Fulltime U.S. Olympic Network coming to TVs, computers in 2010

Olympic fans will get het another way to get their video fix sometime in 2010, when the long-rumored U.S. Olympic Network finally will debut on cable television.

The network, a 24/7 channel devoted to Olympic sports, will be a joint venture between the U.S. Olympic Committee and Comcast. It will debut as part of Comcast's digital basic channel network, but be available to other cable systems and broadcasters.

USOC members, announcing the network today, called it a logical evolution of broadcasting for sports that normally are only widely seen once every four years. Content will be a mix of live events, feature shows, instructional material and original programming.

After 2012, when current licensing agreements expire, the network is likely to become the exclusive home of U.S. Olympic Trials. In the interim, it's likely to compete to some extent with Universal Sports, the fulltime Olympic-sports channel launched last year by NBC. But USOC officials stressed that long term, the new network will compliment and enhance coverage by the Olympic broadcast rights holder, which is expected to remain a major network such as NBC.

Content will be delivered on multiple platforms: Broadcast, video on demand and online streaming, much as Universal Sports does now. Although rights to major competitions in popular sports such as swimming and track and field already have been sold elsewhere by those sports' governing bodies, the USOC does have some content advantages. One is its its ownership of Olympic archives, allowing the new channel to fill out scheduling with broadcast material from past Olympics. Also, the network, because it largely exists as a promotional vehicle for sponsors already in place, will be less dependent on ratings, thus more likely to take chances on more obscure coverage.

"We see this network as having a wide range," Norm Bellingham, the USOC's chief operating officer, said in a teleconference this morning. "Everything from live events to shows created around archived content, coaching shows, eductional programming. There's a great deal of content we think will be extremely compelling. We belive there is a great deal of content out there that is never seen, even on Universal Sports."

The two networks have "room to coexist," he said.

Olympic officials see the benefit as two-fold. It gives them a solid new tool in recruiting sponsors, who formerly saw direct public exposure only once every two years, during the Olympic Games themselves. Also, the new channel will create broad public exposure for "minor" Olympic sports rarely seen on TV outside the Games themselves.
An example offered up was team handball, a sport widely popular outside the United States, but rarely viewed within the country, even during the Games.

Former USOC chairman Peter Ueberroth went so far as to say the network will improve the e nation's overall health, by getting kids fired up about inexpensive, fun sports. That also should pay long-term dividends to U.S. Olympic teams, as many current Olympians say they first became interested in their sport while watching it on TV at a previous Olympics.

USOC officials were, as usual, tight-lipped about financial arrangements, saying the organization will share startup costs with Comcast.

The network will be modeled in some respects after the MLB Network, created by Allen & Company, the same consulting company employed by the USOC.

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