US network NBC, Italian pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia and Australian pay-television broadcaster Foxtel have unveiled extensive, multi-channel coverage plans for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
NBC said it would stream every event and medal ceremony live at the Games for the first time ever to complement its television coverage. More than 3,500 hours of live coverage will be shown online through various streams at NBCOlympics.com – up from 2,200 hours at the Beijing 2008 Olympics.
The website will offer multiple concurrent streams for selected sports, with coverage of track and field, for example, including individual streams of the different disciplines taking place simultaneously, such as the long jump and javelin. The coverage will also be available to view via NBC’s smartphone and tablet applications.
In Italy, Sky will dedicate 13 channels to covering the Games. One of the channels will be in 3D – which Sky said would be “a first in Italy” – with the other 12 being in high definition. The Sky Sport channels will provide more than 2,000 hours of live coverage during the Games.
In Australia, Foxtel, which is sharing coverage of the Games with commercial broadcaster Nine, will launch eight dedicated high-definition channels to cover the Games, at no extra cost to the company’s Fox Sports subscription service. The channels will deliver 1,100 hours of live programming, including coverage of each of the 302 gold medal events.