The 2014 Winter Olympics may be viewed as the moment in time
that NBC finally figured out that the world has changed.
In 2012, the Summer Olympics were covered so poorly that it
spawned a Twitter movement, #NBCFail,
and revealed once and for all that then-producer Dick Ebserol was still living
in 1986. The tape delayed coverage of nearly everything ruined what should have
been one of the more exciting Games in recent memory.
#NBCFail, so of
course not.
With the dinosaur
Ebserol now banished back to the 1980's, NBC finally entered the future in
2014. No, they didn't air everything live and I really wish they had done so
for the skiing. But they did for the marquee event as every single figure
skating was shown live
on NBCSN. This had never happened before and NBC deserves credit for
thinking of the viewer.
Still the time difference between Sochi and the United
States made it impossible to air anything live in primetime and ratings
were good, yet obviously down from the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Overall, NBC covered the games well, the ratings were more than decent and I'd have to consider them a win for the network. Heck, they even got Jimmy Fallon off to a good start.
Yet people are already looking ahead to a potential
disaster for NBC as the next Winter Olympics in 2018 are in Pyeongchang,
South Korea. That is 14 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, which means that
8 pm at the Games will be 6 am in New York City. And 3 pm will be 1 am.
Many are already predicting doom, but could the time
difference be a good thing? Remember, NBC crushed the 2008 Summer Olympics in
Beijing because they got the swimming
events to start at 10 am. local time, which was right in primetime on the
East Coast – meaning every Michael Phelps Gold Medal-winning swim was shown
live. They sacrificed the track and field, Usain Bolt's 100m win was shown on
NBC some 16 hours after it happened, but the record ratings were worth it.
With all that in mind – how will NBC cover the 2018 Winter
Olympics?
Does Primetime Look
Back or Ahead?
The 14-hour difference could be a really, really good thing
or a really, really bad thing. Simple math shows that 8 pm on the East Coast is
10 am where the Games will take place. So does NBC's primetime show look ahead
to the day of events, focusing on events that could take place in the morning
or early afternoon, especially the alpine, snowboard and sledding events?
Can NBC, as they did in Beijing, make special arrangements
for events that will have American stars. As an example looking at this year's
event, the snowboard events were heavy on American superstars –could NBC pull
strings to make sure those events take place during U.S.-friendly times?
Now for some events, like figure skating, that will be
impossible and they will be shown on an extreme tape delay. But if NBC airs
those events live on NBCSN in the wee hours of the morning – the figure skating
would take place between 4-8 am – would it be that big of a deal?
What I think will happen is that NBC uses the first two
hours or so of primetime catching up on the previous day's events (the look
back) and then closes primetime with live coverage (the look ahead) of specific
sports that Americans have favorites in, like snowboard, certain alpine events
and sledding events. You might even be able to add speed skating to that list if
the U.S. redemption story gets
legs four years from now.
I have made my feelings about Johnny
Weir and his potential known. But the entire announcing crew for the NBCSN
figure skating coverage was top-notch, and between 100 to 5,000 times better
than the primetime NBC coverage. They have to be the primetime figure skating
announcing crew in 2018. There's no excuse to do otherwise.
If it were up to me, I'd still do the live coverage on NBCSN
and then replay only the top performances in primetime as the trio announced it
live. I know NBC will want to do the puff pieces -- so use Scott Hamilton as a
studio commentator/host that can pitch to and from the puff pieces while
letting Terrance, Johnny and Tara do their thing.
Simply put, NBC cannot have its figure skating A-team only
calling the live action on NBCSN.
The Olympic Primetime
Host will be Bob Costas
The passion
of Bob Costas' redeye had many people thinking about the future and what
NBC would do if he wasn't hosting. As much as Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira
excel on morning shows, they are not in the same league as Costas when it comes
to hosting duties. You either have that talent in spades or you don't. Lauer
and Vieira were good, Costas is great.
So Costas will be in that chair for the 2016 Summer Olympics
in Rio and the 2018 games in Korea. In fact, NBC seems to only have one
up-and-coming hosting star
in Liam McHugh, who anchors the NHL and Notre Dame coverage, and did a
really good job in Sochi. But it would take an enormous leap for him to jump up
to the big-time host chair.
The only other possibility, if Costas somehow leaves the
network entirely, would be Dan Patrick, who did a lot of the weekend and NBCSN
coverage. Or NBC could hire someone from another network – but who would be
better than Costas?
NHL Players Will Play
In The Olympics
The injury to John Tavares has again opened
up the debate of why NHL players take part in the Olympics for no money.
There will be back and forth for the next four years but the NHL will back, if
maybe Tavares won't be.
