re Davidlatimes:
"...(Many consider the CBC coverage to be far more events-oriented and less US-centric than the NBC coverage down here)."
That certainly HAS been the case, going back to the Roone Arledge 1968 Mexico City games.
And things have gotten way worse since then.
But this year, with massive cable coverage on MSNBC, Bravo, USA, Telemundo and CNBC, things have changed dramatically.
There are far more hours of coverage, and many more sports are being covered: with softball, badminton, archery, rowing, table tennis, and many others along with soccer and basketball (mens and womens) games not involving the United States.
So I guess my question to the LA Times would be: are you basing your story based on attitudes formed by past Olympic performances by the networks, or by this year's actual programming?
If your thesis is that some people watch Canadian satellite coverage because they can't stand jingoistic US network coverage, I suspect your facts (though not perhaps, the public perception) are a bit out of date.
Perhaps they really subscribe to Canadian satellite because they can easily get East (Boston) and West (Seattle) network stations in HD with no waivers and little hassle.
And cheaper than from DirecTV or Dish even if those options were available.
(And before I am written off as an anti-Times nut, let me hasten to commend you and your section for what I consider to be a solid upgrade in entertainment news reporting over the past year or so. Unlike your brethren in Calendar, you actually report the [business] news of Hollywood on a pretty consistently fair and timely manner.)
And there has been a recent thread over at AVS forum on Expressvu getting the NFL ST package.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=428384
One respodent in particular might be of interest to you: his handle is clapple he lives in Palm Springs. So you might just message him. (I already have and pointed him to this thread.)