Posted on 01/16/2006 2:17:41 PM PST by se_ohio_young_conservative
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - NBC Universal is ramping up for next month's 17-day coverage of the Torino Olympics, using many of its assets to provide a record amount of TV time for a Winter Olympics.
The broadcaster said Tuesday that it will schedule 416 hours of coverage across NBC, USA, MSNBC and CNBC as well as two high-definition channels, NBC HD and Universal HD. That bests the previous Winter Olympics record, 375 hours from Salt Lake City in February 2002. NBC itself will have more than 182 hours.
The cable channels are scheduled to have 233 hours of coverage, up from 207 hours the last time around. Seventy-five percent of the telecasts will be live, including all 54 games of the hockey tournaments. NBC, which starts its NHL telecasts Saturday, will air the final games of men's and women's hockey.
But the narrower focus of the winter games -- nine sports compared with summer's 28 -- means that it's only a shadow of the 1,200 hours NBC Universal telecast for the 2004 Athens games. Athens was the first time that NBC Universal used such a wide range of its channels to provide 24-hour-a-day coverage during the games.
"That worked so well for us that we're taking the same road map with the winter games," said David Neal, executive vp at NBC Olympics and executive producer of NBC Sports. But there won't be 24-hour coverage this time around because there aren't that many live events.
NBC fixture Bob Costas again will be the primetime host of the games. Jim Lampley will anchor daytime and late-night telecasts, his 13th Olympics that will see him surpass the tally of the legendary Jim McKay. Also joining the telecast will be Dick Button, who has been given approval by ABC Sports to work the games for NBC.
Neal said that for the first time, NBC Universal will offer some coverage of every session of every sport at the Torino games. One up-and-coming sport: curling, which borders on a national obsession in places like Canada.
"(The coverage plan and previous ratings) really speaks to the incredible appetite American television viewers have for the Olympic Games," Neal said.
Each of the cable networks will have a special assignment or focus. USA Network, which wasn't part of the coverage for the most recent Winter Olympics because the merger of NBC and Universal hadn't happened yet, plans 101 hours of coverage of Team USA's competition in hockey and curling. It's going to have more curling, as well as a daily one-hour show called "Olympic Ice" that will highlight figure skating.
MSNBC's schedule calls for 71 hours of telecasts, including 24 live hockey games as well as curling. CNBC, with 61 hours during the 17 days, also will have curling and hockey games.
NBCOlympics.com (http://www.nbcolympics.com), which opened for business this week, will provide news, schedules and other information for the duration of the games.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
Jim Lampley
The worst ever
PUT ON MORE FOOTBALL!
As a young man, I could have used one of those.
live? Do you know what the time difference is between Italy and the US.
400 of the hours will be for "up close and personal" stories.
and 400 hours of it will be commercials, Bob Costas talking, and those human interest stories that always have "some dramatic story line of what adversity the athlete overcame to compete".
They are 6 hours ahead of us, right ?
If a big event starts at 8pm over there. Shouldnt we be able to watch it here ? Why wait til prime time ? Remember, this is the age of the internet.
Sporting events need to be shown live instead of tape delay.
Yesssssssss!!!!!!!!!!
Number of hours I'll be watching = 0
bare mid-riff???
Suck'a! ...that wasn't skin, just skin-colored leotard. :)
My favorite sport next to watching paint dry. /sarcasm
Are you talking about those 4 minute biographies full of touching music and flowers ?
Yawn..
I hate those too....
Yessssss!!!!!
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