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Tokyo 2020 Media Updates


Sir Rols

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1 hour ago, Durban Sandshark said:

Denying that they, the Tokyo 2020 organizers, didn't act on the wishes of NBC's massive clout with the broadcasting seems silly not just to everybody here but elsewhere. Should expect widespread criticisms going their way over this. Find it interesting even the women's soccer gold medal final is set during the US primetime too (11am Tokyo time). And this is because the American women are expected to be there and likely win (should've done that in Rio 2016, won't discuss that here except I'm still angry at them). Considering the weather there when the temperature starts rising, I can understand that. But nighttime seems more preferable. Nine events in track-and-field athletics including men’s and women’s long jump and 400m hurdles, and basketball for both women and men because we know both USA teams will be there. 

Just hope the situation doesn't turn adverse or even tragic on the athletes' side:

Oh dear.  So very much misinformation here, Durban.  I know you like to summarize the articles you post and then try to offer up a couple of opinions, but be careful of poor reporting.  Let's clear a few things up here.

The start times for the swimming finals were known months ago, so this is not a new revelation.  That's probably as much a FINA decision as it is for the organizers.  They know where their bread is buttered, so they want those big U.S. audiences and the sponsorship dollars that come along with it.  Yes, that comes at the expense of other viewers around the world.  But any notion that it might affect athletes' performances was erased in Beijing when they followed a similar schedule and world records were broken left and right.

I find it interesting you would infer that about the women's soccer final, as if that was the rationale behind the decision.  It's noteworthy that the women's gold medal game will be held at Olympic Stadium.  Normally that's an honor reserved for the men's final, but women's soccer being popular in Japan, they gave it to the women this time.  As such, the stadium is being used every night during the 2nd half of the Olympics for track & field.  Thus, the only time they could hold the women's final is in the afternoon.  Has absolutely nothing to do with with the preference of NBC.

You mention the track and field finals (of course you did, because they said it in the article).  They're largely mirroring what the IAAF did in 2016 in Rio.  They held some finals during the daytime sessions there (at least 1 per day) largely to appease European television interests, but also to help try and sell tickets to those sessions.  So that they're doing it again here has less to do with American TV and more with the interests of the organizers and the IAAF.

The basketball finals I'll grant you are odd, especially that the men's gold medal game happens before the bronze medal game.  So that's probably not a coincidence.  Although the women's final is on the day of the Closing Ceremony (as the men's final generally is at most Olympics), so that's not necessarily a major issue.

Overall.. yes, there will be some criticism, mostly over swimming, the a lot of these decisions also come from the individual sport federations who are acting in their own self interests.  Which happen to align with those of NBC.

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Telemundo once again confirms it'll supply the US Spanish language TV coverage of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. Details TBD in the next year. The article just mentions it at the end. Since we're talking also about women's soccer here, Telemundo is also airing this edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup in France starting June 7:

https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/telemundo-shares-upfront-strategy

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Are you ready for NBC Olympic primetime anchor Mike Tirico's announcement at the NBCU UpFront this morning at NYC's Radio City Music Hall awaiting with Tokyo 2020? An unprecedented “7,000 hours, over 17 days, reaching 205 million people” in the US...(Brace for a much bigger Olympics spiel next May). Roughly 245 more hours overall than what NBCU offered for Rio 2016 because of new events added. Only right the Peacock recruited 13 famed female American Olympians, including gold medalists Lindsey Vonn, Allyson Felix, and Kerri Strug, who all took the Radio City Music Hall stage to the only standing ovation of the presentation. Driving the female empowerment vibe home, Vonn reminded the Radio City audience that over the past 15 years, American women have won half of all Olympic medals and, I'll add now, well outnumber the men on the US Olympic Team in recent Summer Olympics. That, the feel-good message it brings at today's presentation, and with the #MeToo movement at least on a symbolic level. All at 10:25 am CT.

