Olympic Spirit

Today is the opening of the Beijing Summer Olympics.  The Olympics is the only event of its kind on the global calendar and once again the world has gathered to celebrate it.  This year, more so than almost any year before it, even the parts of the world that couldn’t get to the host country have unprecedented access.

Let us begin with the basics.  NBC’s coverage of the games and the culture within China will saturate its regular programming for much of the foreseeable future.  From the Today show in China to tonight’s broadcast of the opening ceremony TV will be especially sports centered.  NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, and other affiliate networks will present the most coverage ever (and a lot of HD options).  Let us not forget that as the games have grown over the years so have the means by which we access them.

For the first time NBC will stream complete coverage of the Olympic games online.  There’s even a Wiki article on how to utilize internet access despite certain site restrictions.

Even tickets to this years game have gone high tech!  Radio frequency identification technology within tickets will help (primarily) to deter counterfeits.

It will be interesting to see how much extra coverage gets through (cultural and otherwise) due to the on going news of China restricting media access beyond events.  Yet, the fact remains, though the news getting through may be of the Olympic events alone, there will be quite a few hours to broadcast.