NBC Universal Offers Unprecedented Olympics Online Coverage

July 29, 2008

Dick Ebersol, chairman, NBC Universal Sports & Oympics and executive producer of NBCU's Olympic coverage announced that NBCU will present an unprecedented 3,600 hours of Beijing Olympic Games across many platforms including online at NBCOlympics.com.

NBCU's Olympics coverage will be seen on seven NBC Universal networks: NBC, USA, MSNBC, CNBC, Oxygen, Telemundo, and Universal HD, as well as the NBCOlympics.com website which will feature approximately 2,200 total hours of live streaming Olympic broadband video coverage, the first live online Olympic coverage in the U.S.

"For the first time, the average American will be able to create their own unique Olympic experience whether at home, at the office, or on-the-go," said Ebersol. "With 25 sports streamed live at NBCOlympics.com and significant live coverage on our cable platforms and NBC, highlighted by all swimming finals, the biggest nights of gymnastics, and beach volleyball live in primetime, the viewer has plenty of options for live coverage.

212 Hours per Day of NBCU Summer Olympics Coverage

Over the 17 days of the Beijing Games, August 8-24, NBCU's coverage will average more than 212 hours per day. And approximately 75 percent of the Olympics programming will be broadcast live, despite a 12-hour time difference between the U.S. Eastern time zone and Beijing.

Complete day-by-day Olympics listings will be available soon at NBCOlympics.com or a PDF is available immediately at NBC Universal Media Village, the company's media specific website, NBCMV.com.

Olympics Coverage Divided Between Seven Networks and NBCOlympics.com

NBC will feature live coverage of all 32 swimming gold medal finals; four key nights of men's and women's gymnastics led by the women's and men's team gold medal finals, as well as the women's and men's individual gold medal finals; beach volleyball; and, for the first time ever, both men's and women's marathons. The first week of the Olympics features gymnastics and swimming.

USA Network will feature live coverage of the U.S. men's and women's basketball and soccer teams as well as live coverage of tennis, volleyball, or water polo each day.

MSNBC will provide live, weekday, long-form coverage of a full range of Olympic sports, including softball, soccer, beach volleyball, wrestling, basketball, volleyball and weightlifting. On each of the two days prior to the Opening Ceremony, August 6 and 7, MSNBC also will provide coverage of the opening soccer matches.

CNBC will carry 95.5 hours of Olympic programming over 16 days including long-form coverage of Olympic boxing. CNBC will also have expanded, long-form coverage of a wide variety of Olympic sports such as softball, tennis, weightlifting, wrestling, and badminton.

Oxygen will feature a daily look at gymnastics, recapping some of the most exciting moments in the popular competition. Equestrian events and tennis also will be featured on Oxygen's coverage.

Telemundo, together with its Olympic website Telemundo.NBCOlympics.com, will provide more than 380 hours of Olympic coverage over 19 days, exclusively in Spanish. Telemundo will feature live men's and women's soccer, basketball, gymnastics, diving, volleyball, track and field, swimming, and baseball. Telemundo begins its competition coverage the day before the Opening Ceremony with two men's soccer matches.

Telemundo.NBCOlympics.com will feature up-to-the-minute information and exclusive content. Photo galleries, videos, profiles of prominent Olympians, news, historic information, and images from Beijing will be available on the site. Users will also find more than 220 hours of broadband video of the Beijing Games and past Olympics.

Universal HD will offer 24-hour HD simulcasts and re-airs of coverage on CNBC and MSNBC, 379 hours in all.