But even after touting the uniqueness of Rio de Janeiro and Brazil as an Olympic setting, as well as the strong prospects for the US women’s teams as well as gymnast Simone Biles, concerns about the Zika virus and the safety of Rio as a host city, particularly with regard to open-water swimming, were an unavoidable issue.
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“Absolutely not”, NBC Olympics correspondent Mary Carillo said today when asked by Olympics primetime host Bob Costas if she meant to take a dip into the polluted waters where swimmers and sailing teams will be competing during the Rio Games. NBC alone will broadcast 260.5 hours of coverage.
And given that Rio is just one hour ahead of the East Coast, much of NBC’s prime-time coverage will air live (though the opening ceremony will be on a one-hour delay). At peak time in the middle of the Olympic Games, about 18 000 people will call the village home.
But will that actually happen?
Nobel Peace Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus will bear the torch of the Rio Olympic Games which is starting in the Brazilian city on August 5.
Google said that in the last year, “over 23,000 years of content have been watched on YouTube” for the four most popular Olympic Games’ sports alone: athletics, gymnastics, swimming and volleyball.
That said, “it’s going to be impossible in some cases not to address issues that have come up before the Olympics, because they will intersect with the competition”, said Costas. “Sometimes in the course, you get new fans”. While the hope is the organizers will overcome those challenges, Costas said, “we would be naïve to think that they don’t face security problems, that they don’t face problems with sanitation”. He added he wasn’t trying to be glib, and revealed plans to interview the head of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, about these concerns and whether the Games should have been rescheduled. But once the games were being held, the network that owned the rights to televise those games was going to televise those games.
“The question about our responsibility becomes how thoroughly and credibly do we cover it”, he said.
Despite the negative stories surrounding the Olympics, awareness and intent to watch is higher than ever, said Bell.
“No. I don’t think so”, Bell said.
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The new set of features will help bring fans closer to knowing more abo-ut their favorite athletes and sports disciplines. Between the 11 NBCU networks and its digital platforms, NBC will provide an unprecedented 6,755 hours of programming during Rio. “You’ll figure it out, and it will be pretty darn painless”.
