Let The NBC Olympic Games Begin!

Hello, Hello, Hello

Ah, the end of the week - I feel as if this has become a permanent opening statement for our conversations.

As always, much continues to happen in the 'World of News and Politics' (Well, the one that matters most: Hollywood). Business as usual if you follow the blurred lines of news and celebrity gossip.

Speaking of the world, the major event on this monumental date is the start of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, also known as today's topic of this monumental blog (-?).

My Olympic Beijing Snap
Today, I am enjoying a slowed pace from my usual exacerbating schedule to relish the start of the 2008 Summer Olympics, which meant sleeping in (7:30 AM) and a decent breakfast in bed.

I was indeed truly looking forward to viewing the competition and had cleared most of the day's schedule.

However, I am largely dismayed with moderate inconvenience...

For you see, the coverage will not air until this evening - I am so disappointed as I had expected to awaken to the sight and sound of competition. Further, I was looking forward to celebrating with an Olympic Social (aka Party) for much of the day - now, I must wait until this evening. Very inconvenient. How I was not aware of such an important scheduling conflict, remains to be seen.

Having said, now choices must be made for the evening's entertainment and guess what may NOT make my viewership and schedule this evening?

Get Ready For NBC Olympic Television
I am sure that you would agree that one of the many benefits to living in such 'Advanced' times is the ability to access to different forms of media for news, entertainment, and as mentioned in last blog, Broadband Television.

Although the official start of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics began some 10 hours prior to this post, within the past hour, I have been literally searching for video coverage of the events.

The results so far have not been promising as I have only been able to discover brief written coverage (There appears to be more than enough words to read about the events, competitors, opening ceremony, still photos), but without actual full length video footage.

One would expect coverage to be abundant of such a worldwide event. However, equal coverage does not appear to be the name of the game. Massive saturation is forthcoming to every form of available media.

At my speculation, it appears as if NBC Universal (General Electric) has secured (Purchased) the rights to broadcast in entirety - meaning the right to control what and where you see Olympic coverage on television, cable, radio, as well as over the Internet.

More Coverage Than You Could Possibly Ever Want...
According to friends at the Hollywood Reporter, NBC Universal is reportedly preparing to air roughly 3600 hours (When - I am not certain) of Olympic programming over the next 2.5 weeks - across its number of networks including NBC, Bravo, Oxygen, CNBC, MSNBC (175 hours), Telemundo (Airing 380 hours alone), and USA Network (Bidding 165 hours).

Further, more than 2,000 hours will also be available via streaming over the Web, Video On Demand (VOD), HD, as well accessible by mobile devices, and specialty channels such as soccer and basketball and unique language stations (Japanese, Mandarin and Korean Channels) - just in case you missed the continuous, over saturating live coverage of the 34 events on the before mentioned Networks.

Without a doubt, coverage will be unprecedented and the largest media coverage in the history of the Olympic Games. More than likely, you will at some point view the games over the next few weeks and this is what NBC Uni is hoping as more than $1 Billion dollars of advertising is also set to air during the broadcast.

I have a few more ideas...But, we will save them for later...I have a '2008 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony After Party' to attend!

You can brush up before the tonight's broadcast on NBC's Official site located at the following: http://www.nbcolympics.com/



*The photo above was taken at the Opening Ceremony and is provided by the UK Telegraph.