NBC Cuts Ads By 30% For Olympic Opening

As NBC Sports prepares to air the Winter Olympics opening ceremony tonight, it is hoping to avoid the backlash that plagued the Rio kickoff. This time around, NBC is reducing the ad load in its primetime coverage of the opening ceremony by 30 percent, while also livestreaming the event for the first time, 14 hours before its tape-delayed primetime coverage.

This year’s primetime opening ceremony telecast will also look very different than Rio’s: it’s being hosted by Katie Couric and Mike Tirico, who will make his debut as NBC’s primetime Olympic host in Pyeongchang.

Beginning at 6 a.m. ET Friday, viewers can livestream the opening ceremony from Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app. The livestream will include ads, but won’t feature commentary from Tirico or Couric; instead, audiences will hear “the event’s natural sound,” according to NBC Sports.

Katy Couric, Mike Tirico

NBC has livestreamed all Olympic competitions since the London Games in 2012, but had held off on livestreaming the opening ceremony until now.

Then, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT tomorrow, NBC will air its fully-produced telecast of the ceremony, hosted by Couric and Tirico and featuring interviews and profiles. As is the case with all of NBC’s primetime Winter Olympics coverage, it will be broadcast live across all time zones.

Dan Lovinger, evp of ad sales, NBC Sports Group, explained the network’s decision to feature 30 percent fewer ads than the Rio telecast did: “[It’s] not because of the feedback specifically, but because we wanted to create a more continuous viewing opportunity, and we thought it was important,” said Lovinger. “So there are fewer commercials in the opening ceremony than there was certainly in Rio.”

After the outcry over the amount of ads during Rio’s opening ceremony, NBC Sports told Adweek that the ad load was “very similar” to that for the London opening ceremony, but because viewing habits have changed so much in the past four years, the commercial breaks are now more noticeable to audiences.