Doesn't mention the breakdown among the networks--we know NBC, NBCSN, MSNBC, CNBC, USA, the Olympic Basketball and Soccer Channels, Golf Channel, Bravo, and TELEMUNDO/NBC Universo will get involved. That of course will come with everything along with it. Fun to speculate which network will get what sports and how many hours each, although it's very early. Safe to assume, going by what Rio 2016 and London 2012 offered by the NBC family of networks, many of these sports will head to where they previously were. Question is, how about the incoming sports on the Tokyo 2020 program like baseball, softball, surfing, skateboarding, karate, and mountain climbing? Where do you think they'll be slated for? Do you think Oxygen will participate? Any chance for new one? How about a new Olympic baseball/softball channel? Will we eventually see the actual creation of Telemundo Deportes? What kind of role will its upcoming NBCU streaming service play in this? Hopefully that will give us Americans a chance to catch up with full replays of past NBC Olympics coverage, for one thing, with the Tokyo 2020 coverage:       

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/nbcuniversal-upfront-snl-cast-tina-fey-seth-meyers-more-hit-radio-city-1210064

https://deadline.com/2019/05/nbc-upfront-2019-2020-presentation-live-blog-1202613553/

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7 hours ago, Durban Sandshark said:

Are you ready for NBC Olympic primetime anchor Mike Tirico's announcement at the NBCU UpFront this morning at NYC's Radio City Music Hall awaiting with Tokyo 2020? An unprecedented “7,000 hours, over 17 days, reaching 205 million people” in the US...(Brace for a much bigger Olympics spiel next May). Roughly 245 more hours overall than what NBCU offered for Rio 2016 because of new events added. Only right the Peacock recruited 13 famed female American Olympians, including gold medalists Lindsey Vonn, Allyson Felix, and Kerri Strug, who all took the Radio City Music Hall stage to the only standing ovation of the presentation. Driving the female empowerment vibe home, Vonn reminded the Radio City audience that over the past 15 years, American women have won half of all Olympic medals and, I'll add now, well outnumber the men on the US Olympic Team in recent Summer Olympics. That, the feel-good message it brings at today's presentation, and with the #MeToo movement at least on a symbolic level. All at 10:25 am CT.

LOL Durban.  What's going on in your head that you would think the bring up #MeToo here?  It's "only right" they recruited female athletes?  This is like reading a bad version of Cliff Notes

7 hours ago, Durban Sandshark said:

Doesn't mention the breakdown among the networks--we know NBC, NBCSN, MSNBC, CNBC, USA, the Olympic Basketball and Soccer Channels, Golf Channel, Bravo, and TELEMUNDO/NBC Universo will get involved. That of course will come with everything along with it. Fun to speculate which network will get what sports and how many hours each, although it's very early. Safe to assume, going by what Rio 2016 and London 2012 offered by the NBC family of networks, many of these sports will head to where they previously were. Question is, how about the incoming sports on the Tokyo 2020 program like baseball, softball, surfing, skateboarding, karate, and mountain climbing? Where do you think they'll be slated for? Do you think Oxygen will participate? Any chance for new one? How about a new Olympic baseball/softball channel? Will we eventually see the actual creation of Telemundo Deportes? What kind of role will its upcoming NBCU streaming service play in this? Hopefully that will give us Americans a chance to catch up with full replays of past NBC Olympics coverage, for one thing, with the Tokyo 2020 coverage:

Next year is when they'll get more detailed.  No use in doing that more than a year out.  You should brace for a much bigger Olympics spiel next May (in case you forgot that you copied that line word for word from the article).

The interesting question will be less about which sports go where and more about the programming schedule.  This is slightly new territory since the last Summer Olympics in Asia was prior to the Comcast merger.  There was no NBCSN during Beijing and as a result, no cable coverage during East coast primetime.  I think we saw something of a template from Korea last winter where NBCSN will be up pretty close to 24 hours a day with Olympics coverage (although there will be bigger breaks for coverage of other sports, probably NASCAR in particular).  The question here is what gets shown live and what doesn't?  Will NBC repeat their "Primetime Plus" concept?  Will the afternoon show be first run events or will it be games involving the U.S. that were shown on cable earlier?

There's a lot of different ways they can go and streaming will be a key component.  Would be nice to have some old events on there, but remains to be seen how much of a market there is for that.  Have patience, though.  I'm as eager as you are to get into more detail, but wouldn't expect too much of that until this fall at the very earliest, but more likely not until next spring when Tokyo is right around the corner.

