NBCUniversal Broadcast Of Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony To Start With Commercial-Free Hour

Six Team USA advertising partners are teaming to make the first hour of NBCUniversal’s coverage of Friday’s Opening Ceremony of the Paris Olympics commercial-free.

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The spectacle kicking off the first full-on Summer Games since 2016 is due to be a splashy affair involving a light show at the Eiffel Tower and boats carrying athletes down a four-mile stretch of the Seine.

NBCUniversal’s live coverage will air Friday on NBC and flagship streaming service Peacock. It will include a commercial-free hour beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET, sponsored by six Team USA partners: The Coca-Cola Company, Delta, Lilly, Toyota Motor Corporation, Visa, and Xfinity. (In the Olympic ad and sponsorship world, Team USA enlists sponsors, which in turn then have spots and presence onsite, on air and online.)

It will be the first-time in Olympics history that the Opening Ceremony will include commercial-free coverage, NBCU said.

During the initial hour, brand logos for each sponsor will have a presence onscreen and will rotate in 10-minute increments.

“We are proud to partner with these six Team USA partners to bring fans the first-ever commercial-free hour of coverage for an Opening Ceremony,” said Dan Lovinger, President, Olympic & Paralympic Partnerships, NBCUniversal. “The Opening Ceremony will be packed with emotion and evoke a profound sense of unity for everyone watching. Running commercial-free will help to amplify this grand spectacle.”

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Lovinger in April said $1.2 billion had been spent by ad buyers to that point, with the final tally sure to set a new record for any single Olympics.

“At The Coca-Cola Company, we believe in the real magic that can happen when the world comes together, so being a part of this spectacular presentation of the Opening Ceremony on NBC is a tremendous opportunity to celebrate and share those unifying and inspiring moments,” said Robin Triplett, VP, Integrated Marketing at Coca-Cola North America.

The Opening Ceremony will feature a four-mile-long flotilla of nearly 90 boats that will carry thousands of athletes from more than 200 countries. Award-winning director Thomas Jolly is the ceremony’s artistic director and reports have teased a potential performance by Celine Dion, who has not performed live in more than two years for medical reasons.

Coverage will be hosted by NBC Olympics primetime host Mike Tirico alongside talk show host and pop singer Kelly Clarkson as well as NFL Hall of Famer Peyton Manning. A number of other personalities from NBC Sports and NBC News are also slated to appear on Friday’s telecast.

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