To be fair, NBC does provide a lot more live coverage over its family of networks than it did even as recently as the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City. Most hockey games will be shown as they happen in addition to snowboarding and freestyle skiing events. But get this; those events presented live on the East Coast will be on tape delay on the West Coast - where the Games are being played.

NBC's insistence on keeping most of the major Alpine events preserved for prime time is maddening, particularly when you contrast that decision with what our neighbors to the north have access to. Every moment of the Vancouver Games will be shown live across a group of Canadian networks, which will include a pair of dedicated live Web feeds.

Progressive NBC will also have live online feeds. Of curling. And hockey. And...nope, that's it.

When the Canadian consortium of networks won the coverage to this year's Games, they actually turned to NBC for advice. According to the Hollywood Reporter, they sent a dozen members to Beijing for the 2008 Summer Games to observe the network's production.

"The experience we gained from that was invaluable," broadcaster Rick Chisholm told the Reporter.

Obviously the lesson there was, "Do the exact opposite." 

"We are not dictating to the audience how they watch the Games. We're making it available to allow them to watch the Games the way they want to," Chisholm said.

Imagine.

Then there's NBC's way of looking at it. According to the Wall Street Journal, Alan Wurtzel, head of research at NBC Universal, maintains that "internal research shows that viewers would rather watch the Olympics on a time delay than have them air at an inconvenient hour."

This shows all the cutting edge know-how of a toothpick dispenser. Is it really any surprise that NBC is dead-last in the ratings based on the "internal research" of Wurtzel? Next month CBS will once again allow you to be able to watch the NCAA tournament live on your mobile device. This month, NBC will give you live...scoring updates. And a "Cheer App" that plays the sound of a cowbell. That's about as radical as it gets. 

The Canadian Internet feeds are protected within the country, and NBC is sure to police any counterfeit web sites showing video prior to when it deems it to be shown, just as it was forced to do in Beijing two years ago, when the network realized that technology had advanced to the point where they couldn't hold things for 12-plus hours without ramifications. One could only wonder how quickly a newspaper run by NBC would go bankrupt. Earthquake? Save it for the morning edition.

Besides, if "internal research" shows that viewers would rather watch the Olympics on a time delay, why even care about what must be a scant amount trying to watch them live via other avenues?

As Deadspin pointed out last month, this is also a sports outfit that didn't even have its own web site until the end of 2006. (Wurtzel's "internal research" must have shown that this Internet thing wasn't going away at that point.) So, I guess we can't expect NBC to think it's 2010 when its so obviously stuck in the past.

Of course, the $28 million the group of Canadian networks bid to broadcast the game is far less than the $2 billion NBC paid for the 2010 and 2012 Olympics. But wouldn't you think with that much invested you'd make every opportunity to make the experience top-notch for the viewer? Instead, we'll get more pre-packaged schmaltz and figure skating, avenues that "internal research" tells NBC drive ratings.

The best news in all of this is that NBC is poised to lose some $250 million in covering these games, which means the door may finally be open for another network (for all its faults, ESPN would cover the Olympics as sport, not soap opera) to step in and rescue Olympic fans come 2014.

Until then, good luck avoiding things like Twitter if you still plan on watching events "virtually live." NBC would likely suggest you steer clear of the telegram for a day or two.