The shine is very much off NBC’s multi-billion dollar deal with the IOC as the network looks to rebound after a disappointing Winter Olympics. The network has warned all along that viewership would be down, but a column from the AP highlights concerns that Beijing 2022 may have permanently tarnished the games for American audiences.
NBC is not looking to renegotiate or void its deal, which runs through 2032 according to David Bauder and Joe Reedy. In fact, NBC Sports boss Pete Bevacqua has been upfront about the fact that NBC was expecting lower ratings for the 2022 Games. Still, he acknowledged that the network has work to do to bring back the huge audiences it once enjoyed for the Olympics.
“I think we in many ways have to work internally with the IOC with the USOPC to rejuvenate the Games coming out of Tokyo and Beijing in preparation for Paris, Italy and LA. That is going to be a strategic priority of ours,” Bevacqua said.
An unnamed source close to the Olympics and the television business told Bauder and Reed that “this feels like a particularly vulnerable moment” for NBC. The network is coming off of back-to-back games based in Asia, which means the majority of American audiences were seeing events on television long after the results were known. Add to that personal distaste for the the Chinese government and NBC was in a virtual no-win situation.
Mike Tirico, who anchored the 2022 Winter Olympics for NBC, said that what transpired during the games themselves may have had an even bigger effect. He pointed to Kamila Valieva, the Russian figure skater who was allowed to compete on Thursday even after failing a drug test.
Tirico said on air that the reaction to Valieva and the image of her on the ice Thursday looking so vulnerable and afraid before her routine was “even more damaging to the [Olympic] product.”
NBC executives are certainly happy to see the next two Olympics shift to Europe. The 2024 Summer Games will be in Paris and the 2026 Winter Games in Italy. That doesn’t alleviate the time difference entirely though.
For that, NBC will have to wait until 2028 when the Summer Games go to Los Angeles. Executives will then keep their fingers crossed that the IOC calls out either Salt Lake City or Vancouver when it selects a host for the 2030 Winter Games. That could happen as soon as this summer.
