NBC Sports prepares for Winter Olympics
STAMFORD — This month, millions of viewers will watch the action on the slopes and rinks in northeast China. They could not do so without the work of a team based nearly 7,000 miles away.
The Olympics represent Stamford-headquartered NBC Sports’ most-watched and most-demanding production. From the Beijing Winter Olympics’ opening ceremony Friday until the Games’ end on Feb. 20, a contingent of more than 1,500 people based at the Stamford complex will aim to seamlessly deliver thousands of hours of coverage for a global audience. The disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic and political controversy involving the Games’ host country have heightened the already-intense pressure, but members of the Connecticut-based team said they are ready for the challenge.
“There is a tremendous sense of pride and teamwork working on the Olympics between the groups in Beijing and Stamford as well as throughout multiple locations within (parent organizations) NBCUniversal and Comcast across the country,” Tim Canary, NBC Sports’ vice president of engineering, said in an email.
“We also have many great partnerships with many businesses in Stamford and the surrounding areas, as well as productive collaboration with many industry vendors, technicians, producers and former Olympic athletes that we work with. It’s a massive effort both editorially and technically, matched with incredible and often historical moments that I, for one, am honored to be part of.”
As a sign of the pandemic’s disruption, NBC Sports recently announced that it would not send any sport-specific announcing teams to cover the Beijing Games because of COVID-19 concerns. In response to the omicron-fueled resurgence of the virus, only “selected” spectators will be allowed to attend the Olympics.
The announcing teams for sports such as figure skating, alpine skiing and snowboarding will instead work from the Stamford headquarters. Similarly, during the Summer Olympics last year in Tokyo, many announcers worked at the home base at 1 Blachley Road, on the city’s East Side off Interstate 95.
“We’ve learned a lot from a rich history of large-scale remote production — starting with the 1996 Games in Atlanta through the Tokyo Olympics this past summer — that will make our operation even more efficient for the 2022 Winter Games,” Canary said. “The spirit of the Games will persevere, and none of the changes will affect the competition nor will it affect our coverage.”
While Beijing is 13 hours ahead of the U.S. eastern time zone, the Stamford team has become accustomed to dealing with large time-zone differences after remotely covering the Tokyo Games and the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
“The time-zone differences always present an adjustment period for the team, but once your internal clock switches, the days do become normal given that this is the third consecutive Asia-based Games,” Canary said. “We’ve become adept at managing the transition with a 24/7 crew across both continents and adjusting our schedules to fit the competition schedule in Beijing.”
A number of experts said they were confident in NBC Sports’ ability to produce quality content for its marquee event. In 2014, NBCUniversal paid $7.75 billion to secure broadcast rights for the Olympics through 2032.
“The days of sports announcers sitting courtside are not gone completely. But remote production is here to stay, and, for good reason, will continue to be prevalent in the industry,” said Josh Shuart, director of sports management at Sacred Heart University’s Jack Welch College of Business & Technology.
“Certainly, NBC and other broadcast outlets know how to pull off superb live events. Prominent social media creators and e-sports casters are two prime examples that demonstrate that you can still produce top-grade content with minimal equipment and your talent operating from anywhere in the world.”
NBC Sports will broadcast the Games amid the pandemic and a particularly fraught period in U.SChina relations. The White House announced in December a diplomatic boycott of the Games to protest human-rights abuses in China.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said U.S. athletes would compete and “have our full support,” but “we will not be contributing to the fanfare of the Games.”
“U.S. diplomatic or official representation would treat these Games as business as usual in the face of the (People’s Republic of China) egregious human-rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang, and we simply can’t do that,” Psaki added. “We have a fundamental commitment to promoting human rights. And we feel strongly in our position, and we will continue to take actions to advance human rights in China and beyond.”
NBC Sports officials have said their counterparts in the NBC News division are reporting on the political issues involving the host country, while they are focusing on the athletes.