Rio 2016 Olympic Media Update

[dtd2]

Dtd2, how many Team USA profile videos so far X1 has on demand because the full team in various sports is still fleshing itself out? Also, have you recorded them already?

Thinking NBC proper will go 200+ hours again with maybe NBCSN going 320+ acting again as the hub for Team USA, assuming no Olympic channels like with Beijing and London. Hopefully, I'll be wrong.

They have six 5 minute profile videos on Taylor Phinney (Cycling), Michael Phelps (Swimming), Kerri Walsh Jennings (Beach Volleyball), Jordan Burroughs (Wrestling), Gwen Jorgensen (Triathlon), and David Boudia (Diving). There are also five 5 minute clips in the section "Behind the Scenes" they consists of American Olympians discussing their other talents, walking in the opening ceremony, their clothing, being parents, and what they are bad at. "The Get to Know Rio" section has two videos introducing Rio and the excitement of Olympians to go to Rio. There is also a "Best of London" which has about 10 events in their entirety, highlights of American successes, highlights of British success, and an overall highlight video package. There is also a "Best of London" section in Spanish focusing on Hispanic athletes.

I also think the Basketball and Soccer channels are returning. NBC said there will be 11 networks. We officially know of 9 now (NBC, NBCSN, USA, MSNBC, Bravo, Golf, CNBC, Telmundo, and NBC Universo).

The extra hours are all coming from tennis as Bravo is now covering the entire tournament through the weekend where last time around, NBC and NBCSN had picked up the weekend coverage. Not sure that necessarily means an extra 41 hours from NBC/NBCSN. Worth noting that if you compare the number of hours on MSNBC and CNBC from London to the number of hours on MSNBC/CNBC/USA in Rio, the number is almost the same. Hopefully they don't cut back on the NBC or NBCSN hours.

The Olympics are always in an election year, so MSNBC rarely has Olympic coverage later than 5pm. So too is the case here. It is interesting that CNBC won't be showing boxing. I'm wondering where all that coverage is headed.

At all of the previous summer Olympics, competition was over by 5pm. However, in Sochi, when that was not the case, MSNBC kept going into primetime. So I do suspect the heightened interest in the election may have affected that.

[rio2016man]

I'm guessing partially because of the Rio timezone, CNBC will air much, much more than just boxing this year.

[dtd2]

I'm guessing partially because of the Rio timezone, CNBC will air much, much more than just boxing this year.

CNBC is only airing about three hours of coverage a day. And in the press release, boxing wasn't mentioned as a highlight of Bravo, CNBC, or USA's coverage.

[Quaker2001]

At all of the previous summer Olympics, competition was over by 5pm. However, in Sochi, when that was not the case, MSNBC kept going into primetime. So I do suspect the heightened interest in the election may have affected that.

Competition in London went until 7pm ET. MSNBC was routinely on the air until 6pm on weekdays. In the past, they've often had their "Olympic Update" program following coverage, so it was a little surprising to see MSNBC is only on the air from Noon-5pm from Rio. I know some people are bringing up what a hotly contested presidential race this is, but I don't think it's so compelling that MSNBC needs to be short-changed of Olympic coverage.

I'm guessing partially because of the Rio timezone, CNBC will air much, much more than just boxing this year.

CNBC is only airing about three hours of coverage a day. And in the press release, boxing wasn't mentioned as a highlight of Bravo, CNBC, or USA's coverage.

What's really interesting..

CNBC has been the network of boxing since 2000. Last Olympics, that's almost all they showed in 73 hours of coverage. Now that number is being scaled back to 42 (eeriely similar to the Vancouver-to-Sochi numbers where CNBC went from a major presence in Olympic coverage to only 3 hours a day in the post-business slot and nothing else). The boxing competition schedule from Rio works out to about 10am-1pm ET and 4pm-7pm ET every day, so it just misses the sweet spot with CNBC's live window. I'm not a boxing fan, so I'm happy to see additional events there, but what happened to all that boxing coverage they've had each of the past few Olympics? I'd like to hope for the sake of boxing fans that it'll show up somewhere.

[Durban Sandshark]

Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic's Sebastian Salazar will cover the Team USA women's soccer games from Group G onwards as an on-site reporter for NBC with news and reports, and arrange pre-game and post-game interviews. Kate Margraf and Arlo White will act as the Team USA women's soccer NBC Olympics live broadcasting duo on location. Former USA national team defender Markgraf will be fresh from her ESPN EURO 2016 broadcasting duties. My money's going to be on NBCSN like in 2012 outside of the NBC Olympic Soccer Channel:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/soccer-insider/wp/2016/05/11/csns-sebastian-salazar-named-to-nbc-crew-for-olympic-womens-soccer-coverage/

A little more on Dave Feherty's multitasking plans in Rio from Awful Announcing:
http://awfulannouncing.com/2016/david-feherty-to-cover-rio-olympics-golf-culture-opening-ceremonies-for-nbc.html

