Paris 2024 Media updates

[Durban Sandshark]

Now back onto the legit, actual news and development. Starting with France Televisions.

Stephane Diagana, a former 400m hurdles world champion, will be a part of France TV broadcasting team in covering the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, principally as a track and field analyst again. Also part of France TV's collective dubbed the athletes' commission:

https://radio.vinci-autoroutes.com/article/stephane-diagana-un-consultant-en-or-10695

But not everyone is happy with France TV's coverage plans this summer: Personnel at its sports department like rugby commentator Matthieu Marlot aren't pleased that What games!, the daily show that Léa Salamé and Michel Drucker will present on France 2 during the Olympic Games this summer, will not be contributing to the show--it was the France Televisions President's decision: 

https://www.20minutes.fr/arts-stars/television/4072900-20240126-jo-2024-service-sports-france-televisions-frustre-participer-emission-salame-drucker

TVE in Spain premieres today its new bi-weekly series on Teledeporte at 10:15pm Spain time called Paris 2024 Connection, a program detailing prior to the Games with special monitoring of Spanish athletes searching for place in making the 2024 Spanish Olympic Team. In addition to reviewing current events and in each episode, the show will have the presence of a Spanish Olympic sports great. This program is presented by Arse Cañada and features the collaborations of Ernest Riveras and Roc Massaguer, with Jesús Cebrián in the editing room. From Paris, Mavi Doñate also shows us on location the venues that will host the Olympic competition and how France is preparing to host the Games.

Starting February 2 and on alternate Thursdays, TVE will also present another bi-weekly and related show called Objectivo Paris, also on Teledeporte, dedicating each program to an Olympic sport. It delves into each discipline, review its history, approach the international scene and speak with the main Spanish athletes who represent Spain in Paris 2024 and who pass through our set. Hosted by Lourdes García Campos and directed by Virtudes Fernández along with the collaboration of various RTVE specialists, both journalists and technical commentators::

https://www.rtve.es/rtve/20240125/rtve-empieza-su-camino-hacia-juegos-olimpicos-paris/15934561.shtml

https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/conexion-paris-2024/  

https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/objetivo-paris-2024/

Wendy Guevara will become the first transgendered person ever to host an Olympic-related TV program for TelevisaUnivision during the Games focusing on Mexican athletes. Didn't venture into much detail following that. If you know anything about the prime Mexican TV networks when it comes to the Olympics, these networks will give a more comedic bent to the coverage:

https://www.infobae.com/mexico/2024/01/20/y-ni-moderrimo-wendy-guevara-se-gana-su-boleto-a-los-juegos-olimpicos-de-paris-2024/

Globo TV's newest Paris 2024 promo that also uses Fjora's and Tommee Proffitt's Eye of The Tiger cover. This one here focuses on the Summer Olympic history, legends, and moments (certainly not limited to Brazilian ones) up towards Tokyo:

Those details I mention on my last post have since been removed. I'll attempt to analyze what were the proposed plans and maybe why.

[Durban Sandshark]

France Televisions will transform the Musée de l'Homme's roof into its Paris 2024 television studio headquarters for France 2 at the Trocadero area with a breathtaking panoramic view of the Eifel Tower, the Seine River, and Central Paris. NBC Olympics meanwhile will occupy the ground floor there. France 3 will be based at Club France at the Grande Halle de la Villette during its immense share of the France Televisions' Paris 2024 coverage:

https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/tv/jo-2024-france-televisions-sinstallera-sur-le-toit-du-musee-de-lhomme-02-02-2024-B3H7RY2EFBBENLHLZ7KTT2O2Z4.php

[Durban Sandshark]

Writing up lots of Super Bowl info on that thread and will continue to do so here. But I'm stepping back here along with yesterday to alert to you that SportyTV just acquired the terrestrial Paris 2024 Summer Olympics broadcasting rights for West African (and fellow Commonwealth) nations Ghana and Nigeria in a deal struck with Infront, reported exclusively by Sport Business. Details are forthcoming:

https://www.sportbusiness.com/news/exclusive-sportytv-secures-paris-2024-rights-in-ghana-nigeria/

