At least when it comes to figure skating, the most watched event in the Winter Olympics, there won’t be any complaints about tape delay in prime time.
Rachel Cohen on the Associated Press reported late Tuesday afternoon that NBC will air figure skating live in the mornings on NBC SN from Sochi.
Cohen writes:
In a shift from NBC’s coverage of past games outside North America, nearly every figure skating performance will air on cable during the day, with the key moments shown on tape delay on the main network that night as in previous Olympics.
So if fans want to, they’ll see the women’s gold-medal-winning performance on NBCSN when it happens, instead of waiting until that evening. But they can also watch it again hours later, accompanied by the polished features that are the staple of NBC’s prime-time broadcasts.
And here’s the kicker:
But the other priority is to get more people to pay attention, and for those who already care to stick around longer. Meanwhile, technology kept evolving, and at the 2012 Summer Games in London, NBC started streaming every sport live online.
The network discovered it didn’t hurt prime-time ratings — and may have even helped.
“We think based on London those two goals align perfectly,” Bell said Tuesday. “We took a risk in streaming everything live from London. The biggest takeaway was we amplified and enhanced the audience’s Olympic experience.”
Indeed, making the events available for those who want to consume it live help drive interest in the prime time telecasts. Viewers are more likely to tune again to see the coverage from NBC’s primetime crew.
As for other live coverage on NBC SN, here’s the rundown from the network:
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NBC Olympics will utilize NBCSN, the NBC Sports Group’s Emmy Award-winning 24/7 sports network that is distributed in approximately 80 million homes, to present more than 230 hours of coverage of the XXII Olympic Winter Games from Sochi, Russia, this February. It will be the most Winter Olympic coverage ever on a cable network.
NBCSN’s 2014 Sochi Games coverage highlights include:
The most comprehensive live coverage of the Sochi competition day;
The network serving as the cable home for Team USA;
Starting Saturday, February 8, when NBCSN’s Olympic coverage begins, the network will feature complete, live coverage of figure skating;
In addition to its extensive figure skating coverage, the network will feature live coverage of 10 more sports, including speed skating, bobsled, ski jumping, Nordic combined, and more.
Team USA vs. Russia in men’s hockey on Saturday, Feb. 15.
NBCSN’s Olympic coverage begins Saturday, February 8 at 3 a.m. ET/Midnight PT, when Team USA faces Finland in women’s hockey, and concludes Sunday, February 23, the final day of the Sochi Games. NBCSN will air at least one gold medal final live each day through its 16 days of coverage. Most days, live coverage on NBCSN will begin at 3 a.m. ET and continue for 12 hours.
NBCSN will complement the Olympic programming airing on NBC, the details of which will be released shortly. It was announced in November that CNBC will carry 36 hours of Olympic curling coverage, MSNBC will host 45 hours of live curling and hockey, including medal rounds, and USA Network will serve up 43 hours of live curling and hockey coverage, including medal rounds. It was also announced that NBCOlympics.com will live stream all Sochi Olympics competition. The vast majority of live streaming will only be available to authenticated cable, satellite or telco customers via “TV Everywhere,” the media industry’s effort to make quality content available to authenticated customers both in and out of the home, and on multiple platforms.