Some More Olympic Tv Updates

[BTHarner]

I never expected NBC to stream the marquee events prior to their prime-time airing. That's fine, I was planning to use the online coverage to follow the so-called "secondary sports." I wonder how long the coverage will be available for viewing online, will it be taken down immediately after the Games or will it be available for viewing for some time after the Games? If it going to be up for a couple months, then my VCR and my DVR may get a break during these Games.

[Durban Sandshark]

I never expected NBC to stream the marquee events prior to their prime-time airing. That's fine, I was planning to use the online coverage to follow the so-called "secondary sports." I wonder how long the coverage will be available for viewing online, will it be taken down immediately after the Games or will it be available for viewing for some time after the Games? If it going to be up for a couple months, then my VCR and my DVR may get a break during these Games.

I'm along those lines too myself with the big-time events getting streamed later. Still, it'll be interesting to see how the schedule will get set up compared to Athens. Of course, with online the sports with bigger foreign emphasis like preliminary handball will head there as the NBC networks will cover more likely pro-US coverage IMO with some international events involving those foreign names familiar to Americans.

As for the online coverage, NBC holds the rights to the 2008 Beijing Olympics on US television for a year after the end of the Games. I do presume with some televised events like volleyball, we'll get the entire event online. In total 3000+ hours, maybe more, will be there online on-demand afterward. But again there's something about getting stuff live that may not appear online. You know, something uncensored.

SVT meanwhile became one of the first to unviel its Beijing 2008 TV schedule the other day for all of its channels--SVT1, SVT24, and Peking + on SVT Play. Go to http://www.svt.se/os then click one of the "TV-tablas" for the schedules.

[Quaker2001]

I never expected NBC to stream the marquee events prior to their prime-time airing. That's fine, I was planning to use the online coverage to follow the so-called "secondary sports." I wonder how long the coverage will be available for viewing online, will it be taken down immediately after the Games or will it be available for viewing for some time after the Games? If it going to be up for a couple months, then my VCR and my DVR may get a break during these Games.

I made this point in another forum.. I don't think it's so much about the "secondary sports" moreso than it is about non-USA centric events. I think there will be a lot of emphasis on the team sports, including ones like basketball and soccer which you'd expect to get a lot of coverage. Take the first day of the men's basketball tournament, August 10th. It's all but a foregone conclusion that NBC will air that live. Then perhaps 1 other game makes it onto television, let's say it's the Lithuania-Argentina game. After that, any game that's not televised will more than likely be shown online. So think of your sports like basketball or soccer or baseball, etc. It stands to reason that every game in all of those sports will be covered, either on TV or online.

Here's where the contradiction comes in, though.. We now know that nothing that gets televised will also get live streamed online. No surprise there, almost seems redundant anyway. But we're also expecting 'full event replays' of the big events, which I'm sure involves a lot of the USA games in the team sports. So if they weren't online in the first place, do they appear online later? There's a lot of questions left and considering that we're probably less than a week away from the full official announcement, it's almost not worth speculating anymore. We'll see what happens, but I'm definitely getting more and more excited by the day.

[Quaker2001]

From today's Michael Hiestand column in the USA Today...

NBC to air more Games games

Like 19th-century Native American hunters who famously used all parts of the buffalo they hunted — unlike wasteful European hunters who just made off with the prime pelts — NBC doesn't plan to let anything go to waste at the Summer Olympics.

The latest wrinkle, to be formally announced Thursday: two sport-specific, ad-free channels — basketball and soccer — carrying every game in those sports in Beijing. Games slated to air live on NBC or its cable channel will be shown later on the specialized channels.

NBC also will roll out what it believes will the first U.S. Olympic channels in languages other than English or Spanish: a channel using Mandarin and one using Korean.

NBC's Olympics deal gives it a monopoly on all video showing competition — whether it goes to TV, online or on cellphones — except for brief video snippets that can show up on other networks' news coverage.

And NBC, which will make the new channels available to about 80 million households getting cable or satellite TV, can tap the Olympic world TV feed — which shoots every second of competition and is available to networks with Olympic TV rights. NBC Olympics president Gary Zenkel says the new channels are part of NBC's effort to "cast the widest possible net."

Thanks to the world TV feed, the announcers on the Mandarin and Korean channels won't have to actually be in China — they'll be in New York.

