After tape-delayed success, a mostly live Olympics for NBC

NEW YORK – A swimmer with a heart-wrenching history is about to race at the Olympics, so of course NBC will first air a slickly produced feature full of teary interviews and stirring music.

Not next year. Not enough time.

With the 2016 Summer Games taking place in Rio de Janeiro, which is just an hour ahead of the United States’ Eastern time zone, the network can broadcast many high-profile events live in prime time. Make no mistake, NBC executives are thrilled about that prospect, but it means tweaking a formula that has worked so well in recent Olympics.

“People still react to live,” NBC Sports Group Chairman Mark Lazarus said Wednesday, a year before the start of the Rio Games. “While we’ve been very successful in delayed coverage because the Olympics are so unique, live is still better.”

There will be plenty of those trademark features, though some may need to appear at other times of day or online instead of on the centerpiece prime-time telecasts.

It will be “less that polished presentation the time delay affords you,” said executive producer Jim Bell, “and more rock and roll sports event.”

Swimming and track and field will air almost entirely live in prime time. Beach volleyball, with some matches starting at 11 p.m. Eastern time, will be a late-night staple.

Gymnastics, which will take place in the late afternoon and early evening, will be shown on tape delay that night with a quick turnaround. Fans will be able to watch live on streaming video but not on TV.