Snowboarding gold medalist Shaun White, will be competing in his fifth Winter Olympics in Beijing ... [+]
Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Winter Olympics is scheduled for Friday, February 4. As with every Olympics since 2000, in the U.S., NBCU will be providing coverage that will begin on February 2. Beijing will be the first city to host both the Summer Olympics (in 2008) and Winter Olympics. It also marks the third of three consecutive Olympics to be held in Asia. With a metro population of 21.5 million, Beijing is 13 hours “ahead” from cities Eastern Standard Time in the U.S. The Beijing Olympics also marks a new contract that NBCU negotiated with the IOC that was finalized in 2014. Over the course of the next six Olympiads (through 2032), NBCU will be paying $7.75 billion or $1.3 billion per Olympiad.
Every Olympics present their own set of unique challenges from climate and the readiness of the venues by the Opening Ceremonies to security from potential terrorist attacks and cost overruns. These Beijing Games present several serious issues. Two years after the onset of a global pandemic, Covid is still spreading, putting the health and wellbeing of athletes and Olympic officials at risk. Also, China’s domestic policies about human rights have come under intense global scrutiny with activists pressuring Olympic sponsors and NBC to criticize the host nation or even boycott the Games. Furthermore, the TV ratings of the 2016 and 2018 Olympics rank among the lowest in decades. As a result, Peacock will be live streaming every event replacing NBC as the Olympic hub.
Olympic Coverage: In total, NBCU plans to provide a record 2,800+ hours of Winter Olympic coverage, all of it streamed on Peacock. In addition, events will be available on NBC, USA Network, CNBC, NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app.
In a sign of the times, NBCU announced that all events would be streamed live on Peacock. It marks the first time the network is prioritizing their Olympic coverage online instead of television. In addition to the live competition, Peacock's coverage will include full replays of the action, studio analysis among other content. In a statement NBCU said its goal was to make Peacock a “comprehensive Olympics destination for all live action and catch-up on-demand viewing.” Peacock was launched in April 2020 and, while its coverage of the Tokyo Olympics generated strong usage, it also met with some criticism such as the frustration users had in navigating the content.
With Peacock becoming the hub of Olympic coverage, NBC is hoping to improve their subscriber counts of 52 million sign-ups and 20 million active users. These counts lag behind category leaders Netflix and Disney+. Also, with cable’s NBCSN shut down earlier this year, Peacock will be streaming other live sporting events including the English Premier League. Live sports such as Thursday Night NFL Football (on Amazon Prime) are becoming available on streaming platforms.
The NBC broadcast network will televise almost 200 hours of Olympic coverage including 18 nights in primetime which will air simultaneously across the country. As with previous Winter Games, NBC’s coverage will include such popular events as figure skating, alpine skiing, speed skating, snowboarding and short track.
USA Network, which is picking up events previously seen on NBCSN will televise close to 400 hours of Olympic action across 19 days in primetime and other dayparts. USA Network will provide a wide variety of Olympic events. When the business day has concluded CNBC will add 80 more hours of Olympic coverage. Events on CNBC will consist primarily of curling and ice hockey. In addition, the NBCOlympics.com and NBC Sports app will live stream 2,100+ hours from Beijing.
TikTok: NBCU will continue its Olympic advertising partnership with the video-sharing social media app TikTok. During the Tokyo Games, TikTok became a popular destination providing viewers with a behind the scenes look at life in the Olympic village and disclosed the secret crushes some athletes had on fellow Olympians. Each day NBCU will provide TikTok with new Olympic content including three live streamed episodes hosted daily by a TikTok influencer. TikTok has over one billion monthly active users worldwide with over 60% of the users under the age of 30. To date, NBCU says hashtags using Olympics have generated 18 billion views.
Winter Olympics Ratings: The Tokyo Olympics on NBC averaged only 15.6 million primetime viewers, the lowest in decades for any Olympics. The 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics averaged 17.8 million primetime viewers, a 17% decline from the 2014 Sochi Games making it the least watched Winter Olympics on record. When NBCU’s Total Audience Delivery (TAD), which includes NBCSN and NBC Sports streaming platforms is added, the audience delivery grew to 19.8 million, still a 7% drop-off from the 2014 Sochi Games.
Dr. Andrew Billings, the Ronald Reagan Chair of Broadcasting at The University of Alabama and co-author of Olympic Television: Broadcasting the Biggest Show on Earth noted, “Ratings will be down because that’s the media landscape we’re in with so much out there to draw our attention, but if anything can draw a lot of viewers, it’s sports,” Billings, also points out that, “Even in this diverse media climate NBC’s coverage of the 2021 summer games bested the next 12 networks combined in head-on ratings and that 95 of the highest rated TV broadcasts in 2021 were sports related.”
Prime Time Audience Delivery (in millions)
Winter Olympics
2018 PyeongChang 17.8
2014 Sochi 21.3
2010 Vancouver 24.4
2006 Torino 20.2
2002 Salt Lake 31.9
1998 Nagano* 25.3
*On CBS (all others on NBC)
Source: Nielsen
With low ratings anticipated, Business Insider reports NBCU has significantly dropped its ratings projections for the Winter Olympics by as much as half. One ad buyer said they expect a six rating, roughly 50% of originally guaranteed for the 2018 Winter Games. NBC said they had nearly 100 advertisers signed up for the Games.
