NBC's Olympics coverage looks like a turning point for streaming of mainstream sports

Slate

Paying for mainstream sporting events on streaming is likely to become the norm in wake of NBC putting live coverage of the Tokyo Games on Peacock, says Alex Kirshner. "The constant push to get you to buy Peacock—whether through advertising or the coercion of putting major events on the platform—is an annoyance," says Kirshner. "There’s a great chance you already pay for NBC and its many sports offerings on linear TV or a digital equivalent like Hulu + Live or YouTubeTV, to say nothing of CNBC, MSNBC, USA Network, Bravo, and assorted other products under NBC’s umbrella. The effort to blunt-force you into paying for the streaming service is an overt attempt by Comcast to double-dip into your wallet, or even to triple-dip if the telecom company is also your internet or cable provider. Then you’re paying for Wi-Fi, NBC’s TV channels, and Peacock. If you are a sports fan, keeping up the resistance much longer will prove quite the endurance test. Fans who care enough about particular teams in particular sports have already been paying for streaming services for years to watch the games they’re passionate about. But the 2020 Olympics feel like an inflection point, the first moment when high-profile competitions in arguably the world’s most mainstream sporting event are stashed behind a streaming paywall instead of beamed out over network, cable, or satellite TV (or, again, a digital version of the same). Starting more or less right now, it will be increasingly hard to be a serious fan of a popular American sport and not buy a streaming service to keep watching it. The alternative will be missing a lot of games, which plenty of sports fans will decide is not a palatable choice. It bears repeating that this won’t be a new requirement for a lot of American fans. If you like the English Premier League, NBC already presented you with the choice of getting Peacock or missing about half the games that would otherwise be available to you. If you like an out-of-your-market team in MLB, the NFL, NHL, or NBA, you may have been buying a streaming service for years, or at least a similar cable package add-on.* Otherwise, you’ve only watched occasional national TV games. If you want to watch much of the WNBA or NWSL, you’ve had to buy a streaming service, regardless of whether that service is any good. If your alma mater’s football team is in a nonpower conference, it has almost certainly had games behind a digital paywall at ESPN+ ($6.99 a month). Making an exhaustive list of all the sporting events exclusively on streaming platforms would take a year. The Olympics are a different animal, though. The Tokyo Games are the most popular sporting event yet to require American viewers to pony up for streaming in order to take in marquee contests. Traditional TV ratings for these Games are way down, but NBC was probably prepared for that kind of freefall given that it’s been happening all pandemic. The company decided to lean into streaming and had no problem finding advertisers, whom NBC says spent more than $1.2 billion (at least) to air ads during the Games. If the most blue-chip of all sporting events and advertising opportunities can get partially paywalled on a streaming site, then so can anything else."

