NBC set to broadcast Olympics live in all time zones

When the Winter Olympics are held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018, NBC will be broadcasting the Games live across all time zones for the first time, the network announced this week.

The move addresses the ever-increasing number of people who have instant access to results and events through social media and Internet streams, including NBC’s own live coverage online.

“That means social media won’t be ahead of the action in any time zone and, as a result, none of our viewers will have to wait for anything,” Jim Bell, president for NBC Olympics production and programming, said in a statement. “This is exciting news for the audience, the advertisers and our affiliates alike.”

On most nights, in addition to morning and afternoon coverage, prime-time broadcasting will still begin at 8 p.m. Eastern. That coverage will be followed, coast to coast, by local news and a variant of the broadcast the network will call “Prime Time Plus” — a nod to the West Coast audience.

With many major events taking place in the morning on the East Coast, which is 13 hours behind Pyeongchang, sports such as figure skating and snowboarding will air in prime time.

NBC’s delayed broadcasts during past Games were the subject of some criticism as digital audiences grew. Previously, viewers in the Pacific and Mountain time zones would receive events on a twoor three-hour delay so that they fell within each region’s prime-time slot.

Viewership figures, however, highlighted the shrinking interest in the television broadcast of the Olympics. For the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, TV audience figures averaged 25.4 million over 17 nights, a decrease of 18 per cent from the 2012 London Games. Online viewership, the network said at the time, increased 29 per cent for the Rio Games compared with 2012.