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STORIES WE TELL
The development of Olympic television
I believe the Olympic Games to be the greatest single sporting event in the world.
(Roone Arledge, ABC Television Executive, 1965)
The Rio Olympic Games marked another milestone in Olympic television coverage. The Olympiad was carried on 584 television channels and 270 digital platforms. An estimated 3.2 billion people watched at least one minute of the Olympic Games on television and 2.6 billion tuned in for at least 15 minutes (International Olympic Committee, 2016). When the volume of programming across multiple platforms is combined with the immensity of the audience, it could rightly be hailed as the biggest show on earth.
In exchange for the access to this commodity, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) collects billions of dollars each year, with an American broadcast network responsible for the largest contribution to the IOCâs coffers because of the sheer magnitude of competition for U.S. broadcast rights and the potential return on investment. In exchange for exclusive audio and video rights to the Rio Games, NBC-Universal paid $1.226 billion (Dawson, 2016). NBC, in turn, licensed live radio coverage to Westwood One, in an attempt to fully take advantage of this asset and gain a greater return on its considerable expenditure.
Before the Rio Games began, NBC-Universal scheduled 6,755 hours of Olympic coverage: 260.5 hours were scheduled on the NBC broadcast network that reaches approximately 99 percent of all American households via more than 200 affiliates. Additional coverage was available on NBCâs sister networks: Bravo, CNBC, Golf Channel, MSNBC, NBC Sports Network, Telemundo, NBC Universo (a bilingual channel targeting Hispanic audiences), and USA Network. NBC also operated two temporary cable channels: one devoted to Olympic basketball and the other to Olympic soccer. Beyond that, approximately 4,500 hours were streamed via the NBC Olympic website and the NBC Sports app. NBC also used the event to showcase blossoming technology by providing more than 80 hours of coverage in 4K Ultra HD on a one-day delayed basis (NBC Olympics, 2016).
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While NBC devotes significantly more money to the Olympic Games than any other broadcaster in the world and American television networks have paid a disproportionate share of Olympic TV rights fees since 1960, Olympic television broadcasting was slow to develop in the United States. During the first 28 years of Olympic television, U.S. broadcasters viewed the Games from afar and their participation was relatively minimal, particularly when compared to European outlets. That changed in the 1960s as U.S. networks began to experiment with the Olympic Games as both a television programming form and an asset. During the 1960s and 1970s the narratives that defined how Americans consume and perceive the Olympics were developed, and by the 1980s the Olympic television narrative would be largely ensconced. Yet, the use of moving pictures to capture, promote and exploit the Olympics predates television and, in some ways, predicted both the television narratives and battles that would develop years later. This chapter will explore the evolution of Olympic television, from simple moving pictures on film more than a century ago to televised events in public viewing halls to the modern megacast rendered at the 2016 Rio Games.
The pre-television era: Olympic moving pictures before television
The most indelible memories of the Olympic Games are associated with moving pictures. Whether it is Jesse Owensâs performance in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Jim McKay announcing the fate of 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team in the 1972 Munich Games, or the Miracle on Ice at Lake Placid in 1980, moving pictures (and usually the sound associated with them) have indelibly etched these and other moments into the American consciousness.
As film was in its infancy when the first modern Olympiad took place in 1896, the successful marriage between the Games and moving pictures would take several years to develop. There is no known filmed record of the 1896 Athens Olympics and films purported to be from those Games proved to be from other events (Downing, 1986). Footage of the 1900 Universal Paris Exposition has survived, but not the Olympic events originally labeled âCompetitions of the Exhibitionâ held in conjunction with it (Downing, 2012a; Horne & Whannel, 2016). Some Olympic athletes in Paris did participate in studies using chronophotography taken by Etienne-Jules Marey, which would represent âthe first record in motion of Olympic athletesâ (McKernan, 2011, p. 565). The 1904 St. Louis Games were held in conjunction with the Worldâs Fair and relegated to âsideshowâ status. Film of the Worldâs Fair survived, but there is no footage from the Games (E. Hegglin, personal communication, February 20, 2017; McKernan, 2011).
The oldest known filmed record of Olympic competition is from the 1908 London Games. Films of the 1906 Intercalculated Games in Athens do exist, but the 1906 Games are not officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee (McKernan, 2011). Though a more concerted effort was made to document the 1908 Games, it would pale in comparison to future endeavors. The PathĂ© film company obtained exclusive rights to film within Londonâs White City Stadium, while other film companies shot events outside of the venue (McKernan, 2011). The exhibition of the newsreels in movie theaters increased exposure for the Games, with Downing (2012a) arguing that the footage of Dorando Peitriâs finish at the end of the marathonâwhere he was assisted to the finish line by officials and later disqualified for this assistanceâtransformed the Italian runner into an international celebrity.
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The 1912 Stockholm Games marked a turning point in the relationship between filmmakers and the Olympics. According to Dahlquist (2014), the Stockholm Organizing Committee sought bids for exclusive cinematic rights to the Games, advertising the availability of these rights internationally. After much confusion, the Organizing Committee eventually awarded the rights to AB Svensk-Amerikanska Filmkompaniet, who in turn commissioned the Pathé FrÚres production company, which had filmed some material for the 1908 Games, to provide technical assistance with the project.
At the time, the undertaking was also the largest filmed event in Swedish history and it foreshadowed future Olympic moving picture projects. AB Svensk-Amerikanska Filmkompanietâs exclusive cinematic rights were publicized in Swedish newspapers and enforced with guards in the stands. Filmed highlights of the Olympiad were shown daily in selected Stockholm theaters throughout the Games and continued to be presented in theatres after their conclusion. Though AB Svensk-Amerikanska Filmkompaniet failed to deliver an agreed upon official film of the Gamesâthe Olympic Committee would only gain a series of shorts when the company went into liquidation later that yearâPathĂ© FrĂšres distributed filmed highlights of the Stockholm Olympiad for years, creating greater exposure for both the Olympics and Sweden (Dahlquist, 2014).