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• 2024 Paris Summer Olympics is likely to ditch the traditional Opening Ceremony for a river presentation: "Rather than hold an elaborate, made-for-TV show inside the Stade de France, the French want to take the show on the road … or river," reports Yahoo! Sports' Dan Wetzel. "The plan is to have the athlete delegations ride boats down the River Seine, which runs through the center of the city, including past landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre and so much more. It’s estimated 300,000 or more fans could line the river to greet and cheer them...After all, if you have Paris as a backdrop then you should use Paris as your backdrop." Tony Estanguet, the president of Paris 2024, adds: "Delegations arrive in Paris by boat and cross this iconic city. Hundreds of thousands of fans welcoming them. That would be amazing.”
• NBC's mistake was to think about the Olympics as a TV show: "The biggest problem, whether it stems from perceived necessity or sheer indifference, is that NBC treats the Olympics like a giant television show," says Steve Greene. "Faced with unprecedented circumstances, the Tokyo Olympics has been more about creating the illusion of sports rather than presenting the sports themselves. It’s an approach that foregrounds the famous athletes and events, supplemented by faces who obtain fame for winning heats after they fall down or for not being able to contend with treacherous weather conditions. Even though this year’s Games are far from traditional — the ongoing global health crisis casts a long shadow — the network hype machine isn’t digging deep for unconventional stories. Instead, it’s reverted to the usual standbys: gymnastics, swimming, and track and field — probably because it’s far easier to craft an underdog story about someone who can run or swim the fastest than a rugby player or BMX champ whose skill is a lot harder to condense into a quickly digestible narrative."
• How NBC can fix its Olympic coverage: "It’s fair to argue that it’s not apt to use this year’s Games as a standard for what’s good and what’s bad about Olympics coverage when many things went wrong or were out of control — the COVID-19 pandemic, athletic disappointments and shortfalls, horrible weather, the absence of energy from live fans, and more," says Greg Braxton. "But there is much room for improvement. This year’s coverage was used as a tool to promote a relatively new streaming service, Peacock. NBC showcased skateboarding and golf while sidelining the live coverage of the match where Naomi Osaka, arguably the greatest female athlete alive, was ousted from her home Games. By spreading itself over so many channels, viewers were constantly confused as they battled a maze to find out when and where to watch. The other main area for improvement? Olympic coverage cannot act like the Games are taking place in a bubble. A cloud of racism came alongside the dramas of (Simone) Biles and Osaka, but that fact was scarcely dealt with during the broadcasts. There were numerous opportunities to develop stories about the topics raised by the numerous controversies coming into the event, from marijuana use to rules governing apparel. . And at a moment when anti-Asian bias has reached a troubling pitch in the country, much could have been made of how the triumphs of gymnast Suni Lee might bring much-needed joy to counter the hatred. The Olympics are an international event with real-world connections and ramifications, and NBC should make more of an effort to underscore that truth."
• Bob Costas says it's unfair to be harsh on NBC's coverage because of the pandemic: “You can only play the hand you’ve been dealt, and they’ve been dealt a difficult hand,” says the longtime former NBC Olympics host. “You can’t create something out of thin air. Everybody knows that this is, we hope, a one-of-a-kind Olympics. It’s like if somebody is running the 100 meters and they have a weight around their ankles. That is not a fair judge of their speed.”
• Kevin Hart and Snoop Dogg have been the best part of NBC's Olympics coverage: "The Olympics have been lackluster. Kevin Hart and Snoop Dogg have not," says Carron J. Phillips. "The decision to create a show around the pair hilariously commenting on highlights from different events has been a genius idea that should become the norm. It’s hard to have an 'Olympic moment' when you’re competing during a global pandemic. But, that doesn’t mean that we can’t laugh. And lucky for us, somebody over at NBC figured out that Hart and Snoop were perfect for the job."
• The most offensive thing about Olympic Highlights with Kevin Hart and Snoop Dogg is NBC's lack of promotion: "NBC and Peacock have something really special in Olympic Highlights with Kevin Hart and Snoop Dogg. It’s just too bad they don’t realize it," says Libby Hill. Hill adds: "While Hart is a solid comedic presence, it’s Snoop that’s the real star of his show. He’s no stranger to hosting, what with his VH1 variety show with Martha Stewart, Martha and Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party, and Snoop acquits himself well to the anchor chair, quick with a quip and more than ready to exhibit real enthusiasm over the featured clips from the Olympics. The man is smooth as hell. Also key: It’s not just SportsCenter style banter that the pair are bringing to the table. On the episode from August 4, they spoke with women’s shot put silver medalist Raven Saunders, who sparked controversy by lifting her arms above her head in an X during the medal ceremony, which according to Saunders represented 'the intersection of where all people who are oppressed meet.' Saunders has been outspoken about her battles with mental illness, as well as struggling to find her place in the world as an openly queer Black woman competing on the world stage. Snoop’s admiration of both Saunders’ accomplishments and her earnestness was clear, and it was really special to see honest engagement about issues of intersectionality be discussed on such a prominent platform."
• Responding to technical difficulties, Mike Tirico seamlessly stepped in to briefly call the men's basketball gold medal game remotely from the studio 
• Tokyo Games Closing Ceremony will air live on Peacock Sunday morning starting at 7 a.m. ET and on NBC Sunday in primetime