Got Warner Discovery Sverige's first announced Paris 2024 Summer Olympics expert, former Swedish swimmer Therese Alshammar, a multiple Olympic and World Swimming medalist and 2x Swedish Female Athlete of the Year, gets welcomed as its swimming analyst for Eurosport Sverige and its sister Kanal 5, Kanal 9, Kanal 11 channels. Surely we will see a few more to join Alshammar at the pool like maybe Sean Sjodin again as Sweden fields another competitively strong swimming team. Also says that Therese's Swedish Olympic contemporary Caroline Kluft will also be involved. This time as an analyst for naturally track and field. Speaking of that on both accounts, I hope Susanna "Sanna" Kallur and Eurosport will get back together and grant her a second chance on track and field this time after the initial contract for Tokyo was nullified thanks to the pandemic-enforced delay. We'll see more sports analysts announced later on for Eurosport Sverige:

https://press-warnerbrosdiscovery-se.translate.goog/post/therese-alshammar-ansluter-till-warner-bros-discovery-och-olympi?_x_tr_sl=sv&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

More Eurosport news. This time from hosts France. Just breaking. If you saw the Eurosport France advertising pricing guide, that should grant you a very strong idea of what to expect. This news just makes it official with additional news. Eurosport will showcase 3500 hours across seven channels, each with a different focus in ultra HD and 4K. All this Paris 2024 Summer Olympics content will also be streaming on Eurosport.fr and on the Eurosport app, with 62 simultaneous programming threads in more than 20 languages.

Also announced is there will be more than 50 analysts in different Summer Olympic sports. Eurosport France's editorialize content centering these Olympics will feature three daily shows hosted by well-known figures in France including Lesly Boitrelle, Victoria Vergara, Géraldine Weber, Vincent Desagnat, Christine Arron, Nathalie Péchalat, Matthias Dandois and Kevin Rolland:

https://variety.com/2024/global/news/warner-bros-discovery-eurosport-olympics-games-france-1235898410/

As expected, Fabian Hambuchen returns to Eurosport Germany to have his own live daily Olympic show once again reporting at the Paris Deutsches Haus with interviews with TeamD and look at the day's general and German highlights: 

https://presse.wbd-deutschland.de/post/fabian-hambuchen-kehrt-mit-eurosport-ins-deutsche-haus-zuruck

Once again and as expected, both basketball and swimming (includes all the swimming events including water polo, diving, synchronized swimming, and open water swimming) in Paris 2024 will exclusively be live and on-demand on Finland's TV5, its Eurosport cable channels, and HBO MAX/Discovery+ streaming, given how popular that worked with Finnish viewers. We can expect at least some of the same personalities like Jani Sievenen, Hanna-Maria Seppala, and Shawn Huff to return from Tokyo as experts until further notice. YLE still retains the Finnish Olympic radio rights to all Olympic sports as allowed by Warner Discovery. Should Finland qualify for Paris 2024 in men's basketball out of the upcoming OQTs with its Susijengi team led by Lauri Markkinen, that will definitely drum up interest even more nationally:     

https://press-warnerbrosdiscovery-fi.translate.goog/post/olympialaiset-1?_x_tr_sl=fi&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

SportsMax's latest Paris 2024 Olympics promo. This one centers on the Baron Pierre De Coubertin's Olympic creed and the Olympic motto as it's also the first to intersperse with Tokyo 2020 Olympic games footage with the likes of Linoy Ashram, Elaine Thompson-Herah, Mijain Lopez, Yulimar Rojas, Simone Biles, karate champs Sandra Sanchez, and Steven Gardiner. Part of me kinds thinks Sportsmax is confusing a bit the Tokyo Tower with Paris' Eiffel Tower

RAI Sport/RAI Play and SKY Sport Max showed the Judo Paris Grand Slam this past weekend focusing of course on Team Italia judokas with many seeking and completing Olympic qualification with seedings at stake. But many Italian judokas already had at that point:

https://www.today.it/sport/altro/judo-grand-prix-parigi.html

NBC SPORTS PRESENTED LIVE COVERAGE OF THE 2024 US OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS MEN'S AND WOMEN'S MARATHON IN ORLANDO ON NBC/PEACOCK STARTING AT 9AM ON SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3

