With a year to go before the start of the 2008 Summer Olympics, NBC Universal executives announced that the company will present more than 3,600 hours of coverage of games from Beijing, more than the combined total of every Summer Olympics ever televised in the U.S.

In addition, NBCU will offer the first live streaming Olympics broadband video coverage during the 17-day event.

That breaks down to a total of 212 hours of Olympics a day, triple the coverage of the Athens Games in 2004 and 20 times the amount from Atlanta in 1996. CBS offered 13 hours of coverage starting with the 1960 Winter Games from Squaw Valley, Calif., with 20 hours of coverage from the Summer Games in Rome that year, when the Olympics first found a foothold on U.S. TV sets.

According to NBC in a release, primetime coverage will feature live swimming, gymnastics and beach volleyball, despite the 12-hour time difference to the Eastern time zone.

On the airwaves, NBC, USA, MSNBC and CNBC will provide coverage from Beijing, with hi-def coverage on HD affiliates as well as USA HD and Universal HD. Spanish-language coverage will be offered on the NBC Universal-owned Telemundo.

Online, NBC Universal will give fans access to approximately 2,200 hours of live streaming on NBCOlympics.com, with on-demand available as well. The company said details for wireless coverage will be announced shortly.

(Editor: Horowitz)