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Bob Fitzgerald, soon to be leaving San Francisco's sports radio station KNBR 680AM after three decades,  will be again a play-by-play voice of the Tokyo 2020 USA Men's Olympic Basketball Team games on the NBC family of TV networks. This will be his second time covering Olympic basketball on TV after London 2012 and his fifth Olympic broadcasting appearance overall since swimming in Atlanta--and with basketball radio coverage in Athens 2004 (also called water polo coverage for NBC at Beijing 2008):

http://www.knbr.com/2019/06/24/knbr-signs-greg-papa-to-multi-year-deal-new-lineup-to-debut-july-16/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Fitzgerald

The CBC got some plans to broadcast the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games using Twitter on the social media side with content ranging from actual coverage to Canadian athletes' stories in striving for excellence:

https://www.gamingpost.ca/canadian-sports-science-news/new-twitter-canada-sports-deals/

Down under with the Seven Network Kurt Burnette, Seven's Olympic director, predicts to The Australian that over 20 million Aussies will watch Seven Network's coverage of Tokyo 2020 with an additional 5 million tuning on portable digital devices with a favorable time zone difference this time for them. More than Sydney in viewership (Can't get to the The Australian article due to subscription fees):

https://www.mediaweek.com.au/mediaweek-roundup-june-24-2019/

Look for a new Olympic-themed animated short film made in co-production by Studio Ponoc and with the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage  "expressing the Olympic values of excellence, friendship, and respect" that's aimed at kids to get into the Olympic spirit come early next year. Announcement was made at the Annecy Film Festival earlier this month:

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190611_13/

Ireland's Tokyo 2020 Olympic field hockey qualification journey in the 8-team FIH Hockey Series going on from June 8-16 at the Banbridge Hockey Club was streamed live on BBC Sport NI. With a new coach in Sean Dancer and the South Korea, Scotland, France, Czech Republic, Singapore, and Ukraine national teams (Spoiler: Ireland qualified for the FIH Olympic Qualifiers along with South Korea as the top two teams there):

https://www.bbc.com/sport/hockey/48490038

The Diet approves the launching of NHK's streaming service coming in March in time for the torch relay and for its simultaneous Tokyo 2020 TV Olympic coverage. No additional fee required going along with that of the TV subscription thanks to a revised law:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/05/29/national/diet-approves-simultaneous-streaming-japans-public-broadcaster-nhk/#.XRK-jOtKjcs

 

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On 5/14/2019 at 1:57 AM, Quaker2001 said:

LOL Durban.  What's going on in your head that you would think the bring up #MeToo here?  It's "only right" they recruited female athletes?  This is like reading a bad version of Cliff Notes

Next year is when they'll get more detailed.  No use in doing that more than a year out.  You should brace for a much bigger Olympics spiel next May (in case you forgot that you copied that line word for word from the article).

The interesting question will be less about which sports go where and more about the programming schedule.  This is slightly new territory since the last Summer Olympics in Asia was prior to the Comcast merger.  There was no NBCSN during Beijing and as a result, no cable coverage during East coast primetime.  I think we saw something of a template from Korea last winter where NBCSN will be up pretty close to 24 hours a day with Olympics coverage (although there will be bigger breaks for coverage of other sports, probably NASCAR in particular).  The question here is what gets shown live and what doesn't?  Will NBC repeat their "Primetime Plus" concept?  Will the afternoon show be first run events or will it be games involving the U.S. that were shown on cable earlier?

There's a lot of different ways they can go and streaming will be a key component.  Would be nice to have some old events on there, but remains to be seen how much of a market there is for that.  Have patience, though.  I'm as eager as you are to get into more detail, but wouldn't expect too much of that until this fall at the very earliest, but more likely not until next spring when Tokyo is right around the corner.

NASCAR is taking two weeks off  between Loudon and Michigan to accommodate the Olympics. Can't think of what else NBCSN would have maybe IndyCar, but that's about it.

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3 hours ago, danderson4500 said:

NASCAR is taking two weeks off  between Loudon and Michigan to accommodate the Olympics. Can't think of what else NBCSN would have maybe IndyCar, but that's about it.

Did not know that.  That's interesting they're clearing almost all the way out for the Olympics.  Although worth noting.. the Cup series is off for 2 weeks, but the XFinity Series has a race the middle weekend of the Olympics.  So that will tie up a couple of afternoons for them.  IndyCar usually has a gap of a few weeks in August, so I have a feeling they'll do something similar next summer.  In 2016, set it up so that Olympic coverage on NBCSN ended coverage at 3pm on the final Sunday so it could lead directly into coverage of the IndyCar race from Pocono.  Don't think it will be so neat and tidy this time around.

