Get ready. The skiing, the skating and the ever-odd curling are back. After the prescribed four-year slumber, the 2014 Winter Olympics from Sochi, Russia, are on their way, abetted hugely by NBC Sports Group”™s new corporate presence in the remade Clairol factory in Stamford. The Business Journal put several questions to NBC”™s communications department.
We”™ve begun to see ads for the Sochi Olympics on NBC. What specific steps are you undertaking in Stamford toward the coverage?
“NBC Sports Group”™s International Broadcast Center in Stamford is the home of our NBC Olympics division, which is responsible for producing, programming and promoting NBCUniversal”™s Olympic coverage. In addition to our editorial coverage of the Sochi Olympics, employees in the building are working on multiple other elements including, marketing, operations, and communications.”
How many employees in Stamford are dedicated to Olympic coverage? Will any of them operate from Sochi?
“More than 400 full-time employees will contribute to NBC Olympics”™ coverage of the Sochi Games. Hundreds of employees will remain in Stamford to work on the Sochi Olympics, but our overall staff in Russia will exceed 1,000 freelance and full-time workers.”
For how long have you been working on the background pieces that have come to complement Olympic coverage?
“Our production efforts for the Olympics are ongoing and year round. We started working on certain production elements for the Sochi Games as early as two years ago. Planning began when Sochi was selected seven years ago.”
Several iconic Winter Olympic stories ”” Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding; the Miracle on Ice ”” have raised the bar for drama to the ski-jump heights of Matti Nykänen, the Flying Finn. Is any particular competition this year shaping up in advance to be must-see coverage?
“With more than 1,000 hours of Winter Olympic coverage being presented across NBC, NBCSN, CNBC, MSNBC, USA Network and NBCOlympics.com, we consider every event must-see TV.
“Some story lines this year include Lindsey Vonn”™s promising return to the Olympics; the debut of team ice skating and ski and snowboard slopestyle; Shaun White”™s quest to three-peat in the men”™s snowboard halfpipe competition; Shani Davis competing for a third gold medal in the men”™s 1000-meter speed skating event; as well as Bode Miller and Ted Ligety”™s potential returns in the men”™s downhill Super-G (giant slalom).
“With more Winter Olympic events than ever before, competition for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games will begin one day prior to the opening ceremony. As a result, NBC will begin its primetime coverage of the 2014 Sochi Olympics Thursday, Feb. 6, one night before the broadcast network provides its traditional coverage of the opening ceremony on Friday, Feb. 7. This marks the first time NBC will air Olympic primetime coverage before the opening ceremony. The primetime broadcast on Feb. 6 is scheduled to include competition in snowboard slopestyle (men”™s and women”™s), in which two-time gold medalist Shaun White is expected to compete in slopestyle”™s Olympic debut; team figure skating, which is also in the Olympics for the first time; and women”™s freestyle moguls competition.”
