NBC Olympic broadcasts

====1972 Winter Olympics====
NBC first televised the Winter Olympic Games in 1972. Anchored by Curt Gowdy, much of the coverage actually was broadcast live since alpine skiing and long track speed skating were held in the morning, which corresponded to prime time on the East Coast of the U.S. Although NBC bought the TV rights from the Sapporo Olympics group, they didn't know that they had to make a deal with NHK for broadcast booths at each venue. By the time NBC found out, it was too late. The booths had been built and there were none to spare. Consequently, everyone worked off monitors.
A young sportscaster making his network television debut at Sapporo was a 26-year-old Al Michaels, who did hockey play-by-play during the games. Eight years later, he would call the famous 1980 "Miracle On Ice" at that year's Winter Games in Lake Placid for ABC Sports. Other sportscasters utilized by NBC included Jim Simpson, Jay Randolph, Billy Kidd, Peggy Fleming, Art Devlin, and Terry McDermott.
===2000s===
Olympic coverage in the 2000s changed in several ways:
*NBC became the sole U.S. rights holder for the Olympic Games for the entire decade. The network could rightly boast of being "America's Olympic Network" as it made the longest and most expensive commitment ever since the Olympics were first presented on television. For the 1996 Summer Olympics, and all Games from 2000 to 2008, NBC paid a total of $3.5 billion, mostly to the International Olympic Committee but also to the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee and local organizers. In 2006, NBC paid another $2.2 billion to purchase the rights to the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2012 Summer Olympics but lost $223 million on the 2010 broadcasts. NBC Olympics is the International Olympic Committee's, and by extension the Olympic movement's, highest revenue stream.
*High-definition coverage began in 2004.
*The rise of various media platforms extended the reach and availability of Olympic Games coverage. NBC returned to supplemental cable/satellite coverage in 2000, with some events airing on CNBC and MSNBC; traditionally CNBC has mainly aired coverage of boxing events. In 2004, it added USA Network, Bravo and Telemundo, all of which parent company NBC Universal had acquired earlier in the decade. In 2006, Universal HD was added to the list of channels carrying the Games. Finally, in 2008, events were streamed live for the first time on the Internet through the NBCOlympics.com website (also in 2008, Oxygen replaced Bravo as a supplemental network, and NBC launched high-definition channels dedicated to the basketball and soccer competitions). The 2010 Games added then-digital multicast network Universal Sports, which carried analysis programs about events, while Oxygen and Bravo were completely excluded to maintain their schedules.
During the 2006 Winter Olympics, USA Network aired a daily studio program focusing on the figure skating competitions, Olympic Ice, which was hosted by Mary Carillo and featured appearances by analysts and skaters such as Dick Button (who hosted the viewer e-mail segment "Push Dick's Button"), Jamie Sale and David Pelletier.
Also during the 2006 games, most NBC affiliates introduced Olympic Zone, an access hour program leading into primetime coverage which airs Mondays through Saturdays during the games. Each edition is hosted locally and contains a mixture of network-produced and, if station resources allow, local segments (similar to the PM Magazine format). A version of the program had been piloted by KCRA Sacramento during the 2004 games.
====Comcast acquisition of NBC (2011–2018)====
In 2011, Comcast acquired majority control of NBC's parent company NBC Universal from General Electric (whose remaining interest Comcast later acquired in 2013); on June 6, 2011, NBCUniversal announced that it had acquired the television rights for the 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020 Olympics, beating out ESPN/ABC and Fox. The entire package was worth $4.38 billion, making it the most expensive television rights deal in Olympic history. NBC paid $775 million for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and $1.23 billion for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. NBC also paid $963 million for the rights to the 2018 Winter Olympics (in Pyeongchang, South Korea) and $1.45 billion for the 2020 Summer Olympics (which were to be held in Tokyo, Japan but were later postponed to 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic).
