NBC Alienates Users

Posted At : August 19, 2008 7:45 PM | Posted By : Oliver Merk
Related Categories: General,Flex,Linux/Ubuntu

Not only forcing Silverlight down our throats (see Ben Nadel's hilarious post), but Windows as well.

And the hypocrisy of using Flash all over their homepage is brilliant.

Nice work NBC.

Thank you from all the Linux and Mac users around the world who are shielded from viewing your advertising. The wonderful things that happen when two great companies get together!

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Ben Nadel's Gravatar That's just too insane! Right?!?
# Posted By Ben Nadel | 8/20/08 8:17 AM
Brian Swartzfager's Gravatar No offense to you and Ben, but you're more than a little late to the party on this topic: news that folks needed Silverlight to watch the online Olympic coverage was out months before the Olympics even started.

Does it suck that a lot of folks couldn't watch the coverage because of this, or because they lived in the wrong country or even had the wrong ISP (apparently you're supposed to say what ISP you use before you're allowed to watch)? Sure it does. But many folks have speculated that NBC was worried about too many people watching the Olympics online and thereby taking away TV-ad revenue from their regular broadcast. And keep in mind that NBC and Microsoft are in business together (hence MSNBC), so business-wise it makes sense to promote each other.

I didn't watch any Olympic coverage online (because I didn't want to install Silverlight...and I didn't care all that much), but from what I've heard via the podcasts I listen to, it sounds like most folks that did get to use it enjoyed it and Silverlight worked well enough. It may be a win for online broadcasts in general.
# Posted By Brian Swartzfager | 8/20/08 8:18 AM
Ben Nadel's Gravatar @Brian,

I am definitely late to the party because I watch the Olympics on TV. I only came across this because my friend wanted to see Handball, which I am not even sure if they had on NBC tv? I haven't seen it at least.
# Posted By Ben Nadel | 8/20/08 8:25 AM
Oliver Merk's Gravatar @Brian: I knew about it long ago, but didn't realize they'd block Linux users (and Canadians;).
# Posted By Oliver Merk | 8/20/08 8:37 AM
Matthew Fabb's Gravatar Yeah, coming from a Canadian IP it wouldn't have mattered if you had the proper OS or browser. However, they don't tell you that right away, that would be too easy! As a developer I was interested in seeing how the website turned out. So I tried viewing the website from Canadian IP, skipping the questions what is my US cable provider and installed the new Silverlight 2 beta. Then I could browse the application without problem and click on any video, which would load up a commercial first and then only after the commercial is over does let me know that I can't watch the video. LOL!

A better user experience would be to let me know right away that I can't watch any of the videos, but then NBC wouldn't get the extra ad revenue and Microsoft wouldn't get Silverlight installed on more machines.
# Posted By Matthew Fabb | 8/20/08 1:04 PM
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