Saturday marked the launch of NBC Sports’ latest endeavor, the Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA in partnership with the IOC and the USOC. The linear TV network will offer fans year-round programming of Olympic sports from around the world, with a spotlight on top American athletes and teams and a programming lineup that will emphasize live events from a portfolio of summer and winter Olympic Sports, as well as original series and archival footage from the IOC and NBCU’s libraries of Olympic features and documentaries.
Cynopsis Sports spoke with Gary Zenkel, President, NBC Olympics and Business, NBC Sports Group about the launch, expectations and who benefits from the network.
Zenkel on the launch of Olympic Channel: We knew we would achieve the IOC and USOC’s objectives in the United States by utilizing our platforms and our strength in production, marketing and distribution. Subsequently, we received terrific reception as we prepared to launch and will be launching into 25 million homes. We have agreements with virtually every one of the MVPDs. There are a couple we don’t have agreements with yet, but we are quite confident they will join us in the coming months. Overall, the distribution community has embraced widely embraced this channel and interestingly at a time when launching a linear cable channel is not necessarily something one would be encouraged to do.
On opportunities for sponsors: Among Olympic sponsors, we’ve had great interest and great feedback from initial discussions with them on this opportunity. We, of course, are in the middle of a sales cycle with the PyeongChang Olympics approaching in February so some sponsors you will see immediately on the channel this month while others will emerge over time as we get closer to the games and beyond. But we are confident the Olympic sponsor community will embrace this opportunity as a chance to broaden their activation and the message that will deliver in and around an Olympic onto these platforms and in connection with this content. That’s something they haven’t been given historically.
On how it helps NBC Olympics: At the end of the day, there are several reasons why the world gathers around the Olympics. For the US audience, it’s a tradition that is simply embedded in our culture. But there are clearly other factors and one big one is a connection to these incredible athletes who also happen to be incredibly relatable. By having this distribution system in our linear channels as well as content to deliver digitally, it is giving us the ability to continue on the backside of an Olympics to tell those stories, which our audience has so readily embraced throughout the course of history. In addition to that the IOC – as part of this partnership – is investing significantly in the creation of original content designed around telling these stories and revisiting the great rivalries and more, and we will have the ability to access all of that content.
On the sports that will benefit from the network: Sports that are conducting a lot of international events, volleyball for one, beach volleyball, the World Cup ski tour, etc. will also benefit. We look forward to showcasing most of those events. We just acquired rights to the archery world championship, which is something that we haven’t had before. So there are some sports where we haven’t necessarily had the room for, that we can now feature.