Coming very soon from NBC Sports is a brand new digital streaming service with "end-to-end support" it's introducing called Playmaker Media with the IOC being one of its first clients for its upcoming Olympic Channel in live streaming and VOD support. Still, we don't know it's capabilities right now. Will know more come July from Rick Cordella:
http://www.multichannel.com/news/content/nbc-sports-digital-launches-playmaker-media/405132
http://www.geekwire.com/2016/nbc-sports-launches-streaming-platform-time-olympics-will-compete-mlbam/

Swimming stars Ryan Lochte, Missy Franklin, and Matt Grevers headline the I Love Movies short film series presented by NBC Olympics and Fandango. Other US Olympians in gymnastics, rugby, diving, basketball, track and field, diving, and Paralympians will appear:
http://olympics.nbcsports.com/2016/05/25/ryan-lochte-missy-franklin-matt-grevers-fandango-movies/

NHK BS1 has a documentary profile airing on June 26th on Japanese-Brazilian Olympic 66kg judoka Charles Chibana with eyes on gold in Brazil as a serious contender and how judo helps him as a third-generation Brazilian connect with Japan as his grandparents come from Okinawa:
http://www.nhk.or.jp/corporateinfo/english/comment_top/executive/2016/1605.html#num3

Do know the BBC News Channel has a 30-minute monthly program called Road To Rio. Next episode premieres May 27th at 8:30 (20:30 GMT). Do believe also now the Olympic Basketball and Soccer Channels with the makeup shaping up.

Surely plenty of Dutch Olympic followers and/or visitors to the Heineken House in Rio will look forward to Edwin Evers and his co-hosts Rick Romijn and Niels van Baarlen broadcasting their radio show live on radio station 538 directly this August following the Dutch athletes exploits there and with likely guests and comedians Peter Heerschop and Viggo Waas:
http://www.nu.nl/media/4266570/edwin-evers-maakt-radioprogramma-in-rio-janeiro-tijdens-olympische-spelen.html
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=nl&u=http://www.nu.nl/media/4266570/edwin-evers-maakt-radioprogramma-in-rio-janeiro-tijdens-olympische-spelen.html&prev=search

Next door in neighboring Belgium, 22-year old sports reporter Aster Nzeyimana, just made his sports anchor debut for Het Journaal on Een from his capacity at radio stations MNM and on Radio 1 also as a sports reporter., will be on hand in Rio De Janeiro to cover Rio 2016 through daily nightly blocks from 11pm-5am Belgium time. Expect the Flemish Belgian TV's Sporza Rio 2016 coverage to appear on Een and Canvas with MNM and Radio 1 doing Sporza Olympic radio:
http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/cultuur+en+media/media/1.2664337
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=nl&u=http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/cultuur%252Ben%252Bmedia/media/1.2664337&prev=search

TTV News (for Todos TV) paid a visit to America Movil to get news of its sports channel plans for Mexicans, who are largely in the dark and only know that TV Azteca and Televisa won't take part. Claro Sports aim to focus on the athletes and the sports for the Olympics with multiple TV channels throughout Latin America. On the Dish Network, 4-6 additional channels to Claro Sports are to be introduced. Digital and online coverage with 35 different live streams to the Olympic sports Latin American viewers would want will be free to anyone in Latin America (except Brazil) through ClaroSports.com with many hours of VOD content in the thousands and images through Claro Video Group, Claro Sports and TV Uno. A team of 150 will be sent to Rio De Janeiro that promises to use the latest technology investments. Expect notable leading international ex-athletes as commentators:
http://www.todotvnews.com/news/Los-JJOO-se-podrn-ver-online-y-gratis-por-Claro-Sports-.html
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.todotvnews.com/news/Los-JJOO-se-podrn-ver-online-y-gratis-por-Claro-Sports-.html&prev=search

Austrian online viewing and advertising growths for Rio 2016 and EURO 2016 than TV is expected and certainly bigger than declining radio:
https://www.leadersnet.at/news/21530,online-ueberholt-erstmals-tv.html

One sportscaster who won't be there down in Rio De Janeiro is YLE Finland's Kaj Kunnas, who suffered a stroke but is recuperating at home with a lengthy sick leave:
http://yle.fi/urheilu/3-8907373

[Barcelona_'92]

Competition in London went until 7pm ET. MSNBC was routinely on the air until 6pm on weekdays. In the past, they've often had their "Olympic Update" program following coverage, so it was a little surprising to see MSNBC is only on the air from Noon-5pm from Rio. I know some people are bringing up what a hotly contested presidential race this is, but I don't think it's so compelling that MSNBC needs to be short-changed of Olympic coverage.

Given how badly MSNBC's early evening/primetime lineup has been struggling, the 5pm end time makes sense to me. I'm sure they're thinking that the Olympics might provide a small boost to their evening programming, though I doubt it will make much difference.

Just as in 2014, it seems that NBC's cable strategy is to drive as much viewership to NBCSN as possible. The Olympics are critical to convincing cable operators that they should be paying more to carry NBCSN.

