Sochi 2014 Olympic Media Updates

[Durban Sandshark]

VGTRK gets Net Insight's Nimbra 600 series media switch routers (MSRs) for a contribution network that it is building from the venues of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics to its Moscow-based studio in a broadcast deal.

http://www.digitaltveurope.net/128211/net-insight-signs-russian-broadcast-deal/

Breaking news: Another notable Russian with American ties joins the NBC Sochi 2014 team. I proposed he could work for the First Channel again back home like he did with Vancouver and Turin. But famed journalist Vladimir Posner comes to the NBC late night portion with Bob Costas in his US Olympic TV debut. Was hoping he could come in for the ceremonies--and he still might--

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2013/12/11/moscow-based-tv-journalist-vladimir-pozner-to-join-nbcuniversals-olympics-coverage-in-sochi-295101/20131211nbc01/

The Voice US season 4 winner Danielle Bradbury's song "My Day" is currently used for NBC Olympics Sochi 2014 promos in a joint promotional campaign

http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwmusic/article/NBC-Olympics-Partners-with-VOICE-Winner-Danielle-Bradbery-for-Promo-Campaign-20131210

[Durban Sandshark]

From page 25 of Canvas Voorjaar 2014 e-mag details what VRT is going to do with Sochi 2014 under the Sporza banner. Alpine skiing "the athletics of the Winter Olympics" and other Olympic sports will be shown on Canvas under what's called the working title Sochi 2014 for about 4 hours daily from 16-20, but it seems it should be at least 100 hours as per the IOC TV broadcasting minimum. Sporza's sportscaster team from Sochi on Canvas are Renaat Schotte (speed skating), Christophe Vandegoor (skiing), Gert Gomme, Marc Willems, Geert Heremens, Inge Van Meensel, and Kris Meertens. Sochi reporters for Sporza Canvas will be Maarten Vangramberen and Bert Sterckx who very likely be the Sochi Olympic studio anchors with news, interviews, and interviews. Belgium will a very small team to Sochi to begin with anyway so Belgian fans will follow speedskater Bart Swings and snowboarder Seppe Smits. Sporza online will bring forth 3 live Internet streaming channels to compliment the Canvas TV coverage. On the radio side Radio 1 will take care of things with news and notes and live coverage of Sochi's Belgian Olympians throughout the day. On February 3, Canvas will premiere a documentary on Belgian speedskater Bart Swings with journalists Karl Vannieuwkerke, Bart Aerts, and Sammy Neyrinck follow him a day in the life of Swings

http://www.vrt.be/sites/default/files/attachments/vj14-Canvasvoorjaar2014-persdossier.pdf

All of Latvia's Sochi 2014 hockey matches will be shown on the Modern Times Group's channels Viasat Sport Baltic, TV3, and TV6. Viasat's Sochi Olympic coverage will come on Viasat Sport Baltic, which will broadcast the highest-interest sports, and six specifically created Viasat Extra OS HD channels. Altogether the Viasat channels will broadcast a total 1200 hours with 220 hours coming from Viasat Sport Baltic alone, the most Winter Olympics coverage Latvia ever has. Seriously, it's got to be likewise with all the other Baltic republics though both Estonia and Lithuania will employ their own languages for the commentaries

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=lv&u=http://www.apollo.lv/zinas/olimpisko-hokeja-turniru-radis-mtg-tv3-un-tv6-bus-maksas-apraide/627039&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.apollo.lv/zinas/olimpisko-hokeja-turniru-radis-mtg-tv3-un-tv6-bus-maksas-apraide/627039%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D930%26tbm%3Dnws

Viasat Eesti's brand new Sochi 2014 promo with a mixture of both kinds of the Olympics interspersed by recent Estonian Olympic medal moments

Elemental shows off its 4K Ultra HD capabilities in London. NBC has got to be a client for Sochi since it's currently a customer. Perhaps America Movil too for UnoTV. Anyone ready to place bets on the Olympic clients?

http://www.lightreading.com/elemental-shows-off-4k-/d/d-id/706935?f_src=lightreading_gnews

SBS Sochi 2014 webpage

http://news.sbs.co.kr/sochi2014/?loganal1=program_event&loganal2=2014%EC%86%8C%EC%B9%98%20%EB%8F%99%EA%B3%84%EC%98%AC%EB%A6%BC%ED%94%BD%20%EC%97%B4%EC%A0%95%EC%9D%98%20%EC%86%8C%EC%B9%98%20%EA%BF%88%EA%BE%B8%EB%8A%94%20%ED%8F%89%EC%B0%BD%20

With Ten getting the exclusive coverage of Sochi 2014 down in Australia, we can definitely forget about FOXTEL at this point unless a deal somehow gets struck on the Australian pay-TV side in the coming days. But I'm not holding my breath for it now. We should also see who gets these Olympics getting sold for Africa and the Caribbean, the last two territories remaining. I wouldn't bet against SABC/Supersport and Octagon doing it again and duking it out in sub-Saharan Africa. No word on SportsMax, which just after the London Olympics in August launched SportsMax 2. Because if we don't hear anything by mid-January from the smaller nations, we can forget it because those media entities had to get prepared and ready by late January with all the media logistics.

