PARIS (WMTV) – A Janesville native is working long days in Paris, France, as he helps NBC Sports with their comprehensive and extensive coverage of the Olympics.
“It’s been nonstop, it’s a massive undertaking,” said Greg Hughes, the Executive Vice President of Communications for NBC Sports. “So, I handle publicity, image management, crisis management, strategy around the various events and broadcasts that we do.”
Hughes was born and raised in Janesville and graduated from UW-Madison in 1986 with a degree in journalism. Hughes has been with NBC Sports since 2011. He’s been involved with Olympics coverage at various Olympic games over the years.
“I worked at Turner Broadcasting for almost 20 years and I’ve been at NBC for 13 years,” he said.
He says the 2012 Summer Olympic games in London were a huge success. But the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio and 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang were both challenging because of the locations.
“(Paris) has been great though, it’s what the Olympics should be and had been up until these last few (games),” said Hughes. “The appetite for the Olympics has always been there and Paris is the number one destination in the world for travelers. I think everybody is really excited about it and the early audience measurement stuff we have says that.”
According to NBC Sports, viewership for this Olympic Games has been a huge success. “Led by Peacock, 4.5 billion minutes of Paris Olympics coverage has been streamed through Sunday –surpassing the entire Tokyo Olympics (4.48 billion minutes across NBCUniversal digital platforms).”
Despite his important role as an executive at NBC Sports, Hughes still maintains connections to his hometown.
“I still own four businesses in Janesville. I’ve gradually accumulated those. One of those is an Italian restaurant and wine bar called Genisa downtown.”
Hughes estimates he’s back in Wisconsin 10 times a year.
There’s always talk that Wisconsin and Badger fans travel well. Hughes has seen that first-hand wherever he goes. However, in these early days in Paris, he has yet to run into a fellow Wisconsinite.
“I look for them all the time because whenever I travel around the world or the country, I seem to see a Badger hat or sweatshirt or something along the way,” he said. “My wife always makes fun of it. She’s quicker to spot them than I am. She’s a Georgia person but she will say ‘here’s another one of your people’ and I always give them a high five wherever I happen to be.”
Hughes is proud of NBC Sports coverage of the Olympics so far.
“The best thing about what’s going on at this Olympics is this is the most viewer friendly Olympics in history, there’s no question about that. You can watch anything you want, anytime you want on Peacock,” said Hughes.
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