NBC not live

punter · Sep 10, 2007

Anyone else notice this I was watching the C-boys Giants and i went to cbssportsline and they were at least 3 min ahead I turned it off thought I could catch it on the History channel.

gynecologist · Sep 10, 2007

HUH? NBC wasn't live?

punter · Sep 10, 2007

gynecologist said:
HUH? NBC wasn't live?

No. Sportsline had a score up that happend 3 min later on NBC. I was flabbergasted. Pissed too.

TheBigFish · Sep 10, 2007

Ummmm.....if this is true we need to get to the bottom of this. This could be catastrophic for live bettors (like me)....

Anyone here work for NBC, or any other major network, and can shed some light on this???

punter · Sep 10, 2007

I can understand them having a 30sec delay cause their afraid Madden might fart but this was ridiculous. then again maybe Sportsline is clairvoyant.

buddyboy · Sep 10, 2007

when the game starts it is 5 second delay.

as the game goes on, the delay becomes longer, this is because instead of cutting off the ad time, they just delay the broadcast of the game.

so if they are running a 30 second ad, and the game is paused for say only 20 seconds, that'll add 5 more seconds to the already 5 second delay... also if the game is going long (over the time limit) they can cut into the time bank they have built up in order to stick to their schedule.

try watching your TV and listen to the broadcast via radio at the same time.

gynecologist · Sep 10, 2007

I'm going to test this out.. WOW

punter · Sep 10, 2007

buddyboy said:
when the game starts it is 5 second delay.

as the game goes on, the delay becomes longer, this is because instead of cutting off the ad time, they just delay the broadcast of the game.

so if they are running a 30 second ad, and the game is paused for say only 20 seconds, that'll add 5 more seconds to the already 5 second delay... also if the game is going long (over the time limit) they can cut into the time bank they have built up in order to stick to their schedule.

try watching your TV and listen to the broadcast via radio at the same time.

I used to do that all the time when Howard Cosell was around. I guess this was before they did all these pauses.

TheBigFish · Sep 10, 2007

buddyboy said:
when the game starts it is 5 second delay.

as the game goes on, the delay becomes longer, this is because instead of cutting off the ad time, they just delay the broadcast of the game.

so if they are running a 30 second ad, and the game is paused for say only 20 seconds, that'll add 5 more seconds to the already 5 second delay... also if the game is going long (over the time limit) they can cut into the time bank they have built up in order to stick to their schedule.

try watching your TV and listen to the broadcast via radio at the same time.

Buddyboy:

Thank you for the explanation. I (and doubtless many others) had no idea. I assume the same is true for basketball and baseball? Is this more prevalent in any one particular sport (i.e., the longest delays)?