[Quaker2001]

Given how badly MSNBC's early evening/primetime lineup has been struggling, the 5pm end time makes sense to me. I'm sure they're thinking that the Olympics might provide a small boost to their evening programming, though I doubt it will make much difference.

Just as in 2014, it seems that NBC's cable strategy is to drive as much viewership to NBCSN as possible. The Olympics are critical to convincing cable operators that they should be paying more to carry NBCSN.

Just feels like there's going to be some coverage in the 5pm-8pm window (and later) that might get missed. True about NBCSN, although harder to shine a spotlight on them at a Summer Olympics unlike what they were able to do at the last Winter Olympics. We'll see just how much attention they get with programming in primetime up against live coverage on NBC.

[Barcelona_'92]

Maybe that's the answer for where the boxing coverage will go - on NBCSN up against NBC primetime. No one really cares about boxing anymore, so it wouldn't provide much competition.

[Quaker2001]

Maybe that's the answer for where the boxing coverage will go - on NBCSN up against NBC primetime. No one really cares about boxing anymore, so it wouldn't provide much competition.

Nope. Maybe the morning sessions, but the evening sessions often overlap with US games in soccer and/or basketball, so that will be the priority. Don't know that they'd want taped boxing in primetime when there's other events to televise like basketball and volleyball matches. Better bet to get those viewers that might not be watching primteime anyway.

I said it elsewhere that I wouldn't rule out something crazy like part of a specialty channel being dedicated to boxing because I'm still having trouble believing NBC would cut boxing coverage from a lot to almost nothing.

[Durban Sandshark]

Any news about BBC's coverage?

They'll broadcast the OC live as it will be 00:00 in UK's time.

Just now got some BBC Rio 2016 Olympic broadcasting news! More than 3000 hours of Olympics coverage across its platforms, including more than 550 hours on BBC One and BBC Four (read BBC4 was going to bite the dust some time ago but didn't) with 24 streaming live HD videos, promising to deliver “every single moment of Rio 2016.” BBC Breakfast will temporarily move during Rio 2016 elsewhere in the MediaCityUK to BBC Sport with highlights from 6am. BBC Radio 5 Live is back, though apparently not as elaborate as four years ago, providing full coverage of both Olympics and Paralympics. BBC's Rio 2016 Olympics daily coverage starts from 12pm-4am until Closing Ceremony

Hazel Irvine, Mark Chapman, Clare Balding and Jason Mohammad will helm BBC One’s coverage, which begins on August 5th. Dan Walker and Ore Oduba will present live action on BBC Four between 1pm and 4am GMT. They will be joined by former athletes including Sir Steve Redgrave (rowing), Sir Chris Hoy (cycling), Michael Johnson, Denise Lewis (track and field/athletics), Sir Clive Woodward (rugby), Victoria Pendleton (cycling), Beth Tweddle (gymnastics), Rebecca Adlington (swimming), Anthony Joshua (boxing), Paula Radcliffe, and Darren Campbell (track and field/athletics). On BBC Radio 5 live, Eleanor Oldroyd, Mark Chapman, Mark Pougatch, Russell Fuller, Caroline Barker, and former Olympic Champion Jonathan Edwards will lead the presenting team. BBC Sport has also updated its digital provision, with personalized updates, including reminders, news and medal alerts; 24-hour catch up with replays and on-demand; plus behind the scenes material through its social media channels.

But no sharing with ITV, much less Channels 4 or 5 or BT Sport. No Colin Jackson and Gary Linecker (still happily over the moon about his beloved Leicester City's shock Premier League championship. May have to start his Premier League hosting duties soon at that time in his case)

http://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/36385237

[daniel anderson400]

does NBC had to make as many decisions about switching back and forth between events nowadays that they have cable? i remember in the 88 winter games ABC had to decide between a hockey game and the mens downhill(the hockey game was live while the downhill was taped ealrier in the day) do you think that NBC has a easier time now that they have cable in terms of having to go back and forth between events

[Quaker2001]

does NBC had to make as many decisions about switching back and forth between events nowadays that they have cable? i remember in the 88 winter games ABC had to decide between a hockey game and the mens downhill(the hockey game was live while the downhill was taped ealrier in the day) do you think that NBC has a easier time now that they have cable in terms of having to go back and forth between events

Yes. Because they have all those hours to program. NBC proper perhaps has gotten easier because it's only limited to a smaller handful of sports. But still, for the cable nets, there are plenty of decisions to be made, especially as we get into the 2nd week and we get to the elimination rounds of the team sports.

[daniel anderson 800]

Yes. Because they have all those hours to program. NBC proper perhaps has gotten easier because it's only limited to a smaller handful of sports. But still, for the cable nets, there are plenty of decisions to be made, especially as we get into the 2nd week and we get to the elimination rounds of the team sports.

