Airing the Olympics has been a tradition for NBC since the turn of the century. But in recent years a more annoying tradition has come about — airing the event’s Opening Ceremony on tape delay.
With the upcoming Winter Olympics taking place in PyeongChang, South Korea, which is 14 hours ahead of the United States’ eastern standard time, that tradition is expected to continue with this year’s television broadcast. However the network is offering an alternative as the event will be streamed live both on the NBC Sports app and NBCOlympics.com according to Awful Announcing.
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The last time NBC aired an Opening Ceremony live was in 2010, when the Winter Olympics took place in Vancouver. But the network has steered away from it ever since, even in 2016 when the Summer Olympics down in Rio de Janeiro were just one hour ahead of the East Coast.
“More women watch the games than men, and for the women, they’re less interested in the result and more interested in the journey,” John Miller told Awful Announcing. “It’s sort of like the ultimate reality show and mini-series wrapped into one.”
NBC’s Opening Ceremony broadcast has already made headlines once this week when it was reported that Katie Couric will co-host the Opening Ceremony alongside sports commentator Mike Tirico.
Couric, who hosted Today alongside Matt Lauer from 15 years, left the network in 2006 to take up a role on CBS News. She’s been in the news lately commenting on the Matt Lauer sexual assault scandal.
Awful Announcing also reports that NBC is unsure if an interview with President Donald Trump will take place during the Olympics, stating that the network has reached out to White House officials, but has received no response.
The 2018 Winter Olympics’ Opening Ceremony will take place live at 6 a.m. EST on Feb. 9
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