Let NBC do its thing, ZBM

For the record, I'm not fond of NBC when it comes to sports programming. They exhibit too much homerism when it comes to international events and often the commentators employed are too arrogant for my liking.

That said, NBC had an Olympics broadcasting package that included not only coverage on its main network but also other channels affiliated with it such as USA and CNBC. With CBC (Canada) also available via cable TV, the prospects of watching the sport of choice for Bermudians was vast once they got past all the docu-drama.

However, ZBM (sorry, no website available), through membership in the Caribbean Media Corporation (formerly CBU) meant that they had the rights to exclusive broadcasting of Olympic coverage. What did that mean?

1. Our local affiliate, VSB, couldn't broadcast the NBC coverage. Over the weekend they showed CNN Headline News. No plus for cable users since CNN-HN is already a channel available.
2. Bermuda Cablevision (again, not a group I'm fond of) had to block out USA, CBC (Canada), as well as at times other channels in the family. Several channels lost.
3. While ZBM's sister station ZFB decided to broadcast BBC World all weekend (again, no benefit to cable users), ZBM which also was slated to broadcast the PGA Championship, rolled with golf so during Sunday afternoon, there was no avenue to show Olympic coverage on TV.
4. We're at the mercy of CMC commentary instead of NBC, which can be a bad thing sometimes. This morning there was **live** beach volleyball slated on NBC, however CMC cut in to show us **repeats** of swimming that took place the previous night.

Now ZBM from its arrangement gets advertising dollars from Bank of Bermuda, TreeCon and a couple of other sponsors, so you can understand the business sense in getting that exclusivity deal. But it sucks having a downgraded Olympic viewing experience because of it.