Not only did American women dominate the medal count, they dominated the airwaves and TV streams. A tally by the authors of the book Olympic Television: Broadcasting the Biggest Show on Earth found women athletes received the majority of the coverage within the 17 nights of NBC’s Tokyo Summer Olympic primetime broadcast.
Women’s sports were shown 57 percent of the time, men’s sports were shown 41 percent of the time, with mixed-sex sport competitions representing the remainder. Women’s sports have now constituted the majority of NBC’s evening telecasts in four (London, Rio, PyeongChang, Tokyo) of the past five Olympic Games, but the Tokyo margin is the widest on record.
The researchers contend the U.S. women’s dominance on the medals stand led to increased coverage. The U.S. won 113 medals, 66 by women.
Nearly all of NBC’s Summer primetime broadcast coverage usually focuses on five sports: gymnastics, swimming, track and field, beach volleyball and diving. Each were shown in heavy rotation this year, but NBC’s Tokyo coverage frequently featured sports beyond the “big five.”
James Angelini, an associate professor of communication at the University of Delaware, has examined gendered coverage of every Olympiad of the 21st century and co-authored the book on the subject with University of Alabama’s Andrew Billings and Paul MacArthur of Utica College. “From badminton to sailing to modern pentathlon, this is the first time since our studies began that every sporting discipline was highlighted at some point during the primetime Summer Olympic broadcast,” Angelini said. “This included the five disciplines added specifically for the Tokyo Games, with skateboarding given more time in the primetime broadcasts than 28 sporting disciplines that are a permanent part of the Olympic program.”
Overall clock-times can be found below. More information about NBC’s coverage of men and women athletes throughout the Tokyo Summer Games is available on the website FiveRingTV.com.
Full NBC Tokyo Primetime Olympic Clock-time Breakdown
|
Event |
Men |
Women |
Mixed Sex |
Total |
|
|
Archery |
0:00:27 |
0:00:22 |
0:00:00 |
0:00:49 |
|
|
Artistic Swimming |
—– |
0:00:32 |
—– |
0:00:32 |
|
|
Badminton |
0:00:00 |
0:00:32 |
0:00:00 |
0:00:32 |
|
|
Baseball/Softball |
0:02:32 |
0:02:10 |
—– |
0:04:42 |
|
|
Basketball |
1:55:12 |
1:50:07 |
—– |
3:45:19 |
|
|
Beach Volleyball |
0:05:02 |
4:19:56 |
—– |
4:24:58 |
|
|
Boxing |
0:00:34 |
0:00:30 |
—– |
0:01:04 |
|
|
Canoe/Kayak |
0:01:09 |
0:00:55 |
—– |
0:02:04 |
|
|
Cycling |
0:00:35 |
0:01:55 |
—– |
0:02:30 |
|
|
Diving |
2:01:04 |
0:41:41 |
—– |
2:42:45 |
|
|
Equestrian |
—– |
—– |
0:03:54 |
0:03:54 |
|
|
Fencing |
0:00:32 |
0:00:42 |
—– |
0:01:14 |
|
|
Field Hockey |
0:00:26 |
0:00:00 |
—– |
0:00:26 |
|
|
Golf |
0:10:10 |
0:06:07 |
—– |
0:16:17 |
|
|
Gymnastics |
1:44:22 |
6:19:26 |
—– |
8:03:48 |
|
|
Handball |
0:00:34 |
0:01:34 |
—– |
0:02:08 |
|
|
Judo |
0:01:07 |
0:00:46 |
0:00:29 |
0:02:22 |
|
|
Karate |
0:00:01 |
0:02:04 |
—– |
0:02:05 |
|
|
Modern Pentathlon |
0:00:24 |
0:00:39 |
—– |
0:01:03 |
|
|
Rhythmic Gymnastics |
—– |
0:01:37 |
—– |
0:01:37 |
|
|
Rowing |
0:00:19 |
0:00:32 |
—– |
0:00:51 |
|
|
Rugby |
0:02:02 |
0:00:44 |
—– |
0:02:46 |
|
|
Sailing |
0:00:00 |
0:00:36 |
0:00:00 |
0:00:36 |
|
|
Shooting |
0:00:27 |
0:00:52 |
0:00:34 |
0:01:53 |
|
|
Skateboarding |
0:37:24 |
0:02:39 |
—– |
0:40:03 |
|
|
Soccer |
0:00:03 |
0:11:38 |
—– |
0:11:41 |
|
|
Sport Climbing |
0:00:28 |
0:00:31 |
—– |
0:00:59 |
|
|
Surfing |
0:01:02 |
0:02:57 |
—– |
0:03:59 |
|
|
Swimming |
5:40:07 |
5:01:14 |
0:11:33 |
10:52:54 |
|
|
Table Tennis |
0:00:45 |
0:01:01 |
0:00:00 |
0:01:46 |
|
|
Taekwondo |
0:00:19 |
0:00:20 |
—– |
0:00:39 |
|
|
Tennis |
0:02:47 |
0:00:31 |
0:00:00 |
0:03:18 |
|
|
Track and Field |
5:07:17 |
5:22:03 |
0:01:35 |
10:30:55 |
|
|
Trampoline |
0:00:21 |
0:00:00 |
—– |
0:00:21 |
|
|
Triathlon |
0:20:06 |
0:04:14 |
0:00:00 |
0:24:20 |
|
|
Volleyball |
0:02:17 |
0:20:06 |
—– |
0:22:23 |
|
|
Water Polo |
0:01:33 |
0:16:08 |
—– |
0:17:41 |
|
|
Weightlifting |
0:00:04 |
0:02:03 |
—– |
0:02:07 |
|
|
Wrestling |
0:08:37 |
0:02:56 |
—– |
0:11:33 |
|
|
Total |
18:10:09 |
25:02:40 |
0:18:05 |
43:30:54 |
|
|
Overall percentage |
41.75 |
57.55 |
0.7 |
|
|
|
When excluding mixed sex |
42.05 |
57.95 |
|
|
|
|
*At the time of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics there are no men’s events in the disciplines of Artistic Swimming and Rhythmic Gymnastics.
**Mixed-sex events were held for the disciplines of Archery, Badminton, Judo, Sailing, Shooting, Swimming, Table Tennis, Tennis, Track & Field, and Triathlon. No prime-time coverage was devoted to the mixed-sex events in Archery, Badminton, Sailing, Table Tennis, Tennis, or Triathlon. Equestrian is entirely competed as a mixed-sex discipline. |
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