J
Joseph_Gallant
Guest
Although it did not include an exact schedule of telecasts, NBC has issued a press release announcing it's plans for coverage of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin (Torino), Italy.
A complete schedule of telecasts has been posted on NBC Olympics.com
Among the highlights I was able to gleam from both the press release and the TV schedule:
* A total of 416 hours of coverage between NBC, USA, CNBC, and MSNBC.
* NBC will broadcast 121 1/2 hours of coverage (with 61 1/2 hours of primetime coverage being rebroadcast in the overnight hours), 101 1/2 hours of coverage on USA, 71 hours on MSNBC, and 61 hours on CNBC.
* Bob Costas will return as prime-time host. This will be his sixth Olympics as prime-time studio host.
* Due to the time difference, none of NBC's primetime coverage will be live, but much of the daytime coverage on both NBC and it's cable sister networks will be.
* Most of the men's and women's hockey games will air on either MSNBC or USA, although NBC will carry live coverage of both the women's (February 20th) and men's (February 26th, the last competition of the Olympics) championship games as well as two games of the men's team in round-robin competition (February 18th against Slovakia and February 19th against Sweden) and the men's consolation game for the bronze medal (February 25th).
* All U.S. men's and women's games, wherever telecast, will be seen without commercial interruption (although there will be commercials during the two intermissions of each game). This is due to the fact that timeouts in international hockey (unlike the NHL) are so short that even with a 30-second commercial break, action often resumes before the commercial ends.
* With NBC the new broadcast-network home of the NHL, lead NBC/NHL announcers Mike Emrick and John Davidson will be the lead tandem for men's hockey for NBC/MSNBC/USA, and will call all Team U.S.A. games and the championship finals. While Emrick will also be the lead play-by-play announcer for women's hockey, former U.S. women's team member A.J. Mleczko will be analyst.
* USA will broadcast "Olympic Ice" each evening during the Games, an hour-long show (6-7 P.M. ET) devoted entirely to a behind-the-scenes look at figure-skating.
* Legendary figure-skating analyst (and 1948 and 1952 men's singles gold medialist) Dick Button will be part of NBC's figure-skating commentary team; he'll be the analyst for the pairs' competition and contribute to "Olympic Ice". Although the release said this would be his first-ever Olympic broadcast for NBC, I thought he and Peggy Fleming called figure-skating for NBC's broadcast of the 1972 Winter Games in Sapporro, Japan----from the studio anchor desk! In any event, this will be the first time Button has worked on an American telecast of a Winter Olympics since 1988.
* Curling, a cult favorite on television over the last few Winter Olympics, will be divided-up between USA (with several live matches) and CNBC (with weekday matches on tape, owing to the fact CNBC's weekday coverage will not begin until 5 P.M. ET).
* One interesting tidbit: As NBC's schedule for Thursday, February 23rd is now (January 10th) listed, the daytime coverage will have women's parallel giant slalom snowboarding heats in the daytime (4-5 P.M. ET), while prime-time (8 P.M.-12 Midnight ET) will have the long program in women's figure-skating, the men's aerials finals in freestyle skiing, and the finals in women's parallel giant slalom snowboarding.
I wonder why NBC didn't schedule the women's snowboarding finals and the men's freestyle skiing during the daytime coverage (with sophisicated video editing, they can be fit in an hour show along with the women's snowboarding heats!) to allow the network to devote the entire four-hour primetime show to figure-skating. Given that the long program in women's figure skating is traditionally, in terms of domestic and worldwide fan interest, one of the three "biggest" events at a Winter Olympics (the others being the men's downhill ski race and the championship game in men's hockey), NBC is missing an opportunity to do "saturation" coverage, including showing the long programs of all 24 qualifiers. I actually think four hours of "all-figure-skating-all-the-time", even if on a six-hour tape-delay, would bring enormous numbers to NBC, especially if Michele Kwan is allowed to compete (she had to miss the Natioal Championships due to an injury but should be able to compete at the Olympics if put on the U.S. team) and is in a position to finally win the one honor in figure-skating that has eluded her: Olympic Gold.
* Unlike recent Olympics, where high-definition broadcasts were produced separately from NBC's main coverage and aired a day or two later, most of the TV coverage coming from Turin/Torino will be in HD and simulcast as such on the HD sub-channel of many NBC affiliates and/or on HD cable channels.
* During the week, late-night Olympic coverage will be included as a segment during an expanded "Tonight Show" with Jay Leno (as was the case most weeknights four years ago in Salt Lake City). I doubt Jay himself will be going to Turin/Torino; he could easily use satellite technology to do interviews via video link with medalists at the Games.
* And finally, something you won't see on NBC (or any of it's cable siblings): Live coverage of the Opening (February 10th) and Closing (February 26th) Ceremonies. Both will be held on tape for prime-time broadcast. By contrast, most of the other countries that will get the Winter Olympics on TV (likely, this will include CBC in Canada) will see both live.
Personally, I wish NBC would have broadcast the Opening Ceremonies both live and repeated in prime-time on tape. The total combined audience would probably be higher than for the taped prime-time broadcast alone. Since the Closing Ceremonies are on a Sunday, I wish NBC would have broadcast them live in the afternoon and also an abridged version in prime-time as part of a "Highlights Of The Olympics" special.
At least four years from now in Vancouver, the Opening and Closing Ceremonies will be live in prime-time (in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing get held on a Friday morning, which would translate to a live Thursday-night prime-time broadcast in North America, which would give NBC eighteen nights of prime-time Olympic coverage!).
