Olympics on United States television

1960s

The first telecast of the Olympics on American TV was from the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California. It was shown on CBS. During the games, officials asked Tony Verna, one of the members of the production staff, if it could use its videotape equipment to determine whether or not a slalom skier missed a gate. Verna then returned to CBS headquarters in New York City and developed the first instant replay system, which debuted at the Army–Navy football game in 1963.

Later that year, CBS showed the 1960 Summer Olympics from Rome. The network showed about 20 hours of coverage of track and field, swimming, and other sports. Because communications satellites, which would have provided direct transmissions between the United States and Italy, were not yet available, production staff members flew footage from Rome to CBS headquarters in New York for later telecast. Jim McKay, then a relatively unknown radio and TV personality, was the host.^[2]

A different network showed the 1964 Winter Olympics: ABC. Roone Arledge won broadcast rights for his network and began a relationship with the Olympics that would last over two decades. The program used many of the same production staff from ABC's Wide World of Sports, as well as the same host, McKay, who moved to ABC in 1961. The following October, NBC showed the 1964 Summer Olympics from Tokyo, marking its Olympic TV debut. This time, NBC used the Syncom 3 satellite for direct broadcasts, with the opening ceremonies being broadcast live and in color (the first live color television program ever transmitted by satellite from overseas to the United States; the opening and closing ceremonies were the only portions of NBC's 1964 coverage from Tokyo seen in color). ABC showed both the 1968 Winter Olympics and the 1968 Summer Olympics; both of which were (with the exception of a handful of events) broadcast in color.

Also recorded at the 1968 Summer Olympics was the Black Power salute, a civil rights protest put on by American athletes John Carlos and Tommie Smith at their award ceremony for the 200-meter dash. After the IOC had banned Smith and Carlos, reporter Howard Cosell criticized the committee, calling them "pompous, arrogant, medieval minded men who regard the games as a private social preserve for their tiny clique..." and voiced his support for the African American athletes.^[3]

1970s

NBC showed the 1972 Winter Olympics from Sapporo, Japan, then ABC returned to carry the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. It was during the Summer Games that terrorists attacked the Olympic Village and killed 11 Israeli athletes. Although Chris Schenkel was the actual host of the Games that year, Arledge assigned the story to McKay largely because he had been a local news anchor in Baltimore, Maryland prior to joining CBS (and later ABC). McKay was joined on set by ABC news correspondent (and former and future evening news anchor) Peter Jennings, and coverage continued for many hours until the outcome was known. McKay later won an Emmy Award for his coverage.^[4]

By the time the 1976 edition came around, McKay was installed as ABC's Olympic host, a role he would play throughout the 1970s and '80s.

1980s

ABC aired the 1980 Winter Olympics, 1984 Winter and Summer, and the 1988 Winter Olympics. After that, the network, at the insistence of new owner Capital Cities Communications (much to the chagrin of Roone Arledge's successor at ABC Sports, Dennis Swanson), opted not to bid for the rights to show any future Games.

NBC had won the U.S. broadcast rights for the 1980 Summer Olympics, but when the United States announced its boycott in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the telecasts were cancelled.

NBC then bid for, and won, the rights to show the 1988 Summer Olympics. Network officials convinced the organizers in Seoul to stage most of its gold-medal finals in the afternoon, which is prime time of the previous night in the U.S. Bryant Gumbel was the host that year.

1990s

NBC

Just as his mentor Roone Arledge had before, Dick Ebersol, who took over NBC Sports in 1989, decided to make the Olympics a staple of his network's sports television schedule. NBC continued its Summer Games coverage into the decade, with both the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Previously hosting late night coverage in Seoul, Bob Costas made his debut as primetime host in Barcelona. It is a role that he held through the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

1992 Olympics Triplecast

NBC's 1992 bid cost $401 million thinking that the rival networks would bid at least $400 million. In order to defray costs of airing the games, the network teamed up with Cablevision for the Triplecast. The service consisted of red, white, and blue channels that allowed the viewer to watch anything they wanted even before it aired in the network's primetime telecast. However, the service was a dismal failure losing $100 million and had only 200,000 subscribers. In addition, the main network's coverage was cannibalized to the extent it seemed that the main coverage was overproduced and that viewers knew some results about 10 hours before they were aired over the air on NBC. For Atlanta, NBC had no supplemental cable coverage.

