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NBC to Air Record Live Coverage of Winter Olympics

NBC Universal networks’ coverage of the Torino Winter Olympics will include the most live coverage ever for a Winter Olympics, Mediaweek writes. The networks - NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, USA, NBC HD, and Universal HD - will average about 24.5 hours of coverage per day over the 17 days.

 

NBC will air coverage during daytime, prime time, and late night, for a total of 182.5 hours, with 121.5 of those original. The other networks will total 233.5 hours, with 75 percent of those original, for a total of 416 total hours of coverage.

Bob Costas will cover the events in primetime, with Jim Lampley anchoring daytime and late-night telecasts in his 13th Olympics. That number surpasses the number of telecasts the legendary Jim McKay anchored, Reuters reports.

Athens Summer Olympics in 2004 was the first time NBC U used such a wide range of its channels to cover the events, and it worked “so well for us that we’re taking the same road map with the winter games,” David Neal, executive vp at NBC Olympics and executive producer of NBC Sports, is quoted as saying. However, there won’t be 24-hour coverage this time around because the Winter Games include only 9 sports compared with 28 during the summer.