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TV Tidbits: NBC channels to show more than 1,200 hours of the Olympics
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Published: August 8, 2008
Some sort of sporting event is supposed to begin today, and apparently it will be shown on television. Who knew?
NBC's coverage of this year's Summer Olympics will comprise more than 1,200 hours of footage on six NBC/Universal networks -- NBC, USA Network, MSNBC, CNBC, Oxygen and Universal HD -- including more than 800 hours of HD coverage that will be carried on Time Warner Cable's digital tier.
Time Warner Cable is adding two new game-specific HD channels for the duration of the Olympics, one carrying basketball and one carrying soccer, as part of a special tier of Olympics in high definition. The lineup, which will run from today through Aug. 25, is on channels 1500 (NBC-HD), 1501 (USA-HD), 1502 (Universal HD), 1503 (Olympics Soccer), 1504 (Olympics Basketball) and 1505 (CNBC-HD).
Time Warner will also have daily highlights of the Olympics available in standard definition on its Sports On Demand (digital channel 668) and in high definition on its HD Showcase On Demand (digital channel 612). That content will be free and will be available from Sunday through Aug. 30.
A complete schedule and Internet coverage of the games can be found at www.nbcolympics.com.
The games will officially begin today at 7:30 p.m. with the opening ceremonies.
If you'd rather watch frolicking dogs than marching athletes, Animal Planet has an amusing bit of counterprogramming. Puppy Games 2008 is a variation on the network's Puppy Bowl that it runs each year opposite the Super Bowl.
In Puppy Games 2008, an international gathering of puppies -- including an Australian cattle dog, West Highland terriers, Chinese Shih Tzus, a Norwegian Lundehund, a Maltese, an English bulldog and Boston terriers -- take part in swimming, gymnastics, soccer and boxing. Curiously, there are no boxers in the mix.
The three-hour special will begin at 6 p.m. today. It will be repeated at 9 p.m. and midnight. If you miss it tonight, it will be repeated Aug. 23.
You can read up on all the puppy athletes and play an online game at animal.discovery.com.
BBC America (digital cable channel 121) is bringing an intriguing British science-fiction series to this side of the pond.
Primeval, making its debut at 9 p.m. Saturday, follows a group of scientists trying to figure out why gateways in time have started opening, allowing strange and dangerous prehistoric creatures to run loose in the modern world. Evolutionary zoologist Nick Cutter (Douglas Henshall), who leads the team, thinks that these dimensional rifts may have something to do with his wife's disappearance eight years earlier. The series was co-created by Tim Haines, the creator of the documentary series Walking With Dinosaurs.
BBC America has picked up the first 13 episodes of Primeval, which originally ran on British channel ITV over the course of two seasons, one with six episodes and the second with seven. A third, 10-episode season, will be shown in Britain next year.
The Olympic games have renewed interest in China, and BBC Home Video is using the opportunity to release a documentary series that looks at China's history, culture and geography. Wild China, which was recently shown on the Travel Channel, runs for more than five hours. It was made using aerial filming techniques and high-definition cameras. It is available on DVD or Blu-ray.
Also timed to the games, The First Olympics: Athens 1896, is a docudrama starring Louis Jourdan and David Ogden Stiers.
Also new on DVD this week: the fourth season of Michael J. Fox's hit 1980s sitcom Family Ties; the first season of the classic 1960s spy spoof Get Smart, which was recently remade for a theatrical film; and a fifth volume of Foyle's War, a mystery series set in England during World War II.
■ Tim Clodfelter can be reached at 727-7371 or at tclodfelter@wsjournal.com.
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