Nbc Sports

The TV repairman: One of the problems CBS ended up having with its coverage of the NCAA basketball tournament was verbal, not in what ended up on our screens. This isn't to say the play-by-play people, analysts and reporters didn't do a good job, some did. Rather it was the network's boast that as exclusive carrier of the tourney it was going to knock our socks off with never-to-be-forgotten coverage.It just didn't work out that way. Regional weekend was the usual, the Final Four just as it had always been on this same network.

Cue up the patriotism, the pathos and the TiVo. Strike up the bandwidth and pray for no snow. The Winter Olympics are about to begin bursting out of all of NBC's various outlets. More than 370 hours of the sporting events are to be carried in the United States on NBC and its sister channels, a record. In Baltimore, WBAL-TV (Channel 11) will broadcast the network's primary fare, which will be heavily tilted toward alpine skiing and figure skating, along with wrap-ups of other events. For purists, the place to turn will often be cable television.

If viewers to WBAL's 6 p.m. news were confused, they had the right to be. Outside of a graphic that appeared onscreen during the sports portion of the news, the only mention of Michael Phelps' failure to win a medal in his first event Saturday came in a graphic shown onscreen during Gerry Sandusky's sports portion of the show. And Sandusky warned viewers to look away before the news of Phelps' fourth-place finish was shown on the screen if they didn't want to know. Sandusky never verbally reported the results, according to WBAL General Manager Dan Joerres.

The complaints about NBC not showing marquee events like swimming have not abated, but the network is claiming another night of record viewing Sunday night, based on preliminary overnights. Meanwhile WBAL, the network's Baltimore affiliate, is boasting of its Friday night audience for the opening ceremonies. The Hearst-owned station has been treating tape-delayed events as "spoilers," reporting on them only as a graphic flashed on the screen during the sports portion of its early evening newscasts -- and warning viewers to look away if they don't want to know.

With three nights of record ratings, NBC's coverage of the London Summer Olympics is winning on the prime-time TV front. But it looks to be losing in major ways in the world of social media, as a rising tide of complaints about the network's policy of tape-delaying major events - such as those involving Michael Phelps - appear on Twitter, accompanied by such hashtags as #nbcfail and #nbcdelayed. The disconnect between NBC's success on TV and failure in social media highlights not only the landmark transformation taking place in media these days, but also the radical change in audience expectations and behavior, analysts say. Like many media companies, NBC has tried to lure viewers to its digital platforms with promises of providing information 24/7, whenever the consumer wants it. But now, the network is feeling the heat in social media for not feeding the very on-demand appetite it helped create “This kind of reaction to tape delay in Olympics coverage has always been there.

Unlike four years ago in Atlanta, when NBC's word of the day to describe its Olympics coverage was "plausibly live," the phrase "the complete Olympics" will govern the proceedings from Sydney, Australia. That term not only describes a slick marketing strategy, but also reflects NBC's rather broad multi-media coverage plan, spread out among three different delivery forms -- the over-the-air network, two cable channels and a World Wide Web site. At the heart of the 441 1/2 hours of television coverage is the decision to air virtually all of it on tape.

Preakness had its share of glitterati in attendance this year. Kiss bassist Gene Simmons , and his wife - and "Gene Simmons Family Jewels" reality show co-star - Shannon Tweed hung out in the Jockey Club, while "House of Cards" star Kevin Spacey made the circuit in the Corporate Village, looking dapper in a cream blazer and fedora. Spacey's style was more on track than his handicapping. When caught at the betting window there, the actor was asked his pick in the next race (the No. 9)

The top local entrant for Friday's 89th running of the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico took one wrong step on Thursday and had to be scratched. Walkwithapurpose, a Maryland-bred owned by Sagamore Farm in Glyndon, was expected to be one of the top contenders in the $500,000 Grade II race run at a mile and one-eighth for 3-year-old-fillies. Thursday afternoon, however, the Sagamore Farm filly had to drop out of the race after bruising her foot earlier in the day during her final gallop on the track at Pimlico in preparation for Friday's race.

Et cetera CAA, NBC Sports agree to 5-year deals The Colonial Athletic Association has reached five-year agreements with NBC Sports Group that will provide the most extensive and comprehensive exposure of the conference in its history, with coverage on NBC Sports Network and across the group's regional sports networks. The deals, which begin with the 2012-13 season and run through 2016-17, will provide national television coverage of CAA men's basketball and football games on NBC Sports Network, regional television coverage of CAA men's and women's basketball and football through the Comcast SportsNet regional networks and coverage of a variety of other CAA sports through NBCSports.com.

Former Pittsburgh Steelers receiver and longtime Ravens nemesis Hines Ward has a new job as analyst for NBC's "Football Night in America. " But he's still feeling the old "hate" when he comes to Baltimore. Ward, who will be working in Baltimore tonight during the prime-time matchup between the Ravens and New England Patriots, posted this little chronicle on the "hate" he received on his journey to Baltimore for the game. Judging for all the parenthetical "haha's," I'm guessing there's some tongue in cheek from Ward here, but he was a much better receiver than he is a writer, so I am not so sure.