NBCUniversal Betting On Audio During The Olympics

The NBA bubble in Orlando featured an extremely high level of play, but it was a terrible television product. The lack of fans and crowd noise gave playoff games all the ambiance of a random summer league game in Las Vegas, and the cratered television ratings reflected as much, according to Boston.com

That provides a hurdle  for NBCUniversal, it is facing the first hurdle during opening ceremonies for the Tokyo Olympics coming up Friday. NBC has more than 7,000 hours of coverage scheduled across its variety of networks starting this Friday to the Games’ conclusion Aug. 8.

Typically, the Summer Olympics deliver enormous television ratings: The 2016 Games in Brazil averaged 27.5 million viewers across NBC’s platforms. The 2012 Games in London averaged 31 million viewers, while the 2008 Beijing Olympics delivered an average of 27 million.

NBC has to be sweating what viewership numbers for Tokyo will look like. Fans will not be allowed in the venues because of COVID-19 outbreaks in Japan. Potential viewers in the United States aren’t going to be naïve about what broadcasts without fans and natural noise will look and sound like. It’s a less entertaining product.

Molly Solomon, who is producing her 10th Olympics for NBC, explained during a call with reporters last week how the network will try to make up for that during broadcasts.

“We understand the decision of the Japanese government for there to be no fans,’’ she said, “but of course we wish the fans of the world had an opportunity to cheer on their athletes in person.

“That being said, NBC and OBS — which is the Olympic Broadcasting Service, which produces the world feed — we’ve been preparing for this potential outcome for some time. We’ve created sound-design plans with this in mind. We believe there’s an opportunity to bring viewers closer to the action than ever. And with sports like swimming, gymnastics, track, basketball, beach volleyball, you’re going to hear the sounds of the games like you’ve never heard them before — from the thrashing and splashing in the pool to those intimate conversations between competitors and coaches.”

Solomon cited an example from the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang of how the network hopes to utilize distinctive audio.

“When you look back at the downhill, the women’s downhill and the super G races . . . we showcased Lindsey Vonn in that start house, and viewers could very clearly hear her breathing as she prepared for her runs,’’ said Solomon. “It was incredibly dramatic, and we plan to access those kinds of sounds and moments in Tokyo.”

She said that during competitions, there may be some in-arena ambient crowd noise to generate atmosphere for the athletes, and it will be audible on NBC’s broadcasts. But Solomon emphasized that NBC won’t be adding inauthentic audio beyond what’s heard in the venues.