Wikipedia

Olympics on United States television

The Olympic Games (Summer and Winter) have been televised in the United States since 1960. It has become one of the most popular programs on USA television every four and then two years. The Olympics has been exclusively broadcast on NBC and NBCUniversal's TV networks in the United States since 1988 for the Summer Olympics and 2002 for the Winter Olympics. American television companies are one of the major sources of revenue for the IOC.[1]

History

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1960s

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The first telecast of the Olympics on American TV was from the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California. It was shown on CBS. During the games, officials asked Tony Verna, one of the members of the production staff, if it could use its videotape equipment to determine whether or not a slalom skier missed a gate. Verna then returned to CBS headquarters in New York City and developed the first instant replay system, which debuted at the Army–Navy football game in 1963.

Later that year, CBS showed the 1960 Summer Olympics from Rome. The network showed about 20 hours of coverage of track and field, swimming, and other sports. Because communications satellites, which would have provided direct transmissions between the United States and Italy, were not yet available, production staff members flew footage from Rome to CBS headquarters in New York for later telecast. Jim McKay, then a relatively unknown radio and TV personality, was the host.[2]

A different network showed the 1964 Winter Olympics: ABC. Roone Arledge won broadcast rights for his network and began a relationship with the Olympics that would last over two decades. The program used many of the same production staff from ABC's Wide World of Sports, as well as the same host, McKay, who moved to ABC in 1961. The following October, NBC showed the 1964 Summer Olympics from Tokyo, marking its Olympic TV debut. This time, NBC used the Syncom 3 satellite for direct broadcasts, with the opening ceremonies being broadcast live and in color (the first live color television program ever transmitted by satellite from overseas to the United States; the opening and closing ceremonies were the only portions of NBC's 1964 coverage from Tokyo seen in color). ABC showed both the 1968 Winter Olympics and the 1968 Summer Olympics; both of which were (with the exception of a handful of events) broadcast in color.

Also recorded at the 1968 Summer Olympics was the Black Power salute, a civil rights protest put on by American athletes John Carlos and Tommie Smith at their award ceremony for the 200-meter dash. After the IOC had banned Smith and Carlos, reporter Howard Cosell criticized the committee, calling them "pompous, arrogant, medieval minded men who regard the games as a private social preserve for their tiny clique..." and voiced his support for the African American athletes.[3]

1970s

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NBC showed the 1972 Winter Olympics from Sapporo, Japan, then ABC returned to carry the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. It was during the Summer Games that terrorists attacked the Olympic Village and killed 11 Israeli athletes. Although Chris Schenkel was the actual host of the Games that year, Arledge assigned the story to McKay largely because he had been a local news anchor in Baltimore, Maryland prior to joining CBS (and later ABC). McKay was joined on set by ABC news correspondent (and former and future evening news anchor) Peter Jennings, and coverage continued for many hours until the outcome was known. McKay later won an Emmy Award for his coverage.[4]

By the time the 1976 edition came around, McKay was installed as ABC's Olympic host, a role he would play throughout the 1970s and '80s.

1980s

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ABC aired the 1980 Winter Olympics, 1984 Winter and Summer, and the 1988 Winter Olympics. After that, the network, at the insistence of new owner Capital Cities Communications (much to the chagrin of Roone Arledge's successor at ABC Sports, Dennis Swanson), opted not to bid for the rights to show any future Games.

NBC had won the U.S. broadcast rights for the 1980 Summer Olympics, but when the United States announced its boycott in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the telecasts were cancelled.

NBC then bid for, and won, the rights to show the 1988 Summer Olympics. Network officials convinced the organizers in Seoul to stage most of its gold-medal finals in the afternoon, which is prime time of the previous night in the U.S. Bryant Gumbel was the host that year.

