based service to stream it rather than just a Japanese based one. Actually, I'm surprised the Olympics themselves don't have a direct subscription for streaming the entire event where people can sign up and stream it. I'm under the impression that the event is designed for the PHYSICAL audience first, and streaming it is kind of a poorly though out last minute thing.

afavour 5y ago
> Actually, I'm surprised the Olympics themselves don't have a direct subscription for streaming the entire event NBC (and other networks around the world) pay incredible amounts of money for those rights. And the arrangement makes sense for both parties: NBC can use it to boost viewing figures of their own shows in a way the Olympics couldn't/wouldn't. And they have surfaces to advertise coverage that the Olympics doesn't, or would have to go to considerable lengths to get. So it's a value multiplier for the Olympics to sell it rather than handle it themselves. In the words of the (NBC) TV Show 30 Rock: "You can't fight synergy, Lemon. It's bigger than all of us"
- WhyNotHugo 5y ago
  These things never cease to amaze me. Basically NBC can buy the rights so that people can't just go and buy the stream from the source, but *must* go through this middleman. Image if you could buy the rights to bread, and anyone wanting to sell/buy bread *must* go through you. I honestly can't fathom how we'd decayed into societies that allows this kind of nonsense.
bananapub 5y ago
? because the IOC prints money every four years by selling geo-restricted rights in every country in the world.
- jazzyjackson 5y ago
  I was curious just how much money they printed and found a very nicely put together pdf [0] (page 27 Olympic Broadcasting Revenue Generation) that puts it at 2 or 3 billion USD income for the summer games, and confirms that 72% of Olympic Committee revenue is broadcasting rights. For a global event, getting 50 cents per person seems like a pretty good target, but it’s a shame that a lot of people are unable to watch a lot of the sport since broadcasters pick and choose what to show. I’m sure there’s alternative revenue streams if they got creative but the doc also points out these are long term, stable partnerships where everybody’s happy (except apparently the spectators !) [0] https://stillmed.olympic.org/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/Documents/IOC-Marketing-and-Broadcasting-General-Files/Olympic-Marketing-Fact-File.pdf https://stillmed.olympic.org/media/Document%20Library/Olympi...
- WhyNotHugo 5y ago
  Do they really raise more money by selling to a middleman rather than to consumers directly?
eigen 5y ago
> Actually, I'm surprised the Olympics themselves don't have a direct subscription for streaming the entire event where people can sign up and stream it. NBC tried something similar 30 years ago. It was a financial failure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympics_Triplecast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympics_Triplecast
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  That is not comparable to today, where everyone has the ability to instantly stream it on personal devices in their pocket.

afavour 5y ago

> Actually, I'm surprised the Olympics themselves don't have a direct subscription for streaming the entire event NBC (and other networks around the world) pay incredible amounts of money for those rights. And the arrangement makes sense for both parties: NBC can use it to boost viewing figures of their own shows in a way the Olympics couldn't/wouldn't. And they have surfaces to advertise coverage that the Olympics doesn't, or would have to go to considerable lengths to get. So it's a value multiplier for the Olympics to sell it rather than handle it themselves. In the words of the (NBC) TV Show 30 Rock: "You can't fight synergy, Lemon. It's bigger than all of us"

WhyNotHugo 5y ago
These things never cease to amaze me. Basically NBC can buy the rights so that people can't just go and buy the stream from the source, but *must* go through this middleman. Image if you could buy the rights to bread, and anyone wanting to sell/buy bread *must* go through you. I honestly can't fathom how we'd decayed into societies that allows this kind of nonsense.

bananapub 5y ago

? because the IOC prints money every four years by selling geo-restricted rights in every country in the world.

jazzyjackson 5y ago
I was curious just how much money they printed and found a very nicely put together pdf [0] (page 27 Olympic Broadcasting Revenue Generation) that puts it at 2 or 3 billion USD income for the summer games, and confirms that 72% of Olympic Committee revenue is broadcasting rights. For a global event, getting 50 cents per person seems like a pretty good target, but it’s a shame that a lot of people are unable to watch a lot of the sport since broadcasters pick and choose what to show. I’m sure there’s alternative revenue streams if they got creative but the doc also points out these are long term, stable partnerships where everybody’s happy (except apparently the spectators !) [0] https://stillmed.olympic.org/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/Documents/IOC-Marketing-and-Broadcasting-General-Files/Olympic-Marketing-Fact-File.pdf https://stillmed.olympic.org/media/Document%20Library/Olympi...
WhyNotHugo 5y ago
Do they really raise more money by selling to a middleman rather than to consumers directly?

eigen 5y ago

> Actually, I'm surprised the Olympics themselves don't have a direct subscription for streaming the entire event where people can sign up and stream it. NBC tried something similar 30 years ago. It was a financial failure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympics_Triplecast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympics_Triplecast

lotsofpulp 5y ago
That is not comparable to today, where everyone has the ability to instantly stream it on personal devices in their pocket.