Is There a Missed Media Opportunity During the Olympics Opening Ceremonies?

We’ve been waiting for July 27, 2012 since the closing ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics and it’s finally here. However, today NBC has been met with a certain amount of backlash. In the digital age the expectation for instant satisfaction is prevalent in terms of media, news, and entertainment consumption, and NBC isn’t delivering.

With the time difference from London to the U.S. the games will be happening when most of us are sleeping, but NBC is streaming the games online, just in case you are up to watch them. However, they are not showing the Opening Ceremony live. People are up in arms. The social nature of media today promotes instant consumption and NBC is taking that away. Is this about ad revenue? Probably. But, I think the real issue is that people are consuming media so differently and traditional advertisers and mindsets need to realize this and play catch up. Not to mention, there is a growing population that doesn’t even own traditional TVs as mentioned in a previous post. They rely solely on digital media. In fact, in 2011, about a million people in the U.S. and Canada cut the cord.

More and more people are willing to seek non-traditional outlets to watch TV. A report from Nielson showed that 49 percent of people are watching TV on their iPads, while 42 percent watched on their smartphones. NBC could have streamed this widely anticipated event live and surrounded it with mobile and tablet ads. If this is truly about making money, traditional media could follow consumer trends and move content where a large chunk of viewership is coming from. There are so many opportunities in the mobile and tablet space along with social media; it’s about thinking in a non-traditional way.

What are your thoughts?  Is there a missed media opportunity?