Telemundo To Offer Olympic Coverage From Athens 2004.

NBC will present 24-hour, around-the-clock coverage of the 2004 Olympic Games from Athens, Greece. The five NBC Networks: NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo and Telemundo will offer the most in-depth Olympic coverage in history and for the first-time provide some coverage of every one of the 28 Summer Olympic sports. Telemundo’s Spanish-language broadcast will provide the first exclusively non-English language Olympic broadcast in U.S. television history. The 806.5 total hours of coverage from Athens nearly doubles the 441.5 total hours of coverage from Sydney in 2000 and more than quadruples the 171.5 broadcast hours from Atlanta in 1996. The announcement was made today by Dick Ebersol, Chairman, NBC Sports & Olympics.

“Beginning with the first day of competition from Athens (Saturday, Aug. 14, 2004), for the first time in the history of U.S. Olympic television, we will provide 24-hour-a-day coverage,” Ebersol said. “We are committed to showcasing the athletes of the U.S. and the world in a way that has never been seen before. We will deliver the Olympics to the widest possible audience and give American TV viewers an unprecedented array of choices. Since Sydney, the family of NBC Networks has been expanded to include Telemundo and Bravo, two more terrific platforms for Olympic programming. We’re thrilled that the Spanish language coverage on Telemundo represents the first exclusively non-English language Olympic coverage ever provided in the U.S. In another Olympic first, we will touch every Olympic sport over the course of the Athens Games.”

Telemundo will provide 134 hours of Olympic coverage over 18 days. This marks the first time in U.S. television history that the Olympic Games have exclusive coverage in any language other than English. Telemundo will provide coverage of preliminary soccer matches on Wednesday, Aug. 11, and Thursday, Aug. 12, 2004.

Ebersol said: “The addition of Telemundo allows us to distribute the Olympics to a wider and more diverse audience than ever before. The Hispanic audience is both the largest and fastest growing ethnic minority in the U.S., but the vast majority of the audience traditionally has not watched the Olympics. There are many Spanish-speaking viewers in this country who are very passionate about soccer, boxing and baseball and for the first time, this largely untapped Olympic audience will now be able to experience the Games in their own language on Telemundo.”