Carlos Slim, the Mexican billionaire behind America Movil and its subsidiary Claro Sports, explains he went ahead and did another Olympic run: Already mentioned here that Marca and Claro Sports have teamed up with TV Azteca, which had 59 million viewers for Tokyo 2020, importing much of the 4000+ hours from Paris 2024. But TV Azteca will have major discretion on what it will show there but may likely be made available on Totalplay streaming. On the subscription side, Claro Sports will again have 4 separate channels during the 2024 Paris Olympic Games with potentially 32 additional different and simultaneous live streaming channels in all Olympic sports added for viewers to decide what to watch. Slim also mentions the IOC really likes his company's latest proposal as "the most monetarily viable" out of Latin America excluding Brazil already being familiar in holding its auction:

https://elceo.com/negocios/carlos-slim-volvera-a-transmitir-los-juegos-olimpicos-de-2024-y-por-estas-2-razones-gano-la-licencia/

[Durban Sandshark]

Too bad Sports Business' article is firewalled. But thanks to another article from Sportcal indicates that Olympic fans in Ghana and Nigerians will get both opening and closing ceremonies along with 6 hours of daily live coverage from Paris on free-to-air. Apparently with no room for analysis and highlights. This goes along with recently acquiring the broadcasting rights to UEFA EURO 2024 in Germany and the England's Premier League, Germany's Bundesliga, and Italy's Serie A.  Also interesting in that Sports Business article shows a photo of Nigerian men dunking in Tokyo, but that team is not even participating in the upcoming men's OQTs in the summer to qualify for Paris.

The 6 daily hours seems small even for nations like Nigeria and Ghana on the free-to-air side. My speculation is likely SportyTV will focus on and customize towards the Nigeria's and Ghana's athletes in various Olympic sports they participate in and not the whole Pan-African focus. It can promote the Nigerian women's basketball team, for example, assuming they qualify in Antwerp, Belgium this weekend as the African rep well as showing their games. I think 8-10 hours daily seems more justifiable for them in allowing more time in showing not just the marquee events but some more exposure to other sports--with no need for strict time cut offs. Ghana holds the much smaller of the two Olympic contingents. Sure a more comprehensive Sub-Saharan African Summer Olympics presentation will come with pay-TV multichannel SuperSport (and other outlets TBA). But maybe what will happen is SportyTV will eventually announce an expansion in TV hours:   

https://www.sportcal.com/media/sporty-group-secures-fta-paris-2024-rights-in-nigeria-ghana/

Pedro Maia, currently commentating Brazil's women's basketball team's Olympic qualification campaign in Belem, Brazil for SporTV/Globo, could reprise this capacity for Grupo Globo this summer. Even more so should they qualify. He likes their chances:  

https://ge.globo.com/basquete/noticia/2024/02/07/quais-as-chances-de-vaga-olimpica-do-brasil-no-pre-olimpico-feminino-veja-analise.ghtml

[Durban Sandshark]

Too bad for Maia, Globo and for the Brazilian women's basketball fans, the home team playing in Belem couldn't pull it off in the end.

You may remember 16 years ago that several Australian radio stations were part of the national radio consortium providing the Australian radio coverage for the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics. They were part of the Macquarie Network. Notably Sydney's 2GB but with several others in regional cities and in each of the other Australian states. They all broadcasted the Olympics nationally, yet ABC's Olympic Grandstand still concurrently did likewise except for in Sydney, where 2GB held exclusive radio rights. Now Nine has since bought in 2018-2019 and took over the Macquarie Radio Network, including Sydney's 2GB, and closed down the Macquarie Sports Radio Network and rebranded as Nine Radio in 2020.  

