NBC announces ‘record’ Olympics digital coverage
July 13, 2016
A record 4,500 streaming hours, including live streaming of all competition; TV simulstream coverage of nine television networks; and first-time streaming to connected TVs highlight NBC Olympics’ digital offering for the Games of the XXXI Olympiad from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this August. In addition, Olympic fans will be able to access two apps, two digital-only programmes, and an active news desk that will regularly stream Olympic updates throughout each day.
“Our digital offering for Rio marries NBC Olympics’ renowned storytelling and live-event coverage with today’s advanced technology to deliver more content across more platforms than ever before,” said Rick Cordella, SVP and General Manager, Digital Media, NBC Sports Group. “Whether you’re a core fan of one of the 35 Olympic sports or just want to watch Team USA, we’ll deliver the best digital viewing experiences on your TV, at your desk, or on the go. Our goal is to provide ready access to every second of every event through our digital platforms.”
NBC Olympics’ digital coverage of the 2016 Rio Olympics includes:
STREAMING
NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app, which are powered by NBC Sports’ Playmaker Media, will deliver 4,500 hours of live-event and TV simulstream coverage for the Rio Olympics — including all competition sessions across all 34 sports — for authenticated pay TV subscribers via TV Everywhere. The streaming coverage will be available on desktops, mobile devices, and tablets, plus connected TVs for the first time. NBC Olympics streamed 3,500 hours of coverage for the 2012 London Olympics, which was the first time that all competition was streamed live.
For the first time, NBC Olympics will stream the coverage of all nine NBCUniversal Olympic networks — broadcast networks NBC and TELEMUNDO (Spanish language); cable channels Bravo, CNBC, Golf Channel, MSNBC, NBC Sports Network (NBCSN), NBC UNIVERSO (Spanish language), and USA Network. Each network’s TV coverage will also include athlete features, segments on the host city and country, and interviews with newsmakers and medal-winning athletes.
If a competition event is not televised by one of the nine networks, every second of competition will once again be streamed online through NBC Olympics’ utilization of the feeds provided by the host broadcaster, Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS). Many of the feeds will include both English- and Spanish-language commentary.
Concurrent streams will be offered for sports contested on multiple fields of play, such as all apparatuses for Gymnastics, all field events for Track & Field, and up to five courts for Tennis.
The NBC Sports app is available on the iTunes App Store, Google Play, Windows Store, Roku Channel Store, Apple TV and Amazon Fire.
Additional Olympic streaming elements include:
- Temporary Pass
- Users will be able to stream 30 minutes of coverage prior to authentication on their first visit, and 5 minutes each subsequent day.
- Connected TVs
- Rio will be the first Games in which streaming coverage will be available for connected TVs. All Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, and Win10 authenticated pay TV customers will be able to watch NBC Olympics’ 4,500 hours of streaming coverage on the NBC Sports app via TV Everywhere. More connected TV platforms will be announced closer to the start of the Games.
- NBC
- For the first time, the NBC broadcast network content will be streamed, including the primetime show.
- VoD
- In addition to live streaming, NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app will offer extensive video-on-demand coverage, including athlete profiles and features, full-event replays and short-form highlights.
- Video Overlays
- Providing a more robust viewing experience, all OBS streams will be integrated with auto-synchronized data overlays for desktops, mobile devices, and tablets.
- Spanish Language
- Most English-language live streams from the OBS feed will have a user option that will enable viewers to listen to the action in Spanish.
- Closed Captioning
- For the first time, all live streaming that includes commentary, as well as short-form and long-form VOD, will be closed captioned in English.
NBC OLYMPICS: RIO NEWS & RESULTS APP
As a complement to the live streaming available on the NBC Sports app, the NBC Olympics: Rio News & Results app will provide the latest Olympic news and results, extensive video highlights, TV listings, medal standings, dedicated sections for all 34 sports on the Rio program, Team USA and international athlete bios, and more.
In addition, through the ‘Primetime Companion’ feature, the app will serve as the signature second-screen tool for NBC’s nightly primetime coverage.
The NBC Olympics: Rio News & Results app is available on iOS and Android.
EXCLUSIVE DIGITAL PROGRAMMING
NBC Olympics will produce two digital-only programmes, a social-focused video franchise, and a news desk that provides regular updates during the Games for NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app.
