Tape Delay an Olympic Dilemma

The good news for NBC is that the North American location of this year's winter Olympics means far less tape-delaying of events than usual; the bad news is that in an era when Twitter can tell you instantly who won the gold medal, delayed broadcasts annoy audiences more than ever. That's especially bad news for the West Coast, which won't see any major daytime or primetime event live, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Olympic broadcasters have long depended on tape-delays to get events on the air during primetime in time zones that are often halfway across the world from the games—and NBC says its research shows viewers prefer the delay over events airing at inconvenient times. Still, NBC says the "vast majority" of events will air live in primetime, and to combat the frustration, it's posting results instantly to its own website and has staff working around the clock to stop exclusive footage from turning up on YouTube.
(More 2010 Vancouver Olympics stories.)