With all that in mind, ABC wanted to strike a sub-licensing partnership with Nine Radio, the Australian radio holders of the Paris 2024 broadcasting rights. But Nine rejects ABC's request, making it for the second time since the Helsinki 1952 Summer Olympics that the public broadcaster won't provide live Olympic radio coverage. I still don't know what pitch ABC Radio was presenting to Nine regarding Paris 2024. While Nine's radio apps will allow Paris 2024 Olympic content streaming to Australian listeners, it could still allow that "commercial regional radio stations will be able to simulcast our feed if they wish”. Also I noticed that Adelaide, Canberra, Newcastle, Wollongong, North Queensland, Hobart, and Darwin radio stations aren't part of this even though there's no Nine Radio representation among them there. Adelaide is a major Australian city, but surely those cities will get their opportunities

https://www.mediaweek.com.au/nine-rejects-abc-radio-attempt-to-secure-olympics-sub-licensing-deal/

Kinda just as well because sportscaster Tracey Holmes has already left ABC since November 30 to join Nine's Paris 2024 broadcast that will serve as her 16th Olympics. Her husband, former Q+A host Stan Grant, has already left:

https://tvblackbox.com.au/page/2023/10/30/tracey-holmes-exits-abc-ahead-of-paris-2024-olympics/

Telemundo EVP of sports Eli Velasquez talks to Sports Video Group's Kristian Hernandez at the 2023 SVG Summit in this video reflects on his first year in that new position and building excitement for what's ahead, where at the 4:36-6:15 mark Velasquez speaks on Telemundo/NBC Universo's general Paris 2024 broadcasting plans--for now. He brings some interesting news in there will be more and unprecedented US Spanish Olympic TV coverage than ever before with men's and women's soccer taking center stage (with some priority towards Team USA there on both realms). More hours than ever before with greater mulitplatform access--and, for the first time ever there and my long standing wish for them, the opening ceremonies will be aired live in Spanish. In collaboration with NBC Olympics, there are plans to cater to an emerging and more bilingual and diverse audience with some unique storytelling aside from the traditional method used in US Olympic TV coverage:

https://www.sportsvideo.org/2024/01/04/telemundo-deportes-eli-velazquez-on-first-year-in-new-leadership-role-building-excitement-for-2024-and-beyond/

[Bear]

2 hours ago, Durban Sandshark said:

and, for the first time ever there and my long standing wish for them, the opening ceremonies will be aired live in Spanish. In collaboration with NBC Olympics, there are plans to cater to an emerging and more bilingual and diverse audience with some unique storytelling aside from the traditional method used in US Olympic TV coverage:

YESSS THANK YOU TELEMUNDO

[@SportNow786542]

On 1/24/2024 at 9:13 AM, Durban Sandshark said:

Also indicates that Filipino Paris 2024 TV coverage will come from Cignal TV, PLDT, and TV5. I feel more confident about this given that Cignal TV did show last year's Asian Games.

Well, I've been wondering that as a Pinoy, and on free-to-air TV, while we do have One Sports on UHF 41, we also got RPTV Channel 9, which is a brand-new network that TV5 jointly owns alongside Nine Media Corporation, a company that controls Radio Philippines Network (RPN) through majority share.

[Durban Sandshark]

On 2/27/2024 at 8:27 PM, @SportNow786542 said:

Well, I've been wondering that as a Pinoy, and on free-to-air TV, while we do have One Sports on UHF 41, we also got RPTV Channel 9, which is a brand-new network that TV5 jointly owns alongside Nine Media Corporation, a company that controls Radio Philippines Network (RPN) through majority share.

Like I say in that earlier post I did, take this with a grain of salt until everything is confirmed and official. We'll likely know more from out of the Philippines, say, mid-late spring at the earliest. Surely basketball and volleyball will surely be focal points in Filipino TV coverage. That RPTV Channel 9 is a new development though. 

[@SportNow786542]

16 hours ago, Durban Sandshark said:

Like I say in that earlier post I did, take this with a grain of salt until everything is confirmed and official. We'll likely know more from out of the Philippines, say, mid-late spring at the earliest. Surely basketball and volleyball will surely be focal points in Filipino TV coverage. That RPTV Channel 9 is a new development though. 