[Durban Sandshark]

Something tells me that Universal Sports (formerly WCSN) will get involved in this endeavour for Beijing. I knew Chinese and Korean language coverage were going to have TV appearances thanks to Multicultural Broadcasting. Just took awhile for it to be confirmed.

I'm looking forward to see some Australian athletes on NBC's coverage--not an Aussie but I always had a lifelong soft spot for the nation and the Kiwis--so there's still chances to see them on TV, just not as internationally as it was in Athens though still very much US-centric. Like to see at least one Boomers and Opals preliminary game before the medal round. What's now announced from NBC is a lot like The Phillipines' Basketball TV and CCTV's basketball-only channel for Olympic basketball coverage.

Agreed Quaker2001 on your points. Surely those events will appear later online, and I would be shocked if that isn't going to be the case. But you're right, a lot of questions are needed to be answered between now and the next week.

Canal Plus in France announced recently that 800 hours of transmission of the Bejing 2008 Olympics live between the hours of 2:00 to 18:00 from August 8-24 through Canal+ Sport with previews, special features, and of course the competition.

[BTHarner]

I had heard mention of the basketball and soccer channels a few weeks back in an article pertaining to my satellite provider. So I am assuming I will have another viewing option, as if there weren't enough already. Watching these Olympic Games will be a lot like trying to figure out what to get off the buffet at an Italian restaurant, there are going to be some impossible decisions.

[Infinite_Olympics]

Interesting about the channels...my quirky rural cable provider will force me to rely more on the online coverage, which I am really thankful to get. You see, in the last two Olympics, my cable provider has only aired the Olympic coverage from NBC and USA, while NOT airing the MSNBC, Bravo, or CNBC olympic coverage. In an e-mail I sent them back during Athens, this was what they said:

"Troy Cablevision has no control when it comes to what programmers carry on their channel line up. The Olympics you are speaking of on MSNBC was something they wanted to charge extra for. We felt it was a cost the consumers didn't want to have to bear since most of this was on USA."

So, now with the news that the streaming coverage may be delayed in some cases--my schedule could *really* be convoluted and crazy. My latest inquiries to both Troy Cablevision (about what channels they will be offering this year) and NBC Olympics (about more details of their online coverage, including whether it would be able to be viewed FULLSCREEN!) have yet gone unanswered. It's just about a month away, and the details are still frustratingly vague.

[millertime1851]

First time back here in quite a while.

Ron Judd covers Olympic sports for the Seattle Times. A week ago, he wrote a scathing blog entry about NBC's ham-handedness of Olympic coverage in the United States.

Seattle Times Blog: NBC, firmly on the cutting edge, readies delayed coverage for irrelevant West Coast

For those GB viewers in the Seattle area, does the CBC channel (I think 99 on Comcast) carry their Olympic coverage, via CBUT in Vancouver?

[DrunkWithBode]

It's curious that NBC would delay Trials coverage for the west coast, considering how it's unlikely to get big TV ratings either way.

But I remember reading that for the Olympics, the decision whether or not to delay the coverage is up to the local affiliates. I remember it being a big deal in 2002 when the Winter Olympics were in Utah but local NBC affiliates in that region were choosing to hold the coverage until 8 pm local time.

[Durban Sandshark]

The list of international broadcasters on Wikipedia's Beijing 2008 entry keeps expanding: Macedonia (MKTV), Bosnia-Herzecgovina (BHRT), Croatia (HRT), Montenegro (RTCG), Czech Republic (CT1), and Denmark (DR, TV2). CT1 is interesting in the list because I wrote that CT2 and CT4 SPORT WILL air the games for the Czech Republic. I'll link up what I wrote from tomorrow with others sources that must be cited, when I have more time to do this.

[Nikolaj]

and Denmark (DR, TV2).

Those will be the two main broadcasters, but the coverage will be spread more than that. The Danish rights situation has been a little messy. At first it looked like TV2 would be the only coverage provider (as they already are with the Winter Games) as the public broadcaster DR were in deep financial trouble and were looking to sell all of their sports rights. But in November last year, they managed to make a deal with the Norwegian telephone company Telenor, who they shared their rights to the Summer Olympics, the World Cup and some other minor sporting events with. Telenor is probably looking to start a new channel where they can use their rights, but that channel hasn't become reality yet and therefore it looks like DR's coverage will be just as comprehensive as earlier Summer Games. There is no schedule yet, but DR's Olympic website are up and running: http://dr.dk/Sporten/OL2008/20080506132215.htm (in Danish of course).

