Commentary
NBC's Olympic Gambit
By Michael Silbergleid
Jun 9, 2004, 14:20

I know you’re all thinking Athens, but the big news is Torino, Italy, site of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games. NBC Universal Sports and Olympics chairman Dick Ebersol admittedly jumped the gun a bit when he announced on June 9 that the Torino games will be an all-HD broadcast, with the standard def feed being derived from the HD feed (more than likely edge-cropped, as I can’t even imagine a letterboxed Olympics--although it would leave room for some interesting graphics choices).

But back to Athens. Olympics coverage has never been a money risk, but NBC has designed its coverage like no other. Keep in mind that there are six NBC networks (NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Bravo, and Telemundo) plus the NBC affiliates’ HD platform. It’s good to be a rights owner with lots of outlets.

So here’s some of NBC’s plan, starting with Telemundo: The Spanish language network will broadcast the first exclusively non-English language Olympic broadcast in U.S. television history. The 169.5 hours in Spanish on Telemundo is nearly equal to the 171.5 total hours of coverage on NBC from Atlanta just eight years ago.

High def? Sure. At the urging of NBC’s 124 HD affiliates, the network will offer separate, in-depth coverage in high definition from several venues in Athens. The high definition coverage on NBC’s digital affiliates will total 399 hours. To be fair, the HD coverage will be an eight-hour time-delay loop, which will repeat twice each day (for 24-hour coverage) and will be produced by the Olympic host broadcaster with NBC commentary and graphics. Sony Electronics is sponsoring the HD telecast, which will cover swimming, diving, gymnastics, track and field, medal rounds of basketball, and the men’s soccer gold medal final.

All totaled, there will be 1,210 hours of coverage from Athens. More than the combined total of 1,133 hours broadcast from the last five previous Summer Olympics: Sydney, Atlanta, Barcelona, Seoul, and Los Angeles.

The 1,210 total hours of around-the-clock coverage from Athens nearly triples the 441.5 total hours of coverage from Sydney on NBC, CNBC, and MSNBC in 2000; and is more than seven times the 171.5 broadcast hours from Atlanta on NBC in 1996. On average, the networks of NBC will telecast more than 70 hours per day.

OK, so NBC is flooding their networks with 24/7 Olympic coverage. And why shouldn’t they? According to the International Olympic Committee, NBC’s latest Olympics rights purchase (the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2012 Summer Olympics) came with a $2.201 billion price tag. There are lots of other viewing choices out there in TV land, but if NBC is right, folks will tune in to one of the networks of NBC to watch the Games.
And we’re talking all of the Games. This will be the first time that U.S. television audiences will see some coverage of every Olympic sport.



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