NBC plans 1,400 hours of Olympics coverage on TV

By Paul J. Gough

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - A year before the Summer Olympics kick off in Beijing, NBC Universal said that it will offer the most coverage ever televised to the U.S.

The 3,600 hours of coverage -- including NBC primetime and the company's cable TV and broadband assets -- will dwarf the 1,210 hours NBC and its cable channels televised for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. In Beijing, NBC and cable will account for 1,400 hours, with the other 2,200 hours available for free on the Internet.

It's the first time that broadband video will be employed to stream coverage of the Games, allowing NBC to carry up to 212 hours a day for the 17 days of the Olympics beginning August 8, 2008.

Adding up the total number of Summer Olympic hours of coverage from the 1960 Games in Rome to Athens comes to 2,562 hours, far short of what NBC will offer in China.

NBC starts its countdown clock Wednesday with a broadcast on "Today" that will include coverage of the organizers' celebration as well as visits from Olympic athletes at the network's Rockefeller Plaza headquarters in New York.

Time-zone differences and the ability to check results and sometimes highlights via the Internet impacted NBC's ratings for the Athens and Sydney 2000 games. But NBC, a big contributor to the coffers of the International Olympic Committee, was able ensure that the swimming, gymnastics and beach volleyball finals would be live to the East Coast despite the inconvenience to the competitors, who will be 12 hours ahead.

Also sporting coverage will be USA Network, MSNBC, CNBC and Telemundo. Live and on-demand coverage will be available online at NBCOlympics.com. NBC will release details of its mobile wireless coverage plans later.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter