Peacock is Still Spoiling Olympic Outcomes on Interface

Looks like Peacock didn’t learn its lesson from last summer about every spectator’s worst nightmare: spoilers. Forking over $4.99 just to find out the winner by only reading the title? Even YouTube creators know the difference between clickbait and embarrassingly bad headlines that ruin the fun for everyone.

The biggest difficulty U.S. viewers seem to be dealing with right now is the large time differences across countries, leading some big events to be broadcast or streamed live in the United States in the middle of the night. So if an American misses a game and heads to social media in the morning, all the winners have already been reported. So with NBC’s own news outlets reporting the results of major events before most audiences watch them, the network may find it difficult to motivate viewers to check out its prime-time coverage.

Peacock hasn’t been helping either with their Highlights section that literally says the winner in the title…

(Olympic spoilers in the image!!) So, Peacock’s user interface leaves something to be desired wrt replays and spoilers…

— wintry mix o’hara (@oharatheorem) February 5, 2022

Grudgingly impressed how @NBCOlympics @peacock has gotten into the #spoilers game. Spoilers in the pic, obvs.

— mar a lago delenda est (@silea) February 5, 2022

The only way to avoid 2022 Winter Olympic Games spoilers on Peacock is by going directly to the Replays row and avoiding the Highlights section, Peacock’s front page, and its social media accounts at all costs. Not a lot of people have that kind of self-control. Which is why a lot of sports apps like the NHL app has a mode that hides spoilers.

However, according to the Morning Consult, a study has shown that audiences will still watch the Olympics even if it has been spoiled for them. While 34% of U.S. adults said it was important to stay clear of any information that might spoil the outcome of Winter Olympics events before they air during NBC’s prime-time programming, nearly twice that share (66%) said avoiding spoilers isn’t a priority to them.

On the bright side, many viewers, including a majority of Olympics fans, aren’t worried about spoilers and are likely to watch events even when the winners have already been decided. The data suggests that many viewers watch the Olympics primarily for reasons such as athlete storylines and to support their country, and less to find out who wins individual events.

The Winter Olympics in Beijing has been an opportunity for NBC to smooth out the rough spots with new viewing strategies. While they messed up big time with spoilers, they did have some good ideas this time.

Molly Solomon, president and executive producer of NBC Olympics Production, said, “The upside of getting to do an Olympics a couple of months after another is that you immediately get to really listen to the viewer feedback and our own critique of ourselves and our presentation, and we really focused on making the thousands of hours we produce more intuitive and findable.”

This time around, you can watch all the live events right on Peacock and it won’t be confusing to find since there is an entire section dedicated to the Olympics.

Also, the company responded to complaints from viewers about not knowing which events were taking place and at what time. Peacock now has comprehensive listings incorporated into the Olympics UI. In addition, viewers have the ability to plan by day or browse through playlists of events and clips connected to their favorite athletes. The interface even tells you which sports will be airing on NBC primetime or USA Network, in case you still watch both traditional live TV and streaming.

There are also “full DVR controls” for Peacock Olympics coverage, letting users quickly head to the beginning of an event if they join one already in progress, as well as fast-forward and rewind live coverage.

How to Watch the 2022 Winter Olympics Without Cable

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You can also stream the Winter Games on Hulu Live TV, DIRECTV STREAM, YouTube TV, and Sling TV.

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