Just 22 years old and a lifetime of producing Olympic Games still ahead of her, Molly Solomon could not believe her professional luck. A week away from graduating from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Solomon had landed a plum job in sports, plucked by the American broadcasting giant NBC to become an Olympic researcher.
The assignment required her to compile biographical and historical information on virtually every competitor and country competing in Barcelona for the 1992 Summer Olympics. It was also a professional Wonka ticket: NBC’s Olympic researcher position was considered the most coveted entry-level job in sports television.
Because Solomon’s assignment occurred in a pre-Internet world, NBC sent these young Magellans around the globe to procure information on athletes as exotic to American audiences as a red diamond. Solomon would travel to 12 countries over a two-year stretch, including staying in a basement apartment in Donaueschingen, a city in then-West Germany in the middle of the Black Forest, to cover the 1991 World Weightlifting Championships. As part of the interviewing process, she drank vodka with athletes from the Unified Team at a beer garden. Her travels took her to Australia, Brazil, Canada and Sweden as well. The researcher job led to full-time work as the information assistant to host Bob Costas during NBC’s prime-time coverage in Barcelona.
Fast-forward decades later and Solomon now holds the title of executive producer and president of NBC Olympics Production, the highest-ranking Olympics editorial position at Comcast NBCUniversal. She is responsible for all day-to-day editorial production of NBC Olympics coverage, and there are few people on the planet who spend more time thinking about the current state and future of the event.
“You have the geopolitical world changing in front of us, and we’re all seeking community and reasons to celebrate together,” Solomon said. “The Olympics can be one of the only places where we can come together and celebrate in a protected place. As we look to the future, I really believe the Olympics are going to be more significant and relevant than ever before.”
The business of the Olympics
So what will the future of the Olympics look like from a viewer perspective? We start with what makes the world go ’round: money. The Olympics will almost certainly remain a top global sports property over the next 20 years, given the interest in the event as well as its natural scarcity.
“Very few properties drive national fervour like the Olympics, as each participating country has a story to tell,” said Daniel Cohen, the head of the media rights consulting division at Octagon and someone with years of experience negotiating billion-dollar deals. “For instance, Canada tends to do quite well given its population size, so there will always be value in that country. Outside of the World Cup, no other property can drive global attention and domestic and international conversations for two weeks straight as the Olympics does.”
Viewership backs that up. In 2024, Canadian audiences consumed a total of 614,000 hours of Paris Olympics content on CBC/Radio-Canada digital and streaming platforms, up 153 per cent over the Tokyo Games in 2021. In the States, the Olympics also rebounded significantly from a viewership malaise: NBC averaged 30.6 million viewers across its combined live time periods in Paris, up from an average of 15.6 million viewers for Tokyo.
Cohen said the IOC will need to continue to innovate its media rights packaging in the future and remain nimble in a changing media landscape. Expect an increase in direct-to-consumer product development such as increased streaming offerings, short-form content on social media, enhanced data for viewers, and perhaps an expansion of sports gambling. Cohen sees rights deals in countries being split between linear (free-to-air) and digital platforms.
Broadcasters in Canada and the U.S. are betting big that audiences will not lose fervour for the product. The current CBC deal with the IOC, signed in 2022, runs from the Milano-Cortina Games through the Brisbane Olympics in 2032.
Comcast NBCUniversal paid the IOC $7.75 billion US in total for the rights to six Olympic Games between 2014 and 2032, and last March the two entities announced a $3 billion US deal that extended NBC’s rights through 2036.
If your prediction is that tech giants such as Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video and Apple will one day bid on Olympic media rights, many experts agree with you. Netflix now airs NFL games on Christmas Day and just procured exclusive broadcast rights for the 2027 and 2031 Women’s World Cup in both Canada and the United States. Amazon’s Prime Video has established itself as a regular NFL destination on Thursday night and just began its 11-year U.S. rights deal with the NBA; its rights deal in Canada begins with the 2026-27 season. YouTube aired its first exclusive NFL game in 2025.
“The tech streamers tend to change their rights-acquisition strategies frequently as they test what works for subscribers and viewers,” Cohen said. “So Google or Netflix’s strategy today might not be the same next year, and certainly not years from now. But if we look at Netflix right now and their ‘eventize’ strategy, the two-week Olympic sprint would be a bull’s-eye fit for them. Amazon, Netflix and Google also would see ancillary opportunities with IOC rights.”
