Television coverage will be extensive for viewers of 2004 Summer Games

During the 2004 Summer Olympics, television alternates between action and aesthetics, between the whoosh of competition and the psychology of the athletes’ lives. This year the action will prevail with the most comprehensive Olympic coverage ever via NBC Universal networks. The 24-hour per day coverage will span seven networks under the NBC umbrella, including NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Bravo, and Telemundo. The games are being held in Athens, Greece Aug. 13-29, but NBC’s cable networks begin coverage of preliminary events Aug. 11. “Our goal is to have very event-driven programming,” says David Neal, the executive vice-president of NBC Olympics. He’s gone into some previous Olympics with more than 100 features taped in advance. This year, with 1,210 TV and cable hours to fill, he has only 80 films, and none much longer than two minutes. More than half of the films will be about athletes from outside the United States. Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Sports, says, “If you went anywhere else in the world, you’d find that we’re the least nationalistic in our coverage.” –Gannett News Service