NBC will try to accomplish something in London that it has never done before. It is offering fans the option of watching some of the big events live rather than on tape.
For years, NBC has offered its prime-time Olympic coverage on tape delay. The reasoning was simple; the sporting event that draws the most casual and nonsports fans to their televisions is the Olympics.
So the premiere events of swimming, gymnastics and track and field would go into prime time to bump up the ratings even if those sports had to be broadcast on tape delay. As a result, viewers would know who won long before the events aired.
The network will continue to tape delay its prime-time schedule from London. However, it will offer plenty of live event coverage on NBC, NBC Sports Network, CNBC, MSNBC and Bravo in the mornings and afternoons. So a large part of the Olympics will air live on one of NBC’s networks.
Plus, for the first time the network will offer every event live via broadband at NBCOlympics.com. There will be more than 3,500 hours of live coverage on 40 simultaneous streams. It will be the most extensive coverage of an Olympic Games in history.
More sports fans and people in general are consuming sports, news and entertainment on their computers, tablets and smartphones. It is no coincidence that NBC’s owner, Comcast, is the nation’s biggest broadband provider, making it easier to watch the Olympics on the Internet.
According to a recent Forbes article, a Nielsen study showed that 48 percent of those who own a tablet and 42 percent of those who own a smartphone use them to watch TV programs and that number is growing daily.
The WatchESPN app and Comcast’s XFINITY app for tablets and smartphones work quite well.
So as you get ready for the more than 5,500 hours of Olympic coverage NBC is about to present, make sure you know what you will watch on your HDTV at home, your laptop at work, your tablet at lunch or your smartphone walking to the Metro.
Examiner columnist Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this!, on washingtonexaminer.com.
