The Winter Olympics are coming. (Getty) Get your jet-fuel coffee and hypersonic energy drinks ready, because NBC will be televising all coverage from the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea live in all time zones.
The move is a stark departure from NBC’s longstanding tradition of tape-delaying coverage to backload the network’s evening Olympics telecasts with high-profile events. The problem with that strategy in present-day America is that everyone’s already aware of the results thanks to social media. Plus, patience for the soft-focus features on athletes’ rise from adversity that are a staple of Olympic programming is growing thin among the Olympic audience, particularly when those features are run in place of actual competition.
Ratings for the 2016 Rio Olympic declined 18 percent from London four years earlier, a worrying statistic given that Rio required no extreme time management to view events live. The next three Olympics are all literally on the other side of the planet from the United States, meaning many events will take place when the majority of America is asleep. However, streaming of the Olympics has exploded, totaling 2.7 billion minutes in 2016, meaning there will be plenty of American Olympic enthusiasts watching events on their phones and pads in bed. Pyeongchang Olympic officials have indicated that many events will take place in the morning local time, which is prime time on the East Coast.
NBC has streamed every event live online since 2012; the move to broadcasting Olympic events live, rather than as part of a package, signals a shift back to a classic strategy: that television remains the primary focus of viewers’ interest, and that viewers are more willing to sit through commercials if they know they’re watching live action. Awards shows, for instance, have become major social media events as they’re aired live, and NBC obviously hopes to retain that magic for the Olympics as well.
“Live television is the backbone of linear TV,” Jim Bell, president, production and programming for NBC Olympics, told the Los Angeles Times, “sports in particular and the Olympics at the top of that list.”
NBC has invested billion in the Olympics, and holds the rights to broadcast the Games through 2032.

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports and the author of EARNHARDT NATION, on sale now at Amazon or wherever books are sold. Contact him at [email protected] or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.