NBCU's Coverage of the Summer Olympics Was Groundbreaking in Many Ways

In three ways NBC39s coverage was groundbreaking especially when it came to giving its viewers more choices of what to see amp160For the first time ever multiple network coverage was available in primetime most nights via NBC NBC Sports Network Bravo largely for tennis and USA Network on a few nights amp160Because of the favorable time zone one hour ahead of Eastern time what NBCSN Bravo and USA had to offer was live If you didn39t want the strict NBC diet of gymnastics swimming and track and field most nights you could move somewhere else and many did NBCSN had more than one million viewers per evening the most catching that service on a frequent basis apart from National Hockey League playoffs amp160Bravo did almost as well amp160Had NBCUniversal promoted the availability of multiple net primetime more extensively before the opening ceremonies I39ll bet viewership would have ratcheted up even furtherGroundbreaker No 2 was unfortunately the exception instead of the norm the Spanishlanguage primetime coverage amp160For several summer Olympics Telemundo has limited its role to morning and daytime hours despite an announcing and production team as good as the rest of the NBCUniversal lineup amp160Sister Spanish net NBCUniverso finally moved its Olympics coverage into primetime starting with a sensational JapanColumbia soccer match the first Sunday night Ratings were solid contributing to NBCUniversal39s best Spanishlanguage Olympics viewership and ad sales performance ever amp160Again if NBCUniverso along with Telemundo went whole hog with primetime coverage every night including the opening and closing ceremonies live and promoted the heck out of that viewership and ad sales would have benefited in a tremendous way Going forward Spanishlanguage primetime coverage should become mustoffer TV for every Summer and Winter OlympicsComcast cable subscribers with the X1 videoondemand service were the beneficiaries of NBC39s third Rio groundbreaker At any time from start to finish X1 offered a treasure chest of live and taped coverage from different Rio venues plus video profiles of athletes medal counts and other graphic statistics and a choice of camera angles from which to enjoy specific events amp160Early anecdotal feedback suggests X1 customers gave this Olympic account gold medal marks amp160I expect Comcast will explore other opportunities for providing this level of ondemand programming while introducing some interactive features such as social media and 360degreevirtual or augmented reality perspectivesWhatever the stance on NBC39s Olympic outcome in Rio let39s give management there credit for greenlighting all three initiatives The common thread with all of them Giving the public more ways to see these athletics and then choose how they wanted to watch them amp160That39s what NBC should keep in mind upon further review of how they39ll treat their next trio of Olympics all taking place in Asia with unfavorable time zones for live coverage throughout the USAs for reaction to NBC39s mixed Rio performance in primetime dominant against its broadcast competition 2526 million viewers on average per night but generally down from London 2012 and way down on some nights including the opening and closing ceremonies there39s plenty to complain about amp160Yes the coverage quality was uneven with few new technical or content innovations amp160Yes there were too many long commercial breaks with the same commercials repeated over and over again amp160On that point NBC officials acknowledge that because of many events happening live it was a guessing game onsite to start many breaks at natural stops in the live actionAnd lest we forget ratings down the stretch among the Millennial crowd plunged compared to other viewer demographicsBefore you conclude that the issue is all about Millennials swearing off linear TV or TV in general keep in mind that at least half of the public or more now has a smart TV set or device like Roku Chromecast Apple TV etc and they increasingly are watching linear TV networks plus ventures like Netflix Hulu and Amazon on the TV set not the PC smartphone or tabletHere39s the bigger deal NBC should deal with The lack of interest in the Olympics in New York Los Angeles Chicago and other major cities amp160Of the toprated markets for Olympics viewing Salt Lake City ranked No 1 with a 39 share of audience amp160Denver ranked second followed by Indianapolis Austin Texas and Columbus Ohio The only other major city in this top20 snapshot Washington DC at No 13 with a 32 share of audienceWhy the apathy in the big and many midsize cities Simple Olympic sports are on the bottom of the totem pole in local yearround coverage by local TV stations newspapers and sports talk radio stations In many cases they have no place on the pole Here in New York the only time Rio made waves on popular sports talk radio outlet WFAN AMFM was the Ryan Lochte kerfuffle after his medalwinning performanceItamp8217s time for NBCUniversal to no longer take major market Olympics support for granted Exercise some marketing muscle and promote these games in every way possible everywhere from mass transit signage to local cablesatellite avails amp160Then you might get some Millennials back in the fold by winter 2018Until the next time stay well and stay tunedPhoto courtesy of Eduardo Berkowitz The opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet management or associated bloggersamp160

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NBCU's Coverage of the Summer Olympics Was Groundbreaking in Many Ways

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Simon Applebaum

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