TV2 have also started a joint venture. It's the channel TV2 Sport, which they own 51% of. The other 49% belongs to the company MTG, who owns quite many big sports rights such as the Champions League, the Danish football league and golf from the European and PGA Tour. These rights were earlier used on some of their own channels, but now many of them is on TV2 Sport. The problem is that the Danish authorities has prohibited the channel from being run by the two owners, since that would create an almost monopoly on sports rights in Denmark. Therefore, the channel has to be run independently, which in practice means that the two owners "sell" their rights to TV2 Sport, when they don't want to use them on their main channels. Come Olympics time, TV2 has to decide which rights they will sell to TV2 Sport, so even though the channels share the TV2 name, it will be two distinctively different kinds of coverage. The one thing we already know about the Danish Olympic TV schedule is that TV2 has sold the rights to the Olympic basketball tournament to TV2 Sport: http://tv2sport.dk/node/9655 (in Danish again).

Just a little update here from Denmark. I will post again when there are any news about the TV schedule.

[Olympia]

The Dutch broadcaster NOS will send almost 90 people of the sport department to Beijing. The news department are also sending tweo teams: 1 team of 9 journalists for the real news and 2 people for the youth-news.

The NOS is complaining that the communication with Beijing is difficult. While the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is arranging all the contracts, the NOS self has to arrange the broadcast facilities for their own programms and those facilities are not fully arranged yet. The NOS started 2 years ago with the preparation for these Games, but according to the NOS 'they needed at least 5 years'.

I don't hope it will affect the Dutch programms and i hope other countries don't have these problems!

[Nikolaj]

OK, apparently I missed the link on the left side of DR's Olympic page the first time around, because there it actually tells quite a bit about the coverage: http://www.dr.dk/Sporten/OL2008/2008/07/02/232749.htm

The main channel DR1 will send 280 hours Olympic TV, while DR2 will contribute with 55 hours. DR1 will send live every day from 2 am to 5 pm, while DR2's coverage will be supplemental with apparently a focus on the Equestrian events. It is also said that DR and TV2 has split the rights between them, so that half the sports are on DR and the other half on TV2, except for athletics and handball, the two most popular Olympic sports in Denmark (the Danish handball team's games will without doubt have the best ratings during the Olympics), which is split between the channels.

So as I said in the last post, DR's coverage looks to be just as big as earlier Olympics, which I'm very pleased to hear, since I think they have been much better than TV2 both in Sydney and Athens.

[Durban Sandshark]

First off, thanks and welcome to the boards here to Nikolaj for all of the updates regarding the Danish Olympic TV coverage from DR and TV2! I didn't know that DR was under serious financial trouble until Telenor swooped in and saved it, especially when you think about the rich social democratic tradition Denmark has in preserving the government services like broadcasting and the postal services. I think with Telenor they'll get more time to set things up in the form of a TV channel for Vancouver 2010

I got serious difficulties in not getting the DR's "Bliv En Del Af Holden" OL 2008 Olympic promo videos played from its website (I presume they're funny) but I can get the audio perfectly. I already mentioned earlier in this subject about the transition involving TV2 Zulu not covering as much Olympics as they did in the past and moving it to TV2 Sport and possibly TV2 Sputnik--you can check that out.

Oh yeah, after two years of maintaining the Vinter-OL 2008 Torino subsite after the games were done with, TV2 has finally got into Beijing 2008 OL (in Danish) just today. The Sendeplan has yet to be finalized with its amount of TV hours and what sports from that of course (a few you've already mentioned like handball, athletics, basketball, soccer) but I'm looking forward to its expansive coverage too, Nikolaj. The TV2 bare-bones schedule has a daily post-competition show called OL-Made in China that runs for 55, 35, and 45 minutes each with newsreports thrown in between them I presume.

Still awaiting Iceland's...

[Quaker2001]

Some news from the NBC front although we're still waiting for the big mega-announcement (which I'd like to think is coming today since we're exactly 1 month out from the Opening Ceremony)...

CNBC Olympic Programming Schedule

Not exactly brand new information for those who have been following this thread, but at least it's maybe a pre-cursor to the big announcement.

[Durban Sandshark]

As a reminder, the CNBC evening Olympic presentation will be the boxing.

