Delay of the Games
Olympics’ postponement shows virus’ impact on NBC Sports
STAMFORD — Postponing the summer Olympics in Tokyo has created a gaping program hole for NBC Sports Group to fill in late July and early August.
And it has already been grappling with a similar challenge for the past month because of the novel coronavirus.
The rescheduling of the Olympics shows off the pandemic’s massive disruption on professional and amateur sports across the world, as government-ordered restrictions aimed at reducing coronavirus’ spread have unleashed a wave of cancellations and delays.
With the crisis increasingly likely to rule out many sports from returning to action for at least several months, Stamford-based NBC Sports is adapting its
TV and digital platforms to the unprecedented situation by leaning heavily on its archives of content from previous years.
“Filling the sports hole has proven to be a big challenge for all rights holders,” said Josh Shuart, director of
sports management at Sacred Heart University’s Jack Welch College of Business & Technology. “The demand for rebroadcast of older ‘classic’ games is nowhere near that of live content. So, everyone is scrambling to fill their time slots.”
Moving to 2021
The International Olympic Committee’s announcement last week that it will delay the games came as no surprise. A growing number of national Olympic committees and other athletic groups such as World Athletics had lobbied for the games to be rescheduled.
The Tokyo games will now be held from July 23 to Aug. 8, 2021. The World War II era — which saw the cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 games — marked the last time that an Olympiad did not go ahead as originally planned.
NBC Sports will now have to replace thousands of hours of Olympic content this summer, while parent company NBCUniversal will lose a premier promotional showcase for its fall shows and its new Peacock streaming service. But it still supported the IOC’s decision.
“Given the unprecedented obligation we all face to contain COVID-19 globally, we fully understand the decision made by the IOC, Japanese government and the health organizations they are working with to postpone the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics until 2021,” NBC Sports said in a statement. “We have no doubt that the IOC and Tokyo Organizing Committee will put on an exceptional games next year and that the Olympic flame will once again unite the world and provide a light at the end of this tunnel.”
NBCUniversal, which has received more than $1 billion in advertising commitments for the games, is working with advertising partners and is “exploring all options to best serve their brands and our consumers this year and into 2021.”
While the postponement will entail renegotiating contracts to move ad dollars to 2021, such challenges are “certainly something the network can manage given their experience in the marketplace and tenure broadcasting the Olympics,” said Nick Griffith, senior vice president of marketing at Stamford-based marketing and talent-management agency Octagon.
Griffith also said he did not expect fan interest in the games to diminish in the next year.
“In 2020, the games would have served as an oasis following this turbulent time in the country and world, not to mention during a contentious election year, as it would have been positioned between two political conventions,” he said. “However, it’s possible interest could be higher in 2021, as fans will continue to crave the inspiring stories the Olympics deliver.
NBCUniversal owns the U.S. media rights on all platforms to all Olympics through 2032.
As a division of NBC Sports, NBC Olympics has produced every summer games since 1998 and every winter games since 2002.
New strategy
In the meantime, NBC Sports has already turned to replays of games, races and meets; highlights-focused programs; documentaries; and talk shows to supply the programming on its NBCSN cable channel and digital platforms.
To help maintain its viewership, NBC Sports announced last week that it would offer during the next few weeks nine free passes through its subscription-based NBC Sports Gold streaming service.
The complimentary programming covers sports and competitions, including cycling, England Premier League soccer, Indycar, Nascar, PGA golf, Premier Lacrosse League, Pro Motocross, skiing, snowboarding and track and field.
At NBC Sports’ headquarters at 1 Blachley Road, on Stamford’s East Side, the company has responded to coronavirus’ spread by directing its 800 local employees to work remotely. Some “essential” production personnel continue to work on site.
A NBC Sports spokesman declined to comment Tuesday on whether the broadcaster had made or might make any layoffs or furloughs.
In a move apparently aimed at helping laid-off or inactive staff, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell announced March 26 that the company had committed more than $150 million across its film, television and parks businesses to support employees and other workers.
“We are working to resume these activities as soon as possible, but of course not until it is safe to do so,” Shell said in a letter to employees. “In the meantime, we recognize that a sudden halt to production creates a significant financial hardship for many.”
In the letter, Shell confirmed that he had contracted COVID-19. He said that he had been “feeling under the weather” and that the virus was “tough to cope with,” but that he was working remotely in Los Angeles and improving every day.
NBC News audio technician Larry Edgeworth, 61, died March 19 after testing positive for the novel coronavirus.