Remember, ABC didn't have a cable partner back then. So Roone Aldridge had to make some tough calls sometimes. NBC had the problem of the US Soviet basketball semifinal at the same time as track and field and also the story of Greg Louganis going for a gold medal at the same time as the U.S.-Canada basketball game during Seoul in 88. so having a cable partner sometimes can be a good thing sometimes. imagine if the US is playing a close game with a possibility of being eliminated on the line at the same as lets say Missy Franklin or Katie Ledecky going for a gold medal in swimming and NBC didn't have a cable partner? this is where having NBCSN or USA Network is a good thing for NBC as well as the viewers. NBC can show the swimming while NBCSN or USA can show the basketball game in its entirety I wonder if the the experience in Seoul(and Atlanta too) caused NBC to think about having multiple cable outlets during the Olympics? it helps that they have NBCSN these days(and USA and all the other cable outlets).

[daniel anderson 800]

i just can't imagine NBC having to use a split screen if the Dream Team is in a close game(and let's say tied or trailing by one or two points late) while of the major swimming stars like Franklin or Ledecky is going for a gold medal. remember what i mentioned earlier..during the 88 games in Seoul NBC tried to show the U.S Canada basketball game in 88 and Greg Louganis going for a gold medal after he hit his head in the diving finals at the same time and they used a double box to show both. That didn't go over well with viewers. So with NBCSN and USA(and all the other channels) they have a lot more flexibility than they did in Seoul.

[Quaker2001]

Interesting with the multiple personalities. Both of you always drop a "remember" in there. But I digress..

Remember, ABC didn't have a cable partner back then. So Roone Aldridge had to make some tough calls sometimes. NBC had the problem of the US Soviet basketball semifinal at the same time as track and field and also the story of Greg Louganis going for a gold medal at the same time as the U.S.-Canada basketball game during Seoul in 88. so having a cable partner sometimes can be a good thing sometimes. imagine if the US is playing a close game with a possibility of being eliminated on the line at the same as lets say Missy Franklin or Katie Ledecky going for a gold medal in swimming and NBC didn't have a cable partner? this is where having NBCSN or USA Network is a good thing for NBC as well as the viewers. NBC can show the swimming while NBCSN or USA can show the basketball game in its entirety I wonder if the the experience in Seoul(and Atlanta too) caused NBC to think about having multiple cable outlets during the Olympics? it helps that they have NBCSN these days(and USA and all the other cable outlets).

i just can't imagine NBC having to use a split screen if the Dream Team is in a close game(and let's say tied or trailing by one or two points late) while of the major swimming stars like Franklin or Ledecky is going for a gold medal. remember what i mentioned earlier..during the 88 games in Seoul NBC tried to show the U.S Canada basketball game in 88 and Greg Louganis going for a gold medal after he hit his head in the diving finals at the same time and they used a double box to show both. That didn't go over well with viewers. So with NBCSN and USA(and all the other channels) they have a lot more flexibility than they did in Seoul.

NBC learned some hard lessons in Seoul, their first large-scale Olympics. Their coverage was roundly criticized, mostly for their primetime coverage while relied too much on going live for the sake of going live. Instead of going to a split screen, they should have saved something on tape. Granted, that's also been criticized, but it's still a better option.

To answer your question though.. yes, the experience in Seoul probably did lead NBC to think about using other outlets for Olympic coverage. That plus financial concerns led to the Triplecast. We know how that turned out. The Triplecast scared NBC away from cable coverage for Atlanta. Not having cable coverage in Atlanta probably helped lead to having cable coverage from Sydney. Remember that coverage from Barcelona in primetime was all on tape. Never would have been an option to do a split screen. Come Atlanta, NBC had invented the "plausibly live" concept. The idea of using a double box is beyond ridiculous and that NBC did it in the first place shows how out of touch they were back then.

[daniel anderson 800]

Interesting with the multiple personalities. Both of you always drop a "remember" in there. But I digress..

NBC learned some hard lessons in Seoul, their first large-scale Olympics. Their coverage was roundly criticized, mostly for their primetime coverage while relied too much on going live for the sake of going live. Instead of going to a split screen, they should have saved something on tape. Granted, that's also been criticized, but it's still a better option.

To answer your question though.. yes, the experience in Seoul probably did lead NBC to think about using other outlets for Olympic coverage. That plus financial concerns led to the Triplecast. We know how that turned out. The Triplecast scared NBC away from cable coverage for Atlanta. Not having cable coverage in Atlanta probably helped lead to having cable coverage from Sydney. Remember that coverage from Barcelona in primetime was all on tape. Never would have been an option to do a split screen. Come Atlanta, NBC had invented the "plausibly live" concept. The idea of using a double box is beyond ridiculous and that NBC did it in the first place shows how out of touch they were back then.

i have to agree with you about NBC's experience in Seoul.

yes, doing a split screen isn't such a good idea. NBC was wrong to do that with the story they had(Louganis, going for his first gold medal and also having hit his head in the earlier round). for NBC to use a split screen to cover a early round basketball game wasn't a good idea. you would think that NBC would have stayed with diving and at least provide inserts of the basketball game when needed. Also, some of the major stars like Janet Evans, Matt Biondi and Carl Lewis were having their events in late night rather than prime time and that didn't help(but the time zone was a major factor too in having those events in late night.) NBC's strategy has worked for the most part since Seoul, but when you have a live Olympics(like this one is going to be and Salt Lake and Vancouver and Beijing were) that can be thrown out the window sometimes.

