NBC Plans 24-Hour Olympic Coverage

[Gregg Lengling]

FEBRUARY 05, 2003 -

NBC announced Wednesday that for the first time ever it will provide 24 hour-a-day Olympic coverage for the Athens, Greece Olympics in 2004. The anticipated 806.5 total hours of U.S. TV coverage nearly doubles 2000 coverage of the Sydney Olympics.

All five NBC networks will cover every one of the 28 Olympic sports across all their broadcast properties: NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo and Spanish language coverage on Telemundo -- the first exclusively non-English language U.S. Olympic broadcast.

In announcing the innitiative, Dick Ebersol, chairman, NBC Sports & Olympics said, "We are committed to showcasing the athletes of the U.S. and the world in a way that has never been seen before. We will deliver the Olympics to the widest possible audience and give American TV viewers an unprecedented array of choices. Since Sydney, the family of NBC Networks has been expanded to include Telemundo and Bravo, two more terrific platforms for Olympic programming."

On NBC there will be a total of 225.5 hours of coverage over 17 days beginning with the Opening Ceremony on Friday, Aug. 13, 2004.

[Matt Heebner]

But the question is...will they be in HD, and will it NOT be time delayed? Last year NBC set a bench mark by showing HD coverage every single day. Will they continue?


Matt

[Tom Snyder]

I think we all know what the obvious question here is...

Of the 806.5 total hours, how many...

Well, you know the rest...

[kjnorman]

I would think that the bigger question is who will provide the cameras.  If Greek TV broadcasters are capturing the footage which is then relayed to the various global networks, then the content will not be HD as there is no HD in Europe.

If NBC takes their own cameras then yes they may be a chance of HD production.

Now Europe does do widescreen PAL at 720x576i, so the best I would hope for is that we get HD from NBC provided cameras and PAL widesceen upconverted to 1080i for Greek TV sourced footage.

Just by 2c worth.

[Tom Snyder]

I was actually wondering about HD in Europe the other night. We were watching a British Comedy, and the main character was watching TV. His TV was a widescreen.

[Gregg Lengling]

The United Kingdom used OFDM2k for Over the Air broadcasts, they also have digital satellite services.  Here's a link for a 16:9 Panasonic set for the UK with the specs.....  
http://www.panasonic.co.uk/product/taudigitaltv/TX36DT35.htm

[Tom Snyder]

So they have widescreen, but it's standard resolution (480) ?

[kjnorman]

Tom,

Standard definition in Europe is 576 interlaced lines, not 480.  Those extra 96 lines do make a considerable inpact to the picture.

Before I move here, I had a Sony 41in widescreen RPTV with an integrated terrestrial digital tuner.  I also received Sky Satelite Broadcasting digital channels (much like Directv).

The picture was good enough that I really did not care about high Definition, and when you think that 41in was considered large for Europe and most sets are of the 32 and 28 inch widesceen variety, you can understand that an clean SD digital widesceen picture is good enough.

I love HDTV, but I would also be happy with *just* a 480p widescreen picture.  To me its the widescreen that makes all the difference.

Anyway I am getting off topic.  Roll on the Olympics and lets hope its widescreen (oh yeah, and HD).