Thursday , March 28 2024

NBC Nets’ Copious Winter Olympic Schedule Announced

My cold-weather Olympic fever is beginning to kick in as I picture that fresh HD feed flowing through the old box with relentless, precise abandon as the world’s finest skiers, skaters, and sliders gather in Torino, Italy, in just a few weeks to strut their chilly stuff.

The NBC Universal networks — -NBC, CNBC, MSNBC USA, NBC HD, Universal HD — announced they will collectively carry 416 total hours of coverage of the Torino Winter Olympic Games between Feb. 10 and Feb. 26, up significantly from the 375.5 hours that aired during the ’02 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

Comprised of a bevy of former Olympian commentators and announcers, NBC’s Olympic broadcast team has won a combined 19 Olympic medals (11 gold, three silver, five bronze). The NBC Olympic figure skating announcing team alone has won six (five gold and one bronze)!

Seventeen-time Emmy Award winner Bob Costas returns as primetime host for the Torino Winter Games, his seventh with NBC Sports and his sixth as primetime host. Costas has won the Emmy Award for each Olympics he has served as primetime host. Jim Lampley will work his 13th Olympics, surpassing ABC’s legendary Jim McKay with the most-ever Olympic broadcast assignments for any television commentator. He will anchor NBC’s daytime and late night Olympic telecasts in his sixth Olympics with NBC.

Over the 17 days of the Games, the combined networks will average 24.5 hours of Olympic coverage per day, and the coverage will feature more high-definition video than ever before. NBC will air coverage in three dayparts, daytime, prime time and late night, totaling 182.5 hours, with 121.5 original hours. Coverage on the other networks will total 233.5, of which 75 percent will be live coverage.

You like hockey? All 54 games of both the men’s and women’s hockey tournaments will be seen live on the various networks, the first time in U.S. TV that an entire Olympic women’s tournament will be aired live.

And for the first time, all NBC coverage will be simulcast in HD – the mind reels, the DVR will work overtime.

About Eric Olsen

Career media professional and serial entrepreneur Eric Olsen flung himself into the paranormal world in 2012, creating the America's Most Haunted brand and co-authoring the award-winning America's Most Haunted book, published by Berkley/Penguin in Sept, 2014. Olsen is co-host of the nationally syndicated broadcast and Internet radio talk show After Hours AM; his entertaining and informative America's Most Haunted website and social media outlets are must-reads: Twitter@amhaunted, Facebook.com/amhaunted, Pinterest America's Most Haunted. Olsen is also guitarist/singer for popular and wildly eclectic Cleveland cover band The Props.

Check Also

GalaxyCon Richmond: Tara Strong

"Perfect is boring and you're going to make mistakes. If you learn from them, let them go."