The 2034 Winter Olympics will be held in Salt Lake City, UT. Plus: The Rose Bowl seeks to maintain its traditional New Year’s Day date amid new CFP format; Peacock loses 500,000 subscribers in Q2.
Salt Lake City tapped for 2034 Olympics
The International Olympic Committee awarded Salt Lake City, Utah, the 2034 Winter Olympics following a vote on Wednesday morning in Paris. Salt Lake City, host of the 2002 Winter Olympics, was the only serious bidder for 2034. It will be the second American city to host an Olympics in a six-year span, following Los Angeles in the 2028 Summer Games.
Notably, the 2034 Winter Olympics will be the first to fall outside of NBC’s current media rights agreement with the IOC. The current deal began in 2021 and goes through the 2032 Summer Olympics in Brisbane. NBC will pay a total of $7.75b over the term of the current agreement that spans six Olympics. (IOC, 7.24)
Rose Bowl pushes to maintain Jan 1 date
Rose Bowl management committee chair Laura Faber expressed a desire to keep the Rose Bowl on its traditional January 1st date once the next iteration of the College Football Playoff begins in 2026. The comments were made during Big Ten media days in Indianapolis on Tuesday and reported by ESPN.
That day would coincide with a quarterfinal game in the current 12-team College Football Playoff format. Should the same format continue in 2026 and beyond, the Rose Bowl would like to be left out of the semifinal rotation and leave those games to the other New Year’s Six bowls. The Rose Bowl management committee would also like to keep its traditional 2PM PT kickoff, though would be flexible if necessary. (ESPN, 7.23)
Peacock down a half-million subs in Q2
NBC’s Peacock streaming service lost 500,000 subscribers in Q2, the company announced in an earnings call on Tuesday. The streaming service declined from 33.5 million in Q1, which was boosted by its exclusive NFL playoff game, to 33 million in Q2. The company will hope to rebound in Q3 with the Paris Olympics attracting new and returning subscribers.
With the Olympics right around the corner, NBC has opted to raise the price of Peacock by $2 per month for both its ad and ad-free tiers. The streaming service remains in the red for NBC, though is trending in the right direction. Peacock posted a loss of $651m in Q1 compared to just $348m in Q2. (Variety, 7.23)
