US network NBC has committed to complete live coverage of a winter Olympic Games for the first time, with the impact of social media cited as a key reason behind the move for next year’s event in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
On most nights of the 2018 Games, the primetime broadcast will begin at 8pm ET, 7pm CT, 6pm MT, and 5pm PT. It will be followed in all time zones by local news, and then a ‘Primetime Plus’ program, consisting of live continuing coverage from Pyeongchang, which will be 14 hours ahead of the east coast of America during the Games. A replay of the primetime program will follow Primetime Plus.
Jim Bell, president of NBC Olympics Production & Programming, said: “This means social media won’t be ahead of the action in any time zone, and as a result, none of our viewers will have to wait for anything. This is exciting news for the audience, the advertisers, and our affiliates alike.”
Media company NBCUniversal is the International Olympic Committee’s rights partner in the US. In May 2014, NBCU extended its media rights deal for the Olympic Games through to 2032. NBCU acquired rights across all media platforms, including free-to-air television, subscription television, internet and mobile.
The agreement, from 2021 to 2032, was valued at $7.65bn (€7.03bn), plus an additional $100m signing bonus which the IOC said would be used for the “promotion of Olympism and the Olympic values” between 2015 and 2020.