Figuring out how you can watch the Olympics ought to have been a breeze. NBCUniversal—which holds the universal broadcast rights for the Summer and Winter Games via 2032—confirmed up locked and loaded with its model new streaming platform, Peacock, which it had touted on its web site as “the place to flock for the Games’ top moments.” On the app’s “Tokyo NOW” channel, the community had promised four live shows per day that might span competitors protection, highlights, interviews, and “the best stories of the Games.”

The community appeared poised to ship extra accessible on-demand protection in Tokyo than it ever had earlier than. But, as anybody who relied on streaming to look at the Olympics will inform you, issues panned out somewhat otherwise, with technical limitations and programming snafus snarling the protection. If you don’t imagine me, simply search “how do I watch the Olympics” on Twitter, which can return hundreds of offended tweets from folks determined to only determine how they will stream the freaking gymnastics already.

For cord-cutters, the issue was notably pernicious: If you wished to look at the opening ceremony, for instance, you have been out of luck, as a result of Peacock didn’t carry it live in any respect. Basketball followers have been additionally left in the lurch, for the reason that complete sport was paywalled in an obvious bid to woo viewers into considered one of Peacock’s paid tiers. If you wished to look at the 4K Olympics protection NBC had lengthy promised it could be streaming, that was additionally too dangerous for you, since 4K isn’t at the moment supported by Peacock.

Phew, certain looks as if plenty of points for one platform to have surrounding its largest broadcast second of at the very least the subsequent two years. But you recognize which platform didn’t ship crushing disappointment after crushing disappointment with its Olympics protection? TikTok, which proved itself to be a pleasant, intuitive, and private method to expertise the moments of the Olympics that mainstream protection missed.

As the Washington Post factors out, NBC uncared for to air the unsteady vault efficiency Simone Biles turned in earlier than abruptly deciding to withdraw from the Tokyo Olympics girls’s gymnastics workforce closing for psychological well being causes. But video of Biles’ vaults rapidly went viral on TikTok, offering very important context and human connection that was doubtless missed by anybody counting on a mainstream broadcast for solutions. TikTok additionally made headlines for offering different intimate moments, together with behind-the-scenes, personality-driven movies shot by the athletes themselves. Where was Peacock when British swimmer Adam Peaty whipped out his Olympic gold medal? Where was Peacock when athletes have been weight-testing those cardboard beds within the Olympic Village?

“In this day and age, the average Olympic viewer is not loyal to a TV network or station, but they are loyal to people,” Ali Fazal, vp of selling at influencer advertising and marketing firm Grin, informed the Post. “Now, there are a lot more ways to engage rather than hoping your right customer is tuning into NBC at the exact right time.”

Look, TikTok will (in all probability) by no means have the ability to present the identical wall-to-wall Olympics protection that bigger, better-supported networks are capable of present. But what the platform lacks in dimension and sources it makes up for in coronary heart, ease-of-use, and videos of the Olympic workforce from New Zealand measuring their biceps. And for these causes, I’m advocating that the International Olympic Committee award TikTok a large contract to grow to be the go-to streaming vacation spot for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. Broadcast rights-holders could have paid the IOC billions, however everybody concerned owes TikTok a debt for making this yr’s video games watchable.