The Opening Ceremony for the Tokyo Olympics has commenced, bringing an unprecedented broadcast challenge for NBC. Andrew Marchand spoke with NBC Sports Olympics Executive producer Molly Shannon about their strategy for a Games that will largely be fanless.
“We really believe the Tokyo Olympics will be the most meaningful Olympics in our lifetime,” Solomon said.
A year of extra preparation and firsthand knowledge of what a strong fanless broadcast looks like gives Shannon and her team confidence heading into the multi-week event. NBC is swapping wide crowd shots for more intimate conversations that Olympic fans have never had access to.
“We believe there’s an opportunity to bring viewers closer to the action than ever,” Solomon said. “And it’s sports like swimming, gymnastics, track, basketball, beach volleyball. You’re going to hear the sounds of games like you’ve never heard them before — from the thrashing and splashing in the pool to these intimate conversations between competitors and coaches.”
Sports like football and baseball had crowd noise artificially pumped into the stadium or the broadcast feed over the past year, but Shannon noted the swath of events is too large for tailor-made audio overlay. Although, some venues will be playing crowd noise on their own to build a more normal feel into the events for athletes.
NBC has a massive broadcast package to offer its viewers, including 17 consecutive nights and 250 hours on broadcast TV, 1,300-plus hours on cable, 5,500 hours on digital, 300-plus on Telemundo. Also, Peacock is airing a plethora of live gymnastics, track, and USA Basketball events.
Marchand confirmed that more feature storytelling is coming to tell the athlete’s tales. NBC has worked in part with other global broadcasters to gather as much information as possible on the athletes. Adapting to circumstance has been the name of the game in sports media over the past year, that’s not changing as the Olympics begin in the Land Of The Rising Sun.