Yeah, as I remember how the women's 55kg weightlifting competition (where Hidilyn Diaz won gold) wasn't even beamed live on free-to-air stations like TV5 and One Sports; at the time of her historic victory, TV5 was still in their regular programming, airing the game show "Sing Galing" and the drama series "Ang Probinsyano", while One Sports was covering a Premier Volleyball League (PVL) game. In fact, Diaz’s competition only aired on an exclusive channel that's available only for Cignal TV subscribers.

Sorry for the criticisms here, but despite the Philippines fielding 19 athletes to Tokyo, TV5's way of covering the Olympics was very much poor due to its free-to-air stations prioritizing other entertainment and sports programming during Games time. To Filipinos, this poor handling of coverage leaves the 2020 Tokyo Olympiad itself exclusive only to pay TV consumers.

[Durban Sandshark]

On 3/1/2024 at 5:07 AM, @SportNow786542 said:

Yeah, as I remember how the women's 55kg weightlifting competition (where Hidilyn Diaz won gold) wasn't even beamed live on free-to-air stations like TV5 and One Sports; at the time of her historic victory, TV5 was still in their regular programming, airing the game show "Sing Galing" and the drama series "Ang Probinsyano", while One Sports was covering a Premier Volleyball League (PVL) game. In fact, Diaz’s competition only aired on an exclusive channel that's available only for Cignal TV subscribers.

Sorry for the criticisms here, but despite the Philippines fielding 19 athletes to Tokyo, TV5's way of covering the Olympics was very much poor due to its free-to-air stations prioritizing other entertainment and sports programming during Games time. To Filipinos, this poor handling of coverage leaves the 2020 Tokyo Olympiad itself exclusive only to pay TV consumers.

Now that you mentioned this, it does feel such a shame and a missed opportunity definitely in hindsight that the Filipino free-to-air stations TV5 and One Sports weren't around to help capture live Hidilyn Diaz historic gold medal winning women's 55kg weightlifting win. I get the commitment to cover PVL games and not break away from it from One Sports. TV5's game shows and soaps can be postponed to a later date. Maybe those stations went in expecting there a gold medal for the Philippines wasn't going to happen again--because, of course, you never ever forget your first after all. Did any of them make a mention of this as breaking news? Apparently not. And apparently not a priority to cover Diaz's victory or be abundant in coverage. Makes you wonder how would they immediately head over to Tokyo to present this history-making moment--with the sportscasters ready? Would those two allow a simulcast with Cignal TV to assure a bigger TV audience for this moment? Those who could afford Cignal TV in the Philippines were with it at that moment.

To your second point, to me it does seem related towards how they poorly prioritize their respective Summer Olympics broadcasting coverage; you would expect, at least on the FTA side, that all of the Philippines' 16 Summer Olympians would get some shine. Then again, other events have proven longstanding TV audiences that ensures a nice and consistent viewership. Even in nations like Paraguay and Andorra would set aside broadcast time for their national Olympians whenever they compete in the broadcasters' very limited Olympics broadcasting like SNT and TVA, respectively. It's a lesson hopefully they learned from and will work among their Philippines' Paris 2024 Olympic broadcasting rights holders. I think they should share among themselves, at least on the free-to-air side, this time around when designing the coverage.    

[Durban Sandshark]

Some additional recent info on Telemundo's Paris 2024 coverage plans from Eli Velasquez. Velasquez would like to prioritize Hispanic/Latinx athletes (no surprise) and storytelling them who participate in not just boxing and soccer, but also basketball, cycling, and tennis. So we can expect a variant of those infamous up close and personal profiles. All part of the plan to bring different Hispanic/Latinx generations and audiences together through sports with the younger ones "who were born here are experimenting with new sports, they want to feel that this sport invites them." Man, I wish I would've placed an exclamation point on Telemundo's Opening Ceremonies debut in Spanish. There's a podcast connected to this URL link below. Since I speak only a few words in Spanish, I won't be able to detect additional info from the Velasquez interview with La Previa podcast co-hosts Asli Pelit and Boris Gartner:

https://www.sportico.com/podcasts/la-previa/2024/la-previa-30-2024-olympics-telemundo-deportes-eli-velazquez-1234762204/