A complete schedule of telecasts has been posted on NBC Olympics.com
Among the highlights I was able to gleam from both the press release and the TV schedule:
* A total of 416 hours of coverage between NBC, USA, CNBC, and MSNBC.
* NBC will broadcast 121 1/2 hours of coverage (with 61 1/2 hours of primetime coverage being rebroadcast in the overnight hours), 101 1/2 hours of coverage on USA, 71 hours on MSNBC, and 61 hours on CNBC.
* Bob Costas will return as prime-time host. This will be his sixth Olympics as prime-time studio host.
* Due to the time difference, none of NBC's primetime coverage will be live, but much of the daytime coverage on both NBC and it's cable sister networks will be.
* Most of the men's and women's hockey games will air on either MSNBC or USA, although NBC will carry live coverage of both the women's (February 20th) and men's (February 26th, the last competition of the Olympics) championship games as well as two games of the men's team in round-robin competition (February 18th against Slovakia and February 19th against Sweden) and the men's consolation game for the bronze medal (February 25th).
* All U.S. men's and women's games, wherever telecast, will be seen without commercial interruption (although there will be commercials during the two intermissions of each game). This is due to the fact that timeouts in international hockey (unlike the NHL) are so short that even with a 30-second commercial break, action often resumes before the commercial ends.
* With NBC the new broadcast-network home of the NHL, lead NBC/NHL announcers Mike Emrick and John Davidson will be the lead tandem for men's hockey for NBC/MSNBC/USA, and will call all Team U.S.A. games and the championship finals. While Emrick will also be the lead play-by-play announcer for women's hockey, former U.S. women's team member A.J. Mleczko will be analyst.
* USA will broadcast "Olympic Ice" each evening during the Games, an hour-long show (6-7 P.M. ET) devoted entirely to a behind-the-scenes look at figure-skating.
* Legendary figure-skating analyst (and 1948 and 1952 men's singles gold medialist) Dick Button will be part of NBC's figure-skating commentary team; he'll be the analyst for the pairs' competition and contribute to "Olympic Ice". Although the release said this would be his first-ever Olympic broadcast for NBC, I thought he and Peggy Fleming called figure-skating for NBC's broadcast of the 1972 Winter Games in Sapporro, Japan----from the studio anchor desk! In any event, this will be the first time Button has worked on an American telecast of a Winter Olympics since 1988.
* Curling, a cult favorite on television over the last few Winter Olympics, will be divided-up between USA (with several live matches) and CNBC (with weekday matches on tape, owing to the fact CNBC's weekday coverage will not begin until 5 P.M. ET).
* One interesting tidbit: As NBC's schedule for Thursday, February 23rd is now (January 10th) listed, the daytime coverage will have women's parallel giant slalom snowboarding heats in the daytime (4-5 P.M. ET), while prime-time (8 P.M.-12 Midnight ET) will have the long program in women's figure-skating, the men's aerials finals in freestyle skiing, and the finals in women's parallel giant slalom snowboarding.
I wonder why NBC didn't schedule the women's snowboarding finals and the men's freestyle skiing during the daytime coverage (with sophisicated video editing, they can be fit in an hour show along with the women's snowboarding heats!) to allow the network to devote the entire four-hour primetime show to figure-skating. Given that the long program in women's figure skating is traditionally, in terms of domestic and worldwide fan interest, one of the three "biggest" events at a Winter Olympics (the others being the men's downhill ski race and the championship game in men's hockey), NBC is missing an opportunity to do "saturation" coverage, including showing the long programs of all 24 qualifiers. I actually think four hours of "all-figure-skating-all-the-time", even if on a six-hour tape-delay, would bring enormous numbers to NBC, especially if Michele Kwan is allowed to compete (she had to miss the Natioal Championships due to an injury but should be able to compete at the Olympics if put on the U.S. team) and is in a position to finally win the one honor in figure-skating that has eluded her: Olympic Gold.
* Unlike recent Olympics, where high-definition broadcasts were produced separately from NBC's main coverage and aired a day or two later, most of the TV coverage coming from Turin/Torino will be in HD and simulcast as such on the HD sub-channel of many NBC affiliates and/or on HD cable channels.
* During the week, late-night Olympic coverage will be included as a segment during an expanded "Tonight Show" with Jay Leno (as was the case most weeknights four years ago in Salt Lake City). I doubt Jay himself will be going to Turin/Torino; he could easily use satellite technology to do interviews via video link with medalists at the Games.
* And finally, something you won't see on NBC (or any of it's cable siblings): Live coverage of the Opening (February 10th) and Closing (February 26th) Ceremonies. Both will be held on tape for prime-time broadcast. By contrast, most of the other countries that will get the Winter Olympics on TV (likely, this will include CBC in Canada) will see both live.
Personally, I wish NBC would have broadcast the Opening Ceremonies both live and repeated in prime-time on tape. The total combined audience would probably be higher than for the taped prime-time broadcast alone. Since the Closing Ceremonies are on a Sunday, I wish NBC would have broadcast them live in the afternoon and also an abridged version in prime-time as part of a "Highlights Of The Olympics" special.
At least four years from now in Vancouver, the Opening and Closing Ceremonies will be live in prime-time (in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing get held on a Friday morning, which would translate to a live Thursday-night prime-time broadcast in North America, which would give NBC eighteen nights of prime-time Olympic coverage!).