In response to criticism it received during previous Olympics, NBC also announced that beginning in 2012, it planned to broadcast all events live through either television or digital platforms. Additionally, the NBC Sports Network (NBCSN; formerly Versus, which became a part of NBC Sports following the acquisition) also added coverage of the Olympics beginning with the 2012 London Games, with an emphasis on team sports, for the duration of the network's existence. NBCSN became the highlighted cable network for coverage, replacing both USA Network, which would maintain their regular entertainment schedule during the games. The 2012 Summer Olympics also saw Universal HD removed from the company's cable/satellite coverage. Bravo aired supplemental coverage (mainly the tennis tournament) in place of Oxygen, with Universal Sports again solely providing analysis and pay television providers again carrying dedicated HD basketball and soccer networks.
The 2014 Winter Olympics again saw NBCSN as the highlighted cable network, though NBCUniversal's cable networks had additional complications due to NBC's weekend coverage of the Premier League, which usually aired on NBCSN but was instead moved to USA Network due to the Olympics, and some coverage of the games usually seen on CNBC replaced with the first night of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show because of the yearly conflict with USA's WWE Monday Night Raw. A new online-network called "Gold Zone," which features rolling coverage of events in the style of NFL Network's RedZone Channel and ESPN Goal Line (and has been by coincidence hosted by Andrew Siciliano, who also hosts the NFL Sunday Ticket-exclusive version of RedZone for DirecTV), was also launched to provide coverage of the Games, which was retained for 2016's coverage.
In 2016, NBC began to offer 4K content on a delayed basis through participating service providers (particularly DirecTV, Dish Network, and Xfinity), downconverted from 8K footage filmed by NHK and OBS, with HDR and Dolby Atmos support. 86 hours of event footage was offered. NBC affiliate WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina also carried this content via their experimental ATSC 3.0 digital signals.
With the re-introduction of golf to the Olympics, Golf Channel was added to NBC's coverage, with Golf Channel on NBC providing production resources for the two tournaments on behalf of OBS. The primetime block of NBC's coverage in 2016 also featured Descriptive Video Service through the SAP channel for the first time since the Federal Communications Commission was allowed to require broadcasters to expand their production and access to described programming for the blind and visually impaired (though live sporting events were not required under the guidelines, so NBC's effort is entirely voluntary).
On July 15, 2017, Universal HD was relaunched as a localized version of Olympic Channel, airing coverage of Olympic sports outside of the Games.
====Mike Tirico era, emphasis on live coverage (2018–present)====
In February 2017, Bob Costas stepped down as the main host of NBC's coverage, being replaced by former ESPN personality Mike Tirico. On March 28, 2017, NBC announced that it would adopt a new format for its primetime coverage of the 2018 Winter Olympics, with a focus on live coverage in all time zones to take advantage of Pyeongchang's 14-hour difference with U.S. Eastern Time, and to address criticism of its previous tape delay practices. As before, the primetime block began at 8:00 p.m ET/5:00 p.m PT, and unlike previous Olympics, was available for streaming. Event sessions in figure skating were deliberately scheduled with morning sessions so that they could air during primetime in the Americas (and in turn, NBC's coverage; due to the substantial fees NBC has paid for rights to the Olympics, the IOC has allowed NBC to have influence on event scheduling to maximize U.S. television ratings when possible; NBC agreed to a $7.75 billion contract extension on May 7, 2014, to air the Olympics through the 2032 games, is also one of the major sources of revenue for the IOC).
Coverage took a break in the east for late local news, after which coverage continued into "Primetime Plus", which featured additional live coverage into the Eastern late night and Western primetime hours. This was then followed by an encore of the Primetime block. NBCSN also broadcast live primetime blocks, and revived Olympic Ice to serve as a pre-show for figure skating coverage (hosted by Liam McHugh and Tanith White from Pyeongchang), alongside a digital-exclusive post-show hosted by Krista Voda from NBC Sports' headquarters. On February 19, 2018, NBC began airing the Fallon Five, an abbreviated version of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, during the primetime block for the remaining weekdays of the Games.
