I'm going to post an e-mail question I just received and then my reply to it because you all need to know the answer:
Please Please Please...do what you can to make sure someone from American Shooter is at the Olympics to video ALL of the Biathlon Competitions. Then dedicate at least one of the American Shooter Programs to showing the
Biathlon Competitions. I'm sure in-depth coverage of the athletes, their equipment, their training methods would be appreciated by all American Shooter viewers. The usual Olympic coverage always all but ignores shooting
and archery, and now that I think of it, most of what is interesting is often ignored by the usual media coverage.
I just heard today on the radio that the biathlon is one the Europe's most watched sports.
Thank you,
Jim Berkes
Frankfort, Kentucky
Jim:
The shame of it is that we can't get within a hundred miles of the Olympics with our cameras because the big money rights have been sold to who? NBC this time? yeah, NBC.
They have bought the exclusive and nobody else can get near the place unless they are an NBC affiliate news department. Watch for all the "local angle" stories that are going to start turning up on your local NBC station.
So they own the rights... and they will decide what politically correct sports Americans will see on their TVs.
There is a world feed of video and you may be sure that will include biathlon competition, but we are not permitted to access the world feed going out by satellite to some 200 countries.
It's the old golden rule... the ones who pony up the gold... get to make the rules.
Hope you don't mind, but I'm going to post your e-mail and my reply on some firearms forums, cause this question is going to come up again and again in the months ahead.
Regards,
Jim Scoutten