Network
The U.S. Olympic Network, which will be known as USON and launch in 2010, will feature live events, archived content, news and coaching shows, as well as original programming, USOC officials said on a conference call with reporters.
It will be launched on Comcasts digital basic tier.
The network is a joint venture between Comcast, the largest U.S. cable-television provider, and the USOC, which oversees Americas Olympic sports. The accord also leaves room for other cable companies to pick up the network. Financial terms werent disclosed.
Peter Ueberroth, who stepped down as chairman of the USOC in October, said initial discussions on a network began about three years ago as a way to placate Olympic sponsors unsatisfied with promoting their products only during the 17-day Games every two years.
“We started to talk about the fact that if they wanted to be involved in future years, they wanted to go to market every day,” Ueberroth said on the conference call.
The USOC has the rights to 31 national governing bodies of Olympic sports, the Olympic archives and the exclusive rights to the U.S. Olympic Trials after 2012, when current licensing agreements expire.
The network may be in competition with Universal Sports Television Network, the NBC-owned Olympic-sports channel that was launched last year and is carried in more than 45 million homes.
Room for Both
Norman Bellingham, the USOCs chief operating officer and a former Olympic canoeing gold medalist, said today that there is room for both.
“We dont see ourselves as competing with Universal Sports,” Bellingham said. “There may be international federation events that we may be competing with them to secure the rights to, but we can ourselves very much co-exist.”
The new network, which also plans to offer on-demand and online content, will feature the values and ideals of the Olympic movement, highlighting the journeys of would-be Olympians, Bellingham said.
The 2010 Winter Games will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, while the 2012 Summer Olympics will take place in London.
“A fortunate few may win medals and gain recognition for the years of effort that they put into their sport, but there are countless athletes whose remarkable stories are never told,” Bart Conner, a 1984 gold medal-winning gymnast, said on the call. “Thats what I think is great about this new network.”