All Day In Paris

In a weird way, the three straight Olympics in Asia worked out well for NBC.  Especially in Tokyo, but also in Beijing, they were able to show a lot of competition live on TV.  Sure, a lot of it happened to be in the middle of the night, but there were also a number of events scheduled for the daytime hours, which meant NBC would be able to show them live in primetime--something they won't be able to do at either of the next two Olympics, which are both in Europe.

Europe is very TV-friendly for a lot of things.  NFL games in London can kick off at 9:30 AM Eastern because of the time difference.  Likewise, the EPL airs on Saturday mornings and Champions League games are in the middle of the American afternoon.  The French Open, Wimbledon and British Open, meanwhile, start early in the morning, but are done by mid-afternoon.

However, the time difference also makes it impossible for NBC to show live competition during its primetime Olympic coverage.  That's the reality of the situation, but also something that likely won't sit well with people who don't want to watch taped events where they might already know the result (and also don't really seem to understand how time zones work).  Which left me very curious as to how they would handle primetime in Paris.

As it turns out, they don't just already have a plan, they've already revealed what that plan is.  I wasn't expecting any announcement about Paris Olympic coverage until sometime early next year (or maybe something in July to mark the one-year-to-go countdown).  So, I was shocked when NBC put out a press release the other day detailing what their coverage plan for Paris is.

Peacock figures heavily into those plans, which isn't surprising at all.  NBC has been prioritizing Peacock and has already moved a lot of its Olympic sport programming over to the streaming service.  And there's already been two Olympics since Peacock's launch, so we already had an idea of how it'll be used in Paris.  Which will be expanded beyond what was done in Tokyo and Beijing.

Every event in every sport, including all 329 medals events will be shown live on Peacock, which will have full event replays, as well.  This is being billed as an Olympic first, but every event has been shown live on NBCOlympics.com since at least London (maybe even Vancouver), so I'm not exactly sure what they mean there.  Although, Peacock will also have exclusive original programming, virtual channels and all of NBC's coverage, too. 

So, seeing as a lot of people no longer have cable (which means they won't have access to live coverage on NBCOlympics.com) and only use streaming services, watching the Olympics on Peacock shouldn't be much different than watching on NBC.  In fact, it may even end up being better.  Because you can not only watch everything that's on NBC, you can also watch all that extra Peacock-only stuff.  That includes the Opening Ceremony.

It's not just on Peacock where people will be able to watch the Opening Ceremony live.  NBC will also show it live at 3:00 in the afternoon on the East Coast.  That answered the first of my burning questions about their coverage plans for the Paris Games.  In Tokyo and Beijing, they showed it live early in the morning, then again in primetime.  But in Paris, it'll be ending (if not still going) as the primetime window is starting, which would certainly complicate things regarding a primetime replay.

The Opening Ceremony will be just the start.  In Paris, NBC will show more hours of Olympic programming on the broadcast network than ever before.  So, I guess that answers another one of the burning questions.  Just because they can't show anything live in primetime, that doesn't mean they can't show anything live at all.  Just the opposite, in fact.  They can show stuff live all afternoon.  Which is exactly what they'll do!

Daytime Olympic coverage is usually the shorter broadcast window, and not always necessarily live.  Not in Paris.  Next year, the daytime window will, from the sound of it, be the primary coverage window.  They're calling it the "daytime takeover," with at least nine hours of daytime coverage every day, including live finals in all of the marquee sports.

While the daily Olympic schedule obviously won't be released until much closer to the Games, nine hours a day indicates they'll start Olympic programming right as the Today Show ends at 9 AM and conclude the "daytime takeover" at 6 PM, when the local news starts.  That's 3 PM to midnight in Paris.  So, it wouldn't surprise me if they start even earlier on some days.  (I'm fully expecting USA to go live as soon as the day's events start, which could be like 4-5 AM.)

Clearly, daytime will be the place to be during the Paris Games!  What about primetime then?  It is, after all, the most important daypart for broadcasters, as well as the bread-and-butter of Olympic coverage.  So, if they aren't holding competition to show during primetime, what will they show?  Well, they're describing it as an "enhanced Olympic primetime show, providing three hours of edge-of-your-seat entertainment each night."

Frankly, all I got from that line in the press release is that the primetime block will be three hours long every night, most likely from 8-11.  The good thing about that is it's a set schedule with no chance of running long.  The bad thing is that it won't be anything like your typical primetime broadcast.  While I'm sure it won't be entirely competition-free, it sure sounds like the primetime show will feature a lot of those fluff pieces.  There was also no mention at all of a late night show, which makes me wonder if there'll even be one.

I'm very curious to see how this programming strategy ends up working out, but I think giving it a try is a smart move.  They're going to get criticized either way.  People will either be upset that they aren't showing events live or that they aren't showing them in primetime (when, again, showing live events would be impossible).  But NBC has also changed its approach with live programming in recent years and has been showing sports (and Saturday Night Live) live coast-to-coast.  No more West Coast tape delay.

And, if that's the case, why not try it this way?  Have the bulk of the coverage be live during the afternoon, as it is with so much other programming that originates from Europe.  After all, it just might work.  And, if it works in Paris, you can bet they'll try it again in Milano Cortina and LA, which will both have a significant number of daytime events, as well (in LA, obviously, everything will be live).

People are changing the way they watch the Olympics.  In this day and age, you need the instant gratification that comes with watching something live.  NBC understands that.  Which is why, for two weeks next summer, they'll have American viewers spending their entire afternoon in Paris.