1990s

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NBC

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Just as his mentor Roone Arledge had before, Dick Ebersol, who took over NBC Sports in 1989, decided to make the Olympics a staple of his network's sports television schedule. NBC continued its Summer Games coverage into the decade, with both the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Previously hosting late night coverage in Seoul, Bob Costas made his debut as primetime host in Barcelona. It is a role that he held through the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

1992 Olympics Triplecast
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NBC's 1992 bid cost $401 million thinking that the rival networks would bid at least $400 million. In order to defray costs of airing the games, the network teamed up with Cablevision for the Triplecast. The service consisted of red, white, and blue channels that allowed the viewer to watch anything they wanted even before it aired in the network's primetime telecast. However, the service was a dismal failure losing $100 million and had only 200,000 subscribers. In addition, the main network's coverage was cannibalized to the extent it seemed that the main coverage was overproduced and that viewers knew some results about 10 hours before they were aired over the air on NBC. For Atlanta, NBC had no supplemental cable coverage.

1996 Olympic Park bombing
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And as with Arledge in Munich, Ebersol had to deal with breaking news during the Atlanta Games. During the Centennial Olympic Park bombing in 1996, NBC suspended its coverage of a volleyball game and broadcast the news for several hours commercial-free. Like ABC's 1972 Munich coverage, the main primetime host didn't cover the bombing. That role went to both Hannah Storm and Jim Lampley for the first half-hour before turning coverage over to NBC Nightly News host Tom Brokaw. Toward the end of the second hour of coverage, NBC had an exclusive as Atlanta TV affiliate WXIA was in the process of interviewing Janet Evans during the bombing.

CBS

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As for the Winter Games, CBS had a similar sweep of coverage in the U.S. during the decade; it showed all three contests (1992, 1994, and 1998). The 1994 Games saw the nights with the highest ratings in the history of American Olympic telecasts, as a result of the scandal in which associates of Tonya Harding attacked Nancy Kerrigan and the media frenzy that followed, as well as Dan Jansen's speed skating gold medal win. The short program on February 23 is, as of 2008, the sixth-highest rated primetime TV program in American history. It had a rating of 48.5 and a share of 64. The long program two days later had a rating of 44.1 and another 64 share; it ranks 32nd.[5] Each telecast had a different primetime host(s): Paula Zahn and Tim McCarver in 1992, Greg Gumbel in 1994, and Jim Nantz in 1998.

As with NBC, CBS decided that it needed help to defray the increasing costs of broadcast rights. CBS's Winter Games coverage was shared with TNT, which aired events under the promotional slogan "The ultimate daytime drama." Nick Charles and Fred Hickman hosted the coverage from Turner's Atlanta studios in 1992 and 1994, while Jim Lampley was the host in 1998. While CBS had the top choice of events and had their own feed, TNT had to do with the world feed and aired their own events which was some sports CBS would not touch including curling in 1998.

The Late Show with David Letterman
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Also supplementing CBS's coverage was David Letterman as his show was Olympic-themed in both 1994 and 1998 while the network aired the Olympics. A centerpiece of that coverage was nightly segments with his mother Dorothy, who was on-site at both the Lillehammer and Nagano Olympics.

2000s

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Coverage in the first decade of the 21st century revolved around two major storylines:

  • NBC became the sole U.S. rights holder for the Olympic Games for the entire decade and beyond. The network boasted of being "America's Olympic Network" as it made the longest and most expensive commitment ever since the Olympics were first presented on TV.[citation needed] For the 1996 Summer Games, and all Games from 2000 to 2008, NBC paid a total of $3.5 billion, mostly to the International Olympic Committee but also to the USOC and local organizers. To extend rights to the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2012 Summer Olympics, NBC then gave up another $2.2 billion.[6]
  • The rise of various media platforms extended the reach and availability of Games coverage. NBC returned to supplemental cable/satellite coverage in 2000, with some events on CNBC and MSNBC. In 2004, it added USA Network, Bravo, and Telemundo, all of which parent company NBC Universal had acquired earlier in the decade. Finally, in 2008, events were streamed live for the first time on the Internet through the website NBCOlympics.com. (Also in 2008, Oxygen replaced Bravo as a supplemental network, and NBC launched high-definition channels dedicated to the basketball and soccer competitions.)