Also possible the Premier League will get underway that last weekend of the Olympics, so that could be some coveage on that final Saturday of the games.  It'll all probably be similar to what we saw from PyeongChang.  No idea if there will be anything else of note on the calendar.

What's cool is that Olympic competition begins at 9am Wednesday, July 22nd with women's softball.  So not impossible we could see NBCSN up and running with Olympic coverage as early as Tuesday night here in the States.

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On 7/1/2019 at 8:43 PM, danderson4500 said:

The Xifinty races are during the "downtime" since those races will be in the afternoon. 

 

I could see some events simulcast on NBC and NBCSN because of the Today Show. Some track and field events or even basketball games.

Yes, the beauty of an Asian Olympics is that NBCSN can (presumably) be up and running 24/7 with Olympic coverage, but they'll happily step away during the afternoon for a live event like a NASCAR race.  I don't think there will be much of anything that takes priority over live Olympic coverage.  We saw that from Rio when events (like NASCAR races and Premiere League soccer) got moved to other networks so that NBCSN could stick with the Olympics.  That will be less of an issue from Tokyo.

As to your second point.. when you say simulcast, do you mean the same event on 2 networks at once or an event repeated a different time on a different network?  If you mean the former, how does NBC do that during the Today Show?

The last Summer Olympics in Asia, NBC only had a 3 hour daytime show during the week.  A little of it was live, but that won't be an option with Tokyo since nothing goes past 11:30pm local time (10:30am on the East coast).  So if that's a 7 hour show, what are they putting there where the last 2 Olympics, the daytime show has been mostly live and could include team USA game in sports like volleyball and water polo.  Will those go on cable now and not get shown on the main network?  Or will the cable nets show other countries and show the USA game on delay on the daytime show.

As for basketball.. I think I can probably count on 1 hand the total number of basketball games NBC has shown at each of the past 2 Olympics.  I imagine that number will be similar at these Olympics.  Both gold medal finals are scheduled during U.S. primetime, so those are likely both headed to NBCSN.

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The Olympic Channel will broadcast a special streaming 25-minute interactive live show celebrating 1 year to go until Tokyo 2020 on July 24 with guest appearances with co-hosts Ash Tulloch and Miki Ando. Live from Tokyo from the Let's 55 (Go, Go) event at the Tokyo International Forum and starts at 7:15 GMT/UTC (3:15 New York time, 8:15 London, 9:15 CEST, 16:15 Tokyo). Very early in the morning for us here in North America!

https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/stories/features/detail/olympic-channel-interactive-1yeartogo-tokyo2020-live-show/

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Tokyo 2020: Additional sports to be broadcast live.. A total of 21 Paralympic disciplines from 19 sports will be screened

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The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has announced that a further five sports will be broadcast live from the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, bringing the total number to a record 21 disciplines from 19 sports.

At the Rio 2016 Paralympics, 12 disciplines from 12 sports were broadcast live. However, now thanks to greater support from broadcasters, the IPC, Tokyo 2020 and Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), more sports than ever before will be shown live, with worldwide audiences enjoying action from all 22 sports.

 

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Getting to the one-year countdown mark today and, more officially, tomorrow. So we'll see some news globally forthcoming. Definitely some developments from NBC aggressively milking all that mileage with billions of dollars to spend on its top cash cow with Tokyo and beyond (to 2032)...

NBC is going all out with this like from Mike Tirico out in Tokyo, emulating what he did over in Pyeongchang exactly a year from its Opening Ceremony, to Shaun White, Ali Krieger, Eric Kynard, Brighton Zeuner, Laurie Hernandez, Alex Johnson, Naya Tapper, Jordan Borroughs, Helen Maroulis, Ashlyn Harris, Foluke Akinradewo, and David Boudia among the 15 US Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls with the USOPC making numerous appearances across numerous "abundant and diverse" NBCU platforms and shows in New York and Los Angeles. Has the Olympic rings started reappearing under the NBC peacock on TV yet? Always seem like the feeling NBC could do a little more and be clever and stealth with its Tokyo 2020 "ultra-synergetic, cross-platform" promotions like Awful Announcing's Matt Yoder suggests are missing out on:

