Sports At Politics

In this second part of my three-part series reviewing the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang County, South Korea, I'm going to review how NBC and its co-owned cable and satellite television channels, such as NBCSN, CNBC, and USA Network, covered the Pyeongchang Games. While I'm normally very critical of NBC's Olympic coverage, including their coverage of the Pyeongchang Games, NBC didn't do as terrible of a job as I expected them to do, and there were even some aspects of their coverage that I liked. Criticism of NBC's coverage (and, in one instance, of how a NBC affiliate handled NBC's Olympic coverage) will appear in bold text, praise of NBC's coverage will appear in underlined text, and aspects of NBC's coverage that I have mixed thoughts about will appear in italic text. As a general rule, NBC's coverage, particularly during the primetime block on NBC itself during the Games, tends to be overproduced and overhyped , and NBC seemed more interes...

Currently, NBC and cable networks that are owned by NBC's parent company, Comcast, hold the English-language broadcast rights to the Olympic Games, with the current NBC contract with the IOC scheduled to end with the 2032 Summer Olympics at a host city to be determined by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at a later date. However, if NBC loses money on the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics this year, there is the outside possibility that NBC, should it get permission by the IOC to do so, may sell the 2020-2032 Olympic broadcast rights to another network. A number of factors are working against NBC this year, including: The 15-hour time difference between Korean Standard Time and U.S. Central Time, resulting in almost convoluted scheduling for NBC's Olympic coverage NBC's decision to devote a large portion, but not all, of its over-the-air Olympic coverage to two sports (figure skating and alpine skiing, even though the U.S. isn't expected to win any medals in...