SportsFeatures.com | NBC Universal Details Unique Digital Experience for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics

NEW YORK (February 8, 2010) – For the first time for an Olympic Winter Games, NBC Universal will offer digital event coverage that will include more than 400 hours of live competition and more than 1,000 hours of full-event replays on NBCOlympics.com. NBCOlympics.com on MSN will serve as the Olympic fan’s hub for every aspect of the 2010 Vancouver Games experience.

NBC Olympics Mobile presents an ambitious display of Olympic coverage including breaking news, live results and schedules, TV and online listings, medal counts, Team USA profiles, slideshows, Vancouver spectator information and much more. NBC Olympics Mobile also provides alerts for every Olympic fan, including breaking news, event results, athlete alerts and TV reminders.

Following is an overview of NBC Universal’s various digital offerings for the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games:

NBCOLYMPICS.COM ON MSN Offering exclusive video, comprehensive news and analysis, real-time results, detailed TV listings and more, NBCOlympics.com on MSN will extend the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games experience far beyond the broadcast, reaching Olympic fans at any time with unmatched depth and quality of content. NBCOlympics.com will also serve as the exclusive provider of content for the more than 100 million U.S. monthly visitors to MSN.com. Visitors to MSN.com will be presented with direct access to NBCOlympics.com’s comprehensive coverage of the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games.

NBC Universal’s partnership with MSN and Microsoft Corp. to deliver “NBCOlympics.com on MSN” combines NBC’s history of covering the Olympics, MSN’s extensive U.S. reach and the advanced technology of Microsoft Silverlight to deliver viewers the Olympics in a way they’ve never been able to view the Games before – online and on-demand.  Olympics fans will also have direct access to complete Olympics coverage on NBCOlympics.com via the MSN homepage (http://www.msn.com/).

NBCOlympics.com on MSN features Bing, providing users with the ultimate search tool for exploring NBCOlympics.com content. Bing offers fans a visual and custom experience that allows them to explore Vancouver and Whistler through Streetside imagery and interactive mapping applications. During the Olympics, NBCOlympics.com will use Bing to show Instant Answers on popular athletes, sporting events and medal counts, as well as updating the homepage daily with NBCOlympics.com images.

VIDEO: NBCOlympics.com on MSN will provide more than 400 hours of live event competition and more than 1,000 hours of on-demand access to full-event replays from broadcast and host-feed coverage of all 15 sports on the Winter Games program, as well as extensive highlights such as event recaps, best-of montages, commentator analysis and athlete-specific clips. Powered by Microsoft Silverlight, a premier cross-browser, cross-platform Web plug-in, and IIS Smooth Streaming technology, the interactive online player will present video in stunning high-definition (HD) quality and offer DVR-style controls, enhancing navigation and allowing users to pause and rewind both live and on-demand Olympic footage. Silverlight enables businesses to deliver rich Internet applications and experiences on the Web. All of the live and on-demand streaming video on NBCOlympics.com is available with all operating systems. In addition, users can connect with friends through Facebook about the videos, as well as sharing links through various networks, such as Windows Live, Twitter, Digg, Reddit, and more.  By comparison, for the last Olympic Winter Games in Torino, NBC streamed two hours of live action, mostly as a back-end test.

REAL-TIME RESULTS: For all 86 Winter Olympic events, NBCOlympics.com on MSN will deliver the fastest and most comprehensive results anywhere online, providing LIVE results as events are happening and offering statistical summaries, group standings, elimination brackets and more.

PERSONALIZED TELEVISION AND ONLINE VIEWER’S GUIDE: Along with comprehensive schedules for its online streaming, NBCOlympics.com will present TV listings featuring the most up-to-date and detailed information about the Vancouver Games broadcast across the networks of NBC Universal. As programming schedules change, NBCOlympics.com’s TV grids will instantly reflect the updates. Additionally, site visitors who enter their zip code will receive localized listings that reflect the exact programming available from their local NBC affiliate, including live streaming listings and digital affiliate channel locations for HD viewing on NBC Universal cable stations. Viewers will be able to sort the TV listings by sport, network, day and time.

NBC OLYMPICS MOBILE: NBC Olympics Mobile presents the most ambitious major sporting event coverage ever delivered on mobile. The NBC Olympics Mobile Web site delivers breaking news, live results and schedules, TV and online listings, medal counts, Team USA profiles, slideshows, Vancouver spectator information and much more.  NBC Olympics Mobile also provides alerts for every Olympic fan, including breaking news, event results, alerts by sport, video and photo alerts, athlete alerts and TV/event reminders.

