After widespread criticism of NBC‘s airing of the 2012 Summer Olympics, the television network announced that it will live stream Sunday’s closing ceremony online.
NBC Sports Chairman Mark Lazarus acknowledged that the network’s much-maligned handling of the Olympic opening ceremony led to this change.
“Going into the opening ceremony, we didn’t have a sense for what our ratings would be and what streaming would or wouldn’t do to our broadcasts,” Lazarus told the Associated Press. “But we think we’ve learned enough and have promised to innovate and continually evolve our broadcast coverage.”
NBC concluded that live streaming hadn’t cut into its prime-time viewership, the AP reported.
The entire closing ceremony will be live streamed on NBCOlympics.com, and on the NBC Olympics Live Extra App for mobile devices and tablets, beginning at 4 p.m. ET., according to a press release. Only cable, satellite and telco customers who verify their subscriptions will be able to access the live stream, it said.
Sunday’s ceremony will also air on a tape-delayed basis during the lucrative primetime slot. British acts The Who and the Spice Girls are among those expected to perform.
NBC’s decision to tape-delay the opening ceremony and other Olympic events inspired the popular Twitter hashtag, #NBCFail. The network also angered viewers by providing awkward commentary and spoiling race outcomes, including the Michael Phelps-Ryan Lochte 400-meter individual medley showdown (Lochte won; Phelps finished a disappointing fourth).
The delays have even even spawned a Twitter parody account, @NBCDelayed, which currently has more than 31,000 followers. It tweets out gems, like this one:
SPOILER ALERT: London to host 2012 Olympics
— NBC Delayed (@NBCDelayed) August 2, 2012
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