[DrunkWithBode]

NBC just released its tentative schedule today. Available in PDF form here:

http://nbcumv.com/sports/program_detail.nb...ympicgames.html

This is what we (U.S. viewers) have been waiting for. LOTS of great information here. I guess all that's left is the announcing assignments (I've only browsed thus far but I don't think they're in here) and we'll be all set.

[Infinite_Olympics]

NBC just released its tentative schedule today. Available in PDF form here:

http://nbcumv.com/sports/program_detail.nb...ympicgames.html

This is what we (U.S. viewers) have been waiting for. LOTS of great information here. I guess all that's left is the announcing assignments (I've only browsed thus far but I don't think they're in here) and we'll be all set.

I'm stoked with this schedule. If the previous 2 Olympics are any indication, my local cable (rural) company will show NBC's and USA's coverage. I LOVE USA's epic coverage this time. With the streaming coverage too, I'll be set. I'll be drowning in Olympics and won't be able to sleep or eat--but I'll be set, lol!

[Durban Sandshark]

Got lots of Olympic TV goodies I want to share with you. I originally wrote this yesterday, but this forum has been known to not accept posts after an extended period. I'll try again now. Let's get with this...

CT24's report on CT2 and CT4 SPORT airing the 2008 Beijing Olympics for the Czech Republic, and not CT1 as Wikipedia erroroneously notes on its list of international broadcasters for Beijing 2008, with the 8 Internet streams. This is the website where I got the info from about CT2 and CT4 SPORT. No schedule yet. This serves as one of those numerous citation issues and errors plaguing the site. Nothing as of yet from its Slovakian neighbor STV.

CT2 and CT4 SPORT To Air Beijing 2008 Olympics With 8 Internet Streams

RTP announces 500 hours of Olympic transmission with a crew of 19 in tow for the network. More so that it ever had. Doesn't say on Internet stuff yet from them.

RTP RTP Portugal Will Air 500 Hours of The Beijing Olympics (in Portuguese)

RAI plans to take advantage of all of the latest HDTVs on the market with the latest technologies for its final broadcast of the Summer Olympics in Beijing for broadcast.

Speaking of high definition television, Eurosport brings aboard Panasonic as an official partner for its HD coverage of Beijing 2008 after striking a deal with the electronics giant with Asics already in.

Eurosport Brings in Panasonic For Its HD Coverage

Notice on Lithuania's LTV television webpage one of the Fuwas in the upper right hand corner counting down the start of the Beijing Olympics in a cartoon balloon while Olympic stuff is still being put on or about too. Nothing from ETV in Estonia yet.

I'd like to make a request pertaining Russia's Channel 1 (Pervy Kanal) and Channel 2 regarding their Olympic plans, if anyone's reading, since I can't read Cyrillic well.

Here's some more detailed info from Canal + France's Olympic TV plans: It will air at least 800 hours that will run some events, in several cases simultaneously with France TV's 400 hours on Canal + (18 hours a day with HD simulcast), Canal + Sport (24 hours all day), and Sport +, making twice as much and bringing it to 1200 hours in all for France. Canal + will obviously go into HD, internet streams (don't know how many but there will be live ones), and 300 hours of cellphone coverage with the 800 hours already in. With that, it will feature some notable stars in the French sports world calling the action like David Douillet (already a co-host of a Olympic TV on Canal Plus called Enjeux Olympiques with Agathe Roussel), Emilie Le Pennec, Bixente Lizarazu, Jackson Richardson, Jean Galfione, Guy Forget, Franck Esposito, Thierry Rey, and Stephane Caron as experts.

Canal + JO Peking 2008 (in Francais)--with hilarious 3:45 SAV DES JEUX video

Canal + To Air 800 Hours of the Beijing Olympics (in French)

The latest news from Canada about its Olympic coverage: Bell Canada presents on July 4, with maybe some unintended symbolism for us but still soon after Canada Day, the Samsung m530 Canadian Olympic Team phone, a new cellphone for Canadians to follow the Canadian Olympians in Beijing. Already preloaded with Olympic demo mobile phone games and wallpaper, Canadians will connect with the Canadian athletes, send messages of support, watch CBC's live coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, view exclusive interviews, check Canada's medal standing, and so much more.

