NBC, in concert with three cable networks and, in a historic first, the Spanish-language network Telemundo, plans to air around-the-clock coverage of the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics, including some live coverage, the network announced Wednesday.
Combined, the five networks will air 806 1/2 hours of coverage, nearly double the hours from Sydney in 2000, which were a ratings bomb, and more than four times the air time from Atlanta in 1996. For the first time, NBC officials said, each of the 28 Summer Games sports will be televised.
The Athens Games mark the third installment of NBC's $3.5-billion deal to televise the Games in the U.S. from 2000 through 2008. At 806 1/2 hours, its package will test the contention of network executives that the Games bring American families together before the TV screen like no other sports property can.
"We are committed," NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol said in a statement released Wednesday, "to showcasing the athletes of the U.S. and the world in a way that has never been seen before."
The Athens Games begin Aug. 13, 2004, and the programming and event schedule, including live broadcasts, remains to be finalized. On NBC, some live coverage is envisioned of night events from Athens -- when it would be afternoon on the East Coast, morning in Los Angeles.
Telemundo, which NBC acquired last year in a $2.7-billion purchase, will air 134 hours of coverage, soccer and other sports, over 18 days -- much of it live. NBC said Wednesday that Telemundo's Spanish-language service will provide the "first exclusively non-English language Olympic coverage ever provided in the U.S." to what Ebersol called a "largely untapped Olympic audience."
NBC's announcement comes as the International Olympic Committee embarks on negotiations with NBC and four other U.S. networks for rights to the 2010 Winter and 2012 Summer Games, perhaps beyond. A key strategy and planning meeting is due to be held Feb. 19 at IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The first two installments of NBC's current five-part deal, Sydney in 2000 and Salt Lake City last year, made money for the network. But each played out differently from the standpoint of ratings and public relations -- an intriguing study in the emergence, and acceptance, of tape-delayed coverage of the Games.
