Citius, Altius, Snowius.
Well, here we are again, with another Winter Games. (Throughout this daily blog, I am avoiding the O-word as to not annoy the QISE Organizing Committee’s attorneys). As always, this is NOT the place to find out who won and lost--I'm far more interested in the pageantry, the marketing, and how the Peacock distributes everything in the era of cord-cutting and social media.
Speaking of those:
- There are a plethora of sources for actual coverage (FYI--most of the online stuff requires authorization, which requires a cable/satellite subscription, which leaves out legally-inclined cord cutters)
- the Peacock mothership (176 live hours)
- USA Network (40.5 hours of hockey and curling)
- CNBC (46 hours including more curling)
- NBCSN (369 hours, including 24 hour coverage plus live primetime)
- nbcqise.com
- qisechannel.com (and an accompanying app)
- The NBCSports app
- a daily podcast
- and 50 hours of Virtual Reality coverage
- The Peacock set up an Instagram account months ago, and has been filling it up daily with countdowns and videos of the athletes (I'm sure there are others, but I really only follow FB and Instagram)
The big story going into QISE is how North Korea is responding to their southern neighbor's event. As of this writing, there is a "United Team" from both countries, while a Soviet-style military parade is being scheduled. There are lots of additional stories (9-figure facilities that will be torn down afterwards, security teams and the norovirus, the inevitable complaints when the Peacock delays coverage to show it in primetime, how well Mike Tirico will step into the McKay/Costas hosting role) which we will get to on this blog.
SFPPN also created a weekly "From the Pop Culture Bunker" series which covers the history of Winter QISE, so you can check that out.
Tomorrow—let the games begin!