Or … Get a digital over-the-air antenna and you’ll see uncompressed, beautifully shot footage. There is no buffering. There is no subscription. Yes, there are ads, but at least they are not the same three ads on a mind-numbing loop (like they are in the NBC Sports app on Apple TV — which I tried). The value of watching it as-it-happens is overrated. Time-shifting to when I am ready to watch is preferable. That’s why it’s (still) called “prime time.”
If the show NBC is presenting is old-school TV, watch it on an old-school over-the-air signal, the way it was meant to be watched: the ads are your cue to raid the fridge, go pee, or even check your phone. Kind of neat to still be able to find an ad-supported experience where you don’t also have to pay NBC any money at all. (But still, the number and frequency of the ads are ridiculous.)
Compare to how they covered 1976 — little gabbing during the event, occasional audience applause, and rather quaint. Yet the important thing still comes through:
