NBC will broadcast the 2018 Winter Olympics live across all US time zones for the first time, the TV network has announced.
The network’s move to coast-to-coast live coverage is an acknowledgement that in the age of social media and other online platforms, holding back results and highlights no longer makes sense.
Jim Bell, president of NBC Olympics production and programming, said: ‘Nothing brings America together for two weeks like the Olympics, and that communal experience will now be shared across the country at the same time both on television and streaming online.
‘That means social media won’t be ahead of the action in any time zone, and as a result, none of our viewers will have to wait for anything.’
Mr Bell said there was a chance NBC could also have live coast-to-coast coverage of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
NBC paid $4.3 billion for the broadcasting rights to the Olympics from 2014 to 2020.
But the longtime Games broadcaster’s insistence on sticking to primetime schedules that delayed its broadcasts in Pacific and Mountain time zones annoyed sports fans in those regions, who instead turned to NBC’s online streaming of the Games.
NBC’s coverage of the 2016 Rio Games averaged 25.4 million viewers over 17 nights last summer – down 18 percent from the 2012 Olympics in London.
The TV network announced last month that Mike Tirico will serve as the host of the primetime program for NBC’s coverage of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, taking over for Bob Costas, who had served in the role for NBC since 1992.
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