[Quaker2001]

Don't know if it does anything for the US television schedule, but the United States has qualified for the Olympics in men's curling. Here is the schedule of games, both men and women, for those who want to plan ahead. As far as we know, all of these games will be televised live on 1 of the cable networks..

Men

Feb. 10, 10am vs. Norway
Feb. 11, 5am vs. China
Feb. 12, Midnight vs. Denmark
Feb. 13, 5am vs. Great Britain
Feb. 14, Midnight vs. Germany
Feb. 14, 10am vs. Russia
Feb. 16, Midnight vs. Canada
Feb. 16, 10am vs. Sweden
Feb. 17, 5am vs. Switzerland


Women
Feb. 10, 5am vs. Switzerland [USA Network]
Feb. 11, Midnight vs. Russia
Feb. 11, 10am vs. Great Britain
Feb. 12, 5am vs. China
Feb. 13, 10am vs. (Qualifier)
Feb. 14, 5am vs. Denmark
Feb. 15, 10am vs. Sweden
Feb. 16, 5am vs. Canada
Feb. 17, Midnight vs. South Korea

Should have noted.. those times are all Eastern, not local in Sochi

[Quaker2001]

From NBC...

CABLE, SATELLITE & TELCO CUSTOMERS CAN VERIFY SUBSCRIPTIONS NOW TO ACCESS MORE THAN 1,000 HOURS OF SOCHI OLYMPICS LIVE STREAMING CONTENT

NEW YORK, NY – December 16, 2013 – The nation’s 100+ million cable, satellite and telco customers will be able to access more than 1,000 hours of live streaming content of the XXII Olympic Winter Games from Sochi, Russia this February – more than double the hours of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. At no additional charge, multi-channel customers can verify their video subscriptions now at NBCOlympics.com, NBC Olympics announced today.

[Quaker2001]

NBC, Yahoo to partner for Sochi

NBC Olympics and Yahoo will partner to promote video highlights and live streamed video of the Sochi Games, ending years of competition and public sniping over what outlet drove the most traffic during an Olympic Games.

[Durban Sandshark]

Last night during NBC's Sunday Night Football game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cincinnati Bengals in Pittsburgh saw NBC show at least four :30 commercial vignettes promoting the new Winter Olympics sports making their debut in Sochi like team figure skating, slopestyle skiing, women's ski jumping, and ski halfpipe. Each of them were just general overviews of the sports. All presented by Target.

Radio Monte Carlo (RMC) strikes a deal with the CNOSF, actually the French Olympic Team, for radio coverage on the 2014 French team from Sochi as its official radio station

http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/french_olympic_team_seals_rmc_deal/

You'll know who's on the France TV Sport Jeux Olympiques d'Hiver Sotchi 2014 sportscasting team and what sports they'll cover in this playful black and white photo shoot with the aid of a ski cable car and some winter sports equipment and the FTV Sport logo in pink. I do remember Fabrice Guy from Albertville, for one thing.

Get your colorful ZDF/ARD Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics media guide with the TV schedule for each day of the planned coverage sharing the same studio! All the reporters and analysts are listed. Kristin Otto will be there, among them. I still don't really understand why ZDF likes to cluster and jumps around events for time blocks instead of going with full events like ARD will. Yes, there's now going to be full event coverage with ZDF/ARD commentary provided online and on tablets and smartphones with apps. Also of note, both ZDF and ARD will broadcast Olympic documentaries at close of 2013 to get us ready for the Games--two from ZDF alone. Memo to NBC: learn from your lessons from your very Mickey Mouse NBC London 2012 media guide and make it more colourful and better detailed.

https://presseportal.zdf.de/fileadmin/zdf_upload/Presse_Special/2014/2/Sotchi-2014.pdf

SKY Italia hits the slopes of Cimon in their latest installment in their Road to Sochi series

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://www.modenatoday.it/sport/giuliano-razzoli-olimpiadi-2014-sochi.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.modenatoday.it/sport/giuliano-razzoli-olimpiadi-2014-sochi.html%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D856%26tbm%3Dnws