NBC Universal Celebrates One Year Until Tokyo 2020 By Activating Across Its Unmatched Portfolio

https://awfulannouncing.com/nbc/nbc-is-going-all-out-to-promote-the-2020-olympics-that-are-only-365-days-away.html

NBC Sports just unleashed its 1-minute one-year countdown sports montage promo today with Panic! At The Disco providing the soundtrack set to (aptly) "The Greatest Show" with various US Olympics stars and hopefuls making cameos doing their thing: "training, preparing, and finally competing":

https://www.popsugar.com/fitness/Tokyo-Olympics-NBC-Teaser-Trailer-Video-46414059

NBC targets a record ad revenue haul of topping $1.2 billion for this Tokyo 2020 adventure surpassing that of Rio's. Said to "carry more than 7000 hours of coverage across broadcast, cable, digital and social platforms" but discussions are still ongoing over what Olympic programming to place on its nascent streaming service ready for 2020. Yet in a rapidly fracturing viewership and serious transitions to changing media consumptions and outlets, American Olympic viewing on TV, while still very strong, has eroded in recent ones. But we can expect many of the top-spending advertisers back on NBC from Rio De Janeiro and Pyeongchang, even bringing aboard some Japanese brands that normally don't heavily advertise in the USA:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/nbcuniversal-expects-more-12b-ad-sales-2020-tokyo-olympics-1226439

https://adage.com/article/media/nbc-eyes-record-ad-sales-haul-2020-olympics/2185576

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-23/nbc-expects-record-2020-olympics-ad-sales-topping-1-2-billion?srnd=pursuits-vp

https://www.thewrap.com/2020-tokyo-olympics-ad-sales-nbc/

Down in Australia with the Seven Network, SWM Olympic Director Kevin Burnette says along with Seven and 7Two with 6 additional 7plus curated channels will be available to its signed-in BVOD users with up to 40 live streams of every Olympic sport available from Tokyo on 7plus with a more favorable time zone viewing, Seven offers as part of the SevenWest Media, Olympic integration in cross-platforms with Pacific Magazine, the West Australian newspaper, and 7NEWS.com.au for the Australia Olympic experience. Even the Australian version of the Olympic Channel launches today on 7plus to coincide with this. Australia's most comprehensive and most digital Games event coverage ever that it hopes to bank on huge Aussie viewership to 20 million via broadcast and an additional 5 million online. Like with what NBC did with Rio and Pyeongchang, viewers without a 7plus subscription will only get limited access while those who do will get everything. You can even see Channel Seven's Tokyo wordmark on the TV behind Burnette. Advertisers will be less frequent during the TV coverage and there are plans to utilize the "megawall' approach on the linear side to push those watching over to digital viewing. Expect many of the same commercial partners back for the Seven coverage:

http://www.adnews.com.au/news/seven-banks-on-7plus-to-drive-tokyo-olympics-audience

https://www.mediaweek.com.au/one-year-until-tokyo-2020-seven-launches-olympic-tv-channel/

https://www.bandt.com.au/media/seven-announces-plans-tokyo-2020

Seven's Tokyo 2020 interactive press kit, says 2500 hours of live competition will be shown: http://inside7.com.au/tokyo-2020

Globo sublicenses the Brazilian TV coverage of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to Band and BandSports with only them and SporTV handling this:

https://agenciaolimpica.com.br/marketing-esportivo/9343/bandsports-fecha-acordo-como-globo/

France Televisions will launch its own version of the Olympic Channel come 2020 in time for the 2024 deadline with the next Summer Olympics in Paris looming afterwards. Talks and plans for it are still preliminary at this point:

https://www.lequipe.fr/Medias/Actualites/France-televisions-va-lancer-une-nouvelle-chaine-olympique-pour-les-jo-2020/1031254

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Eurosport's manga-inspired #1YearToGo Tokyo 2020 Olympics promo as Eurosport makes itself known for Tokyo at the 1-year countdown. It plans to air this for much of the next month

All "live and on-demand content of the Olympics disciplines will be broadcast via Eurosport’s OTT streaming service, Eurosport Player, and not just on its TV channels. It will also offer real-time digital and social media coverage, including ‘tailor-made’ personalised content for fans, featuring their favourite sports, athletes and experts." Look for a "cutting-edge studio and production technology at the forefront of the coverage" forthcoming in the coming months ahead. With "world-class experts" soon to be announced and that Eurosport Cube is coming back.

