Beijing Winter Olympics Offer NBCU an Avalanche of Challenges and ‘Unprecedented Opportunity’

NBCUniversal is about to start broadcasting the second half of a uncommon Olympics doubleheader — and fatigue has set in.

The Winter Video games in Beijing start Feb. 4, simply six months after the shut of the Tokyo Summer season Olympic Video games that had been postponed from 2020 due to the pandemic. The Winter Video games additionally overlap with the Tremendous Bowl, which airs on NBC Feb. 13.

In an period of waning stay viewership for the Olympics, NBCU is going through an enormous problem of attracting eyeballs to an occasion going down amid a diplomatic boycott of the host nation over human-rights violations. Combine in Beijing’s very restricted group of spectators as a result of omicron surge and the truth that the primetime TV viewers for the Tokyo video games dropped greater than 40% in contrast with the 2016 Rio Olympics, and it’s clear NBCUniversal has fairly a slalom to navigate.

Martin Conway, adjunct professor in Georgetown College’s sports activities trade administration program, says subsequent month’s challenges are “difficult and compounded” by the truth that the Winter Video games have fewer stars than the summer time occasions. Plus, Beijing shouldn’t be precisely Aspen.

“We don’t consider Beijing as a mountaintop, Alps-type setting that the Winter Olympics are sometimes in,” Conway informed Selection. “So it will seem, to individuals who perceive it, extra of a manufactured Winter Olympics, versus one thing in Italy or France and even in Salt Lake Metropolis.”

And never solely is there particular “Olympic fatigue,” however there’s Olympics-in-Asia fatigue.

“You could have the identical set of points with the distinction in time zone to the key markets right here [Beijing’s clocks are 13 hours ahead of New York City’s], which makes these opening and shutting ceremonies and the issues that go on as a part of the Olympics, however usually are not the occasion, simply much less interesting,” Conway says.

Forward of the torch lighting in Beijing, NBCU plans to couple the Winter Olympics with Tremendous Bowl LVI on Feb. 13 to construct anticipation. NBCUniversal executives are calling it an “unprecedented alternative,” however trade insiders say the tidal wave of advert stock that must be offered at premium charges can be a Herculean effort for the NBC Sports activities gross sales group.

“We’ll capitalize on the Halley’s Comet of media moments as a result of there’s merely nothing larger than having the 2 largest media occasions collectively at NBC Sports activities: The Tremendous Bowl and the Olympics happen on the identical day and on the identical community,” Jenny Storms, chief advertising officer of leisure and sports activities at NBCUniversal, mentioned Jan. 19 throughout an NBC Sports activities presentation about each mega-sporting occasions. “It’s an unprecedented alternative, as we can be reaching, participating and charming the most important audiences and telling the best story ever informed. This can actually be as soon as in a lifetime.”

NBC’s objective is to “gas cultural relevancy and elicit FOMO by means of our positioning to inspire followers to tune in for key occasions,” as Storms put it. There can be greater than 2,800 hours of protection throughout NBC, Peacock, USA Community, CNBC, NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports activities app from Feb. 2-20.

Sponsors like Toyota and Delta Air Traces are among the many almost 100 advertisers (40 of that are first-timers) that NBCU says it has lined up for the Beijing Olympics. That’s “roughly” what the corporate says it had on the comparable advance time from the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, which in the end drew $920 million-plus in U.S. advert gross sales, a document for the Winter Video games.

NBCU is at “precisely the identical spot” it was earlier than the Pyeong­Chang Video games, “by way of our sellouts,” in accordance with Dan Lov­inger, president of NBCU advert gross sales and partnerships. The typical spend degree has “grown barely,” significantly amongst returning advertisers, he notes.

Added publicity by way of the Peacock streaming platform helped enhance what was a disappointing turnout for the pandemic-plagued Tokyo Olympics, and it’s a massive a part of NBCU’s technique for Beijing. Based on Lovinger, digital income is up double digits.

As in Tokyo, the Beijing video games will happen in nearly empty arenas to stop the unfold of COVID amongst athletes, press and spectators. NBCU goals to fight issues over China and its human-rights document by bringing in journalist Andrew Browne and Yale professor Jing Tsu as professional China analysts to supply commentary throughout primetime protection.

“We’re going to be specializing in telling the tales of Group USA and protecting the competitors,” says Molly Solomon, president and ex­­ecutive producer of NBC Olympics manufacturing. “However the world, as everyone knows, is a very difficult place proper now. We perceive that there are some tough points relating to the host nation, so our protection will present perspective on China’s place on the earth and the geopolitical context by which these video games are being held.”

At a press convention held on the identical day as NBCU’s Olympics media presentation, a Beijing 2022 organizing committee official raised the ominous suggestion that Olympic athletes who protest in opposition to the federal government might face cancellation of accreditation or different “punishment.”

As NBCU eyes the end line of its seven-month Olympic marathon, the one certainty is that the 2024 Summer season Video games in Paris are however 29 months away.