Avaya is back for the Winter Olympics like it was with Vancouver and is putting the finishing touches on the massive Wi-Fi networking for Sochi 2014, easily the most Internet-connected in Winter Olympics history. Handling 54Tbps and 30 IPTVs in HD to 30,000+ Olympic personnel from athletes to IOC bigwigs at the Games sites.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/121613-avaya-wifi-olympics-276776.html

Ceske Televize's Sochi-bound sportscasters like snowboarding and freestyle skiing commentator George Holzel filmed their CT ZOH 2014 commercials at Špindlerově Mlýně with a couple of Czech Winter Olympians like downhill skiier Jan Holický and biathlete Roman Dostal.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=cs&u=http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/sport/zoh-2014/254855-komentatori-lyzari-nataceli-predolympijske-spoty/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.ceskatelevize.cz/sport/zoh-2014/254855-komentatori-lyzari-nataceli-predolympijske-spoty/%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D930%26tbm%3Dnws

[Durban Sandshark]

NBC, Yahoo to partner for Sochi

NBC Olympics and Yahoo will partner to promote video highlights and live streamed video of the Sochi Games, ending years of competition and public sniping over what outlet drove the most traffic during an Olympic Games.

Well that certainly answers my question about what computer company NBC will hook up for the Sochi Olympics on the tech portal side. Yahoo is indeed surprising because of the war those two have with the mutual sniping over the Olympics, even with the recent sports partnerships they have. Seems both gotten into the holiday spirit of reconcilliation on that. As the article notes, there will be some integration on the web side while both staying (rightly) independent, and Yahoo is brilliant with its Olympic coverage in recent Games and surely get some former US Winter Olympians involved in their columns. Plus, they're right to have Olympic digital video traffic will be there on both sites.

[BTHarner]

I can't find anyplace on the website where I can get myself verified.

[Quaker2001]

All I can say to this is.. WOW!!...

NBCSN TO PRESENT 230+ HOURS OF SOCHI OLYMPICS COVERAGE

So I under-estimated by several hours, but they are showing figure skating on NBCSN and a lot of it. I am completely floored by that revelation.

[Quaker2001]

Okay, after looking at the release a little closer, there's this..

Following coverage of the team event, NBCSN will show every performance and every skater of the pairs, men’s, ice dancing and ladies competitions.

Again, I am completely and utterly speechless. I can't believe this is the route they're going. Kudos to them for being progressive with this effort.

[baron-pierreIV]

Date Time (ET) Event/Program Sat., Feb. 8 9:30 a.m. Team Event: Ice Dancing Short, Ladies’ Short, Pairs’ Free Sun., Feb. 9 10 a.m. Team Event: Men’s Free, Ice Dancing Free, Ladies’ Free Tues., Feb. 11 10 a.m. Pairs Short Wed., Feb. 12 10:45 a.m. Pairs Free Thurs., Feb. 13 10 a.m. Men’s Short Fri., Feb. 14 10 a.m. Men’s Free Sun., Feb. 16 10 a.m. Ice Dancing Short Mon., Feb. 17 10 a.m. Ice Dancing Free Wed., Feb. 19 10 a.m. Ladies’ Short Thurs., Feb. 20 10 a.m. Ladies’ Free

Looking at the NBCSN schedule, it's strange that the Figure Skating disciplines will be back-to-back, i.e., a Short Program on day One; followed by the Long or Free Program the next day. This has never been done before. There has always been a rest day in-between. I wonder if there is some error there???

[Quaker2001]

Looking at the NBCSN schedule, it's strange that the Figure Skating disciplines will be back-to-back, i.e., a Short Program on day One; followed by the Long or Free Program the next day. This has never been done before. There has always been a rest day in-between. I wonder if there is some error there???

It's no error. They changed up the figure skating schedule this year (possibly in part because of the new team event) so that the short program and the long program are on back-to-back days. Not sure exactly why they did that, but that's what the schedule is this year.

[baron-pierreIV]

It's no error. They changed up the figure skating schedule this year (possibly in part because of the new team event) so that the short program and the long program are on back-to-back days. Not sure exactly why they did that, but that's what the schedule is this year.

Wow. That's going to be hard, especially for the pairs. Not good for those with low stamina -- esp Plushenko.

[Quaker2001]

Wow. That's going to be hard, especially for the pairs. Not good for those with low stamina -- esp Plushenko.

It's the Olympics.. it should be hard.