That One Year To Go Special live from Tokyo many hours to go: 

 

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Some nuggets on NBC coverage from Tokyo, including the 1 notable one quoted below

https://www.inquirer.com/sports/nbc-2020-olympics-tokyo-comcast-plans-20190729.html

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Also of note, the specialty channels for live basketball and soccer games that NBC offered to TV providers in 2008, 2012 and 2016 have been discontinued.

Zenkel said those channels “grew up in an era where not everybody had the broadband connection. Today it’s duplicative.”

 

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One person we surely know early on will be involved with Seven's Tokyo 2020 coverage is Basil Zempilas, the man who called Steven Bradbury's 1000m gold medal race in short track in Salt Lake City. Australia's first Winter Olympic gold medal. He's stepping down as a popular Weekend Sunrise co-anchor on 7 alongside Monique Wright, commuting every weekend cross-country from Perth to Sydney, after two years to become more of a flexible guest co-host so that Basil will focus more on his Perth media commitments at 6PR's weekday breakfast show with Steve Mills and weeknight sports reports for Seven. Could very well do Olympic basketball and rowing and maybe canoeing/kayak again:

https://tvblackbox.com.au/page/2019/8/17/sunrise-on-the-hunt-for-new-host-as-basil-zempilas-steps-aside

Known for his Japanese NPB baseball TV commentary along with doing some NBA and NFL games utilizing some English in calling home runs, Yuji Kondo will handle equestrian during the Tokyo 2020. Heavily influenced by American TV commentators. Even spent time in Guam playing (American) football and seeing the San Diego Chargers at home before doing that back in Japan leading as a defensive back for Ritsumeikan University to the 1994 national championship. Although we don't know what channel from the Japan Olympic Broadcast Consortium will cover it. Safe to say NHK, however:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2019/08/19/baseball/japanese-baseball/yuji-kondo-continues-chart-path-broadcast-booth/#.XVsxb-hKjcs

Once again, Kiwi sports fans will watch the Olympics on SKY Sport NZ and on free-to-air PRIME like this Tokyo 2020 edition. Late last month on the 1-year stage on July 24, they were able to look back at some of NZ's favorite sports moments from Rio 2016 on One Year to Go: Rio 2016 Review that aired  on SKY Sport 3 from 8pm and free-to-air on Prime, Saturday July 27 from 7pm NZT:

https://www.sky.co.nz/-/one-year-to-go-olympic-games-tokyo-2020

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Pretty cool stuff to see on the track for viewers. Sometimes it can be hard to figure out who is leading, their speed acceleration/decreasing, and who is about to win in sprints and their times due to the clustering near the finish line. Like to see this similarly done for swimming.

Just hours ago this morning, NBCUniversal announced the name of the its brand new streaming service that will hold NBC/Telemundo's Tokyo 2020 cross-platform coverage in the United States: Peacock.  Further details there TBA but we all know there will be a major marketing push for this as a showcase piece soon as Peacock launches in April:

https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/bonnie-hammer-nbc-peacock-streaming-launch-1203338631/

 

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Important news out of NBC is that Jim Bell exits well before even heading NBC Sports' Tokyo 2020 coverage (as well as departing his Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon showrunning duties). We'll see whoever succeeds him will place his or her finger on some coverage changes, if at all. Likely not Sam Flood but someone more intimate with the Olympics coverage:

https://awfulannouncing.com/nbc/jim-bell-leaves-nbc-olympics.html

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Got a successor now. NBC Sports tips Golf Channel executive Molly Solomon, the first woman to run a national sports network, to oversee the NBC Tokyo 2020 coverage in filling the void left by Jim Bell's departure. Found the news when, what else, playing a round of golf in Orlando. Strongly suspected it will be someone with some serious ties to the NBC Olympic coverage and production performing various capacities. She started as a researcher, and well-experienced being involved in a 10 Olympics string like producing the prime time segments, Opening Ceremony, and of course Rio 2016 golf coverage. Got 11 Emmys along the way. She'll keep the quality going and even allow for innovation and fresh angles and plans to the NBC Olympics coverage. How as compared with the past remains to be seen. One thing we can be assured of is Solomon will definitely adapt well to the ever-changing and newer types in media consumption of the Olympics and present "options for every viewer" be it full-event or highlights forms while not concerning himself over gender. A terrific hire: 

https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2019-11-20/nbc-golf-channel-executive-to-run-2020-olympics-coverage

https://awfulannouncing.com/olympics/molly-solomon-to-head-nbc-olympics-production.html

https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/molly-solomon-olympics-nbc-sports-jim-bell-1203409497/

