NBC Will Not Live Stream Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony Online

Credit: NBC

In perhaps the strangest Olympics-related decision since the whole weird business with wrestling being dropped as an event from the summer games only to be re-added later, NBC will be streaming nearly all of the over 1500 hours of the Winter Olympics from Sochi online...except for the part that actually draws the largest audience of the entire games.

The network has confirmed that the opening ceremony on Friday, Feb. 7 will not be streamed online. In its own way, it makes sense: in a flagging age for live viewership of TV, the Olympic Games have long been among the few sure things on television, particularly for NBC, which pretty much has The Voice, The Blacklist, Football, and nothing else, as far as genuine ratings hits are concerned. Since NBC spent approximately $2 billion for broadcast rights to the Winter Olympics in Sochi, it stands to reason they'd want as much bang for their buck (in the form of ratings) as possible.

In discussing the decision not to stream the opening ceremony, NBC Sports Group chairman Mark Lazarus stated: “We want to put context to it, with the full pageantry it deserves.”

Not really sure what that has to do with not streaming the ceremony, but there ya go.

However, while the opening ceremonies will not be streamed, NBC has yet to make a decision on whether or not the closing ceremonies would be streamed live online, although the network is apparently leaning towards streaming the event anyway, despite the potential for cannibalizing the primetime ratings. As Lazarus explained, the closing ceremonies are “much more of a party than a theatrical performance.” Again, not sure what that has to do with streaming/not streaming, but Mark Lazarus is an awesome name, so we'll let the whole "talking in riddles" thing slide.

Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira and Bob Costas will be on hand to host the opening ceremonies, which is scheduled to last from 7:30 PM ET to 11:30 PM on NBC.

Via: Variety