and i bet the Biathalon gets LESS than 416 seconds coverage too...!!! if any that is.
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
gay figure skating..in pairs ?
is our culture ready for it ?
A DATELINE special !
"Did you see that little sequined number with the bare mid-riff?"
I'm straight and I didn't find him attractive.
I gotta fever, and the only prescription, is more curling...
"Wrong Olympics. These are the Winter Games where the women are men and the men are gay."
Ang Lee is making a movie about a gay ice hockey team.
Is our culture ready for gay figure skating pairs?...hhhmmmm let's see, at least half of the male half of the pairs seem to be that way so far....and gee are we ready for it? I am sure Hollywood already has a movie ready to be made about it...or at least a transgender thing, don't you think?
I'd watch barrel jumping if they would make that an event-otherwise,I'll be listening to tennis re-runs on the radio.Hee.
I'll be doing ARM curling... with an ice-cold adult beverage.
and i bet the Biathalon gets LESS than 416 seconds coverage too...!!! if any that is.
Two man luge!
390 of which will be "Up close and personal" about how so-and-so beat "personal tragedy."
The Olympics in the touchy-feely age SUCK!
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