Scott Moore, a longtime sports media executive and former head of CBC Sports and Rogers Sportsnet, worked on 11 Olympic Games for Canadian television between 1988 and 2016. He agrees with Cohen that the tech giants will show interest in the Olympics, but Moore thinks the Olympics will face an existential moment after the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, given the decline of broadcast television viewers and the challenge of getting Olympic sports in front of the public in non-Olympic years.
Were Netflix to become the Olympic broadcaster in Canada, it is not likely to be covering track and field or swimming on a daily basis like we are.– Chris Wilson, general manager of Olympics for CBC
“I think the Olympics in 2030 and beyond are going to have to change,” Moore said. “We may find more of a [pay-for] streaming model. They need to find ways to be relevant for a broadcaster over a longer period than two weeks a year.
“The Canadian Olympic model is an interesting one: Since 2012, none of the other networks in Canada have shown that they want to be a lead Olympic broadcaster. If CBC were to lose the rights, it would probably mean they are losing them to an international streamer, who would not put the emphasis on Canadian coverage the way the CBC has done so well in every Games they’ve covered. Say if Netflix were to get the rights in Canada: The chances of them launching a Canadian broadcast the way that CBC has for years would be almost nil. It’s why in 15 years, I hope I will be watching the Games through the CBC.”
Chris Wilson, general manager of Olympics for CBC/Radio-Canada, is naturally aware of the giant tech players swimming around major sports properties the way the shark in Jaws terrorized Amity Island. But Wilson is confident that the CBC’s year-round commitment to Olympic sports and its long-term relationship with the IOC will play a significant role in where the Olympics air in Canada in the future. Said Wilson: “Were Netflix to become the Olympic broadcaster in Canada, it is not likely to be covering track and field or swimming on a daily basis like we are.”
The rise of the creator economy
So what can you expect from an Olympic broadcaster in the future? U.S. coverage offers a potential blueprint as it relates to maintaining eyeballs and engagement: That’s the fusion of sports and celebrity.
NBC leaned heavily into this amalgamation for its Paris Games coverage, with former NFL star Peyton Manning and singer Kelly Clarkson co-hosting the opening ceremony and hip-hop’s Snoop Dogg serving as an ambassador of all things Americana. So ubiquitous was the rapper-singer on NBC’s Olympics coverage that BBC News ran a headline tagging him as “America’s cheerleader at the Olympics.”
Not surprisingly, NBC is bringing Snoop back for its coverage of the Milano Cortina Games. He won’t be alone among contributors outside of sports: NBC has announced it will use more than 25 content creators from YouTube, Meta and TikTok as part of its on-site coverage in Italy. Why? It’s a cost-effective way of renting digital natives who come with loyal, built-in followings of younger audiences.
“The Olympics is a cultural event, not just a sporting event,” said Solomon. “There’s room for all of these cultural figures to play a part in the coverage.”
Will this spell the end for the traditional Olympic broadcaster? No. Outlets like the CBC and NBC will always need seasoned professionals to call and host Olympic events. But many producers will be thinking about the Olympics as an entertainment vehicle as well as a sporting event. (With an eye toward the future, NBC has hired a “storytelling scientist” to help interpret data for Milano Cortina and turn it into relatable graphics and stories.)
Wilson said he fundamentally agrees with Solomon on bringing in digital natives and new faces, but noted that the CBC’s coverage is different from most global broadcasters in that the company is focused on Olympic and Paralympic sports 365 days a year. The athletes, Wilson said, will always remain at the centre of what CBC does, storytelling-wise. “I don’t think we feel the same pressure to bring in A-list Hollywood stars to help sell the Olympics to Canadians,” Wilson said.
Red Zone-style programming and AI judges?
Technology is what’s really going to change for Olympic viewers. Think about analytics-powered presentations designed for those who crave more real-time data and advanced metrics. ESPN offers an instructive example of where Olympic coverage is headed: The American sports network has experimented with alternate telecasts for NFL games where TruPlay AI’s live predictive engine provides viewers with elements such as run-pass probabilities, expected target distributions, blitz likelihoods and other data-driven information.
Phil Orlins, vice-president of production technology and innovation for ESPN, said he anticipates that the future of the Olympics will involve some sort of AI or programmed judging for individually judged sports. You see this in tennis with systems like Hawk-Eye and will soon see it with the automated ball-strike challenge system in MLB.