BBC Radio 5 Live certainly won't the only outlet for British Olympic radio coverage presentation. TalkSport is getting involved through an exclusive commercial radio deal "to broadcast the Olympics on commercial radio via the company’s wider news broadcasting network including Virgin Radio UK, Times Radio, TalkRadio, and the network’s Irish stations" under a sublicensing agreement deal with Warner Bros. Discovery. Pundit and presenters will provide ample and unlimited content and coverage with commentators to be announced later:

https://mobilemarketingmagazine.com/talksport-paris/

Globo's latest Paris 2024 promo centering on the moment high jumpers, training buddies, and friends Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi and Qatar's Mutarz Essa Barshim agreed to historically and mutually share gold after clearing their final respective heights:

Given the type of schedule the France Televisions channels will have with France 2, France 3, and its upcoming digital channel, one may assume it's complete. But it's not when compared to other Paris 2024 Olympic broadcasters worldwide. Speaking of complete, the Eurosport channels used in France--10 employed here this summer like in Tokyo--will emphasize completeness, "offering everything and showing everything in its entirety", as Eurosport's sports director Geraldine Pons says. But adds the Paralympics are to be absent from them this time "for budgetary reasons":  

https://www.francetvinfo.fr/replay-radio/info-medias/paris-2024-eurosport-souhaite-attirer-un-public-plus-jeune-et-different_6355504.html

ZDF and ARD may rethink plans on heading towards UHD, citing costs, despite sharing EURO 2024 and the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics coverage:

https://www.digitalfernsehen.de/news/technik/video/uhd-4k-em-2024-olympia-ard-zdf-arte-1110526/

[Quaker2001]

 

[Bear]

1 hour ago, Quaker2001 said:

 

that's an... interesting lineup...

there's also more info on NBC's opening ceremony coverage:

https://apnews.com/article/olympics-opening-ceremony-kelly-clarkson-peyton-manning-mike-tirico-ba107edbedbc8ceacb45f11e74a7176f

“Today” show hosts Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb will be stationed together on a bridge along the route. They’re expected to report on the pageantry of the ceremony as the athletes sail by.

The ceremony’s live coverage will air July 26 on NBC and Peacock at noon ET.

looks like we're getting a third straight opening ceremony live

[Quaker2001]

11 minutes ago, Bear said:

that's an... interesting lineup...

there's also more info on NBC's opening ceremony coverage:

https://apnews.com/article/olympics-opening-ceremony-kelly-clarkson-peyton-manning-mike-tirico-ba107edbedbc8ceacb45f11e74a7176f

“Today” show hosts Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb will be stationed together on a bridge along the route. They’re expected to report on the pageantry of the ceremony as the athletes sail by.

The ceremony’s live coverage will air July 26 on NBC and Peacock at noon ET.

looks like we're getting a third straight opening ceremony live

It had been announced that NBC would be show marquee events during the daytime, so it was a given they'd show the Opening Ceremony live.  But that's much earlier of a start than I was expecting.  The new ceremony start time got moved up from 8:24pm local to 7:30pm.  That's 1:30pm back in the US, so there's a full 90 minutes of coverage before the ceremony starts.  Love to see that.  Plus, have to imagine the Today Show that day will be heavy on Olympics coverage, including with Savannah and Hoda probably doing some stuff there.

[Guilga]

14 hours ago, Bear said:

looks like we're getting a third straight opening ceremony live

The fact you in the USA have to celebrate something that you would think is basic stuff that any broadcaster covering the games would have to do... But hey, NBC at least know the primetime hack.

[rio2016man]

16 hours ago, Quaker2001 said:

 

Hopefully this works out better that when CBS trotted out Tim McCarver in 1992 Winter Olympics 

[sebastien1214]

15 hours ago, Bear said:

that's an... interesting lineup...

there's also more info on NBC's opening ceremony coverage:

https://apnews.com/article/olympics-opening-ceremony-kelly-clarkson-peyton-manning-mike-tirico-ba107edbedbc8ceacb45f11e74a7176f

“Today” show hosts Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb will be stationed together on a bridge along the route. They’re expected to report on the pageantry of the ceremony as the athletes sail by.