[Barcelona_'92]

I'm absolutely stunned. I never thought we'd see marquee events being aired live during the day and then packaged for primetime. Figure skating isn't the ratings-grabber it used to be, so NBC's research must have shown that they won't lose much viewership in primetime by airing it during the day, but they will likely gain a lot of viewership for NBCSN by doing so. It'll be interesting to see how they package figure skating for primetime--will they only show the top 4 or 5 programs, or will they show 10-12 skaters like they usually do. Either way, I'm ecstatic about this, and NBC deserves a lot of credit for taking this risk.

I wonder what will be airing on NBC in the afternoon with such extensive coverage on NBCSN.

[ofan]

NBC said they would start showing everything live in the new package. It was just a matter of whether it started in Sochi or Rio.

[baron-pierreIV]

It's the Olympics.. it should be hard.

Well, yeah. Except in FS, u're not supposed to see them sweat! It should appear effortless, ethereal and energetic (the 3 E's)! Whaddya think this is? Track & Field??

[Quaker2001]

Well, yeah. Except in FS, u're not supposed to see them sweat! It should appear effortless, ethereal and energetic (the 3 E's)! Whaddya think this is? Track & Field??

Yea, my bad.. I guess I was confusing figure skating with something that could, ya know, be considered an actual sport.

NBC said they would start showing everything live in the new package. It was just a matter of whether it started in Sochi or Rio.

They promised everything live in some form or another.. they never said anything about putting 1 of the marquee sports, if not THE marquee sport of the Winter Olympics live on cable. I agree with Barcelona. This is completely unprecedented for NBC to go with. I don't know if it has anything to do with figure skating's ability to draw ratings or not, but this is clearly about trying to prop up a cable network that hasn't gotten too much publicity lately by focusing the spotlight on them for a couple of weeks. And I'm also curious to see how primetime is going to set up now.. NBC has made an art form out of presenting taped events as if they were going on at that moment. Now that these same events are being shown on their air earlier in the day, not sure that's going to be possible anymore.

[baron-pierreIV]

Bring in Ellen, Jeff Probst, Geraldo and Bill O'Reilly to do the commentaries for Sochi!!

[Durban Sandshark]

Better to have it start in Sochi to set the tone for this current Olympic media period.

Add me to the list of those who are estatic with NBC Sports Network's putting forth the strong committment to broadcast figure skating more comprehensively and won't lose viewership during the day as opposed to just package the events for primetime (that in itself and the afternoon period will be interesting as Barcelona_'92 points out)--and to NBC Sports Network going at least to the 200 hours plateau for Sochi! I knew they would hit there. Figure skating isn't as apparently big here to American casual fans these days due to the apparent lack of American star power in it to lure the eyeballs. Bad news is NBC Sports Network stays true to not upsurping NBC's primetime February 6 coverage and the Opening Ceremony, so that means if we want to see the comprehensive team figure skating pairs and men's short programs, men's and women's slopestyle skiing qualifications, and the women's moguls qualifications coverage, we will have to head online for the live and on-demand IOC world English feeds. Surely it was capable to do that too. NBC, I think, will hit over 200 TV hours too with that added day.

As for short track, it won't be too severe since all that sport's competition is spread out on five days throughout the Olympics instead of only previously alternating with only on Thursday, February 13 when both figure skating and short track share the Iceberg Skating Palace. Shouldn't be too hard or take too long to make the cosmetic transition from one to the next in a matter of hours then with short track using rink padding and track cones. Then the zamboni comes along.

[BTHarner]

I'm guessing I am the only one who will miss the compulsory dance. For some reason it was always my favorite night of the figure skating competition.

[rio2016man]

Good news for Figure skating fans in United States

[breathesgelatin]

Man, this news about NBC Sports is almost enough to make me sign up for a month or two of cable.

I'm the first to criticize NBC's pre-packaged coverage of the Olympics, but I will say I've been impressed with NBC Sports over the last few years. What the channel has done with open-wheel racing is amazing. Hope their figure skating coverage is as good!

[baron-pierreIV]

Man, this news about NBC Sports is almost enough to make me sign up for a month or two of cable.

I'm the first to criticize NBC's pre-packaged coverage of the Olympics, but I will say I've been impressed with NBC Sports over the last few years. What the channel has done with open-wheel racing is amazing. Hope their figure skating coverage is as good!

Can Gianni Weir hack it working everyday for like 10 days?? I betcha he's going to get bitchier with each passing day.

Edited December 18, 2013 by baron-pierreIV

[Quaker2001]

Some info on commentators for NBCU...

http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2014/december/doc-emrick-liam-mchugh-kathryn-tappen-lead-nbc-s-winter-olympics-crew.html

http://www.examiner.com/article/formula-1-leigh-diffey-of-nbc-s-f1-indycar-joins-sochi-olympics-coverage