1996 Olympic Park bombing

And as with Arledge in Munich, Ebersol had to deal with breaking news during the Atlanta Games. During the Centennial Olympic Park bombing in 1996, NBC suspended its coverage of a volleyball game and broadcast the news for several hours commercial-free. Like ABC's 1972 Munich coverage, the main primetime host didn't cover the bombing. That role went to both Hannah Storm and Jim Lampley for the first half-hour before turning coverage over to NBC Nightly News host Tom Brokaw. Toward the end of the second hour of coverage, NBC had an exclusive as Atlanta TV affiliate WXIA was in the process of interviewing Janet Evans during the bombing.

CBS

As for the Winter Games, CBS had a similar sweep of coverage in the U.S. during the decade; it showed all three contests (1992, 1994, and 1998). The 1994 Games saw the nights with the highest ratings in the history of American Olympic telecasts, as a result of the scandal in which associates of Tonya Harding attacked Nancy Kerrigan and the media frenzy that followed, as well as Dan Jansen's speed skating gold medal win. The short program on February 23 is, as of 2008^[update], the sixth-highest rated primetime TV program in American history. It had a rating of 48.5 and a share of 64. The long program two days later had a rating of 44.1 and another 64 share; it ranks 32nd.^[5] Each telecast had a different primetime host(s): Paula Zahn and Tim McCarver in 1992, Greg Gumbel in 1994, and Jim Nantz in 1998.

As with NBC, CBS decided that it needed help to defray the increasing costs of broadcast rights. CBS's Winter Games coverage was shared with TNT, which aired events under the promotional slogan "The ultimate daytime drama." Nick Charles and Fred Hickman hosted the coverage from Turner's Atlanta studios in 1992 and 1994, while Jim Lampley was the host in 1998. While CBS had the top choice of events and had their own feed, TNT had to do with the world feed and aired their own events which was some sports CBS would not touch including curling in 1998.

The Late Show with David Letterman

Also supplementing CBS's coverage was David Letterman as his show was Olympic-themed in both 1994 and 1998 while the network aired the Olympics. A centerpiece of that coverage was nightly segments with his mother Dorothy, who was on-site at both the Lillehammer and Nagano Olympics.

2000s

Coverage in the first decade of the 21st century revolved around two major storylines:

• NBC became the sole U.S. rights holder for the Olympic Games for the entire decade and beyond. The network boasted of being "America's Olympic Network" as it made the longest and most expensive commitment ever since the Olympics were first presented on TV.^{[citation needed]} For the 1996 Summer Games, and all Games from 2000 to 2008, NBC paid a total of $3.5 billion, mostly to the International Olympic Committee but also to the USOC and local organizers. To extend rights to the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2012 Summer Olympics, NBC then gave up another $2.2 billion.^[6]
• The rise of various media platforms extended the reach and availability of Games coverage. NBC returned to supplemental cable/satellite coverage in 2000, with some events on CNBC and MSNBC. In 2004, it added USA Network, Bravo, and Telemundo, all of which parent company NBC Universal had acquired earlier in the decade. Finally, in 2008, events were streamed live for the first time on the Internet through the website NBCOlympics.com. (Also in 2008, Oxygen replaced Bravo as a supplemental network, and NBC launched high-definition channels dedicated to the basketball and soccer competitions.)

As was the case with Seoul in 1988, NBC convinced the organizers of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics to stage many of their major events during the late morning and early afternoon hours, which translated to live coverage during prime time in the United States.