As was the case with Seoul in 1988, NBC convinced the organizers of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics to stage many of their major events during the late morning and early afternoon hours, which translated to live coverage during prime time in the United States.

2010s

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NBC's broadcasts of the 2010 Winter Olympics resulted in a loss of $233 million,[7] due to the belief that it had overbid for the rights to the 2010 and 2012 Olympics, and an advertising market still recovering from the Great Recession (which had especially impacted automakers, a major market segment for Olympic advertisers).[8][9][10] NBC's coverage also came amid continued criticism of its broadcast delay practices for the west coast (which persisted even though the Games were being hosted on the North American west coast).[10]

In 2011, Comcast completed its acquisition of a majority stake in NBC Universal (now NBCUniversal). That June, the IOC held a sealed-bid auction on the rights to the 2014 Winter Olympics and 2016 Summer Olympics. Amid competing bids by Fox Sports and ABC/ESPN Inc.,[11][12] NBC renewed its rights to the Olympics across all platforms through 2020 in a deal worth $4.38 billion—the most expensive contract for Olympic media rights to-date.[13][14] In May 2014, NBCUniversal extended its rights through 2032, paying $7.75 billion.[15]

Broadcasts Summary

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Summer Olympic Games

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Year Broadcaster Host Hours of Coverage[16] Opening
ceremonies
viewership[17] 		Closing
ceremonies
viewership[17] 		Rights Fee[16]
1960   CBS Rome, Italy 20 $394,000
1964   NBC Tokyo, Japan 15[18] $1.5m
1968   ABC Mexico City, Mexico 43.75 $4.5m
1972   ABC Munich, Germany 62.75 $7.5m
1976   ABC Montreal, Canada 76.5 13.9m $25m
1984   ABC Los Angeles, United States 180 $225m
1988   NBC Seoul, South Korea 179.5[19] 22.7m 18.3m $300m
1992   NBC Barcelona, Spain 161[16] + 1080 on Triplecast[20] 21.6m 21.4m $401m
1996   NBC Atlanta, United States 171[21] 39.8m 34.1m $456m
2000   NBC Sydney, Australia 441.5[21] 27.3m 16.7m $705m
2004   NBC Athens, Greece 1210[21][22] 25.4m 19.6m $793m
2008   NBC Beijing, China 3600[19] 34.9m[23] 27.8m[23] $894m
2012   NBC London, United Kingdom 5535[24] 40.7m[25] 31.0m $1.18b
2016   NBC Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 6755 29.3m 16.9m $1.226b
2020   NBC Tokyo, Japan 7000 16.7m [26] 8.9m [27]
2024   NBC Paris, France 7000[28] 28.6m[29] TBD TBD
2028   NBC Los Angeles, United States TBD TBD TBD TBD
2032   NBC Brisbane, Australia TBD TBD TBD TBD

Winter Olympic Games

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Year Broadcaster Host Hours of Coverage[16] Opening
ceremonies
viewership[17] 		Closing
ceremonies
viewership[17] 		Rights Fee[16]
1960   CBS Squaw Valley, United States 15 $50,000
1964   ABC Innsbruck, Austria 17.5 $597,000
1968   ABC Grenoble, France 27 $2.5m
1972  NBC Sapporo, Japan 37[18] $6.4m
1976   ABC Innsbruck, Austria 43.5 2m $10m
1980   ABC Lake Placid, United States 53.25 11.4m $15.5m
1984   ABC Sarajevo, Yugoslavia 63 $91.5m
1988   ABC Calgary, Canada 94.5 $309m
1992   CBS + TNT[30] Albertville, France 116 24m 20m $243m
1994   CBS + TNT Lillehammer, Norway 119.5 33.9m 34.5m $300m
1998   CBS + TNT Nagano, Japan 123.8 27.2m 18.4m $375m
2002   NBC Salt Lake City, United States 375.5[31][32] 45.6m 38.7m $545m
2006   NBC Torino, Italy 416[31][33] $613m
2010   NBC Vancouver, Canada 835[34] $820m
2014   NBC Sochi, Russia 1539[35] $775m
2018   NBC Pyeongchang, South Korea 2400 $963m
2022   NBC Beijing, China 2800
2026   NBC Milan, Italy TBD TBD TBD TBD

