Some positive news for Olympics viewers in the US; for the first time ever, NBC will be broadcasting the Opening Ceremony live on its network channel, beginning at 6:55 AM ET/3:55 PT. There will also be a
livestream available during that time, if you prefer to use that. This is next week that we're talking about btw - the morning of Friday, July 23rd in the US.
This is something most of the rest of the world's TV networks already do, but until now NBC has always favored a local primetime replay broadcast because it gets more viewers than live broadcasts when the ceremonies are held during what amounts to the early-morning hours in US time zones, as in this Olympics. Still, it has long, loooooong been a consistent complaint from the Olympics' American fans who would prefer to share the moment with the rest of the world. Finally, this year, the complaint has been listened to.
To be sure, NBC
will still have its traditional primetime replay broadcast just like always, later that night. But the live broadcast is happening, for those who want to enjoy it.
Also, a reminder that if you're in the US and you have a cable or satellite package that includes NBC's cable channels, even if you didn't realize it it
probably includes online NBC Sports access, and they provide live streams of every single Olympic event including early rounds and obscure sports like kayaking, archery, or sailing, that rarely or never make it on the TV coverage because only a few weirdos like me watch them.
There have been some rules changes as to what events are included in the Olympics and how they are chosen; but to make a long story short it ends up that all 27 sports from Rio 2016 will be played in Tokyo, and a new rule going forward allows host countries to add a handful locally-popular sports to the list in order to promote increased local interest; the sports Japan has chosen to add are baseball/softball, karate, surfing, sport climbing, and skateboarding, for a total of 33 events at this Games.