The ceremony’s live coverage will air July 26 on NBC and Peacock at noon ET.

looks like we're getting a third straight opening ceremony live

It's interesting, it echoes certain discussions that had been had on the thread of the ceremonies.

From what I understand, in the end in fact there will be 5 commentators for NBC during this opening ceremony with the 3 main ones + the two co-hosts of Today who will intervene occasionally.

So it's ruled out having one or two commentators in the Team USA boat? I remember the idea was discussed on the other thread.

And so the main trio of commentators would be at the Trocadéro? It might be a little weird for them since it will just be the place where the ceremony ends; it's a bit like they're going to have to comment on what they see on the television screens for the first two (or three) hours.

[Sir Rols]

16 minutes ago, sebastien1214 said:

And so the main trio of commentators would be at the Trocadéro? It might be a little weird for them since it will just be the place where the ceremony ends; it's a bit like they're going to have to comment on what they see on the television screens for the first two (or three) hours.

It’s how most sports and events commentators work anyway, particularly at the Olympics where they’re mainly commenting on the official OBS feed. They mainly only switch to their own camera feeds when they’re interviewing or getting reaction shots from their home athletes etc.

[Quaker2001]

35 minutes ago, Guilga said:

The fact you in the USA have to celebrate something that you would think is basic stuff that any broadcaster covering the games would have to do... But hey, NBC at least know the primetime hack.

The television business is different in the United States than elsewhere.  Our TV networks don't have government backing.  They run on advertiser revenue and broadcast fees.  Plus there is a network of affiliates which aren't all owned by NBC.  So they need to make decisions that are in the interests of making money rather than doing their best to serve their audience.

38 minutes ago, rio2016man said:

Hopefully this works out better that when CBS trotted out Tim McCarver in 1992 Winter Olympics 

I was thinking about that.  McCarver had never really hosted anything before and didn't have a ton of knowledge or experience outside of being.  Manning has his alt-cast on Monday Night Football.  He's been on SNL.  And sounds like he has a good relationship with Tirico.  So he's much better served for this kind of role which is more of a one off, although who knows where else they'll have him on their coverage

[FYI]

The "primetime hack" made sense for them 30, 20, even 10 years ago. But now, NBC is starting to realize that it doesn't really pay for them to do that anymore, especially with so many streaming viewing options these days or other ways of viewing, that they prefer not lose too much ad revenue, even if the opening starts in the middle of the day here in the U.S. rather than waiting 'til prime-time to actually show it, when many will have already seen it by then anyway.

I'm sure they'll still repeat it on prime-time. though, live they've been doing with the closing for years now (to get those left-over ad-revenue bucks from the ones who couldn't catch the afternoon showing). Plus, the fact that it's in Paris this year, is likely bringing even more anticipation.

[FYI]

14 minutes ago, Quaker2001 said:

The television business is different in the United States than elsewhere.  Our TV networks don't have government backing.  They run on advertiser revenue and broadcast fees. 

This must explain why our TV networks are inundated with ALL those nauseating drug commercials, where many visiting from other countries are all in awe over it, saying in their country those type of ads don't run. I guess New Zealand TV networks must run similarly then, since it's the only other country besides the U.S. that allow prescription drug commercials to air.

[Sir Rols]

12 minutes ago, Quaker2001 said:

he television business is different in the United States than elsewhere.  Our TV networks don't have government backing.  They run on advertiser revenue and broadcast fees.  Plus there is a network of affiliates which aren't all owned by NBC.  So they need to make decisions that are in the interests of making money rather than doing their best to serve their audience

I understand the commercial imperatives of spoonfeeding the coverage for prime time consumption, but I do feel it’s a pity US viewers have largely missed out on the live experience. Part of he magic of watching he games IS in getting up at some god-awful hour to watch a live event on the other side of the world (I’ll be getting up at 3:30am for the Paris OC - yikes!). We still always get prime time replays too, but it isn’t the same by the time the networks have finessed it into a local heroes tribute.

[Quaker2001]

45 minutes ago, sebastien1214 said:

It's interesting, it echoes certain discussions that had been had on the thread of the ceremonies.