Criticisms

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Perhaps the most often heard criticism that some events are shown on disk- or tape delay rather than live. Even if sports are shown live to some parts of the country, it may remain delayed in others, especially in the Pacific Time Zone. NBC has explained that primetime coverage of select events, regardless of when they actually occur, is designed to maximize the total viewing audience.

Some examples of broadcast delay include:

  • The 1980 Miracle on Ice, which ABC showed in primetime, about three hours after it actually took place. (The Americans' gold medal–clinching game against Finland was aired live, despite a start time of 11am EST on a Sunday morning. All US hockey games in the Winter Olympics since 1988 have been shown live, and since 1992, in full.)
  • The relay race in 1984 in which Carl Lewis won his fourth gold medal.
  • In 1996, much of the artistic gymnastics competition at the Atlanta Olympics was held in the afternoon, and was shown by NBC three to four hours after the competition ended.
  • Nearly the entire 2000 schedule from Sydney, Australia, in some cases by nearly a day. (The only live telecast was the men's basketball final, which was shown live only after fans objected to the delayed coverage of earlier games.)
  • For Pacific and Mountain Time Zone viewers, most of the 2010 Winter Olympics coverage was on delay, despite that the games were held in the Pacific Time Zone. As a result, viewers in Bellingham, Washington could not watch NBC's live coverage as it aired on the east coast despite the fact that they are just over 50 miles away from Vancouver.
    • Also, viewers in most of the Mountain time zone and all of the Pacific time zone could not watch live prime-time coverage of the 2002 Winter Olympics despite the fact many of the prime-time events took place around the Salt Lake City, Utah area. However, KSL-TV was allowed to air NBC's prime-time coverage live.
  • The opening ceremony for the 2012 London Games, which NBC refused to air (or even stream on the internet) live, choosing instead to tape delay it and show in prime time for US audiences.[36]

The broadcast delay practice even for major events has become increasingly frustrating with viewers in recent times due to the increased usage of social networking and Web sites (including the official Olympic site and NBC's Olympic website) posting results in real time.[37] As a result, these practices has spawned outrage across the internet and even raising concerns from politicians.[38]

On a related note, networks not part of the Olympic coverage, even including NBC News, are given very restrictive policies on showing highlights. For example, ESPN can show only a total of eight minutes of highlights per day, and must essentially wait until the next day to show any of it. (Reportedly, the only reason it can even show highlights at all is the unusual deal that sent Al Michaels to NBC Sunday Night Football in 2006, and returned the rights of Walt Disney's Oswald the Lucky Rabbit from Universal Studios to The Walt Disney Company.)

While every respective country's broadcast is biased towards the home athletes to a certain extent, NBC has faced scrutiny for allegedly focusing more on American athletes and less on other athletes from other countries, especially during the network's tape-delayed primetime coverage. This has proven to be unfounded and indeed NBC has been considered more inclusive of other countries' athletes than other countries' Olympic broadcasters. NBC's focus on U.S. athletes has been the subject of a series of studies that have shown NBC places a heavier emphasis on U.S. athletes during the Summer Games than during the Winter Games.[39][40][41] When the NBC 2014 primetime Olympic broadcast was compared to those broadcast in Canada by the CBC, it was determined that CBC placed more emphasis, by a statistically significant margin, on Canadian athletes than NBC placed on U.S. athletes.[42] Furthermore, such countries as Russia (broadcasters Channel One and Match TV), focus solely on their own athletes, ignoring events where they do not participate.[43] By contrast, NBC often devotes considerable coverage to favorite foreigners such as Usain Bolt.[44]

