PARIS, FRANCE – JULY 06: Pont des Arts on Seine River and Eiffel Tower illuminated … [+]
Friday July 26 marks the start of the 17-day Paris Summer Olympics. For the “City of Light”, it marks the third time it has hosted the Summer Games and the first time since 1924. The Paris Games organizing committee says the Opening Ceremony will be the biggest in Olympic history. Here’s what viewers need to know at one of the world’s most popular media events.
In the first phase, the Parade of Nations will not take place in the Olympic Stadium. Instead, the procession will take place on the Seine River. Athletes will travel in boats along the river as it weaves its way through the center of Paris. The Parade of Nations will start under the Austerlitz Bridge and pass iconic Parisian landmarks such as Notre-Dame, Pont-Neuf and the Louvre, as well as some of the event venues. The boat ride ends at the Trocadéro, an adventure near the Eiffel Tower.
Due to security concerns, the number of spectators will be limited to around 300,000 watching along the banks of the Seine River. There will also be 80 giant screens along the waterway. The parade is 3.7 miles (six kilometers) long and is expected to last nearly four hours.
The river parade is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. Paris time. With sunset at 9:37 p.m., officials mark the Opening Ceremonies will provide“an unprecedented experience, using the natural light of the setting sun in all its shades to illuminate the promenade of all the world’s best athletes along the Seine in the heart of the capital”.
One more time, NBC will televise and Peacock will stream the olympics. With a six-hour time difference from New York, the live event will begin at 1:30 p.m. (ET) and in Los Angeles at 10:30 a.m. (PT). At 12 noon (ET) NBCU’s live coverage will begin with a 90-minute Olympic Preview.
NBC and Peacock will have enhanced encore telecasts in the prime hour of the day’s events. The telecast will begin at 7:30 p.m. (ET), at 6:30 p.m. (CT), at 6:30 p.m. (MT) and at 7:30 p.m. (PT). While NBC is a free over-the-air broadcast network, Peacock offers two subscription tiers. Premium Plus at $11.99 per month without ads and Premium with ads is $5.99 per month.
In addition to Peacock, the Opening Ceremony (and all Olympic events) will also be streamed on NBCOlympics.com, NBC.com, the NBC app and the NBC Olympics app. NBC says users who authenticate their cable subscription can watch the live stream of the opening ceremony on NBCOlympics.com, NBC.com, the NBC app or the NBC Olympics app. Viewers will be able to watch on mobile, tablet and connected TV devices.
On NBC the opening ceremonies will be emceed by Mike Tirico. For Tirico, this will be his fourth time hosting NBC’s primetime Olympic coverage. For the induction ceremony, Tirico will be joined by Grammy Award-winning singer Kelly Clarkson and NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning. NBC Sports’ Maria Taylor will provide commentary from the US Olympic team boat. Also, Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb host it The Today Show it will be placed on a bridge over the river Seine.
The The Opening Ceremonies begin with the entrance of the Head of State (French President Emmanuel Macron) and President of the ILO (Thomas Bach), followed by raising the French flag and the rejection of the French national anthem. Next is the Parade of Nations. There will be approximately 94 boats in the parade. Each boat will have cameras that will give television and streaming viewers a chance to see the athletes up close.
Other Opening Ceremony activities will include official speeches, the raising of the Olympic flag, the lighting of the Olympic flame (at the Trocadéro) and will conclude with an artistic program highlighting French culture. 10,500 athletes will participate in the Games, representing 206 nations. More than 100 heads of state will also attend.
With the ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, security will be tight. For the Opening Ceremony, there will be 45,000 police officers present, including special intervention forces, snipers on top of buildings and an anti-drone system. Also, citizens and spectators of Paris will have to have permits in a QR code to get anywhere. Cars will be restricted, metro stations and bridges in the surrounding area will be closed and planes will be banned (unless they are part of the ceremony). More than 12 million people are expected to visit Paris during the Games.
As with Olympic TV viewing in general, audiences for the Opening Ceremonies have declined. For the opening ceremonies of the delayed 2021 Tokyo Olympics, NBC’s coverage averaged 16.7 million viewers (17 million across all platforms), a 33-year low. By comparison, NBC’s 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games Opening Ceremonies averaged 26.5 million viewers. The opening ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympics on NBC averaged 40.7 million viewers. Globally, the Opening Ceremonies are expected to be watched by hundreds of millions of viewers.