[Durban Sandshark]

Very interesting recollections about NBC's Seoul coverage and presentation definitely shape the road in NBC's subsequent Summer Olympics coverage to where it is today. Could've been better in hindsight. Split-screen usage was certainly ill-advised because of competing audio and the technology certainly wasn't there then to have TV audio channel options. To be fair though, cable TV networks were just starting relatively to be a factor on television in general. TSN up in Canada, at the time, was the only such cable network to have live Olympic coverage. It was the first as far as I know then. Wasn't yet commonplace. But that was only for Calgary earlier that year in concert with CTV, not with the CBC for Seoul. ESPN could've done this you would think, but it didn't have a relationship with NBC like it does with ABC because of the Capital Cities ownership of both. Doing so would mean a conflict of interest. The Score--not to be confused with the Canadian one that became Sportsnet 360 after Rogers bought it--when it wasn't doing business talk on weekends as FNN might have done it and got a boost. But would people knew where it was and its Q rating? Had CNBC existed in 1988 instead of the 1989 premiere, it might have helped.

Certainly remains me of when NBC had the Universal HD for that 24-hour embargo during the Athens 2004 coverage from the standard version for the newer and eventually established TV standards. We'll see something like this with 4K UHD (downscaled from NHK's and OBS' 8KTV HD), Dolby Atmos surround sound, and UHD in Opening and Closing Ceremonies, swimming, track and field, basketball, the men's soccer final, and judo. Rio 2016 should be a good incentive to get the satelitte companies committed to it. But ultimately it's up to the early adaptors to set the tone. Still no VR announcement:
http://www.engadget.com/2016/05/27/nbc-will-air-the-2016-rio-olympics-in-4k-hdr-and-atmos/
http://www.sportsvideo.org/2016/05/27/nbc-olympics-plan-non-live-4kuhd-coverage-at-rio-games-opening-ceremony-to-feature-hdr/
http://aroundtherings.com/site/A__55896/Title__NBC-Olympics-to-provide-4k-ultra-HD-coverage-of-Rio-Olympics-to-distribution-partners/292/Articles

Pretty much designated Supersport named the seven channels that will carry live Rio 2016 coverage including the 3 soccer ones--SS12, SS5, and SS7 (the usual SS soccer channel)--transmitted across Sub-Saharan Africa on DSTv and GOtv. Along with the usual expected programming and tech setup features:

http://theeagleonline.com.ng/dstv-to-broadcast-euro-2016-rio-2016-live-slashes-hd-zapper-decoder-cost/

Shortly after announcing his retirement as an athlete weeks ago with his body telling him to stop, Norwegian javelin double gold medalist Andreas Thorkildsen joins TV2's Rio 2016 Olympic broadcast team for track and field (the field part) with Siri Avlesen-Østli, Jørn Sundby, and Johan Kaggestad:
http://www.tv2.no/sport/8339610/
http://www.vg.no/sport/friidrett/friidrett/thorkildsen-kommer-til-ol-som-tv2-ekspert/a/23695394/

Switzerland, at least what we know with the Olympic broadcasting so far: Following is the Swiss-German language coverage with two SRF TV channels tackling Rio 2016 for 17 days with a 24-hour Olympic News Channel with the focus being on live broadcasting from 13-5:00 MET (1pm-5am). Likely template for the French and Italian langauge coverage in Switzerland. SRF's Olympic broadcasting budget is 17 million CHF:
https://www.bluewin.ch/de/entertainment/tv/artikel-redaktion-tv-2016/01/das-sind-die-neuen-srf-sendungen.html

FOX Sports Latin America will be predominantly Mexican in personnel as the contingent goes down to Rio De Janeiro and will focus on large nation athletes and markets and journalists, which will be different in presentation from Claros Sports and the Mexican public broadcasters. Down there, the crew will get access to the complicated technological advancements. Three channels, 24 hours a day, will be used with live sports and Olympic-related programming from 6am-midnight along with its Internet platform FOX Play. Although panregional, FOX and FOX Sports 2 in Mexico will focus on the Mexicans with the third to be panregional. FOX Sports didn't even anticipate Televisa and TV Azteca to sit out this one during negotiations:
http://www.forbes.com.mx/fox-sports-olvida-bloqueo-con-rio-2016-se-posiciona-en-television-de-paga/

Globo plans to provide a free 24-hour Olympic Internet channel this summer on its Play Globo platform and also at globoesporte.com:
http://www.surtoolimpico.com.br/2016/05/rede-globo-disponibilizara-canal-na.html

Sadly there will be a cloud of pain and darkness over its upcoming coverage, Globo's promising sports editor Pedro Ivo Salles dies from his motorcycle accident injuries in Rio's South Zone at the age of 33. No doubt it will be dedicated to him:
http://oglobo.globo.com/rio/morre-pedro-ivo-salles-editor-de-esportes-da-tv-globo-aos-33-anos-19372585

[ofan]

Expect a press release from the CBC tomorrow, who today held a launch event for their Rio 2016 coverage which included the announcement of their broadcast team. Looks like some of the usual suspects are back from what I can find on Twitter. Steve Armitage on swimming, Mark Connolly on cycling, and appears as though Mark Tewksbury will play a role.