Unequal representation of genders has also been a criticism the coverage of the Olympics has faced. From 1992–1998, men received over 56 percent more coverage than women.[45] The situation improved over time, with NBC Olympics introducing programs dedicated exclusively to women's sports.[46]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Fewer Russians Could Be a Windfall for U.S. Olympic Business". The New York Times. 7 December 2017. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  2. ^ Maraniss, David (2008). Rome 1960: The Olympics that Changed the World. New York: Simon and Schuster.
  3. ^ Howard Cosell Exposes Sham of Smith & Carlos Expulsion from 1968 Olympics - ABC News - 10/18/1968, archived from the original on 2021-12-21, retrieved 2021-03-07
  4. ^ The Tragedy of the Munich Games (DVD). ABC Sports. 2002.
  5. ^ "All-Time Top Rated TV Programs". ESPN Sports Almanac. 2008. p. 602.
  6. ^ "Television Rights". ESPN Sports Almanac. 2008. p. 609.
  7. ^ "$223 Million Loss for NBC is Better Than Expected". The New York Times. Associated Press. 2010-04-17. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
  8. ^ Weisman, Jon (2010-01-29). "Olympics become NBC loss-leader". Variety. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
  9. ^ James, Meg. "For NBC, Games are no sure thing". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
  10. ^ a b Schechner, Sam; Chozick, Amy (2010-02-11). "Tape-Delayed Olympic Contests Annoy the Instant-Update World". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
  11. ^ Berkes, Howard (6 June 2011). "NBC's Olympic TV Dynasty Challenged In Rights Bidding". NPR.org. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
  12. ^ Holmes, Linda (6 June 2011). "Might A Shake-Up In Olympics Coverage Fix A Badly Broken System?". NPR.org. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
  13. ^ Sandomir, Richard (2011-06-07). "NBC Wins U.S. Television Rights to Four More Olympics". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
  14. ^ Anthony Crupi (2011-06-07). "Update: NBC Bids $4.38 Billion for Olympic Gold". Ad Week. Retrieved 2011-06-07.
  15. ^ Armour, Nancy. "NBC Universal pays $7.75 billion for Olympics through 2032". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
  16. ^ a b c d e Hiestand, Martzke, Michael, Rudy (April 21, 2003). "Bidding for the Olympics on TV". USA Today.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  17. ^ a b c d "HISTORICAL TV RATINGS FOR PAST OLYMPICS BROADCASTS", Nielsen, August 5, 2008. Accessed August 22, 2016
  18. ^ a b "The World Comes Together in Your Living Room: The Olympics on TV".
  19. ^ a b Gerald Eskenazi (September 18, 1988). "THE SEOUL OLYMPICS: TV Sports; NBC's Coverage Captures the Color, but Not the Fun". The New York Times.
  20. ^ "Nbc's Olympian Gamble". Newsweek. January 13, 1992.
  21. ^ a b c "NBC's Olympic Coverage from Athens". USOC PressBox. Archived from the original on February 27, 2006. Retrieved May 8, 2008.
  22. ^ Includes 226 hours on NBC, 133.5 hours on MSNBC, 111 hours on CNBC, 122 hours on Bravo, 49 hours on USA and 169.5 hours on Telemundo
  23. ^ a b "2008 OLYMPICS U.S. PRIMETIME DAILY TV RATINGS", August 27, 2008.
  24. ^ "The Olympic Television Guide". Sports Illustrated. July 26, 2012. Archived from the original on July 31, 2012. Retrieved July 27, 2012.
  25. ^ "Olympics 2012: NBC finds vindication in opening ceremony record", L.A. Times, July 28, 2012.
