July 2016

THE SUMMER OLYMPICS FROM RIO PREVIEW

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Over 17 days in August people all of the world and in the United States will be

following the Summer Olympics from Rio de Janiero. In the U.S. over 200 million

viewers have tuned in to watch each of the past three Summer Olympics. NBCUniversal

will be providing a record 6,500+ hours of Olympic coverage (many of them live),

across various screens and platforms. With more innovations being introduced, these

games are positioned to be the most watched event in U.S. history.

The quadrennial Summer Olympics is the world’s most popular global sporting event.

Beginning with Opening Ceremonies on August 5 and lasting through August 21, the

“youth of the world” will congregate and compete in the Games of the XXXI Olympiad.

These 2016 Summer Games will held in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, a seaside resort of 6.5

million people. It is the first time the Olympic Games will be held in a South American

nation. Brazil was the host country of the 2014 Men’s World Cup soccer tournament,

considered, by many, the second most popular global sporting event. This marks the

first time since the 1996 Atlanta Games that the Summer Olympics will be held in the

Western Hemisphere. Rio is one hour “ahead” of New York and four hours “ahead” of Los

Angeles. Hence, unlike the 2012 London Games, many premiere sporting events will be

seen live and in prime time.

THE SUMMER OLYMPICS FROM RIO PREVIEW

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The 2012 London Games: According to the London Olympics Global Broadcast Report

from Sponsorship Intelligence, an estimated 3.6 billion people around the world tuned

into at least one minute of television of the 2012 Summer Games, reaching 76% of the

potential global television audience. In the United States, Nielsen reported that over the

course of 17 days, 217 million viewers had tuned into watch some portion (six minutes or

more) of the London Games, accounting for over 70% of the potential audience. Despite

this era of multiple-screens and audience fragmentation, the 2012 London Games

surpassed the 2008 Beijing Games (215 million viewers) as the most watched event in

U.S. television history.

NBC’s Coverage: NBCUniversal will be the exclusive U.S. home of the Summer Olympics

as it has since 1988. In an agreement with the International Olympic Committee (IOC),

NBCUniversal has acquired exclusive U.S. rights to both the Summer and Winter

Olympics through 2032. For 2016 NBCUniversal’s television and digital networks will

show a record high 6,755 hours of Olympic coverage, the equivalent of more than

280 days of coverage (that’s more than nine months). This is more than 1,200 hours

of coverage than the London Olympics and nearly double the amount from the 2008

Beijing Olympics. The NBC broadcast network will provide 260+ hours of coverage, the

NBCUniversal cable networks will televise 2,084 hours of coverage, with the remaining

4,500 hours being streamed live on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC sports app.

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Source Nielsen Persons 2+ (watched at least six minutes)

London 2012

220217

215

203

185

209

Total Audience Past 7 Summer Olympics(in millions)

192

210

200

190

180

170

160

Beijing 2008 Athens 2004 Sydney 2000 Atlanta 1996 Barcelona 1992 Seoul 1988

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Olympic Cable Coverage: NBCUniversal plans Olympic coverage on nine cable networks

including two specialty channels. During the 2012 London games Nielsen reported that

82.4 million viewers watched Olympic coverage on four networks (CNBC, MSNBC, Bravo

and NBCSN). Below is a breakdown of coverage by individual cable network.

NBCSN: Will have 330 hours of coverage more than any other television network (cable

or broadcast). On most days NBCSN will have 16 hours of coverage. NBCSN will cover

over 20 sports including Team USA for women’s soccer and Team USA for both men’s

and women’s basketball. Other sports airing on NBCSN include track & field, archery,

boxing, cycling, fencing, field hockey, judo, open water swimming, rugby, shooting, soccer,

synchronized swimming, table tennis, weightlifting and wrestling.

Golf Channel: Will have 115 hours of tournament coverage as the sport is re-instated

as an Olympic event. Golf Channel coverage will also include recaps, in-depth analysis

and previews.

Bravo: Will have 94½ hours of coverage and, as it has in the past, Bravo will be the home

of Olympic tennis.

CNBC: Will have 42 hours of coverage on weekends and weekdays after the stock market

closes. Sports covered include basketball, volleyball, archery, beach volleyball, cycling,

rugby, water polo and wrestling.

