NBC Offers a Super-Sized Package

For the 1992 Summer Olympics at Barcelona, NBC offered a $125 pay package called the Triplecast in addition to its regular coverage. It provided uninterrupted live coverage on three channels for 12 hours, and then those 12 hours were repeated.

Early during those Games, The Times called the Triplecast “triple terrific.”

For the 2004 Summer Olympics at Athens, NBC is offering coverage on seven platforms -- NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Bravo, Spanish-language Telemundo and NBC HDTV -- totaling 1,210 hours.

For Olympic fanatics, it may be seventh heaven, but it remains to be seen if the coverage will be called terrific.

For one thing, all of the NBC coverage and much of the cable coverage will be delayed. Events advertised as live in the East on NBC and Bravo will be delayed three hours in the West. MSNBC, CNBC and USA will broadcast events live in the East and West.

Besides the TV schedule in this section, The Times will run a daily schedule during the Games. NBCOlympics.com is another good source, and the TV Guide Channel, through an arrangement with NBC, will provide a schedule on the lower portion of the television screen twice an hour. The Dish Network will offer a schedule on Ch. 100.

Figuring out what sport is on which channel at a particular time may be a challenge.

Over the 17 days of the Games, there will be an average of more than 70 hours a day.

If one were to watch the 1,210 hours consecutively, it would take 50 days and 10 hours. If one were to watch the coverage eight hours a day, five times a week, it would take more than 7 1/2 months.

The 1,210 hours exceed the total for “Cosby,” “Cheers,” “Frasier,” “Friends,” “Will & Grace,” “Seinfeld,” “Law & Order,” and “ER.” Those eight shows have aired 1,849 episodes, accounting for 1,199 hours.

“We recognize we’ve put a big challenge in front of ourselves to produce as much coverage out of Athens as the last five Summer Olympics combined,” said Dick Ebersol, NBC Sports chairman. “Our 1,210 hours is more than was produced in total for each and every Olympics until the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, which delivered 76 1/2 hours.

“Our 1,210 hours nearly triples the 440-odd hours from Sydney on three networks and is seven times the 171 1/2 hours from Atlanta on just one network in 1996.”

With all those hours, NBC doesn’t figure to miss much.

“We have a commitment to provide some coverage of every one of the 28 Olympic sports,” Ebersol said.

With so many hours, NBC will be able to provide more live coverage than it has in previous Olympics, despite a seven-hour time difference to the Eastern time zone.

As for the live coverage in the East being delayed three hours in the West, Ebersol doesn’t believe that will adversely affect ratings.

“From Sydney, the Olympics were higher rated on the West Coast than they were anywhere else,” he said, “and the time difference was the greatest [18 hours] to the Pacific time zone. And then of course in Salt Lake City, where the rest of the country was live and the West Coast was on delay, the West Coast was higher rated by almost 10%.

“People on the West Coast have a love affair with the Olympics. And they, more than people from any other region, want to see the Olympics when they’re available to watch -- in prime time.”

NBC President Randy Falco said the network has a responsibility to advertisers and affiliates to “aggregate the biggest audience that we can, and that means tape delay.”

Also, he said, the network is obligated to put on the biggest events at a time when most people are available to watch them.

“And that’s in prime time,” he said.

Prime-time coverage on NBC will be four hours -- 8 p.m. to midnight -- rather than five hours, as it was from Sydney.

Ebersol said the four-hour telecasts will be “tighter, richer, more dramatic. And I think that will obviously accrue to our advantage.”

Ebersol also said there will be fewer features, and for the most part they will be shorter than in past Olympics.

“This should pick up the pace of the prime-time telecasts,” he said.

Here is a breakdown of the coverage by network:

NBC

The schedule is divided into three day parts: afternoon, prime time and late night -- for a total of 226 hours of coverage over 17 days beginning with the opening ceremony at 8 p.m. on Friday. NBC’s prime-time coverage will include track and field, gymnastics, swimming and diving. Jim Lampley will serve as the afternoon host, Bob Costas the prime-time host and Pat O’Brien and Dan Hicks share the late-night role. O’Brien will be the host the first week, Hicks the second week.

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HDTV

NBC’s separate high-definition coverage involves swimming, diving, gymnastics, track and field, medal rounds of basketball and the men’s soccer final. The HDTV coverage, shown in eight-hour blocks repeated twice, will total 399 hours and is a different production from NBC’s standard definition broadcast. NBC’s HDTV coverage is available in 86% of the country but only in homes with HD capabilities.

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MSNBC

Available in 82 million households, the cable network will carry a total of 133 1/2 hours over 18 days. MSNBC will be the main provider of live, weekday, long-form coverage of a full range of Olympic sports, including softball, soccer, beach volleyball, wrestling, canoeing, basketball, rowing and weightlifting. On weekends, MSNBC will cover boxing. Also, before the opening ceremony, on Wednesday and Thursday, MSNBC will televise opening soccer matches. The primary hosts will be Lester Holt and O’Brien.

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CNBC

Available in 86 million households, it will carry 111 hours of Olympic programming over 16 days, beginning Saturday. On weekdays, CNBC will feature long-form coverage of boxing. On weekends, CNBC will have expanded, live, long-form coverage of a wide variety of sports, including beach volleyball, soccer and taekwondo, while MSNBC covers boxing. Fred Roggin will be the primary host. Also, Roggin, along with anchor Chuck Henry, will file reports for Channel 4 from Athens.

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Bravo

Available in 76 million households, Bravo will carry a total of 122 hours of Olympic coverage over 14 days, also beginning Saturday. Bravo will feature a wide range of sports including tennis, equestrian, sailing, track cycling, archery, badminton, judo, synchronized swimming, handball and table tennis. Mary Carillo and Inga Hammond will be the main hosts.

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USA

Available in 88 million homes and billed as the cable home of the U.S. Olympic team since it began airing regular U.S. Olympic trials coverage in May, the USA Network will continue with that theme during the Games with live coverage of many of the U.S. women’s and men’s basketball games. USA’s 49 hours of Olympic telecasts cover 14 days beginning next Sunday with live start-to-finish coverage of the women’s cycling road race through the streets of Athens -- an event that has traditionally aired on NBC in prime time. In addition, USA will provide all-day, Grand Slam-style coverage of all the tennis gold-medal matches Aug. 21-22. Jim Lampley will be the main host.

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Telemundo

The Spanish-language over-the-air network will provide 169 1/2 hours of coverage over 18 days. This marks the first time in U.S. television history that the Olympics have exclusive coverage in any language other than English. Telemundo will feature soccer, boxing and the semifinals and gold-medal games of baseball. Telemundo, in addition to MSNBC, will provide coverage of the opening soccer matches on Wednesday and Thursday.

Telemundo reaches 91% of U.S. Hispanic viewers in 118 markets through its 15 owned-and-operated stations, including Channel 52 in Los Angeles, 32 broadcast affiliates and nearly 450 cable affiliates. The coverage will be anchored by Jessi Losada and, when not calling soccer matches, Andres Cantor.