NBC Announces Extensive Digital Coverage Plans for Beijing Olympics

--Coverage to Include ITV Applications, VOD, and Broadband Video

NBC Universal has announced extensive plans for digital coverage of the upcoming Beijing Olympics. Among the highlights:

Single-screen interactive TV applications, available on satellite and on a selection of cable systems, that will allow viewers to access top news stories, regularly updated medal counts, Olympics TV listings, profiles of Team USA, and more.
A broadcast-synchronized, two-screen interactive TV application, powered by LiveHive Systems (note: for more on LiveHive, see article in this issue) and dubbed "Primetime Challenge." The app, which will also offer chat functionality, will invite viewers to play for points and prizes in real time against their friends and other fans, by predicting the outcome of live events, answering Olympic trivia and polls, and playing Olympic-themed mini-games. It will be available for all 17 nights of NBC's primetime Olympics coverage. The app will be located in an area of NBCOlympics.com, called "Primetime Companion," that will also offer, among other things, video features, text information, and photos.
A range of cable/satellite/telco VOD content, available both prior to and during the Games. The content will include recaps of the Athens Olympics, previews of the Beijing Olympics, profiles of Team USA, daily highlights, and long-form coverage (including a selection of coverage in HD).
Extensive broadband video coverage via an exclusive agreement with Microsoft. The coverage, which will be accessed on a dedicated Web site, NBCOlympics.com, by first logging onto the MSN homepage, will be delivered by a video player that has been designed by Schematic and that is based on Microsoft's Silverlight2 technology. The player will offer picture-in-picture and quad-screen functionality, NBC says, as well as a large viewing area. In addition, it will allow viewers to access metadata (including results and athlete information) while watching, Schematic says. According to NBC, NBCOlympics.com will provide viewers with around 2,200 hours of live coverage, allowing them to choose between 20 concurrent streams encompassing 25 Olympic sports. It will also offer over 3,000 hours of on-demand coverage, including full-event replays, daily recaps, "best-of" montages, commentator analysis, videoblogs shot by athletes, and various athlete-specific clips.
An on-demand mobile video service that will offer highlights, daily news and exclusive features.
NBC Olympics 2Go, a 24/7 mobile TV channel that will offer complete event coverage from NBC, USA, MSNBC and CNBC programming.
A free download-and-play service, dubbed "NBC Olympics On The Go," that is designed to enable viewers to watch Olympics coverage on their PC's or laptops. To use the service, viewers will first choose the sport they want to watch, and, as coverage of that sport becomes available, it will be automatically downloaded to their PC's or laptops (provided those devices are running Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate). According to NBC, HDTV-quality playback of the coverage will be enabled by Wavexpress's TVTonic technology. Viewers will also be able to download highlights through NBC's NBC Direct service, and will be able to download content to handheld devices via Amazon.com and Zune.