NBC’s Paris Olympics coverage will have AI-generated recaps, split screen, and more
NBC’s Paris Olympics coverage will have AI-generated recaps, split screen, and more
The Paris 2024 Olympics are nearly here. The opening ceremony starts on July 26th, and this year’s events run through August 11th. On the main NBC channel, you can see hours of live morning and afternoon coverage of events like swimming and gymnastics ahead of a three-hour primetime recap, to go along with livestreams of every sport and event and full event replays on Peacock.
One key aspect of NBC’s Peacock coverage will be an Olympics hub, which spotlights major events happening live, lets you browse by sport and by “star athlete,” offers an interactive schedule, and includes an up-to-date count of medal standings.
Peacock’s Olympics hub.
NBC is also offering a way to catch up on the events of the previous day on Peacock — and, because it’s 2024, it of course involves AI. “Your Daily Olympic Recap,” a personalized daily recap, will be narrated by an AI-generated version of legendary sportscaster Al Michaels’ voice. Yes, really — I have some more information on that in another article.
Peacock will also have a new feature called Peacock Live Actions, which NBC describes as “a new interactive tool that lets fans choose their own viewing journey during live and primetime coverage.”
As an example, NBC says that while watching its “Gold Zone” whiparound show that serves as an Olympics-focused version of NFL RedZone and even features RedZone host Scott Hanson, you can choose to keep watching a specific live feed shown during the show instead of being shuffled to whatever Gold Zone covers next.
Peacock’s Discovery Multiview.
If you want to watch a bunch of events on your TV, phone, tablet, or computer all at the same time, a special Peacock Discovery Multiview will include onscreen information like what’s at stake for a particular competitor or when the person onscreen is a first-time Olympian. The feature means you can keep up with the action even while your audio or captions are tuned in to a different feed. There will also be a “traditional” multiview that NBC says will be available for certain sports, including soccer, track and field, and wrestling. Both multiviews will let you watch up to four events at once.
Disclosure: Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal, is also an investor in Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company.