While the Tokyo and Rio Summer Games generated over $1 billion ad revenue, the Winter Olympics with fewer events are not as financially lucrative. The 2018 Winter Olympics generated $920 million in national ad dollars. For the 2014 Sochi Games NBC said national ad sales totaled $800 million.
Besides Nielsen, NBCU for the 2022 Olympics (and Super Bowl LVI) is partnering with iSpot.tv. NBCU says Olympic advertisers will be able to access viewing information in real-time across linear TV, time-shifted viewing and streaming video. In addition, sponsors will receive next-day verified ad impressions and cross-platform incremental reach and frequency across video platforms. Several advertisers will be able to obtain further data including business outcomes and evaluation of the creative messaging.
Super Bowl LVI: In 2019 NBC and CBS agreed to switch what years they would televise the Super Bowl. As a result, CBS which was originally scheduled to televise the “Big Game” in 2022, agreed to televise Super Bowl LV in 2021, with NBC televising Super Bowl LVI from Los Angeles. The change allowed NBC to televise both the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics (which they had done in 2018) and sell both events to advertisers. In addition, by moving to 2021 CBS would not have to compete with the Olympics.
With an extra week added to the NFL regular season, the Super Bowl will be televised on February 13, the latest date the game has ever been played and, in the middle of the Beijing Olympics. (In 2018 Super Bowl LII was played the week before the Winter Olympics started.) With Super Bowl ad rates reportedly as high as $6.5 million for a :30, NBCU is expected to generate upwards of $500 million in ad dollars on that one day. USA Network and Peacock will be providing Olympic coverage that evening.
Covid: Since the outbreak of Covid two years ago, China has adopted a “Zero-Covid” policy. To stem the spread of Covid, Chinese health officials employed quick contact tracing, isolating and lockdowns. In addition, tickets to the Olympics will not be sold but distributed. Spectators will be residents of mainland China who have met the “Covid-19 countermeasures” requirements. On January 15, China reported their first case of the Omicron variant. According to Our World Data, since the end of 2019, China, a country with 1.4 billion inhabitants, has reported just over 4,600 deaths.
For the 3,000+ athletes, coaches and judges before entering China, they must test negative for Covid twice within four days of their flight. A positive Covid test will result in either the athlete staying home or a lengthy isolation in China. In an abundance of caution, many athletes, who have trained for years to participate in the Olympics, are being vigilant to avoid a positive test. Once in China, Olympic participants will be required to stay in isolation bubbles that will encompass housing, event locations and links to transportation.
In addition, because of the pandemic, NBC announced most of their Olympic announcers will be working remotely from their Stamford, CT studios instead of on location. These include the hosts of The Today Show which typically have been on location during the Olympics. ESPN also announced they would not be sending anyone to China.
Human Rights: China’s human rights policy has come under widespread criticism for its abusive treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim groups in Xinjiang, a province in northwest China. Human rights groups have accused the Chinese government of forced labor, mass detentions and torture among other violations. The Chinese government has denied any misconduct. In response, the governments of the United States, Great Britain, Japan and Australia have implemented a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics. The boycott means no government officials will be spectators.
In addition, China’s human rights policies have placed Olympic sponsors in a predicament. According to the Wall Street Journal, Visa, a long-time Olympic sponsor, has cut down on its promotion as the Winter Games approach. In previous years, Visa had an Olympic countdown and posted on Twitter their involvement in the Olympic movement. Those pre-Games marketing activities have not been happening in 2022.
Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble have also been noticeably tight-lipped about the Olympics. This year Coca-Cola said it was running an Olympic advertising campaign this year only in China. Omega, however, another global sponsor, has been promoting a new watch prior to the Games. China is home to the second largest global economy and a growing market for most brands. Hence, marketers, despite pressure from human rights groups, have been reluctant to speak out about China’s policies, fearful of any repercussions.
Furthermore, The Human Right Watch has warned athletes speaking out on China’s Human Rights policy for their own safety. Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter states that "no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas". With the potential that every activity could be monitored by the Chinese government, Team USA members have been told that while in China to use “burner phones” because of cyber security and surveillance risks. Journalists covering the Olympics from Beijing will also be using anti-detection devices.
For its part, NBC said their Olympic coverage will address the geopolitical context of China and their role across the global stage. NBC will feature two experts on China, Andy Browne, a former China editor for the Wall Street Journal and now editorial director of Bloomberg New Economy and Jing Tsu, a Yale professor on China studies. NBC also said the participating athletes will continue to be the centerpiece of its Olympic coverage. In an interview with CNN, Bob Costas, the anchor for 12 Olympics for NBC said, "I would anticipate ... [NBC] will acknowledge the issues at the beginning," Costas said, "and then address them only if something specific that cannot be ignored happens during the course of the Games.
After three successive Olympics from Asia, the next two will be located in Europe. The 2024 Summer Olympics will return to Paris. It will be the third time the “City of Light” will host the Olympics. The 2026 Winter Games will be held in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. It will be the third time Italy will play host to the Winter Olympics. Previously Cortina d'Ampezzo had hosted the 1956 Winter Games and Torino was the location for the 2006 Winter Games. The Summer Olympics returns to Los Angeles for a third time in 2028. It will be the first time the U.S. will host the Olympics since the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake. Dr. Billings says, “The outlook is better for future games with better time zones in Europe and Los Angeles.”
