Linear Olympic Channel Debuts in the U.S.

(ATR) Executives at NBC and the IOC tell Around the Rings bringing the Olympic Channel to televisions in the United States fills the goal of connecting Americans to the Games 24 hours a day.

Starting July 15, "The Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA" will be available as a cable channel in over 35 million homes. NBC executives say that number should jump to over 40 million in the coming months. Kicking off the channel will be a special from Mike Tirico, the lead prime time Olympics broadcaster on NBC.

The channel, produced by NBC, the United States Olympic Committee, and the IOC, will broadcast 24 hours a day. Offerings available on the linear channel will be available online for subscribers. NBC says it will broadcast Olympic Channel programming on other NBC stations such as NBC Sports Network.

"They are different in the way they make content accessible," Gary Zenkel, President, NBC Olympics, said to ATR. "The similarity is what we are all designing to accomplish here, which is offering the most compelling platform we can deliver to this user."

One way that NBC plans to use the linear channel is to offer expanded coverage of the upcoming International Association of Athletics Federations World Championships in London. Jim Bell, President of NBC Olympics programming, told reporters the linear channel is to "show more of" the championships than NBC or NBCSN. Bell added the additional coverage will help draw in "superfans" of the sport.

The IOC also confirmed to ATR that the plan is for the Olympic Channel to be included in future negotiations for rights holders. Recently the IOC negotiated a rights deal through 2024 for the continent of Africa. Mark Parkman, General Manager of the IOC Olympic Channel, told ATR that he "envisioned there will be a linear version of the channel in Africa" after negotiations.

"Some [territories] will create limited channels, some will have digital integration," Parkman said. "It will be different for every territory."

Parkman said that the linear channel set up between NBC, the USOC, and the IOC is already successful even before launching. The Olympic Channel’s goal remains "[creating] a media entity for the Olympic movement on a global scale" and a dedicated territorial platform only adds to that.

"The ultimate success will be how we attract viewers and how we grow participation in sport through the Games," Parkman said. "It is a metric that we will be analyzing over the next four to five years to make sure what we have done is create a valuable asset for the Movement, National Olympic Committees, International Federations, and more importantly the athletes themselves who will be at the heart of what we are trying to do with more exposure and more story telling around the achievements they do."

Written by Aaron Bauer

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