“For this to work well relies on the continued growth of data capture, and the collection is only getting stronger,” Orlins said. “AI judging is something that would be reasonable to consider for the Olympics in the future, though I know it would be a hot topic for debate.”
The AI revolution will forge hyper-personalized broadcast feeds for digital Olympic viewers as customization becomes more commonplace. You will be able to follow any individual athlete from start to finish of his or her event, and with multi-camera replay systems, you’ll also be able to watch that event from every conceivable angle. Generative AI will provide more customized viewing guides, which is of vital importance for viewers given the tonnage of events.
Both Solomon and Wilson praised the IOC-owned Olympic Broadcasting Services, which has pioneered many of the technological advances in Olympic broadcasting. Unquestionably, OBS will continue to innovate and break new ground in enhanced data and augmented reality, providing a new experience for viewers around the world. (OBS provides all Olympic broadcasters with world feeds for every event. Whether they use them is up to the broadcaster.) They will also be at the forefront of producing highlights and short-form clips at lightning speed, providing near-instantaneous coverage on social media platforms.
Wilson said the CBC will be looking at ways to customize and monetize the world feeds from OBS so the coverage comes off to viewers as, well, more Canadian. That could mean Canadian-centric graphics, statistics and many other possibilities.
You also could easily see broadcasters around the world following NBC’s lead from the Paris Games when they offered a “Gold Zone” channel on streaming service Peacock. Based on the premise of NFL RedZone, “Gold Zone” offered viewers live coverage of every medal moment on a dedicated channel. It was a critical hit, and the American broadcaster will produce the first Winter Games “Gold Zone” for Milano Cortina.
Broadcasters will also continue to send fewer staffers to Olympic host cities as a cost-shifting exercise. The resources once used to build a control room in Athens or Vancouver can now be allocated elsewhere, given that much of the Olympics coverage can be produced remotely, relying on the cloud for real-time video transport and processing. The CBC has gradually reduced its footprint in the host country and is considered one of the global leaders in Olympic remote production. But Wilson said that the company will have 200 employees on-site in Milano Cortina. “Of course you still want to have a core number of people on-site, to give a full and complete viewing experience to Canadians,” Wilson said.
Orlins believes that sensors and wearable cameras on officials will be commonplace in future Olympics coverage. That technology exists today, but camera stability will improve. But the big question is: the athletes. Could you get an Olympic athlete to agree to display their biometrics for an audience of millions?
“I think the athletes will get more comfortable with it,” Solomon said. “Technology is in all of our daily lives in terms of biometrics and and health technology.”
But that could be a tough sell.
“I would probably err on the side of privacy because, say your heart rate was high – it does not necessarily mean you are nervous, but some people might read it that way,” said Kelsey Plum, who won a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics with the United States women’s basketball team and stars in both the WNBA and Unrivaled leagues. “I would not mind wearing a camera on my uniform if it was placed inside the number or something like that, but biometric data? I would naturally not be up for that.”
Executives such as NBC’s Solomon and CBC’s Wilson will keep asking themselves this fundamental question: How can we take the Olympic viewer as close as possible to the athlete experience? Because that will be the expectation for the next generation of Olympic viewers.
Imagine being in Lindsey Vonn’s boots going down an Olympic downhill? How cool is that? That’s where this is heading …– NBC Olympic executive Molly Solomon
“We’ve worked really well with the IOC to unlock more access backstage, things like being in the corral before athletes head to the start,” Solomon said. “The gold medal for us would be to link augmented immersive technology and take you real-time into a replay to the athlete experience. Imagine being in the blocks with Noah Lyles where you can see what it’s like to run the 100 and win by a couple thousandths of a second. I’m not talking about a camera on Lindsey Vonn, because technically we can get there now. But imagine being in Lindsey Vonn’s boots going down an Olympic downhill? How cool is that? That’s where this is heading, and I hope we get there before 10 to 15 years.”
“If you ask me what I hope we could do in 20 years, what I would tell you is I’d want whatever tool exists that can still bring groups together,” Wilson said. “I want young Canadians to still feel the magic of 20 million people going nuts when Sidney Crosby scores a Golden Goal. We have to make sure that sense of community, nation-building and uniting can still happen — and that it’s not just individual experiences watching on their own virtual headset. That’s why we invest so much in the Olympics. Because of what it does to unite the country.”
That’s probably the safest bet of all. Even 20 years into the future, watching the Olympics will still provide us with an increasingly rare gift in our modern world: a shared experience.
Source link