[Durban Sandshark]

Funny, I just wondered when the CBC will conduct their Rio 2016 coverage launch event at the Barbara Frum Atrium in Toronto moments ago. Makes sense that Mark Tewksbury would leave being his Canadian Olympic Committee capacity for the CBC. Apparently, Radio-Canada did its own in Montreal unless it too wants to get elaborate.

Wouldn't be surprising if SABC would reprise its Summer Olympics coverage structure that it used back with London 2012 with all three of its channels--supposedly there's plans for more in its stable. Pretty certain all 11 of South Africa's official languages will be used in select sports with the bulk of them in English. Furthermore, I also believe there will be an increase in coverage since it will have to be at least 200 (maybe 250) hours and likely will be live more starting in the afternoon with still delayed footage. Would like to see SABC3 expand its coverage beyond tennis with SABC2 getting more varied and hodgepodge in the sports outside of the daily review and late night highlight show. Announcements will come surely.

In addition to the BBC Breakfast's temporary Rio 2016 Summer Olympic adjustments during its time slot, BBC2 at 9:15am will broadcast a four-hour replay of the BBC1 coverage from the night before. BBC Sport will present a daily 10-minute highlights segment on its website:
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-05-27/bbc-breakfast-to-become-olympics-highlights-show-for-rio-2016-as-medals-decided-in-the-early-hours

Triathlete (but currently injured) Jorgen Gundersen and his father Stein will join Norway's TV 2 in its Rio studio to analyze the triathlon coverage:
http://www.eub.no/sport/far-og-sonn-gundersen-blir-triatloneksperter-pa-tv

Opening and closing ceremony digests (full ones very likely to be on NHK even on replays), swimming finals (women’s 200 m individual medley, men’s 200 m butterfly, and more), wrestling preliminaries (women’s 48 kg / 58kg / 69 kg), judo preliminaries (men’s 66 kg, women’s 52 kg) are mentioned as part of TV Asahi's Rio 2016 Olympic broadcast coverage as part of the Japan Consortium. Based from TV Asahi's presentation fiscal year report on page 12:
http://www.tv-asahihd.co.jp/e/contents/presentation/data/2016/20160516.pdf

Possible that SporTV may do an Olympic promo on Stephen Curry if it hadn't already done so:
http://sportv.globo.com/site/programas/rio-2016/noticia/2016/05/antes-da-olimpiada-curry-recebe-do-sportv-grafite-com-sua-imagem-no-rio.html

Little more info on RTP Portugal's Olympic Beach program, emphasizing the Portuguese Olympic movemen during its coveraget. Just a little bit--we don't have as of yet the first broadcasting date and time:
https://espalhafactos.com/2016/05/30/rtp-aposta-na-estreia-praias-olimpicas-verao/

Claros Sports and its parent company America Movil hopes to reap a bonanza of online/digital advertising revenue from the online/digital and mobile, rather than TV, for its Rio 2016 Summer Olympics coverage at a time when Mexican media advertising rates are currently stagnant and not growing:
http://www.forbes.com.mx/olimpiadas-oportunidad-relevante-para-publicidad-online-iab/

NBC will also help distribute the Rio 2016 4K UHD content worldwide through Japan's NHK and the OBS to U. distribution partners. But NHK and OBS will select how this content will be made available to customers:
http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2016/05/30/132373/

Of course by now, we would have to expect the official host broadcaster to get into the latest visual technology involved with the 8K. So Globo makes a pact with NHK set up live 8K screenings at Rio de Janeiro’s Museu do Amanhã (Museum of Tomorrow) and will include broadcasts of the opening and closing ceremonies and several games:
http://worldscreen.com/tvlatina/globo-pacts-with-nhk-to-screen-8k-broadcasts-during-rio-olympics/

RTHK is currently working on Olympic programming centering on local Hong Kong athletes aiming for Rio De Janeiro pertinent to themes and also acquire broadcast rights to overseas Olympic docs of medal-winning Olympians and coaches that will total 10 hours aired numerous times as a Rio 2016 Olympics tie-in on its 2 RTHK's TV channels that ironically were formerly now-defunct ATV's analogue channels:
http://7thspace.com/headlines/527391/lcq9_sports_programmes_provided_by_rthk_and_free_tv_broadcasters.html

RTE2's promo for its weekly Road To Rio series premiere in case you missed the link to it perhaps. You'll gonna have to raise the volume to hear:

Romania isn't the only European nation to have its broadcaster in serious danger of losing Olympic and other sports broadcasting rights with money it needs to pay. Bosnia-Herzegovina's public broadcaster BHRT could very well lose the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics but also Euro 2016 in France,

