Daily Blog – Ross Jones – August 14, 2008: OLYMPIC SIZED COMMERCIALS

I’m trying to enjoy the Olympics, really I am. But there is only so much a person can be expected to tolerate. Between the seemingly endless commercials, studio patter, travelogues, and human interest stories, there’s barely any of that competitiony-stuff going on.

I will not watch it “live” at all (here in the U.S. Pacific Time Zone, nothing is really live anyway). Plus, I do not have the patience to sit through all the fluff. I also tried recording on my DVR, but three or four hours of HD Olympics every night, in addition to my usually scheduled recordings, fills up my hard drive too fast. Comcast actually has a pretty neat On Demand selection that features a few of the previous days highlights, available free and in HD. My only complaint is that I wish there was more of it.

I understand that TV networks pay a princely sum for the right to televise the Olympics, and have to recoup their investment. But there’s got to be a better way to do it.