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/business/article/NBC-Sports-appoints-company-veteran-to-lead-14849292.php

Preparations and plans are nearly solidified for over the past two years at NBC prior to Tokyo 2020. Does plan on some Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic content on the new Peacock streaming platform after April. Perhaps maybe previews for each and every event as its own show, a Road To Tokyo weekly preview show, Japan-centric cultural programming, and more coverage on the torch relay but never as an overall change in strategy. We can only guess. Authentication from TV providers isn't leaving for this. But Gary Zenkel adds that for now...

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Asked whether Peacock will have live event streaming, Zenkel said it will not.

“There is no change,” Zenkel said. “What I said is there will be content; the form of that content will be disclosed in due course. But no, we of course will not change the dynamic of the Olympics’ relationship with the cable ecosystem.”

 https://www.inquirer.com/sports/nbc-olympics-streaming-peacock-tokyo-2020-20191120.html

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Peruvians previously got the last Summer Olympics, Rio 2016, on Latina Television Canal 2. But coming next summer, ATV Group Canal 9 will exclusively broadcast the Tokyo 2020 edition, returning there since Beijing 2008 that ended a three Summer Olympics streak for up to 900 hours live on the biggest Summer Olympics and Paralympics coverage on Peruvian TV via America Movil's sublicensing. There are six national television channels among the ATV Group, and we can expect all of them--ATV Canal 9, Red TV, America Next (soon the rebranded as Global Television next year), La Tele, ATV Sur, and ATV Nocitas--and online at ATV Play to display the coverage. How it will send which sport where remains to be seen, although it's safe to assume that both ceremonies, the top and popular events (like track and field, swimming, the soccer finals, both volleyball versions, and gymnastics), and all of Peru's athletes will appear on ATV Canal 9. Renato Luna and Paco Bazan are set to be involved as broadcasters. Announced in a late November presentation in Lima featuring four of Peru's best Tokyo Summer Olympics hopefuls and gold medalists from Lima 2019 Pan American Games and mascot Miraitowa. Also will take on the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics:

https://www.atv.pe/deportes/grupo-atv-transmitira-exclusiva-juegos-olimpicos-tokio-2020-398491

Adding to this is that Carlos Slim's America Movil desires once again to create TV broadcasting alliances among the non-Brazil Latin American nations that goes along with the rights like with what happened in the previous Olympic cycle. His company broke the decades-long Mexican Olympic TV stranglehold. Since we're talking about Olympic media alliances here, it's announced at the Brandcast Mexico 2019 that You Tube and Marca Claro teaming up so that Tokyo 2020 will get broadcast online on its You Tube's platform channel through Latin America from Mexico, where YouTube is heavily used, to Argentina (excluding Brazil) with hopes to have a large and tremendous reach throughout the region with Google seeking brands for sponsorship: 

https://www.merca20.com/las-audiencias-cambian-youtube-transmitira-los-juegos-olimpicos-de-tokyo-2020/

Mexican media giant Televisa, brought up by its VP of sports Juan Carlos Rodríguez, makes the surprise announcement at Grupo Televisa UpFront 2019-20 in Mexico City this October that it is definitely back covering the Olympics starting with Tokyo 2020. Little is known regarding its broadcasting plans right now. But we can see some sharing with them on Mexican TV and perhaps teaming up with Univision Deportes and Claro Sports. Could TV Azteca be not far behind with the likes of FOX Sports, ESPN, and SKY Mexico? Long standing Mexican sportscaster Enrique Burak prepares to cover Tokyo as well:

https://www.frentecreativo.com/noticias/televisa-se-prepara-para-2020-con-su-revitalizada-oferta-de-contenidos/

https://www.elsoldemexico.com.mx/gossip/enrique-burak-recibe-el-premio-antena-2019-por-sus-37-anos-de-trayectoria-4444246.html

