NBC Olympic broadcasts
The broadcasts of the Summer and Winter Olympic Games produced by NBC Sports are shown on the various platforms of NBCUniversal in the United States, including the NBC broadcast network, NBC Sports app, NBCOlympics.com, Peacock, Spanish language network Telemundo, and many of the company's cable networks. The event telecasts during the Olympics air primarily in the evening and on weekend afternoons on NBC with additional live coverage on the NBC Sports app and NBCOlympics.com, with varying times on its cable networks (such as after the close of the stock market day on CNBC, the early mornings on MSNBC, overnights on the USA Network, and formerly various hours on now defunct NBCSN). The commercial name of the broadcasting services is NBC Olympics.
NBC Olympic broadcasts
United States
English
14
Various Olympic venues (event telecasts and studio segments)
Varies
NBC Olympics, LLC
(NBC Sports Group)
October 10, 1964 – October 24, 1964
February 3, 1972 – February 13, 1972
September 17, 1988 – present
The on-air title of the telecasts, as typically announced at the start of each broadcast and during sponsor billboards is always the official name of the games in question – for example, The Games of the XXIX Olympiad for the 2008 Summer Games. However, promotional logos may reflect the more common location-and-year name format, such as "Beijing 2008".
NBC has held the American broadcasting rights to the Summer Olympic Games since the 1988 games and the rights to the Winter Olympic Games since the 2002 games. In 2011, NBC agreed to a $4.38 billion contract with the International Olympic Committee to broadcast the Olympics through the 2020 games, the most expensive television rights deal in Olympic history.[1] NBC then agreed to a $7.75 billion contract extension on May 7, 2014, to air the Olympics through the 2032 games.[2] NBC also acquired the American television rights to the Youth Olympic Games, beginning in 2014,[3] and the Paralympic Games for the 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2020 editions. NBC announced more than 1,200 hours of coverage for the 2020 games, called "unprecedented" by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).[4][5][6] NBC is one of the major sources of revenue for the International Olympic Committee (IOC).[7]
NBC's coverage of the Olympics has been criticized for the tape delaying of events, spoiling the results of events prior to their own tape-delayed broadcast of those events, editing of its broadcasts to resemble an emotionally appealing program meant to entertain rather than a straight live sports event,[8][9] and avoiding controversial subjects such as material critical of Russia at the 2014 Olympics.[10]
Music[edit]
Since 1992, the main theme of NBC's Olympics coverage has been "Bugler's Dream", a composition by Leo Arnaud that was previously used by ABC as the main theme of its Olympics coverage since 1964. Since the 1996 Summer Olympics, this theme has been played in a medley with John Williams' "Olympic Fanfare and Theme", which was originally composed for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Williams has composed other secondary themes for the Olympics and NBC's telecasts, including "The Olympic Spirit" (which was used as the main theme in 1988, NBC's first year as rightsholder, before "Bugler's Dream" was reinstated the following Olympiad), "Summon the Heroes" (a piece written for the opening ceremony in 1996),[208] and "Call of the Champions" (which was written for the 2002 Winter Olympics).[209][210][211][212]
Since 1996, NBC has used the Randy Edelman-composed theme song from the short-lived Fox series The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. during its coverage. NBC had commissioned Edelman to compose theme music for its National Football League coverage (stemming from its prior use of a portion of his score for the film Gettysburg for its coverage of the Breeder's Cup), and the theme was included in a portfolio of work Edelman had sent the network. Edelman felt that the track "seemed to have the right spirit. It's got a very flowing melody, it's triumphant, and it has a certain warmth. And it has at the end of it, what all television things like this have, a 'button,' an ending flourish that works really well if they need to chop it down into a 15-second thing." Senior creative producer Mark Levy felt that the works that Edelman had scored, as with John Williams, shared the "proportion and emotion" of the Olympics.[213]
Since 2002, NBC had used music from the soundtrack of the sports film Remember the Titans as part of its closing credits sequence for the Olympics [214]
Yanni's "In Celebration of Man" was used during a preview special for the 1992 Summer Olympics; CBS had declined an offer to use the song for the 1992 Winter Olympics, while NBC's Olympics producer at the time was friends with the musician. Although NBC did not use it during the Games proper, it would adopt the song as its theme music for the U.S. Open golf tournament.[215][216]
For 1992, NBC commissioned John Tesh to compose a separate theme for the Games' late night show;[217][218] variants of this theme were used during the weeks leading up to the Games as the network's theme for coverage of the United States Olympic Trials.[219] During the 2008 Summer Olympics, NBC briefly revived "Roundball Rock"—the John Tesh-composed theme music of the former NBA on NBC—as theme music during coverage of the basketball tournaments.[220]
NBC has utilized popular music during its Olympics coverage. "Home", the debut single of American Idol season 11 winner Phillip Phillips, was used for a segment introducing women's gymnastics at the 2012 Summer Olympics. The segment rejuvenated interest in the song, causing it to re-enter the Billboard Hot 100, and eventually peak at #9. It marked the first time a song had ever made two separate top 10 runs on the Hot 100 in a single calendar year.[221][222][223][224] Prior to the 2016 Summer Olympics, NBC released a promotional video with Olympics highlights set to Katy Perry's recently released single "Rise",[225][226] and premiered the song's official music video during its preview show for the Games.[227][228] "This Is Me" from the soundtrack of The Greatest Showman was also used during NBC's coverage of the 2018 Winter Olympics.[229] For 2020, the Jonas Brothers' new single "Remember This" was used as part of promotion for the Games, with the song premiering during the United States Olympic Trials, the brothers' appearing in the reality special Olympic Dreams Featuring Jonas Brothers prior to the Games (where an Olympic-themed version premiered), and performing a live version of the song to accompany a montage during the closing ceremonies telecast.[230][231]