Several Olympics ago I was in San Diego and the local cable had Mexican TV coverage of the games. I could not believe how much better their coverage was than NBC’s. They actually showed entire events without interrupting them for athelete’ biographies. They even showed contests where Mexicans weren’t competing. Of course they were pleased when Mexican athletes did well, but they didn’t center their coverage on them.
I was in Buffalo for the 1988 Games, and I couldn’t believe how much better CBC’s coverage was. Well at least until the Ben Johnson imbroglio and that’s all they would talk about.
I also think the end of the Cold War hurt, because we were fascinated by the athletes from the Communist countries, as if they were from another planet. Now, you have many athletes who live full-time in this country but still competing for their home country.