Bell Canada Debuts Samsung m530 Canadian Olympic Team Cellphone

Around this time like with the Samsung phone, TSN has announced that 125 hours will be devoted to the Beijing Olympics. 25 of them will be in primetime. More CBC Olympic news and they're really putting all of the stops for its final go-round with the Olympics: CBC Olympic presenters are announced with many Canadian athletes presenting insight during the course of the Games--Clara Hughes, Hayley Wickenheiser (played softball on the 2000 Canadian team), Donovan Bailey, Anne Montminty, Jay Triano, Marianne Limpert, Mark Tewksbury, Barney Williams, and Kevin O'Brien. Only Hughes, Wickenheiser, and O'Brien are still active athletes as they are also required to maintain their fitness and training levels. Here's additional details from Clara Hughes' website. The CBC/TSN announcer listing will come later from me.

SVT's OS i Peking 2008 sports breakdown (in order of appearance on SVT's Olympic TV schedules):

SVT--soccer, both opening and closing ceremonies, handball, basketball, volleyball, swimming, beach volleyball, boxing, gymnastics, tennis, track & field, wrestling, canoeing/kayaking, sailing, diving, mountain bike racing

SVT24--soccer, volleyball, beach volleyball, cycling, basketball, gymnastics, tennis, diving, weightlifting, handball, wrestling, sailing, shooting, equestrian, archery, badminton, rowing, triathlon, table tennis, open water swimming, taekwondo, mountain bike racing, rhythmic gymnastics

Peking + at SVT PLAY--weightlifting, judo, gymnastics, badminton, field hockey, shooting, archery, fencing, tennis, canoeing/kayaking, water polo, diving, rowing, soccer, beach volleyball, table tennis, cycling, trampoline, boxing, softball, baseball, taekwondo, synchronized swimming, wrestling, volleyball, BMX cycling, mountain bike racing

SVT OS i Peking 2008 announcer lineup:

Andre Pops--studio anchor (SVT Stockholm studio)

Marie Lehmann--studio anchor (IBC Beijing)

Maria Wallberg--sport anchor (swimming)

Peter Jonsson--sport anchor (track and field)

Stefan Asberg, Jens Lind, Lotta Fahlberg, Pelle Nystrom, Peter Jonsson--Beijing reporters

Bernt Lagergren, Pelle Sterner (photographer)--Fukuoka, Japan reporters

Bjorn Becksmo, Dennis Aulander--basketball

Jacob Hard, Jonas Karlsson, Anders Garderud, Peter Haggstrom--track and field

Staffan Lindeborg, Hans Chrunak--swimming

Roger Blomqvist--gymnastics/diving

Sten Rosenberg, Anna Laurell--boxing

Bjorn Fagerlind--volleyball/beach volleyball

Chris Harenstam, Glenn Stromberg--soccer

Ola Branholm, Magnus Grahn--handball

Johan Ejeborg--kanoeing/tennis

Jan Svanlund--other sports

I tried to see what TVes, Meridiano Sports, and Venevison were all up to with their Olympic TV plans right now for Venezuela, but there's very little with TVES having the Beijing 2008 logo and the accompanying pictograms on its webpage being the closest, which isn't saying much...

ESPN Brasil's Beijing 2008 website (the only thing associated with ESPN offcially involved with the IOC right now). Lead story as of this writing out of Brazil and of the Olympic world is Barca denying Ronaldinho to play for Olympic golden glory: http://pequim.espn.com.br/espn/site/olimpiadas (in Portuguese)

Chileans can vote for their Olympians and look at their blogs and videos from Kristel Kobrich (swimming--carried the Chilean flag at the Athens Opening Ceremony), Natalia Duco (track and field), Nicholas Massu, Fernando Gonzalez (tennis), and Soraya Jadue (rowing) from Canal 13, COC, and ADO participating. If I had a vote, I'd bring back Kobrich for it, but carrying it previously might work against her this time. So far this is the only thing from Canal 13 and of the promo that are Beijing-ready.

Vote for Chile's Flag Bearer in Beijing 2008 (in Spanish)

Terra obtains the exclusive Latin American new media rights (online and cell phone) for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games thanks to an agreement brokered with the IOC. Its Olympic Games site will hit August 1 with 13 Internet channels running 24 hours a day with access to streaming and live coverage--3300 hours in all--plus photos, blogs, and news stories. I think this is intended for the Spanish-speaking nations like Guatemala, Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina, and Chile, and surely not the United States thanks to Telemundo and Portuguese-speaking Brazil. Then again, I can be proven wrong. Mexico could work an arrangement with Televisa on this.