Gold Zone, which returns for its third Olympics, will again deliver the ultimate lean-back experience. Hosts Andrew Siciliano, host of NFL Red Zone, and Tanith White, a 2006 Olympic silver medallist in Ice Dancing, will guide viewers to the best live action happening at a given moment, from a US judoka fighting for gold to an overtime thriller in basketball, and all venues in between.
Daily Dismount, a new Olympic digital programme, will provide live post-event coverage coming out of each day’s gymnastics competition. The studio show will be hosted by Tanith White, with two-time Beijing Olympic medallist Jonathan Horton and two-time Athens Olympic medallist Courtney Kupets providing insight and analysis.
Ever Wonder, NBC Sports Digital’s popular social-focused, short-form video series, will examine the curiosities of the Olympic Games. NBC Olympics will produce 30+ videos asking questions such as, “Ever Wonder why athletes bite their medals?” or “Why are the Olympic Field Hockey fields blue?”
Julie Donaldson and Jenna Corrado will host a digital news desk that will regularly stream Rio Olympic update segments throughout the day. The segments will feature the most up-to-date news and highlights from that day’s events in Rio.
NBCOLYMPICS.COM
In addition to the record number of streaming hours, users visiting NBCOlympics.com can follow their favourite athlete, learn about a new sport, keep up with medal counts, and find detailed television listings, all at their fingertips.
NBCOlympics.com will be the online Olympic hub for all news and results, detailed television and competition schedules, medal counts, dedicated sections on each of the 34 Olympic summer sports, and Team USA and international athlete bios, including original video profiles of select athletes. The site will also feature stories from NBCSports.com’s Olympic Talk blog.
NBCOlympics.com will be auto-localised by market, providing links to NBC affiliated stations that will allow easy access to locally-focused coverage in each user’s respective market.
GOLD MAP
In partnership with the United States Olympic Committee and the summer sport national governing bodies in the United States, NBC Olympics has launched the second-edition of Gold Map for the Rio Olympics.
Designed prior to the Sochi Winter Games to promote grassroots youth involvement in Olympic and Paralympic sport, Gold Map will once again be integrated into NBC Olympics’ multi-platform coverage of the Olympics.
During its broadcast and cable coverage from Rio, NBC Olympics will integrate a series of short promotional features driving viewers to a special section of NBCOlympics.com, NBCOlympics.com/GoldMap, which will host an overview video and provide links to the various US summer sport national governing bodies.
Users will be encouraged to select the sport or sports that have piqued their interest, and the NGB websites, in turn, will provide further information about how children can get involved in their sports, such as contact information on the nearest opportunities for coaching and training.
VIRTUAL REALITY
As previously announced, NBC Olympics will provide Virtual Reality (VR) coverage of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games exclusively to authenticated users of compatible Samsung Galaxy smartphones together with Samsung Gear VR via the NBC Sports app, marking the first time Olympics programming will be available in VR.
PLAYMAKER MEDIA
In May, NBC Sports Digital launched a new technology service, Playmaker Media, to provide end-to-end support for companies in need of best-in-class live streaming and VOD solutions.
All NBC Olympics streaming is powered by Playmaker.
Playmaker Media utilises the experience and expertise that NBC Sports Digital has developed in its 10-plus years of live streaming some of the most-high profile events in sports, such as the Summer and Winter Olympics, the Super Bowl, Sunday Night Football – primetime television’s No. 1 show – the Stanley Cup Final, the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, the Premier League, Notre Dame Football, the Triple Crown, and many more major events.
NBC Sports Digital, a division of NBC Sports Group, was the first company to stream an Olympic event (2006), an NFL game (2008), and a Super Bowl (2012), among many other firsts. It hosts thousands of on-demand video clips, and will live stream more than 15,000 events this year that air across NBC, NBCSN, Golf Channel, Telemundo, NBCUniverso and six NBC Sports Regional Networks.
Playmaker is partnering with industry-leading technology companies Adobe, Akamai, Microsoft, iStreamPlanet, and Comcast Wholesale.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) signed on as Playmaker Media’s first client, with Playmaker to provide live streaming video support for the IOC’s Olympic Channel, a global digital initiative which is expected to launch later this year.
Playmaker will also provide live streaming video support for NBC News’ coverage of the 2016 presidential election. More clients are expected to be announced soon.