U.S. looks north for Games down under

Barflies in Detroit can watch the Olympics live on Canadian television

Live Canadian coverage bypasses Olympic tape delay

In this story: 'See it as it's happening' 'They have not been a real big draw' 'When people come home, then we'll be on' RELATED STORIES, SITES

TROY, Michigan (CNN) -- Eager to see this year's Olympics action as it happens, some Americans are defecting to Canada. Instead of waiting for NBC's tape-delay telecast out of Australia, they're watching the Games live off Canadian television, even if it means missing a little sleep.

Much of the coverage aired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. is being shown live during what are early morning hours in Canada and the United States; Sydney is 15 hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone, which includes Toronto and New York.

That means U.S. viewers in Buffalo, Detroit, Seattle and other areas near the U.S.-Canada border -- plus some American households with satellite dishes -- can turn to the Canadian channel, which has the Canadian TV rights, as an alternative to NBC's tape-only prime time coverage.

VIDEO CNN's Ed Garsten gets up at 4 in the morning to be with Olympics watchers Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

'See it as it's happening'

"There are Olympic junkies out there who will stay up in the middle of the night," said CBC spokesman Christian Hasse.

Gymnastics instructor Lanny Mills is one of them. The Detroit-area resident got up at 3:45 one recent morning to watch the men's team gymnastics finals -- shown live on the CBC at 4 a.m. EDT.

"To me, personally, that's pretty important to see it as it's happening, as opposed to after the fact," Mills told CNN.

While some viewers might enjoy watching the replay -- even when they know how things turn out -- others definitely don't. Just ask the TV-watching barflies at Nemo's Saloon in Detroit. "Once you know the outcome, nobody really cares too much about it at that point," said one bar patron.

Still, there are enough Olympics junkies to keep the CBC busy answering calls from U.S. residents desperate to find out how to receive the live Canadian broadcasts.

"Some guy in Boston phoned me today and asked, 'Is there a bar in Boston that we can see you in?'" said Shane Gerard of CBC's audience relations department.

Detroit gymnasts watch televised coverage of the Olympics

'They have not been a real big draw'

While devoted Olympics fans form a base TV audience, it's up to the casual viewer to make the Games a ratings success. But so far in the United States, that hasn't happened.

Perhaps because of the time difference, fewer American viewers are tuning in to TV broadcasts of the Olympics in Sydney than any summer Games since Mexico City in 1968, according to early ratings.

"So far, they have not been a real big draw," said John Halpin, owner of the Spectadium, a sports bar in Troy, Michigan. One uninterested Spectadium patron proved the point, saying: "I gave up three or four scandals ago."

Of course, the government-funded CBC doesn't have to worry about selling as much prime-time advertising space as NBC does to make back its investment. CBC is paying $160 million for Olympic broadcast rights through the 2008 Games; NBC is plunking down about $3.5 billion over the same period.

"If you have hundreds of millions of dollars on the table -- in the case of Sydney, $705 million in rights fees and $100 million in production costs -- you have to put this on to reach the widest possible audience," NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol said. "You HAVE to."

'When people come home, then we'll be on'

So, Ebersol maintains, there's no point in showing events live. While CBC is on the air from Sydney about 18 hours a day, including from midnight to 8 a.m., NBC is gearing much of its coverage to prime time.

"Who in their right mind would tell us to put finals on from 4 to 7 a.m.? That's when all the meaningful events take place. And who would tell us to put them on from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.? That's ludicrous," Ebersol said. "When people come home, they'll have dinner, and then we'll be on."

North of the border, though, the thinking is different. "Our philosophy in the sports department is: If it's a sporting event that's happening, we should have it on live," says Nancy Lee, executive director of CBC Sports.

And that philosophy is winning a gold medal with U.S. viewers willing to lose a little sleep to watch the Games live.

Detroit Bureau Chief Ed Garsten, The Associated Press and CNN.com Senior Writer Jim Morris contributed to this report.

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Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Sydney 2000 Olympic Games
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