2010s

NBC's broadcasts of the 2010 Winter Olympics resulted in a loss of $233 million,^[7] due to the belief that it had overbid for the rights to the 2010 and 2012 Olympics, and an advertising market still recovering from the Great Recession (which had especially impacted automakers, a major market segment for Olympic advertisers).^[8][9][10] NBC's coverage also came amid continued criticism of its broadcast delay practices for the west coast (which persisted even though the Games were being hosted on the North American west coast).^[10]

In 2011, Comcast completed its acquisition of a majority stake in NBC Universal (now NBCUniversal). That June, the IOC held a sealed-bid auction on the rights to the 2014 Winter Olympics and 2016 Summer Olympics. Amid competing bids by Fox Sports and ABC/ESPN Inc.,^[11][12] NBC renewed its rights to the Olympics across all platforms through 2020 in a deal worth $4.38 billion—the most expensive contract for Olympic media rights to-date.^[13][14] In May 2014, NBCUniversal extended its rights through 2032, paying $7.75 billion.^[15]

Summer Olympic Games

Year	Broadcaster	Host	Hours of Coverage[16]	Opening ceremonies viewership[17]	Closing ceremonies viewership[17]	Rights Fee[16]
1960	CBS	Rome, Italy	20			$394,000
1964	NBC	Tokyo, Japan	15[18]			$1.5m
1968	ABC	Mexico City, Mexico	43.75			$4.5m
1972	ABC	Munich, Germany	62.75			$7.5m
1976	ABC	Montreal, Canada	76.5	13.9m		$25m
1984	ABC	Los Angeles, United States	180			$225m
1988	NBC	Seoul, South Korea	179.5[19]	22.7m	18.3m	$300m
1992	NBC	Barcelona, Spain	161[16] + 1080 on Triplecast[20]	21.6m	21.4m	$401m
1996	NBC	Atlanta, United States	171[21]	39.8m	34.1m	$456m
2000	NBC	Sydney, Australia	441.5[21]	27.3m	16.7m	$705m
2004	NBC	Athens, Greece	1210[21][22]	25.4m	19.6m	$793m
2008	NBC	Beijing, China	3600[19]	34.9m[23]	27.8m[23]	$894m
2012	NBC	London, United Kingdom	5535[24]	40.7m[25]	31.0m	$1.18b
2016	NBC	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	6755	29.3m	16.9m	$1.226b
2020	NBC	Tokyo, Japan	7000	16.7m [26]	8.9m [27]
2024	NBC FOX CBS TNT ABC ESPN	Paris, France	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD
2028	NBC FOX CBS TNT ABC USA	Los Angeles, United States	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD
2032	NBC FOX CBS TNT ABC USA	Brisbane, Australia	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD
2034	NBC FOX CBS TNT ABC USA ESPN	richmond va united states

Winter Olympic Games

Year	Broadcaster	Host	Hours of Coverage[16]	Opening ceremonies viewership[17]	Closing ceremonies viewership[17]	Rights Fee[16]
1960	CBS	Squaw Valley, United States	15			$50,000
1964	ABC	Innsbruck, Austria	17.5			$597,000
1968	ABC	Grenoble, France	27			$2.5m
1972	NBC	Sapporo, Japan	37[18]			$6.4m
1976	ABC	Innsbruck, Austria	43.5	2m		$10m
1980	ABC	Lake Placid, United States	53.25	11.4m		$15.5m
1984	ABC	Sarajevo, Yugoslavia	63			$91.5m
1988	ABC	Calgary, Canada	94.5			$309m
1992	CBS + TNT[28]	Albertville, France	116	24m	20m	$243m
1994	CBS + TNT	Lillehammer, Norway	119.5	33.9m	34.5m	$300m
1998	CBS + TNT	Nagano, Japan	123.8	27.2m	18.4m	$375m
2002	NBC	Salt Lake City, United States	375.5[29][30]	45.6m	38.7m	$545m
2006	NBC	Torino, Italy	416[29][31]			$613m
2010	NBC	Vancouver, Canada	835[32]			$820m
2014	NBC	Sochi, Russia	1539[33]			$775m
2018	NBC	Pyeongchang, South Korea	2400			$963m
2022	NBC	Beijing, China	2800
2026	NBC FOX CBS TNT ABC ESPN	Milan, Italy	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD

Perhaps the most often heard criticism that some events are shown on disk- or tape delay rather than live. Even if sports are shown live to some parts of the country, it may remain delayed in others, especially in the Pacific Time Zone. NBC has explained that primetime coverage of select events, regardless of when they actually occur, is designed to maximize the total viewing audience.