From what I understand, in the end in fact there will be 5 commentators for NBC during this opening ceremony with the 3 main ones + the two co-hosts of Today who will intervene occasionally.

So it's ruled out having one or two commentators in the Team USA boat? I remember the idea was discussed on the other thread.

And so the main trio of commentators would be at the Trocadéro? It might be a little weird for them since it will just be the place where the ceremony ends; it's a bit like they're going to have to comment on what they see on the television screens for the first two (or three) hours.

That's correct.. Mike Tirico, Peyton Manning, and Kelly Clarkson will be at Trocadero.  Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb will be on the parade route.  No idea if 1 of them will be on the USA boat.  To @Sir Rols's point.. normally they would be in the stadium, but this isn't unusual for announcers to be calling the action off-site from a monitor.  And considering NBC will likely have a lot of their own cameras, just as well that the announcers are all focused on what's on the monitor since NBC can pick and choose what they're showing

[Quaker2001]

15 minutes ago, FYI said:

The "primetime hack" made sense for them 30, 20, even 10 years ago. But now, NBC is starting to realize that it doesn't really pay for them to do that anymore, especially with so many streaming viewing options these days or other ways of viewing, that they prefer not lose too much ad revenue, even if the opening starts in the middle of the day here in the U.S. rather than waiting 'til prime-time to actually show it, when many will have already seen it by then anyway.

I'm sure they'll still repeat it on prime-time. though, live they've been doing with the closing for years now (to get those left-over ad-revenue bucks from the ones who couldn't catch the afternoon showing). Plus, the fact that it's in Paris this year, is likely bringing even more anticipation.

I've read articles going back as far as 1984 in Sarajevo that a lot of results were known by primetime (of course, famously there was the Miracle on Ice game which was shown on delay and Jim McKay's background shot nearly spoiled the result for the audience), so that's been a complaint going back a long ways.  When Dick Ebersol was in charge of NBC Sports, his contention was that people would gather for primetime Olympic coverage even if it was on tape.  And for the most part he was right as evidenced by strong viewership from London 2012.

These days though, it's a different media landscape.  And NBC has put a lot of money into promoting Peacock, their streaming outlet.  So I had thought it would be business as usual saving the big events for Primetime.  But this is a brand new ballgame.  The daytime show will feature all the big events live, and then the Primetime show will be those events re-packaged.

Like you alluded to.. advertisers drive the conversation.  That's how NBC makes money.  So if this is the direction they're going, it's largely because the dollar signs told them to do so.

3 minutes ago, FYI said:

This must explain why our TV networks are inundated with ALL those nauseating drug commercials, where many visiting from other countries are all in awe over it, saying in their country those type of ads don't run. I guess New Zealand TV networks must run similarly then, since it's the only other country besides the U.S. that allow prescription drug commercials to air.

And this being the Olympics, all day every day for 17 straight days, it's a lot of commercials we're going to see over and over and over again!

[FYI]

3 minutes ago, Sir Rols said:

I understand the commercial imperatives of spoonfeeding the coverage for prime time consumption, but I do feel it’s a pity US viewers have largely missed out on the live experience. Part of he magic of watching he games IS in getting up at some god-awful hour to watch a live event on the other side of the world (I’ll be getting up at 3:30am for the Paris OC - yikes!).

As much as I love the Olympics, I never would've waken up in the middle of the night for the opening anyway. lol I didn't do that for Tokyo 2020ne nor Beijing 2022 when those very, very early in the morning here. I don't relish waking up all grogy to watch a program, even if it is the Olympics, to be that much of an experience anyway. You might fall back asleep & have to watch the replay again later anyway to see what you missed! Good thing Paris 2024 opening will be in the middle of the day here!! 

7 minutes ago, Sir Rols said:

We still always get prime time replays too, but it isn’t the same by the time the networks have finessed it into a local heroes tribute.

And I found it to be the opposite in the past. Kinda like watching a new movie, but someone else has already seen it, but you don't want to hear any details cause you & your friends still wanna see & experience it for yourselves & so it can feel more like an event rather than a "replay".