NBC plans 3,600 hours of Beijing Olympics on TV

NBC will broadcast more than 3,600 hours of coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics on multiple television networks and the Internet.


The bulk of that will come online, the first time live streaming broadband video of the Olympics will be available in the U.S., NBC Universal Sports & Olympics chairman Dick Ebersol said Tuesday.

The 3,600 hours of coverage are more than the combined total of every previous Summer Games televised in the U.S.

NBC's prime-time coverage will feature swimming, gymnastics and beach volleyball shown live despite the 12-hour time difference between the United States' Eastern time zone and Beijing.

Olympic coverage also will air on USA, MSNBC, CNBC and Telemundo. About 2,200 hours of live streaming broadband video will be available on NBCOlympics.com.

NBC broadcast 1,210 hours of coverage from Athens in 2004.

The Beijing Games take place Aug. 8-24, 2008.

NBC live one-year countdown celebration for Beijing Olympics

NBC's "Today" will cover Wednesday's celebration marking the one-year countdown celebration to the Olympic Games live at 8:08 a.m. EDT from Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

It might be one of the first times a live TV signal has been broadcast without government control from inside the communist country after Chinese officials relaxed regulations this year, though that couldn't be confirmed late Monday.

NBC's coverage will feature correspondent Mark Mullen and American swimmer Michael Phelps in Beijing as well as Olympic gold medalists Natalie Coughlin and Paul Hamm and Olympic hopeful Kate Ziegler with the "Today" crew at Rockefeller Plaza in New York.

"Today" has been running taped reports by co-anchor Meredith Vieira from her trip to China, including stories on the country's cuisine and the Beijing National Stadium -- also known as the "Bird's Nest."