Some Swedes are concerned over whether Discovery Sweden can handle such massive sports TV properties rights at the same summer next year with Tokyo 2020 and the Allsvenskan and Supretta soccer. Assumption is they will send almost all of their on-camera personnel over in Tokyo, including for its soccer competition like Karin Frick and Tommy Astrom, and leaving the Allsvenskan team more bare bones. Rest assured, Hanif Hossiemi says, the Discovery Sweden team (Kanal 5, Kanal 9, Eurosport Sverige channels, D/EurosportPlay) assures it will provide the best Swedish TV/online Olympic coverage ever to its Swedish audience as it adds more personnel in both camps to provide quality coverage. Is up for the massive challenge:   

https://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/fotboll/a/aweLyd/discovery-tar-over-allsvenskan-i-tv--har-ar-deras-loften

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Big news today! Eurosport secures over the exclusive pay-TV, linear, and digital streaming Tokyo 2020 coverage in France after agreeing to a partnership with the CANAL+ Group and France Télévisions. So Eurosport gets to be involved four years early than schedule while expanding the Eurosport Olympic footprint to 50 save for Russia now:

https://corporate.discovery.com/discovery-newsroom/eurosport-becomes-official-olympic-games-tokyo-2020-broadcaster-in-france/

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NBC: very hard at work on Olympics coverage plans almost immediately right after the hosts cities were chosen to visit and research and "just before the previous Olympics end". So we know now it's conjuring up very early plans for both Paris and Los Angeles and Beijing and Milan for the Winter Olympics version. Just "close to 1500 people" will be based working at Stamford, Connecticut on the NBC Tokyo 2020 project like sportscasters, technicians, etc. with "the small army" based in the Japanese capital in dealing with an overseas Olympics in a rapidly changing media landscape. What "execution plans mode" NBC is working on at this stage as we move into the Summer Olympics year? For starters, the majority of the 7000+ overall hours set for broadcast will be on the digital/mobile/online mode possessing the advantage of keeping up and catching up with the Olympic sports with still a significant chunk shown on NBC family of networks. Greater digital consumption on Olympic content. there's some new technological innovations forthcoming Gary Zenkel is coy about sharing right now, although can we expect, as Quaker brought forth here, the colorful track athletes' overlays. We can also expect 5G and "live VR" expansion to be involved somehow with NBC along with already knowing about the live Tokyo 2020 Olympics show and live look-ins coming on Twitter. Not to mention full confidence in raking in the advertising and marketing sales from not only the traditional Olympic TV sponsors from cars, beverages, and travel but from more deep-pocketed tech companies like Intel.  Come LA 2028, both its organizing committee and NBC team up for "transformative" sharing of the sponsorship and marketing revenue. Longtime NBC Olympics exec Gary Zenkel explains key parts of the planning: 

http://www.sportspromedia.com/from-the-magazine/tokyo-2020-olympic-games-nbc-tv-gary-zenkel-interview

Australia's "most-watched Olympics and the biggest digital event in Australian streaming history" planned for Tokyo 2020 will have an added boost with Seven exclusively reteaming up with Optus via Fetch after Pyeongchang 2018 and the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games to provide Seven's unprecedented Tokyo 2020 coverage on a 4KTV channel on 5G to Optus 5G Home customers at home and mobile devices. 5G is already making inroads in Australia in over 300 5G spots in all the Aussie continental state capital cities and in the regional Australian East Coast areas (NSW, VIC, QLD) like the Gold Coast, Canberra, Newcastle, Geelong, Townsville, Woolongong, and Cairns with expansion to 1200 areas planned for next March. Costs A$100 (£52/$68/€62) monthly through a package with the internet connection, an Optus Sport subscription, and a Fetch Mighty set-top box. Seven has 8K plans too:

https://www.insidethegames.biz/index.php/articles/1087915/seven-and-optus-to-show-tokyo-2020-in-4k

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NBC says it has topped $1 billion in national ad sales for 2020 Summer Olympics

Notable in this is that there are a lot of new advertisers in the mix, which hopefully means we won't see the same 3 commercials from Coca Cola over and over and over again.

Also notable and I believe we saw this from the 2018 Olympics.. NBC's ratings guarantees will be based on TAD numbers (Total Audience Delivery) rather than just using the primetime TV numbers.  Which is probably (hopefully) good news in terms of programming and scheduling.

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