[September 07, 2004] NBC Relied on BT Broadcast Services to Broadcast the 2004 Olympic Games WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- BT Broadcast Services (BTBS) signed a contract with NBC, America's Olympic network, to provide NBC Olympics with three fully equipped TES (transportable earth station) trucks, a transmit/receive flyaway system and a team of five engineers. Once acquired, the content was uplinked to the Hella-Sat satellite and downlinked by BTBS' transmit/receive flyaway system located in the official Olympics International Broadcast Center (IBC) in Athens. The content was inserted into NBC's Olympic coverage programming for distribution across the United States Bob Kiraly, Director Broadcast and Telecoms Operations for NBC Olympics, said: "BT Broadcast Services have proven to be reliable and invaluable to our operations." Bill McNamara, general manager of BT Broadcast Services, the Americas, said: "Our expertise and reach makes it possible for NBC to rely on us to help bring home the 2004 Olympic Games. NBC is benefiting from our centrally managed fleet of transportable earth stations -- the largest in Europe, our proven technology, and our highly experienced engineers." Note to Editors: ABOUT NBC NBC's unprecedented 24-hour, around-the-clock coverage of the 2004 Olympic Games from Athens will total 1,210 hours on seven NBC platforms -- NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Bravo, Telemundo and NBC HDTV affiliates -- offering more Olympic coverage than the combined total from the last five previous Summer Olympics. Over the 17 days of the Athens Games (Aug. 13-29), NBC's coverage averages more than 70 hours per day and offers the most in-depth Olympic coverage in history. For the first time in U.S. broadcast history the networks of NBC provided some coverage of every one of the 28 Summer Olympic sports. Telemundo's Spanish-language broadcast is the first non-English language Olympic broadcast in U.S. television history. NBC owns the exclusive U.S. media rights for five consecutive Summer and Winter Olympics from 2000 through 2012 and has exclusively broadcast every Summer Olympics since 1988. About BT Broadcast Services (http://www.bt.com/broadcast) BT Broadcast Services (BTBS) is one of the world's leading suppliers of global broadcast solutions, providing a comprehensive range of terrestrial and satellite based multimedia transmission solutions as well as content and customer management services. The group offers flexible, cost effective tailor-made services to an international client base including broadcasters, news agencies, production companies, special event organizers, and large corporations around the world. BTBS delivers technically advanced services based on the latest video and Internet technologies, including video streaming, digital terrestrial television, high speed Internet access via satellite and digital business TV. The group is part of BT Global Services, BT's business services and solutions division, serving customers worldwide. As an information and communications technology service provider, BT Global Services provides integrated data and value-added services to meet the European needs of global multi-site corporates and the global needs of European corporates. For more information about BT Broadcast Services' comprehensive services and capabilities, please visit http://www.bt.com/broadcastamericas. BT Broadcast Services CONTACT: Cheryl Gale of Band & Brown, +1-617-475-1571,[email protected], for BT Broadcast Services Web site: http://www.broadcast.bt.com/http://www.bt.com/broadcastamericas [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]