NBC Olympics Faces Criticism for Tape Delay, Frequent Commercial Breaks

7:50 PM PDT 8/5/2016 by the Associated Press , THR staff

Maracana Stadium
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The opening ceremony addressed issues of climate change and deforestation.

The network aired eight commercials within the first 65 minutes of the Rio Olympics opening ceremony.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — NBC is facing social media criticism for its decision to delay the broadcast of the Olympic Opening Ceremony so it can be shown in primetime in all time zones.

Frequent commercial breaks including eight within the first 65 minutes of the ceremony also proved frustrating for time-shifting viewers accustomed to fast-forwarding through ads.

NBC began its telecasting of the festivities an hour after they began in Rio on Friday night. On the West Coast, the telecast of the Opening Ceremony wasn't set to start for another hour.

NBC also didn't start streaming the event through its app or Olympics website until the television coverage began, and streamers had to authenticate their account with a cable or satellite service.

The network usually plays a cat-and-mouse game to prevent other websites from streaming the event. It remains to be seen how successful it will be.

Viewers took to Twitter to express their frustrations with the number of commercials aired by the network during its coverage of the Opening Ceremony.

"It's so nice of NBC to show some of the Opening Ceremony in-between their commercial marathon," one user tweeted. View more reactions below.