Olympics: US TV Prompts 2018 Skating Morning Shift

Olympics: US TV prompts 2018 skating morning shift

SEOUL, , (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Nov, 2016 ) - Figure skating at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea has been shifted to the morning to fit in with US tv prime time schedules, Pyeongchang organisers said Thursday.

The sport's sessions have been switched from their traditional evening slots to begin at 10:00 am (0100 GMT) in the draft Games schedule, said Spokesman Sung Baik-Yu of the Pyeongchang Organising Committee.

American network NBC paid more than $4.3 billion for the broadcasting rights to the Olympics from 2014 to 2020 and wants to show skating during the late afternoon and evening in the US, where the east coast is 14 hours behind Korea.

"Money tells," Sung told AFP, adding that since South Korean 2010 Olympic gold medallist Kim Yu-Na's retirement after winning a silver in the Sochi 2014 Games, there was "not so much of interest among local sponsors" to push for any change.

"The current schedule is highly likely to go ahead", he added. Figure skating events took place during the evening at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, he said. It would not be the first time that an Olympics in South Korea has altered sporting schedules to fit in with US TV audiences.

At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the 100 metres final between Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson took place at 12:30 pm local time (03:30GMT). The Pyeongchang Games will take place from February 9 to 25, 2018.