There are two significant reasons why. First, the players
want to play. While NBA players have at times looked at the Olympics as an
obligation, many NHL players have grown up looking at the tournament as the
highest level to achieve in the sport with a Gold Medal rivaling, if not quite
surpassing, the Stanley Cup. You think LeBron sees his Gold Medal like that? It
also helps that the sport of hockey has so many strong countries – and strong
World Championship tournaments in non-Olympic years – that it truly means
something.
Secondly, and most importantly, NBC will still have the NHL
rights. While there has been no correlation from Olympic ratings to NHL
ratings, it certainly can't hurt to raise the level of notoriety for players.
The hockey tournament is one of the highest-rated portions of the Olympics and
has really
boosted NBCSN's numbers and awareness. NBC will make sure that happens in
2018, though I would safely assume the NHL and its players will finally make
something off of the deal.
Late Night Hockey?
The Olympic hockey games usually start around noon local
time – which is 10 p.m. on the East Coast. That would eat into the NBC
primetime, but what if the schedule was adjusted so, say, the U.S. hockey team
game had a puck drop of 2 pm local time, or midnight in New York?
The Olympics do a good job of scheduling to a home country's
time zone, as neither Canada or the U.S. hockey teams played at noon local time
in 2014, which would have been 3 am on the East Coast.
But a midnight ET, 9pm PT puck drop on NBCSN would figure to
do bang-up ratings, right? Especially considering that Olympic hockey has no
commercials and end in about two hours, that is all primetime for the West
Coast and would mean staying up to 2 am on the East Coast – that's reasonable,
right?
And if the gold medal game is at noon local, as it was for
the 2010 Vancouver games, that would mean a live 10 p.m. start on NBC proper.
You get the U.S. in the game and watch the ratings soar.
What Happens to
Figure Skating?
As I mentioned above, the money event of every Winter
Olympics is going to have a very, very tough sell in 2018. As with the 2008
track and field events in Beijing, NBC will likely have to sit on the figure
skating for 12-14 hours before airing them in primetime. While the live action
on NBCSN had very little impact on ratings in 2014, it could be a huge problem
in 2018 since that will happen right at the same time, approximately, as the
Today Show.
What would you rather watch, if you're interested in the
Olympics, before going to work? Live figure skating performances or Al Roker
trying to luge?
More Curling or Live
Curling or Both?
I don't get the love for curling but, like in Vancouver, the
sport did excellent
ratings for CNBC as it drew multiple millions for coverage after the final
bell, despite being tape delayed by hours.
What does NBC do with this seemingly emerging sport? They
aired very little live curling, instead opting to air it on CNBC at 5 p.m.
While that worked out well in Sochi, for 2018, that would mean airing curling
well after it occurred.
In my opinion, I think the time difference allows NBC to air
more sports live in the overnight – who is watching CNBC at 3am on a Wednesday
anyway? I think we will see a lot more curling and a lot more live curling as
NBC fills the overnight hours with endless curling matches, or whatever they're
called.
There appears to be an audience for curling once every four
years -- let them watch it all night for hours if they want.
More Cross-Country
and Biathlon, Please
If it weren't for snow days, I may not have been able to
watch any cross-country skiing or fascinating biathlon – there is just
something riveting about skiing for miles, stopping to shoot at a target, and
then skiing for a few more miles.
But more than that, the sport can be really, really exciting.
Most people hear cross-country skiing and instinctively yawn or groan. But a
close race is edge of your seat stuff, which gets buried every Olympics because
the U.S. is never any good at it.
If I'm running the NBC operation for the next Olympics, I go
all in on biathlon and cross-country. Air that stuff live!
Innovation: What
Can't We Think of Yet?
Here is what I think NBC should do because of the time
difference – they need to air every important event live as it happens. For
many of the events, this will mean airing at 2-5 am on the East Coast. Do it.
What do you have to lose? Only a fraction of your primetime audience will watch
it and you'll shut up all the people on social media that complain about the
tape delay.
It is a relative no-lose for NBC since they will have next
to no worries about live coverage eating into primetime coverage due to the
time difference. And since you could potentially have some live events in
primetime, that should offset any losses from airing, say, the bobsled at 3 am
and then again at 8 pm.
When it comes to technology, I think the next step for live streaming is for it to be available through your cable box. NBC does this now with the Premier League, where every game is aired live on the NBC Sports Live Extra app as well as through my on-demand menu, though it's hard to find.
In 2018, I expect every event will be available to you live
through your cable box. I would imagine events that are not aired live on
NBCSN, CNBC, MSNBC or USA will be available like those Premier League games
through your on-demand menu or dedicated channels, similar to the 1992 Triplecast
(way, way ahead of its time, eh?) or the special soccer/basketball channels NBC
set up for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
I guess it shouldn't be an innovation to show everything on
your television live, but this is the network of #NBCFail and Dick Ebersol --
they have quite a hole to dig out of. But in 2014, they started to. By 2018,
they'll finally join the 21st century after about two decades.
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