"Live" From Rio

For the first time in six years and just the third time in 20 years, we've got an Olympics in a U.S.-friendly time zone.  NBC is rightfully excited about this, touting Rio as the "most live" Olympics in TV history.  They haven't released their schedule yet, but they've teased that NBCSN will have 16 hours of coverage every day from 8 a.m.-midnight, and I'd imagine the mother ship's schedule will be pretty much all day except for the news break between the afternoon and prime time shows.

But, just when you thought you'd see the Opening Ceremony live for the first time since Atlanta, you were wrong.  Despite the fact that this will be the "most live" Olympics in history, that doesn't include one of the most significant events of the Games.  It came as quite a shock when NBC announced that the Opening Ceremony on August 5 will start at 8 p.m. Eastern.  The ceremony's actual start time is 7 p.m. Eastern.  That's right, NBC will air the Opening Ceremony on a one-hour delay.  And, since it starts at 8:00 in all time zones, the West Coast will see it four hours late.

People on the West Coast might not want to hear this, but they weren't going to see it live no matter what.  That's just the way it is.  Because there's no way NBC would've shown it live at 4:00 in the afternoon on a Friday!  That might've entered into the thought process, too.  This way they can show it at 8:00 in every time zone, which doesn't screw up their schedule (Sunday Night Football may be the highest-rated show on TV, but it's not exactly convenient that it ends near midnight on the East Coast, while the West Coast affiliates still need to fill two hours of programming).

Part of NBC's rationale for this does seem somewhat reasonable.  They need to put commercials in, and showing the ceremony on delay gives them the opportunity to insert the commercials in appropriate places without missing anything important.  With the amount advertisers are going to pay for commercial time, especially during the Opening Ceremony, that's something they have to take into consideration from a business perspective.

As much as I tried to accept this explanation, the rest of it falls flat.  They also said that they need the hour delay to provide "context."  Obviously, most of the American audience isn't going to know the significance of everything during the cultural portion at the beginning.  But, they provide the Opening Ceremony broadcasters with a rundown of everything that's happening (and I think they let them watch a rehearsal).  You can provide that context live,  And, frankly, it's kind of insulting to suggest that the audience isn't smart enough to appreciate what they're seeing without having it spelled out for them by Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira (why isn't Bob Costas calling the Ceremony, btw?).

I've seen enough Olympic Opening Ceremonies to know another part of NBC's motivation here.  In Sydney, they cut out an entire segment of the ceremony, as well as a number of countries during the Parade of Nations.  And in Beijing, they showed a bunch of countries in succession after they came back from commercial so that they didn't miss anybody.  Of course, in London, they cut out an entire section so that they could show an interview with Michael Phelps, so let's hope that they aren't starting it late to put in stupid filler like that again.

What they're not saying is that this gives them a chance to edit the Ceremony, too.  I'm not saying they're going to cut out complete segments again, but you can definitely bet that we're not going to see the coaches' oath (especially since it'll be in Portugese).  And I'd bet NBC's planning a four-hour broadcast from 8:00-midnight.  This will allow them to fit it into that window.  (In Vancouver, Wayne Gretzky didn't light that second cauldron until like 12:30 a.m., well past NBC's allotted window.)

In response to this news, the famous #NBCfail from London has been resurrected.  These are two entirely different situations, though.  As much as people didn't like it and still might not understand it, they had to show everything on tape during the prime time show in London because of the time difference!  Of course, part of that vitriol four years ago was because people just wanted to complain, so they LOVED having a reason to lash out again.  Except this time they do have a point.

CBC was quick to pounce, pointing out that they'll be showing the Opening Ceremony live.  Although, since a vast majority of Americans don't live near the Canadian border and won't have access to the CBC feed (either on TV or online), that doesn't really help.  (When I lived in Buffalo, I'd often watch Olympic events live on CBC, then again on NBC later on.  It was great.  Unfortunately, I no longer have that option.)

The easy solution here would be to show the Opening Ceremony live online.  That's what they did for the Closing Ceremony in London after they controversially didn't give people that option for the Opening Ceremony in 2012.  With their commitment to showing every event live online, that would seem like the most sensible alternative.  Then it would calm down (but definitely not eliminate) some of the backlash.  That would also be the fairest thing for West Coast viewers, who might want to watch it at 4:00 in the afternoon.

NBC was right with some of the points they made about their decision to time shift the Opening Ceremony.  It's not a competitive event, so there's no result to spoil (only the name of the final torchbearer).  And it's not exactly going to affect their ratings, either.  London was the most-watched event in TV history, despite none of the prime time events being shown live.  I doubt things will be any different in Rio.  In fact, most experts predict Rio will surpass London as the most-watched event in TV history.  Starting with the Opening Ceremony.  Which millions of people are going to watch anyway.