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Comcast, USOC trying to launch new Olympic Sports channel
Get ready for more curling, archery, judo and other Olympic Sports, if Comcast and the U.S. Olympic Committee get their way and launch a new network after the 2010 Vancouver Games to broadcast Olympic Sports coverage all the time. Of course, the International Olympic Committee and its $2 billion partner NBC are none too pleased about the news, especially given it already has Universal Sports for this very purpose. as proposed, the U.S. Olympic Network would air archived Olympics footage, education and coaching shows and eventually regional and Olympic Trials competitions. There's no specific mention of an HD feed, but if its anything like every other dedicated sports network that's popped up over the last few years, we don't see how it could go on without one. While the USOC and IOC work things out, you think there's any room in the program guide for this channel?Read - U.S. Olympic Committee plans to launch own cable networkRead - Comcast, USOC Eye Dedicated Olympic Service In 2010
NBC replaces Weather Plus with Universal Sports
If you thought for one second that when Weather Plus was killed that NBC was going to actually dedicate all of its allotted bits to bring you the HD you desire -- sans all the macro-blocking -- think again. We are glad that NBC learned that there aren't many people interested in yet another weather outlet, but evidently the next at bat is a 24/7 sports channel that's already available in some NBC Universal owned and operated affiliates. Universal Sports will consist of 2400 hours of live sports coverage a year combined with 5000 hours of classic sports replays. The local stations will also be able to air a few of its own commercials as well as some local sports and sports related programming, which might be cool. Although we recognize the desire of DTV stations to find profitable uses for its extra bits, we don't approve if it interferes with the main programming. So this combined with NBC's recent track record in sports has us very skeptical -- you know messing up Football Night in America and things like the 12 hour Olympic sports delays.
