NEW YORK — The days of “plausibly live” Olympics coverage on NBC are coming to an end.
The network showed off some of the new features it has planned for coverage of the Summer Olympics in Paris starting July 26 — including personalized highlights packages generated by artificial intelligence featuring the voice of Al Michaels and a star turn from Steven Spielberg — but none could match the major change in attitude towards the way the Games are presented.
For years, NBC has diligently guarded its primetime broadcasts of the Olympics regardless of time zone, leaving fans unable to see the main events if they happened live earlier in the day. Attempts to essentially pretend the events were being seen live added to the frustration.
This year, NBC said Wednesday that Mike Tirico will host two daily Olympic shows, one to coincide with prime time in Paris (2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern in the United States) and with live competition in major sports such as swimming, gymnastics and track and field. & field. The other, during primetime hours in the United States while Paris sleeps, will be a curated overview of the day’s best action.
Meanwhile, the network promised that affiliate streaming service Peacock would broadcast every Olympic competition live.
“We gave the audience choice, which I think the consumer wants,” said Molly Solomon, executive producer of the NBC Olympics. “We know how popular live sports are, so holding anything back makes no sense in this new media landscape.”
That means reconfiguring how NBC structures its broadcasts for prime time in the United States, always the biggest draw for viewers. In addition to showing matches, NBC will use the extra time to tell viewers more about why things turned out the way they did and provide a backstage look, she said.
Producers are aware that many viewers come to those delayed broadcasts already knowing who won some events, while others do not and do not want to.
“We never want to ruin the excitement,” Solomon said. “But it’s a tightrope walk.”
Even more so than in the past, NBC will focus on the personality profiles of athletes and include celebrities in its coverage; For example, Snoop Dogg comes to Paris at NBC’s expense. Solomon said she might tap into features planned for Peacock, such as a highlights package narrated by Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson.
“It’s going to look very different from the primetime shows you’ve seen in the past,” she said.
That will also require some business adjustments, as NBC sells ad packages that include inventory in both “prime-time” broadcasts, said Mark Lazarus, chairman of the NBC Universal Media Group. The network is also preparing to highlight viewership across its platform in a way that draws attention away from likely evening ratings declines compared to previous years.
Lazarus also acknowledged that NBC did a poor job with its Olympics offering on Peacock four years ago, essentially overpromising and underdelivering, and consumers responded with “the big digital middle finger.”
He promised dramatic improvement for Peacock this summer.
The streamer also uses AI to let fans create personalized highlights packages, by pre-selecting some favorite sports and the type of action they would like to see. AI will then deliver those specific highlights, narrated by an AI-generated model of Michaels’ voice – eerily realistic during a demonstration given on Wednesday.
NBC estimates it will create about 7 million variations of highlight packages through the new service.
In addition to Snoop Dogg, NBC brings in celebrities like Kelly Clarkson, Peyton Manning and Jimmy Fallon for its reporting. It was announced Wednesday that “Saturday Night Live” actor Colin Jost will help report on surfing from Tahiti. And to emphasize the storytelling — NBC bills the Olympics as a reality show, comedy and drama all rolled into one — Spielberg will narrate “Land of Stories,” a short film that will be shown before the Olympics opening ceremony.
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David Bauder writes about media for The Associated Press. Follow him up http://twitter.com/dbauder.
