The television world thrives on hyperbole. Nearly every upcoming event is the “first,” the “most” or the “largest.”
Thus, NBC is trumpeting that its 17-day airing of the 2010 Winter Olympics will provide “the most in-depth coverage in Winter Games history.”
For a change, such hoopla is accurate. Examples:
• More than 835 hours of coverage are planned during the Vancouver competition — the largest ever for a Winter Olympics, topping the 419 hours in Turin four years ago and the 375 in Salt Lake City in 2002.
Each day will feature at least 50 hours of coverage. In 1976, a total of 44 hours were broadcast from Innsbruck on ABC.
• For the first time, high definition will be featured during all coverage.
• Six television platforms will be utilized: NBC, USA, MSNBC, CNBC, Universal HD and . Turin featured four venues.
• And there is a “most” category network executives don’t promote with zest. For the first time in NBC’s lengthy Olympics history, the network, owned by General Electric, will lose money. The projection is around $200 million.
The major reason: NBC paid an $820 million rights fee for the Vancouver Games in June 2003, when the world’s economy was much stronger.
Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports and Olympics, recently admitted that even “brisk” advertising sales in recent months will not prevent a major financial loss, caused essentially by the rights fee negotiated with the International Olympic Committee.
For avid Olympics viewers, such financial problems are of little importance.
Timing is everything.
All prime-time coverage on NBC, emanating from the Pacific time zone, will air here on an hour-long tape delay, according to programming officials at 9News, NBC’s local affiliate.
This includes Friday night’s 4 1/2 hour (6:30-11 p.m.) opening ceremony, always highlighted by the colorful salute to nations. Much of the daytime competitions, aired on cable outlets USA, MSNBC and USA, will be live.
While delayed coverage remains anathema to Olympics fans, this local schedule is much more compatible than the Turin events, when some key competitive events were aired live in awkward time periods or on lengthy tape delays. In an effort to pick up revenue from key advertisers, NBC is making sure major key events, including figure skating, are aired in prime time.
Bob Costas, Al Michaels, Mary Carillo, Cris Collinsworth, Scott Hamilton, Dan Jansen, Al Trautwig, Mike Emrick, Dick Button, Ted Robinson, Andrea Kremer and Andrea Joyce are among the 53 hosts, analysts and reporters working the Games for NBC.
Costas, point man for Friday night’s opening ceremony, will be the prime-time Olympics host for an eighth consecutive time.
Michaels, making his first Olympics appearance since the 1988 Calgary Games, is the daytime studio host, while Carillo will be in charge of late-night.
For many, the addition of Michaels will recall Winter Olympics memories in 1980 at Lake Placid, when he made the famed “Do you believe in miracles?” call when the U.S. hockey team upset Russia en route to winning the gold medal. While Michaels is not scheduled to cover hockey, don’t be surprised to see him involved as competition increases.
Meanwhile, the 62-year-old Ebersol, a veteran of 11 Olympics, eight of them as NBC’s executive producer, doesn’t shy away from predicting big things from U.S. athletes.
“We should be dominant in several areas,” Ebersol recently told reporters, while recalling that in Grenoble, in 1968, his first Olympic experience, Peggy Fleming won America’s only gold medal.
“We’re here to cover American stories while not ignoring the international athletes. You go where the stories are.”
Longtime Denver journalist Dusty Saunders writes about sports media each Monday in The Denver Post. Reach him at tvtime@comcast.net.