Bosnia's 2018 FIFA World Cup European qualifiers, and the UEFA Champions League if it doesn't pay off 1.9 million CHF EBU debt. Even feeds from neighboring nation's broadcasters like HRT in Croatia will be prohibited:
http://www.nezavisne.com/novosti/drustvo/Ako-BHRT-ne-plati-1900000-CHF-nista-od-prenosa-EP-u-fudbalu-OI-LS/371457

[Durban Sandshark]

Former Duke and NBA star Alaa Abdelnaby, now a Philadelphia 76ERS sportscasting analyst, and his play-by-play guy Mike Zumoff on the Comcast Sports Network answer the call for Rio 2016 Olympic basketball broadcasting. Abdelnaby will call his Olympic Games in Arabic (possibly for OSN in the Middle East) while Zumoff makes his Olympic debut paired with Ann Meyers. Abdelnaby's relationship with his native Arabic as an Egyptian later growing up in northern New Jersey and using it into broadcasting is very interesting:
http://articles.philly.com/2016-05-12/sports/73017849_1_arabic-sixers-games-color-analyst

Television Jamaica (TVJ) is one of several free-to-air Rio 2016 broadcasters under the CWC, CANOC, and CBI territory with advertising revenue streams already installed for all its broadcasters and publishers like The Gleaner with "no ambush advertising tolerated" in greater breath and depth of Olympic coverage. Does say SportsMax is also an Olympic carrier with ESPN, Digicel Play, and Flow Sports with no blockage:
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/sports/20160518/greater-media-access-more-beneficial-olympics-coverage

Pittsbugh-based NEP Group was chosen again by NBC to supply provide mobile broadcasting and engineering consulting like outside broadcast units SS25 A, B, C, Iridium, Zinc, NCPXI, ST41 and ND5 and associated support vans for coverage of the opening ceremony at Maracana Stadium, track and field at Olympic Stadium, gymnastics at Rio Olympic Arena, swimming at Olympic Aquatics Stadium, beach volleyball at Beach Volleyball Arena on Copacabana Beach, and the closing ceremony at Maracana Stadium in its 12th Games:
http://www.sportsvideo.org/2016/04/14/2016-rio-olympics-nbc-taps-nep-group-for-mobile-broadcasting-engineering-consulting/

More insight into the IOC-backed Playmaker streaming service that NBC is exclusively using for Olympic broadcasting and streaming:
http://www.sportsvideo.org/2016/05/31/nbc-keeps-its-partners-close-with-playmaker/

ESPN's Everaldo Marques looking forward to call numerous future Brazilian golden Olympic memories and always eager to learn. Like in volleyball:
http://www.otempo.com.br/hotsites/rio-2016/as-vozes-que-transmitem-os-feitos-ol%C3%ADmpicos-pela-tv-1.1302793
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=pt&u=http://www.otempo.com.br/hotsites/rio-2016/as-vozes-que-transmitem-os-feitos-ol%25C3%25ADmpicos-pela-tv-1.1302793&prev=search

For RTVE, it will send a record number of directors over to Rio De Janeiro that's twice as many from London for Spain's Olympic coverage. As many as 11 including a chief editor. At first news director Juan Antonio Alvarez Guardin wasn't a part of this Rio-bound staff but turns out he is. A first for RTVE in sending a news director go for the Olympics. Furthermore, several TVE sportscasters won't be around in this Olympic go-round like Nacho Calvo (tennis, basketball), Arsenio Canades, and Ignacio Gomez-Acebo. Although Julian Reyes is expected to resign in the coming days from his RTVE sports director post, Mary Escario and Paloma Del Rio are replacing some of the the sportscasters as the Rio 2016 personnel list for TVE (for La 1), Teledeporte, RNE, and rtve.es gets finalized:
http://dircomfidencial.com/2016-03-28/noticia/rtve-enviara-a-los-juegos-de-rio-el-doble-directivos-que-a-londres/
http://dircomfidencial.com/2016-05-30/noticia/tve-se-desdice-confirma-alvarez-gundin-viajara-los-juegos-rio/

Europe 1's Cyril Hanouna and Commander Jerome will put their silly spin on the Olympics this August on their return to France Televisions:
http://www.europe1.fr/emissions/les-pieds-dans-le-plat/hanouna-et-commandeur-rejouent-les-jo-sur-france-televisions-2750719

[Quaker2001]

CBC ANNOUNCES ALL-STAR ROSTER OF EXPERT COMMENTATORS AND ANALYSTS FOR ITS COVERAGE OF THE RIO 2016 OLYMPIC GAMES

[Durban Sandshark]

Nastia Liukin as expected joins as NBC's gymnastics co-analyst with Tim Dagget, play-by-play man Al Trautwig, and special correspondent Bela Karolyi (likely inside the NBC studio again) in what could be "America's greatest Olympic women's gymnastics year" while staying objective. Sure looks to me there will be a transition at play for NBC's gymnastics coverage for the near future. Last Olympics, that is in Sochi in her native Russia of course, Liukin, as noted in the Sochi thread version, was a Sportsdesk Olympic Zone reporter and special correspondent:

http://www.people.com/people/package/article/0,,20996464_21010018,00.html

[Durban Sandshark]

