The future of sports starts at the Olympics

The Summer Olympics have always had an outsized impact not only on how we watch sports, but more broadly on broadcast (and now streaming) entertainment.

In 1936, the Olympics in Berlin gave us the first major sporting event broadcast on television capturing, amongst other things, Jesse Owens’ four gold medal wins in front of Hitler at Olympic Stadium.

The 1964 Games in Tokyo had the distinction of being first to use satellite technology to broadcast sports live and introduce the concept of instant replay.

NBC’s coverage of Barcelona ‘92 gave us the Triplecast which, despite the name, was not Catalonia’s version of this week’s opening ceremony three-way.

The pay-per-view Triplecast let you watch almost every Olympic event live across three channels, appropriately dubbed Red, White, and Blue. Perhaps most importantly (at least to me and my friends), it allowed you to watch all of the Dream Team’s games live, with Chick Hearn announcing no less. Shout-out to the MacDonalds, the only family in the neighborhood willing to throw down the $129 to get it.

Triplecast didn’t really take off but just two years later, the NFL and DirecTV borrowed the model to create NFL Sunday Ticket, changing not only the home viewing experience but also playing a key factor in the explosion of NFL popularity in the decades that followed.

All of this, not to mention that ABC and then NBC’s coverage of the Games establishing the template for sports storytelling that draws viewers in and elevates the emotional resonance of sporting events. Netflix’s Drive to Survive and Ryan Reynolds’ Welcome to Wrexham are just two examples of success stories that owe a debt to Olympic broadcasting.

This year, NBC and Peacock will broadcast over 5,000 hours of Olympics coverage between now and August 11.

Following in the tradition of previous Olympics, we will see most of the best innovations in sport featured as part of the coverage, especially on Peacock. We will have all the 4K, 5G, on-demand, and multiview options you can ask for.

There will also be the debut of Gold Zone, an adaptation of the popular NFL RedZone tailor-made for the Olympics, complete with host Scott Hanson.

Channel 6’s Spencer Hall makes the can’t miss pitch for Gold Zone:

We will also see brand new innovations, both in technology and storytelling. There will be the debut of A.I. Michaels, a machine-learning enabled, personalized daily highlights package featuring an automated simulation of broadcast legend Al Michaels. NBC has also lined up podcasting superstar Alex Cooper (Call Her Daddy) to host live viewing parties on Peacock.

Before all of this got going, I started my weekend Friday night at Q2 Stadium here in Austin.

My son and I were in attendance to watch our hometown Austin FC–a team that had been struggling mightily through most of the season thus far–defeat the storied Pumas UNAM of Mexico City 3-2 in the 2024 Leagues Cup, the newly-established tournament between US and Canadian MLS clubs and the best from Mexico’s LigaMX. It’s hard to beat the feeling of watching your team wake up at just the right time to come away with the season-changing victory.

There will never be a replacement for seeing it live. But for the next two weeks, we’ll see how close we can get.

Elsewhere at the Olympics

🇲🇳 Mongolia's Olympic Uniforms Are Unbeatable

The uniforms were inspired by the deel, a traditional Mongolian garment. In just twelve weeks, design house Michel & Amazonka took that silhouette, incorporating embroidered vests over long tunics and trousers, and proceeded to win the opening ceremony fashion show.

🥇 What cultural legacies have the Olympic Games left its host cities?

The Olympics have earned a budget-busting reputation, with price tags routinely exceeding $10 billion in infrastructure and new facilities.

Even with the influx of tourists, there is almost no hope of recouping those dollars on the Games themselves. But does the investment actually pay off long-term?