World War I preempted the 1916 Berlin Games and the 1920 Antwerp Olympiad lacked the polish and organization of the Stockholm Games from eight years earlier. Attempts to sell exclusive film rights failed (Barney, Wenn, & Martyn, 2004) and no official Olympic film was produced. Nevertheless, organizations such as Pathé News did produce newsreels of the Games; little footage, however, appears to have survived (McKernan, 2011).
The 1924 Games in France were to be another story. Much to the chagrin of various American and European film interests, the French Organizing Committee sold exclusive motion picture rights for both the Winter and Summer Games to local Les Films Sportifs, which subsequently turned the filming over to Rapid-Film (McKernan, 2011). The rights for both motion pictures and still photos were sold under the premise that the plethora of photographers and motion picture equipment would create logistical problems. So, outside media organizations would be required to pay for newsreels produced by the French company. The concept of paying for newsreel images was unpopular with U.S. and European interests and though the battle for newsreel rights was economic, it also contained a nationalistic element. Media companies wanted to create appealing films for their home audiences (Dyreson, 2005). So contested was this issue that the American Rugby Team threatened to not to compete in the Games if an American firm could not film their matches at the Olympics. Fearing the consequences of such actions the French made a concession, allowing U.S. enterprises to film American rugby matches (Dyreson, 2005).
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Rights battles aside, the 1924 Olympics marked the beginning of a new tradition as the first full-length feature films documenting both the Winter (in Chamonix) and Summer (in Paris) Games were produced (Downing, 2012a; Dyreson, 2005). These films were exhibited in serialized formats in France and Britain, but it appears they had little impact outside of these countries, with McKernan (2011) suggesting that most audiences outside of France and Britain viewed the Olympics primarily through newsreels. Still, the films represented a significant step forward as they demonstrated âa marked improvement in image quality, technical sophistication and attention to individual athletic achievement from previous cinematographic recordsâ and represented a directional shift on content as, â[f]or the first time, the sport starts to shape the film that seeks to encompass itâ (McKernan, 2011, p. 568).
Battles over exclusive film rightsâand resultant control of the Olympic messageâ continued into the 1928 Games. The Swiss Organizing Committee signed an exclusive agreement with German company Olympia Film Aktiengesellschaft (OFA)/UFA for coverage of the Winter Games in St. Moritz (Dyreson, 2005). The firm, under the direction of Dr. Arnold Fanck, produced the official Olympic documentary Das Weisse Stadion, which appeared to receive little fanfare (McKernan, 2011).
When the Dutch entered into a similar arrangement with OFA for the Summer Games in Amsterdam, the Netherlands Organizing Committee faced internal and international uproar. Within the country, the press rallied against the choice of a German firm over Dutch interests. Outside of the Netherlands, U.S. newsreel companies maintained the Dutch were seeking $60,000 just for access to the produced Olympic filmsânot the right to actually control the filming or the content. They, in turn, sought intervention from both the U.S. Commerce and State Departments. The Dutch, however, refused to acquiesce (Dyreson, 2005).
Any concern about a German firm controlling images from the Summer Games was altered when UFA took a major financial loss with the Winter Games project and subsequently backed out of the Amsterdam contract. If the Netherlands Organizing Committeeâs decision to let a German firm procure the cinematic rights to the Summer Games was seen as controversial, then it is no wonder that its decision to then use LUCEâa filmmaker controlled by the fascist Italian government headed by Benito Mussoliniâresulted in outrage and significant backlash. Dutch theaters boycotted the LUCE footage, though it was shown in theaters throughout Europe. American companies such as Fox, Movietone News, and Hearst International acquired footage for use in newsreels distributed in the United States (Dyreson, 2005). The official Olympic film, De Olympische Spelen, has been relegated to obscurity, though McKernan (2011) suggests it was another step in the evolution of Olympic documentaries with its use of on-screen titles and artistic camera angles. The filmmaker also emphasized some sports over others, with more screen time dedicated to track and field, boxing, and fencing, in an attempt to appeal to public tastesâin some ways foreshadowing decisions that would be made for primetime television audiences many decades later.
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As U.S. interests had a history of objecting to paying for newsreel rights, no such fees were charged for the 1932 Winter and Summer Games in Lake Placid and Los Angeles (Dyreson, 2005). The newsreel rights for both Olympiads were restricted to four firms: Fox-Hearst/Movietone, Paramount, PathĂ©, and Universal (III Olympic Winter Games Committee, 1932; Xth Olympiade Committee of the Games of Los Angeles, 1933). No official Olympic documentary was produced for either the Lake Placid or Los Angeles Games, but the official Olympic film returned when another set of official documentaries were produced for the 1936 Games. The official documentary of the 1936 Winter Olympiad, Jugend der Welt, wasâmuch like the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Gamesâjust a warm-up for Berlin. The next Olympic documentary would be a landmark effort pushing sport filmmaking technique to new levels while simultaneously engaging in Nazi propaganda. Its name: Olympia.
When the 1936 Summer Games were held in Berlin, the Nazi government kept filmed images of the Olympic Games under state control. The duties of making both the newsreels and the official film of the Berlin Games fell on the shoulders of Leni Riefenstahl. A dancer who became a star through her appearances in several mountain films produced by Arnold Fanck, Riefenstahl learned about filmmaking through her association with the director (Downing, 2012a; Wieland, 2015). She also made an appearance as a Roma...