RAI has a whole new series of 10-second Rio 2016 Olympic bumpers also under the "Sport is Forever" campaign. All with a white background as the square reduces in size. The ones that follow start with the historic ones in the men's 100m, men's high jump, equestrian, weightlifting, recent women's races (hurdles and sprints), men's pole vault, then goes to the London 2012 Italian gold medalists fencer Elisa Di Francesca, K1 slalom kayaker Daniele Molmenti, trap shooter Jessica Rossi, 50m rifle shooter Niccolo Campriani, and the archery trio of Mauro Nespoli, Marco Galiazzo, Michele Frangilli, and taekwondo Carlo Molfetta before ending things with some London 2012 Paralympic footage:

Saw the press release of the CBC's all-star team of commentators and experts. Several of them, if you're familiar of them like Perdita Felicien, Kyle Shewfelt, Matt Devlin, Jack Armstrong (because of those Raptors and NBA broadcasting ties), Windsor Lancers women's basketball coach Chantal Vallee, Karina LeBlanc, Steve Armitage, Clara Hughes, Donovan Bailey, Mike Smith. Byron MacDonald, Mark Tewksbury, and Blythe Hartley, I noticed no handball, golf, fencing, weightlifting, boxing, wrestling, taekwondo, badminton, table tennis, judo, shooting, and modern pentathlon, much less sailing for analysts and sportscasters. Maybe they may get some eventually perhaps like Carolyn Huynh as analyst in wrestling. Some of these special analysts, I presume, will just be inside the CBC Sports Rio 2016 studios or maybe some will just be back in Toronto. Moreover, I thought the TSN and Rogers Sportsnet soccer teams will combine forces in some ways. But the CBC will use the OBS/BBC teams at least for soccer. Really interesting how the networks divvied up the Olympic sports they'll all cover among each other; left me thinking it could use another one from the Canadian Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium like OLN for races. But like I said here it perhaps likes to keep things even, fair, and balanced with the partners involved. Pretty much a given the Canadian women's first soccer match coming pre-Opening Ceremony will be on the CBC and/or TSN. More thoughts on the Canadian makeup will come soon.

Reading back on the Sochi version of this thread and it got me thinking: Will we finally get to have the Opening Ceremony live online at last on NBC Olympics' website on primetime since it's on a more favorable TV time slot for it with hopefully a Spanish language option? My belief is NO since it will have to deal with the commercial breaks (barring a subsequent announcement from NBC it will be commercial-free and although watching it went exactly back to it as if nothing happened with the artistic presentation) and once again delay the OBS worldwide feed for several hours.

Also, things will likely be very well close to August like late July, sometime after Euro 2016's broadcast commitments are through, that Infront Sports & Media will announce the rest of the Sub-Saharan African free-to-air Rio 2016 Olympic broadcasters. Chances are they're going to be the state public broadcasters with maybe some commercial ones too. So far, Infront has only announced Tanzania and Nigeria, two significant English-speaking Sub-Saharan African Commonwealth nations. No Kenya, Ghana, Angola, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Congo-Brazzaville, Burkina Faso, Togo, Namibia, Cameroon, Botswana, just to name a few.

New Zealand Football Ferns (or the SWANZ as I still like to call them) and the Matildas pre-Olympic tune up soccer matches in Victoria (Melbourne and Ballarat) will both be shown live on NZ Sky Sport 1 with highlights on Sky Sport 4 (10:30pm) and 2 (9:30pm), on June 7 and 4 and respectively. Spotted on SKY NZ's Olympic home page there was a You Tube video that was since pulled, so I didn't get a chance to see this:
http://www.nzfootball.co.nz/ferns-satchell-ready-to-step-up/

Their Canadian counterparts will have some friendlies too before jetting to Rio De Janeiro in Toronto's BMO Field with Brazil during those exact dates that will be shown on TSN along with Amway Canadian Soccer Championship involving the MLS' Canadian contingent:
http://www.sportscastermagazine.ca/pro-sports/concacaf-championship-soccer-rio-friendlies-tsn/1003411636/

The ESPN Brasil Rio 2016 commentators psyching themselves up for the Olympics just like the athletes

[ofan]

I wonder what the chances are of Golf Channel's Olympic coverage not being blacked out in Canada, rather than the CBC showing it.

[Quaker2001]

Just came across something interesting. This is from the Internet and Television Expo a couple of weeks ago



A few things to note here. 262 hours is down slightly from London where NBC's hours were 272 1/2. However, a lot of the weekend daytime shows came on early in the morning owing to the time difference between London and the US, so that explains the difference. I would guess we're looking at a similar schedule this time around as in London. Curious that they mention 11 NBC networks in what seems like a separate listing from the NBC hours. Could there be an extra network we didn't account for? So we're looking at just over 1,700 TV hours. Which is right in line with London, although the streamed hours are well up.