The Associated Press reports that NBC and its affiliated network will telecast 806 hours of the Athens 2004 Summer Olympic Games, making it possible for sports fans to watch the Games 24 hours a day.
The coverage nearly doubles the 441 hours shown during the Sydney 2000 Games.
Dick Ebersol, NBC sports chairman said there will be 134 Olympic hours on the Spanish-language network Telemundo, representing the first Spanish telecast of the Olympics in the United States.
Ebersol said, “we will deliver the Olympics to the widest possible audience and give American TV viewers an unprecedented array of choices”.
MSNBC will cover the Games between 2 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day and CNBC’s coverage will be from 5 to 8 p.m.
NBC will air the Games for three and a half hours in the afternoon, from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. with a 35-minute break at midnight, then a rerun of its prime-time coverage in the early morning hours.
Also, the recently acquired Bravo entertainment network will show the Olympics for 13 hours a day.
The first day of competition is Aug. 14, 2004.
With Athens in a time zone seven to 10 hours ahead of the United States, NBC will be able to show live events during the day. But prime time will have all taped material.
The extra coverage in 2004 will enable NBC to telecast some more obscure sports that rarely get attention, like table tennis and badminton.
NBC will announce at a later date more specific schedules involving which networks will concentrate on which sports.