Some examples of broadcast delay include:

• The 1980 Miracle on Ice, which ABC showed in primetime, about three hours after it actually took place. (The Americans' gold medal–clinching game against Finland was aired live, despite a start time of 11am EST on a Sunday morning. All US hockey games in the Winter Olympics since 1988 have been shown live, and since 1992, in full.)
• The relay race in 1984 in which Carl Lewis won his fourth gold medal.
• In 1996, much of the artistic gymnastics competition at the Atlanta Olympics was held in the afternoon, and was shown by NBC three to four hours after the competition ended.
• Nearly the entire 2000 schedule from Sydney, Australia, in some cases by nearly a day. (The only live telecast was the men's basketball final, which was shown live only after fans objected to the delayed coverage of earlier games.)
• For Pacific and Mountain Time Zone viewers, most of the 2010 Winter Olympics coverage was on delay, despite that the games were held in the Pacific Time Zone. As a result, viewers in Bellingham, Washington could not watch NBC's live coverage as it aired on the east coast despite the fact that they are just over 50 miles away from Vancouver.
  • Also, viewers in most of the Mountain time zone and all of the Pacific time zone could not watch live prime-time coverage of the 2002 Winter Olympics despite the fact many of the prime-time events took place around the Salt Lake City, Utah area. However, KSL-TV was allowed to air NBC's prime-time coverage live.
• The opening ceremony for the 2012 London Games, which NBC refused to air (or even stream on the internet) live, choosing instead to tape delay it and show in prime time for US audiences.^[34]

The broadcast delay practice even for major events has become increasingly frustrating with viewers in recent times due to the increased usage of social networking and Web sites (including the official Olympic site and NBC's Olympic website) posting results in real time.^[35] As a result, these practices has spawned outrage across the internet and even raising concerns from politicians.^[36]

On a related note, networks not part of the Olympic coverage, even including NBC News, are given very restrictive policies on showing highlights. For example, ESPN can show only a total of eight minutes of highlights per day, and must essentially wait until the next day to show any of it. (Reportedly, the only reason it can even show highlights at all is the unusual deal that sent Al Michaels to NBC Sunday Night Football in 2006, and returned the rights of Walt Disney's Oswald the Lucky Rabbit from Universal Studios to The Walt Disney Company.)

While every respective country's broadcast is biased towards the home athletes to a certain extent, NBC has faced scrutiny for allegedly focusing more on American athletes and less on other athletes from other countries, especially during the network's tape-delayed primetime coverage. This has proven to be unfounded and indeed NBC has been considered more inclusive of other countries' athletes than other countries' Olympic broadcasters. NBC's focus on U.S. athletes has been the subject of a series of studies that have shown NBC places a heavier emphasis on U.S. athletes during the Summer Games than during the Winter Games.^[37][38][39] When the NBC 2014 primetime Olympic broadcast was compared to those broadcast in Canada by the CBC, it was determined that CBC placed more emphasis, by a statistically significant margin, on Canadian athletes than NBC placed on U.S. athletes.^[40] Furthermore, such countries as Russia (broadcasters Channel One and Match TV), focus solely on their own athletes, ignoring events where they do not participate.^[41] By contrast, NBC often devotes considerable coverage to favorite foreigners such as Usain Bolt.^[42]

Unequal representation of genders has also been a criticism the coverage of the Olympics has faced. From 1992–1998, men received over 56 percent more coverage than women.^[43] The situation improved over time, with NBC Olympics introducing programs dedicated exclusively to women's sports.^[44]

• Olympics on television
• Olympics on ABC
• Olympics on CBS
• Olympics on NBC
• Olympics on TNT

• The World Comes Together in Your Living Room: The Olympics on TV
• Websites by network
  • Official NBC Olympics website
  • Official CBS Olympics website
  • Official ABC Olympics website
  • Official TNT Olympics website
• Olympics Coverage - TWoP Forums
• Olympics up for grabs as CBS drops out
• Sports Media Watch: Olympics
• The Olympics on Jump The Shark at the Wayback Machine (archive index)
• Olympics Broadcast Rights Fees Since 1960
  • US Olympic Rights Fees Since 1960
• Olympics Numbers Game (Ratings and Viewership Dating Back to 2002)
• US OLYMPIC TELEVISION HOSTS