![\"\"](\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/MichaelNaraine.jpg\")
<\/a>Brock University Assistant Professor of Sport Management Michael Naraine.<\/p><\/div>\n
Naraine said he wasn\u2019t surprised to see Toyota withdraw its advertising in the host country leading up to the Games, as many in Japan feared that staging the Olympics would make the COVID-19 situation worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Toyota-Olympic Worldwide Paralympic partnership was supposed to be a type of coming out party for the brand as they debuted vehicles, mobility support robots and mobility services,\u201d he said. \u201cToyota actively distancing themselves from the Games early was an attempt to help their brand with the Japanese people.\u201d<\/p>\n
But while Naraine said he expected other brands to follow in Toyota\u2019s footsteps, he has been surprised to see that isn\u2019t happening.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it would be an interesting domino,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever, I think for these brands, it has been a holding pattern as they wait to see if athletes would get sick.\u201d<\/p>\n
But while the city of Tokyo is seeing skyrocketing COVID case counts, the Olympics have been relatively unscathed, with only a handful of athletes testing positive.<\/p>\n
Naraine said that\u2019s likely the result of a G7 Summit situation, where the Games are happening inside a protected bubble.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally the only community spread that could happen would be from the media or VIPs, and we really haven\u2019t seen that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
From an advertising standpoint, Naraine said having no fans in the stands hasn\u2019t had a significant impact, although he wonders if the empty stands in the background are making the broadcasts less enjoyable to watch.<\/p>\n
\u201cAudiences at home do like to see audiences there at the Games,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd there\u2019s that intangible element of home field advantage, where the live audience can help support athletes and they can perform better.\u201d<\/p>\n
If anyone isn\u2019t performing up to par at these Games, it\u2019s the big North American broadcasters including the CBC and NBC, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has been incredibly terrible promotion of the schedule of events, and it has been really difficult for consumers \u2014 especially for younger viewers who have gravitated toward non-linear viewing. I think CBC and NBC have completely dropped the ball and that has had a massive impact on the viewership.\u201d<\/p>\n
Calling it a \u201cperfect storm kerfuffle,\u201d Naraine said the combination of the time difference between North America and Japan, the impact COVID-19 has had on the overall sports viewership numbers and the broadcasters\u2019 confusing platforms has made for poor ratings and a less-than-ideal experience for viewers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt demonstrates the failure of CBC of how to promote non-linear and mobile viewing to new audiences and that\u2019s the debacle going forward,\u201d he said. \u201cHow does it transition from linear to mobile? They haven\u2019t figured it out here or in the U.S. and those are two major economies the Olympics need to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Olympic and Paralympic Games are a global enterprise worth billions of dollars and, for sports fans, perhaps the greatest concentration of wall-to-wall sports coverage to keep you busy for weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,7,3319,1],"tags":[207,8568,57,10574],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73409"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73409"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73411,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73409\/revisions\/73411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}