Terra Gets Exclusive Latin American 2008 Olympic New Media Rights

Bringing things back home, NBC has made official its Olympic coverage with exactly a month form the opening ceremony, but I'll let the other posters deal with that. It may have posted as I was writing all of this--just came online. I'm stoked too! There's going to be efforts to measure the online viewership for www.nbcolympics.com. Also, Schematic presents the online Olympic video player for all of the 3000+ hours of video from that website through NBC and Microsoft's Silverlight and Vista--http://internetvideo.sys-con.com/read/604151.htm

Even with 3300 hours now in from Terra for Latin America, I don't think any media outlet will catch or overtake NBC's amount of coverage when compared worldwide. I'll make a list next time to see how things shake up and also with comparisons to CBC and TSN.

[Durban Sandshark]

I managed to download the massive programming document. I only printed out the first six pages but it'll be good.

Click here for this: http://internetvideo.sys-con.com/read/604151.htm Streaming starts with the US Olympic Trials already.

[Durban Sandshark]

More good stuff incoming as we get nearer and nearer to Beijing.

Eesti Televisioon just announced their Beijing Olympic plans today. I'm going to translate this summary from ETV's announcement to the best of my abilities, since Estonian is similar to Finnish, both are which are difficult languages to master. So here goes. ETV will devote 400 hours to the Beijing Olympics through ETV and its new digital channel ETV2 starting on August 8, also on HD. ETV will feature up to 18 hours of Olympic programming each day while ETV2, which happens to start its transmission on the day of the Opening Ceremony, will have plenty of simulcasts and repeats from ETV. Aside from the swimming, track and field, soccer, fencing, sailing, volleyball, cycling, handball, and basketball, the latter of which is huge in the Baltics, events where the Estonians are featured in will get some love. The following are the ETV Olympic programming orientation and the TV schedule.

ETV1 and ETV2 2008 Olympic TV Coverage Press Release (in Estonian)

ETV Olympic TV Guide (Click on the dates that come after "ETV ulekanded"--in Estonian)

TVP Polska made public more of their Olympic plans in greater detail the other day. Its reach for the Olympics will spread to 5 television channels--TVP1, TVP2, TVP Sport, TVP HD, and online at www.pekin.tvp.pl (which has yet to hit). All of the Polish team sports--men's and women's volleyball and men's handball--will their games aired in their entireties. I take it it'll be 700-900 hours in coverage. I'll obtain a list of the broadcasters for this later.

TVP's More Detailed Olympic Announcement (in Polish)

And now the list of 2008 CBC/TSN Olympic announcers and reporters (reporters are with astericks):

Track and Field--Mark Lee, Michael Smith, David Moorcroft, Scott Oake*

Synchronized Swimming--Karin Lawson, Karen Clark Le Poole

Swimming--Steve Armitage, Byron MacDonald, Scott Oake*

Diving--Steve Armitage

Basketball--Paul Romanuk, Jay Triano

Baseball--Jim Van Horne, Warren Sawkiw

Softball--Jim Van Horne, Hayley Wickenheiser

Soccer--Nigel Reed, Jason DeVos, Erin Paul*

Weightlifting--Nigel Reed, Aldo Roy

Artistic Gymnastics--Brenda Irving, Lori Strong-Ballard

Rythmic Gymnastics--Brenda Irving, BB Ignatova

Rowing--Bruce Rainnie, Barney Williams

Canoe/kayaking (flatwater)--Bruce Rainnie, Scott Logan

Canoe/kayak (slalom)--Doug Dirks, Claudia Kerchoff-Van Wijk

Volleyball--Elliotte Freidman, Charles Parkinson, Erminia Russo

Boxing--Vic Rauter, Russ Abner

Cycling--Mark Connelly, Clara Hughes

BMX Racing--Mark Connelly, Kevin O'Brien

Water Polo--Bob Snoek, George Gross Jr.

Field Hockey--Bob Snoek, Hari Kant

Tennis--Karen Larson

Triathlon--Karin Larson, Barrie Shepley

Wrestling--Karin Larson, Chris Wilson

Sailing--Peter Rusch, Fionia Kidd

Equestrian (show jumping)--Nancy Wetmore, Beth Underhill

Equestrian (dressage)--Nancy Wettmore, Cara Whitham

Judo--Jeff Marek

Taekwondo--Nigel Reed, Tino Dossantos

CBC has yet to announce who will cover tennis with Karin Larson

TV Globo bought 16 Cifers from Pro-Bel for TV Globo's required signal transmission for the network's Beijing 2008 Olympics coverage, and coverting from SD to HD and vice versa, with HD television already in service in Brazil less than a year ago. Two Cifers will be employed in Beijing with the other 14 in Rio De Janiero.