NBC Olympics Mobile is also the on-the-go destination for exclusive Vancouver video coverage, including daily highlights, news and features.  NBC Olympics Mobile also offers NBC Olympics 2Go, a 24/7 mobile TV channel featuring the best of the 2010 Vancouver Games.  NBC Olympics 2Go will include complete event coverage from NBC, USA, MSNBC, and CNBC programming. With NBC Olympics 2Go, users will be able to access featured and live event coverage while they are on-the-go!

Olympics fans can also follow and cheer during the Games with NBC Olympics Mobile applications, offering news, results, videos, and much more. Plus, mobile users can support Team USA with the NBC Olympics Cheer app, offering a fun and engaging way to follow along with the action in Vancouver.

Users can access the NBC Olympics Mobile web site by going to http://mobile.nbcolympics.com/inf/infomo?site=olyon their mobile device’s Internet browser or by texting “OLYMPICS” to 51515. For more information on NBC Olympics Mobile offerings, visit http://www.nbcolympics.com/mobile/

PHOTOS: In another first, NBCOlympics.com on MSN will feature Silverlight Enhanced HD photo galleries, enabling users to zoom in and out of the greatest Olympic photography as well as explore photo galleries through “mosaic wall.” NBCOlympics.com will utilize a full library of Getty images, its own NBC Universal photography team and extensive video screen grabbing to offer multiple galleries and narrative slideshows that capture the visual splendor unique to a Winter Olympics.

OLYMPIC PULSE: NBCOlympics.com will capture the vibe and texture of the 2010 Olympics with a central “Olympic Pulse” page. Here, users can view a “Tweet Sheet” featuring athlete and expert Twitter posts, as well as enjoy the latest posts from the site’s primary blog, “The Ringer,” and several sport- and author-specific blogs.

NEWS/FEATURES: The Associated Press will serve as the primary source for recaps and previews of all the Olympic competition. NBCOlympics.com producers, writers and venue-specific bloggers, including Alan Abrahamson-widely considered the foremost Olympic writer-will add breaking news, columns, features and analysis.

MEDAL TRACKER: An in-depth page presenting real-time medal standings, related content such as medal ceremonies, past medal standings searchable by country and sport, as well as links to recaps and highlights of competition.

TEAM USA: There is a page dedicated to thorough coverage of all things Team USA throughout the Vancouver Games, including daily glances at Americans in action, an application for exploring the entire U.S. roster by categories, and “Meet the Team” pages for each sport.

ATHLETE PROFILES: NBCOlympics.com on MSN will present bios for all 2,500 athletes competing in Vancouver, with unmatched depth of information and content around the American competitors, including Q&As, slideshows, video features, interviews, results and much more.

COUNTRY PROFILES: Snapshots of all participating nations include general data (e.g. population, location), plus Olympic histories and 2010 Olympic outlooks.

EXPERTISE/ANALYSIS: NBC’s on-air commentators, along with sport-insider bloggers, will provide video reviews/previews of competition, as well as insight into specific events, rules and athletes competing in the Games.

DESTINATION B.C.: A page dedicated to the host city and province, including video features, photo galleries, blogs, written features, suggested itineraries for fans attending the Games, coverage of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and more.

SCIENCE OF THE OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES: A special sub-section of NBCOlympics.com, produced in collaboration with the National Science Foundation and NBC Learn, presents 16 video features exploring the science behind Winter Olympic sports and the athletes who compete in them.

FAST AND FEARLESS: A video section on the site that focuses on the high-speed, high-risk component to so many Winter Olympic sports, with crash clips, athlete interviews, photo galleries, and “fast facts and high points.”

USER INTERACTION: NBCOlympics.com on MSN will enable visitors to submit their opinions and vote in polls about hot topics throughout the Games. Also, the site producers and editors will conduct interviews with athletes driven by user-submitted questions. Utilizing Facebook Connect, users can share and comment on video content.

INSIDE THIS SPORT: This special section provides users with everything they need to know about a specific sport including competition formats, scoring systems, POV video, “How To” clips, rules, glossaries, historic timelines and venue details.

BEYOND THE BROADCAST: A special section enhancing the NBC primetime broadcast with a two-screen experience offering features (video, text, photo) on athletes competing that night, trivia and more.

WIDGETS: NBCOlympics.com widgets allow users to stay up to date on the Vancouver Games without leaving their personal homepages. Widgets include: event schedules and TV listings, medal trackers, Team USA and a “super widget” with the latest video, photos and news.