  26. ^ Coster, Helen (July 24, 2021). "Tokyo Olympics opening draws 16.7 million U.S. TV viewers, a 33-year low". Reuters. Retrieved February 11, 2022.
  27. ^ Patten, Dominic (August 9, 2021). "Tokyo Olympics Fall To All-Time Summer Viewership Low For NBC; Closing Ceremony Craters In Early Results". Deadline. Retrieved February 11, 2022.
  28. ^ "NBCUNIVERSAL'S PARIS OLYMPICS "BY THE NUMBERS"" (Press release). Stamford, Conn.: Comcast. NBC Sports. 2024-07-23. Retrieved 2024-07-29.
  29. ^ Fisher, Eric (July 29, 2024). "2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony, Saturday TV Ratings Way Up". Front Office Sports. Retrieved July 29, 2024.
  30. ^ "WINTER GAMES WILL BE SHOWN ON TNT CABLE, TOO". Deseret News. Deseret Management Corporation. September 27, 1989.
  31. ^ a b "NBC ANNOUNCES UNPRECEDENTED COVERAGE OF THE 2006 TORINO OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES". US Olympic Team. Archived from the original on September 22, 2008. Retrieved May 8, 2008.
  32. ^ Includes 207 hours on CNBC and MSNBC
  33. ^ Includes 182.5 hours on NBC and 233.5 hours on CNBC, MSNBC and USA
  34. ^ "NBC Universal Announces Coverage Plans for 2010 Winter Olympics". Fang's Bites. January 14, 2010. Archived from the original on December 19, 2011. Retrieved April 6, 2011.
  35. ^ Chad, Norman (January 19, 2014). "Sochi Olympics: Couch Slouch guide to NBC's 1,539 hours of Winter Games programming". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  36. ^ Scott Collins (2012-07-27). "NBC ripped for not livestreaming opening ceremony of Olympics". Los Angeles Times.
  37. ^ "Tape Delay an Olympic Dilemma". newser. 2010-02-11.
  38. ^ "Even Senators Hated NBC Universal's Olympic Coverage". techdirt. 2010-03-01.
  39. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-08-19. Retrieved 2016-08-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  40. ^ Billings, Andrew; Angelini, James R.; MacArthur, Paul J.; Smith, Lauren R.; Vincent, John (1 June 2014). "Fanfare for the American NBC's Prime-Time Broadcast of the 2012 London Olympiad". Electronic News. 8 (2): 101–119. doi:10.1177/1931243114546447. S2CID 61358519.
  41. ^ Billings, A.C., Angelini, J.R., & MacArthur, P.J. (2018). Olympic Television: Broadcasting the Biggest Show on Earth. Routledge. ISBN 9781138930322.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  42. ^ Angelini, James R.; MacArthur, Paul J.; Smith, Lauren Reichart; Billings, Andrew C. (3 December 2015). "Nationalism in the United States and Canadian primetime broadcast coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics". International Review for the Sociology of Sport. 52 (7): 779–800. doi:10.1177/1012690215619205. S2CID 148118877.
  43. ^ "Russian state broadcasters commit to PyeongChang coverage". Retrieved 2018-02-06.
  44. ^ Alexander, Harriet (10 August 2016). "NBC criticised for 'worst ever' Olympic coverage in America". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2016-08-11.
  45. ^ Billings, Andrew C.; Eastman, Susan Tyler (2002-12-01). "Selective Representation of Gender, Ethnicity, and Nationality in American Television Coverage of the 2000 Summer Olympics". International Review for the Sociology of Sport. 37 (3–4): 351–370. doi:10.1177/101269020203700302. ISSN 1012-6902. S2CID 144331744.
  46. ^ "On Her Turf Is The First NBC Show Providing Dedicated Coverage To Women's Olympic Sports". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2022-02-11.
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