TV Globo Selects Pro-Bel's Cifer For Olympic Conversion

[Maryjane]

Thanks your hard work, Durban.

Do you know what's the exact viewing plan for Russian State Television? I been checking Channel one since 2 weeks ago, there's no sight of general plans yet.

[Durban Sandshark]

Thanks your hard work, Durban.

Do you know what's the exact viewing plan for Russian State Television? I been checking Channel one since 2 weeks ago, there's no sight of general plans yet.

Because it's all in Cyrillic, I may have to seek English Google search for it though it may be even more difficult. I'll try again in Russian. What about China's CCTV? How many hours it's doing altogether and the breakdown?

[Maryjane]

Because it's all in Cyrillic, I may have to seek English Google search for it though it may be even more difficult. I'll try again in Russian. What about China's CCTV? How many hours it's doing altogether and the breakdown?

China's CCTV would be corporating with BOB (The pressional broadcasting group found by IOC and BOCOG) to produce and set up the live signal for all broadcasters worldwide.

It's notable for the first time CCTV presents the live coverage without the traditional 30-second delay, and in case of the terrible signal fail in EURO 2008 never appears again, CCTV promised a trans-channels coverage among all the games. That means there would be over 7 channels taking part of this broadcasting plan.

Because this is also the first time the Olympic Games go entirely in HD format. Panasonic and BOB have been working together as providing a large group of HD trucks/workshops for the CCTV production team. And the trucks already been shiped on the way to Beijing from Italy. We'll be expecting great quality of full coverage HD signals sent by BOB exclusively to your local broadcasters.

For Chinese viewers, not just the Olympic Channel (also as known CCTV-5) but including CCTV-1/CCTV-2/CCTV-7, CCTV-NEWS would all be the part of coverage plan. And it covers entirely 35 stadiums, working team of 3000 people, 550 journalists, and about over 2500 hours programming. And CCTV-NEWS first time goes 24 hours of reporting the games. And definitly including Pay-to-Watch Channel and HD channel as well.

And for mobile/online users, they'll get around 300 hours hightlights and 500 hours i-player clips.

[Durban Sandshark]

A follow up on Africa's media rights to the Beijing 2008 Summer Games has happened yesterday. The IOC announced the African Union of Broadcasters has joined forces with the resourceful (financially and technically) South African Broadcasting Company in an acquistional deal of the exclusive broadcast rights that will transmit the Olympics throughout the 37 sub-Saharan African nations in the IOC's hope of reaching the widest amount of African viewership possible, excluding South Africa. Exclusivity in this deal involves the 126 hours of television (in English, French, and Portuguese with a minimum of six hours daily programming over-the-air and two hours of highlights daily) and in radio (minimum of four hours daily). Non-exclusive rights are to be on the Internet, cellphones, and satelitte. Again, South Africa is exempt from the braodcasting aspect itself because of its own deal with the IOC with the SABC and Supersport, both of which can be seen all over Africa. Moreover, South Africa is the only African nation that has its Olympic programming and viewership metered in global Olympic TV research studies and reports

IOC Awards Broadcast Rights In Sub-Saharan Africa To AUB/SABC

NRK's 2008 Olympic Games Website Unlike their Scandinavian brethren, NRK has yet to release their TV schedule, but that is expected very soon in a matter of days.

SABC 2, through SABC Sport, was named the official public television broadcaster for the 2008 Beijing Olympics out of all the SABC channels from August 8-24, SABC announced early last week. Opening Ceremony starts things off live on SABC 2 Friday, August 8 from 1-5pm South Africa time.

SABC Sport 2008 Beijing Olympics Package

RUV in Iceland just put up its Olympic website today, but the TV schedule for its Sjornvarpid TV network has yet to be made public.

RUV Iceland's OL 2008 Website (in Icelandic)

With TSN announcing 125 hours out of them for Beijing but still not bringing forth the schedule, I wonder how many will its French sister network RDS will air. Is it a portion of the 125 hours or is it separate? It's not going to be as much as it will be in English. Ditto for SRC.

As I am discusssing TSN/CBC, I need to make corrections and additions to the broadcaster list yesterday.