OLYMPIC ZONE: Leveraging the power of the 230+ NBC stations nationwide, NBCOlympics.com will have localized sections called Olympic Zone, where users can access local Olympic coverage of the Vancouver Games. Each NBC station will produce blogs, video, stories and slideshows on local athletes.

NBCOLYMPICS.COM ON MSN: NBCOlympics.com will also serve as a provider of content for the more than 100 million U.S. monthly visitors to MSN.com. Fans logging on to MSN.com and clicking on Olympics or any Olympic coverage will have access to NBCOlympics.com’s comprehensive coverage of the Vancouver Games.

FIGURE SKATING “YOU BE THE JUDGE”: NBCOlympics.com will offer a scoring application enabling figure skating fans to determine their own podiums. Users can judge skaters live in real time, while tuning into NBC’s Primetime broadcast, or after the fact by watching routines on their home DVRs or in the NBCOlympics.com video player. The application offers two modes, expert and basic. In expert mode, users evaluate performances with the same scoring system used by the Olympic judges, giving each element of a routine its own grade of execution, and then rating each program component. Those not wanting to simulate the actual judging process can use the basic mode, rating a skater’s technical and presentation scores on a scale of 1-10. After inputting scores, users can see how their results compare with other users and the Olympic judges.

NBCOLYMPICS.COM PRIMETIME CHALLENGE: Viewers of NBC’s coverage of the Olympic Games will also be able to play along at home with the NBCOlympics.com Primetime Challenge. Olympic fans can compete for points in real-time, while playing against their friends and other fans, through trying to predict the outcome of live events, answer Olympic trivia and polls, and chatting with their friends about that night’s competition. The NBCOlympics.com Primetime Challenge will be available for all 17 nights of NBC’s primetime coverage.

NBC OLYMPICS VIDEO ON DEMAND: Viewers will be able to access robust NBC Olympics video content on-demand from their home, both prior to and during the Games.  Olympic fans will be able to gear up for Vancouver with NBC Olympics pre-Games content, with recaps and previews, profiles of Team USA athletes and more. During the 2010 Winter Games, NBC Olympics will provide daily highlights and long-form coverage of the best action from Vancouver-including exclusive HD features. NBC Olympics video on-demand content will be available on select cable and satellite operators. Check your provider for availability.

NBC OLYMPICS INTERACTIVE TV APPLICATIONS: Olympic fans can access exclusive NBCOlympics.com content through their television with NBC Olympics Interactive TV applications. Viewers can get all the best NBC Olympics coverage during the Games, including top news stories, updated medal counts, detailed NBC Olympics TV listings, profiles of Team USA, and more. NBC Olympics Interactive TV applications will be available on select cable and satellite operators.  Check your provider for availability.

OLYMPICS ONLINE CONNECT: Video subscribers nationwide will be able to connect to NBC Universal’s comprehensive coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games in two separate ways. Popular Olympics content-including Olympic “water cooler moments,” ranging from gold medal-winning performances to some of the most compelling moments from the games, as well as results, statistics, profiles of participants, and timely news updates-will be available to all fans.

Additionally, more than 95% of all multichannel households will have access to “Olympics Online Connect,” an enhanced offering comprised of more than 1,000 additional combined hours of live coverage, full event replays and long-form encores of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games via NBCOlympics.com simply by entering login credentials provided by their participating video programming provider. Online coverage is exclusive to NBCOlympics.com and is not available through any other website. Registration at NBCOlympics.com runs through February 28th

OUR PARTNERS: In addition to the strategic partnership with Microsoft, many other partnerships have been secured to power the NBC Olympic digital effort.  Partners for NBC’s Digital Olympics are: AFP, Akamai, Amazon Video on Demand, AP, Arista Networks, AT&T/MobiTV, Blue Order, CISCO, Conviva, Cover it Live, Cyradis, Delivery Agent, DeltaTre, DoubleClick, Ensequence, EVS, Eyeblaster, Getty Images, IDS, InDemand, Inlet, Intel, iStreamPlanet, Juniper, LiveHive Systems, Lyris, NHL.com, Omneon, Operative, Rackspace, Rhozet, Salesforce.com, Scheduall, Signiant, SinglePoint, Sony PlayStation, Stamen, Starcut, SuperNAP, Swarm Collective, Switch Communications, Synacor, Tandberg, TigerSpike, TVN, Twitter, Vertigo, Weather.com, Zune

Members of the media can get more information about NBC Universal and its programming on the NBC Universal Media Village Web site at https://www.nbcumv.com/mv/