Source: NBC includes television and digital networksExcludes 1,080 hours of “Triplecast” coverage in 1992

London 2012Rio de Janiero 2016

8,000

7,000

6,000

5,000

4,000

3,000

2,000

1,000

6,755

5,535

3,600

1,210

441.5 171 161 179.5

Number of Hours of Coverage Summer Olympics 1988-2016

0

Beijing 2008 Athens 2004 Sydney 2000 Atlanta 1996 Barcelona 1992 Seoul 1988

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MSNBC: Will have 78½ hours of coverage including men’s basketball, beach volleyball,

rugby, soccer, volleyball and water polo.

USA: Will have 110½ hours of coverage. Sports include men’s basketball, beach volleyball,

cycling, rowing, synchronized swimming, volleyball and water polo.

NBC Universo: Along with broadcaster Telemundo, the Spanish language cable network,

will focus on athletes from Latin America and Hispanics. Included in its coverage will

be Mexico’s soccer team which won the gold medal in London. The two networks will

combine for 273½ hours of coverage.

Specialty Cable Networks: Once again, NBCUniversal will have two Olympic channels

dedicated to basketball and soccer. These two temporary networks will combine for 779

hours of coverage.

New Video Technology: As with previous Olympiads, the coverage of the games will be

available on other platforms with new opportunities to view events. The 2016 Rio games

will be no different. NBCUniversal announced it will include 4K (or Ultra HD) coverage of

the Rio Olympics available to cable, satellite and telco providers. In total there will be 83

hours of 4K coverage available on a one day delay. 4K provides roughly four times greater

the picture resolution than a high-def television set. IHS estimates that 10% of U.S. homes

currently have a 4K set with penetration reaching 34% by 2019. In addition, NBCUniversal

Olympic coverage will include high dynamic range (HDR) which provides wider and richer

colors and Dolby Atmos for a more immersive sound experience.

In an Olympic first, NBC announced it would broadcast 85 hours of the Rio Olympics in

360-degree virtual reality to Samsung smartphone owners with compatible Samsung Gear

VR headsets. Samsung is a long time global Olympic sponsor. According to Fortune, the

Olympic Broadcasting Services, the broadcasting arm of the IOC will film the games in

360 degrees and send it to NBCUniversal.

In another first, NBCUniversal also announced that all streaming 4,500 hours of

coverage will be available via connected TV’s including Amazon Fire, Apple TV,

Chromecast, Roku and Win10 for all authenticated pay TV users using the NBC app. In

addition, NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app will provide extensive video on

demand (VOD) coverage including athlete profiles, features, short-form highlights and

event replays.

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The Events: For the 2016 Rio games there will be a record number of nations (207), with

over 10,500 athletes expected to participate in 306 events and 28 sports. As is custom

with the Olympics there will be new events added in 2016. The biggest addition was the

decision by the IOC to include men’s and women’s golf after a hiatus of 112 years (it had

been an event previously in 1900 and 1904). The IOC also added Rugby Sevens as an

event. This seven member sport lasts only 15 minutes, and the U.S. (which is a favorite

to medal) will field both men and women’s teams. Rugby was a 15-team sport when last

played in the Olympics in 1924 (won by the U.S.)

Advertisers: Since the Olympics is a major television event that provides family

entertainment (and in Brazil it will be live), it has been popular with many blue-chip

advertisers across a wide variety of product categories including; automotive, financial,

insurance, telecommunications, consumer electronic products, packaged goods,

beverages, quick service restaurants and even political ads to name a few. Olympic

advertisers will be reaching engaged viewers: Twitter said the 2012 London Olympics led

to 150 million tweets, more than the U.S. elections and Super Bowl combined.

The Competition: For two and a half weeks every four years, billions of people from

around the world will be tuned to the Summer Olympics. They will watching many

returning gold medal winning favorites such as sprinter Usain Bolt, swimmer Michael

Phelps, beach volleyball player Kerri Walsh Jennings and gymnast Gabby Douglas as

well as new Olympic heroes sprinkled with human interest stories. Team USA which has

garnered the most medals over each of the past five Summer Olympics will be expected

to field another competitive squad.

In Conclusion: NBCUniversal has always used the Olympics as a test bed for technological

innovation and then monitoring consumer adoption. For example, NBCUniversal first

streamed live the ice hockey gold medal game in the 2006 Winter Games from Torino, by

the 2012 London Games, every event was streamed live, providing a reported 20.4 million

hours of streaming video consumption. The 2016 games will be no different, not only will

NBCUniversal provide a record number of hours in covering the Olympics it continues to

innovate with the use of 4K TV and virtual reality for the first time.

Over the course of Rio de Janiero in August 2016 well over 200 million viewers will be

tuning to NBC, its cable partners and digital networks. The country will be tuning in!

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