Track and Field--Mark Lee, Mike Smith, David Moorcroft, Donovan Bailey (special guest track analyst), Rosey Edeh (special guest track analyst), Scott Oake

Swimming--Steve Armitage, Mark Tewksbury, Byron Macdonald, Marianne Limpert, Scott Oake

...and the article from Clara Hughes's website is taken via the Toronto Sun's Alison Korn.

CBC announced Catriona Lemay Doan will return to the CBC Olympic broadcast team appearing on hand for the Opening Ceremony before meeting with family and friends of Canadian Olympians. Also added to the CBC team are former PM Pierre Elliott Tradeau's son Alexandre, Sook-Yin Lee, and Mark kelley as reporters with comedian Shaun Majumder.

Alexandre Tradeau and Catriona Lemay Doan Join the CBC Olympic Broadcast Team

When you go to http://www.raidue.rai.it/HPRaiDue , click at the top where it says "la rete delle Olimpiadi 2008" and a little RAI Due Olympic promo appears. A women is out on her backyard hanging her laundry on clotheslines to dry and a female high jumper comes by and does a Fosbury flop over the line, gets up, and goes away. We really don't see her face too well so we can presume it was an actress or a retired high jumper who was never in the world class variety.

YLE, as I tabulated from its Olympic programming schedule is airing around 225. Now compared to what Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and even its Estonian cousins plan to program, that's less. We know for sure Finns will get their online coverage like they did with Athens and Torino, very likely even more with plenty of streams. But we should expect more televised hours. Is MTV3 involved? Doubt that aside from the fact it is a media partner for the Finnish Olympic Committee. I haven't got into YLE's Swedish language channel FST5 for its amount of hours, which I'm still tabulating at this writing.

NBC's broadcast team will have Bob Costas, Dan Hicks, Rowdy Gaines, Mary Carillo, Elfi Schelgel, Tim Breen, Doug Collins, Craig Sager (?),Tim Dagget, Mik'ail Sankofa (formerly Michael Lofton), and current UCSB men's water polo coach Wolf Wigo. Rest of the team will be made known later.

Don't forget, there's now a Spanish language version of NBC Olympics: http://telemundo.nbcolympics.com You can best be sure that NBC will not ignore the Chinese (Mandarin) and Korean among us. Therefore, both languages will act as options for NBC Olympics; it would be almost foolish if they weren't included.

NHK Japan will cover their portion of the multisport event under the slogan "Tune In to NHK for the Beijing Olympics 2008". At the NHK Studio Park in Shubiya 3D HDTV images shot of the Olympics will make people get a better feel for the events. NHK plans special events at the birthplace or other significant places of Japanese athletes.

I'll make a list of the number of Olympic TV hours each network is doing soon so as to see how they stack up with each other.

China's CCTV would be corporating with BOB (The pressional broadcasting group found by IOC and BOCOG) to produce and set up the live signal for all broadcasters worldwide.

It's notable for the first time CCTV presents the live coverage without the traditional 30-second delay, and in case of the terrible signal fail in EURO 2008 never appears again, CCTV promised a trans-channels coverage among all the games. That means there would be over 7 channels taking part of this broadcasting plan.

Because this is also the first time the Olympic Games go entirely in HD format. Panasonic and BOB have been working together as providing a large group of HD trucks/workshops for the CCTV production team. And the trucks already been shiped on the way to Beijing from Italy. We'll be expecting great quality of full coverage HD signals sent by BOB exclusively to your local broadcasters.

For Chinese viewers, not just the Olympic Channel (also as known CCTV-5) but including CCTV-1/CCTV-2/CCTV-7, CCTV-NEWS would all be the part of coverage plan. And it covers entirely 35 stadiums, working team of 3000 people, 550 journalists, and about over 2500 hours programming. And CCTV-NEWS first time goes 24 hours of reporting the games. And definitly including Pay-to-Watch Channel and HD channel as well.

And for mobile/online users, they'll get around 300 hours hightlights and 500 hours i-player clips.

Do you know how many hours of Olympic programming each of the CCTV channels is playing, like who gets most out of all of them? And what sports? I'm already aware of the channels which also includes, as reported by Variety, an all-soccer channel and a PPV channel for tennis plus the CCTV-HD channel. Is there any further info for Sohu.com in its association with CCTV's webcasting? CCTV's Olympic progamming schedule should be coming up very shortly.