Olympic Shocker! Something Interesting On Cable: Meet the 2010 Olympic Showcase

Posted by Jonathan in TELEVISION on 02-17-10    No Comments

Cablevision's Winter Olympic Showcase

It might be time to start learning to enter those tricky high numbers into your TV remote. Deep inside Cablevision’s digital sports tier is the practically invisible 2010 Olympic Showcase. The channel, which was on the 630′s on my cable feed, features a 6 channel multi-screen video feed of live coverage options for the Olympics; as well as a not-awful archive of on-demand material. Usually, yesterdays highlights, upcoming schedule, medal counts … that sort of stuff. The content comes as part of the Cablevision’s basic package. So it’s no extra cost. And I have to say, based on two days of usage, this thing is not bad.

For watching traditional linear content, particularly when I was out of primetime, the Showcase  gave me a quick way to see what was what across all NBC networks. I particularly dug setting the channel up as a preset on my remote; I could go back and forth between say, Men’s Skating and Men’s Hockey.  Which is about the only way to get through a night of triple lutzes.

The on-demand material was less successful. Cablevision sets it up so I had to watch not only a preroll ad, which is fine, but also a Vancouver Olympics logo, which is not fine. The two combined elements take time and attention to get through. Which does not cut it in the Age of Distraction.

In all, the Showcase gives cable a nice new media sports flair. And honestly, I hope ESPN does a similar service. Getting all the coverage options on a busy night of college hoops would be pretty darn cool. But for sure, thumb through your program guide and take a digital luge ride on Oympics Showcase.

It most definitely has game.

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