====2022 Winter Olympics====
The scheduling of the Games impacted the U.S. broadcast rights to the Super Bowl, the championship game of the National Football League (NFL) and historically the most-watched television broadcast in the United States annually. The rights to the game rotate between CBS, Fox, and long-time Olympic broadcaster NBC; to prevent the Games from competing for viewership and advertising sales with Super Bowl LVI—which was scheduled for 13 February 2022 at Los Angeles' SoFi Stadium—CBS and NBC announced in March 2019 that they would swap the rights for Super Bowl LVI and LV (2021), so that both the 2022 Winter Olympics and Super Bowl LVI would be broadcast by NBC. In a break from the established practice of airing premieres or special episodes of television series after the Super Bowl to take advantage of its large audience, NBC aired its prime time coverage for Day 10 of the Games immediately following the game. Furthermore, the NFL's new media rights beginning in 2023 (which extends the Super Bowl rotation to four networks) codifies this scenario, with all of NBC's future Super Bowl games being in Winter Olympic years (2026, 2030, and 2034).
Due to COVID-19 protocol (including China's strict zero-COVID policy), NBC once again sent a smaller contingent of staff to Beijing, and all events were called remotely from its various facilities. Mike Tirico anchored the opening weekend of the Games (including the opening ceremony) from Beijing, but traveled back to the United States on February 8 for logistical reasons, with the remainder of the Games (with exceptions) being anchored from Stamford. After that night's coverage was guest hosted by Craig Melvin and Maria Taylor, Tirico returned the following night. He then traveled to Los Angeles to host NBC's coverage of Super Bowl LVI, and over Super Bowl weekend Tirico anchored the primetime block from an outdoor studio outside SoFi Stadium, before returning to Stamford for the remainder of the Games. All events were streamed live on online platform Peacock.
==Coverage==
===Hours of Coverage===
====Winter Olympic Games====
Year	Host 	Hours of Coverage 	Rights Fee
1972	Sapporo, Japan 	37 	$6,500,000
2002	Salt Lake City, United States	375.5Includes 207 hours on CNBC and MSNBC 	$545,000,000
2006	Torino, Italy 	416Includes 182.5 hours on NBC and 233.5 hours on CNBC, MSNBC and USA	$613,000,000
2010	Vancouver, Canada 	835 	$820,000,000
2014	Sochi, Russia 	1539 	$775,000,000
2018	Pyeongchang, South Korea 	2400 	$963,000,000
2022	Beijing, China 	2800 	
===Networks===
====Winter Olympic Games====
Year	Host 	Network(s)
1972	Sapporo, Japan 	NBC
2002	Salt Lake City, United States	NBC (KSL-TV 5), CNBC, MSNBC
2006	Torino, Italy 	NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, USA Network, Universal HD, Telemundo
2010	Vancouver, Canada 	NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, USA Network, Universal HD, Telemundo
2014	Sochi, Russia 	NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, NBCSN, USA Network, Telemundo, NBCOlympics.com
2018	Pyeongchang, South Korea 	NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, NBCSN, USA Network, Olympic Channel, Telemundo, NBCOlympics.com
2022	Beijing, China 	NBC, Peacock, USA Network, CNBC, NBCOlympics.com, NBC Sports app
Traditionally, NBC has primarily televised marquee sports in its Olympic coverage. When the network added coverage on its cable partners in 2000, it opened space to televise other sports. 2004 marked the first year that they televised all 28 sports in the Summer Games. In 2008, aided with online streaming, NBC aired many of the events held at the Summer Games live.
==Hosts==
===Winter Olympic Games===
Year	Prime-Time Host	Daytime Host(s)	Late-Night Host(s)
1972	Curt Gowdy 	 	
2002	Bob Costas 	 	
2006	Bob Costas 	 	
2010	Bob Costas 	 	
2014	Bob Costas 	 	
2018	Mike Tirico 	 	
2022	Mike Tirico 	 	
Category:Winter Olympics