NBC, CABLE PARTNERS TO PROVIDE 25-HOUR-A-DAY COVERAGE.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH The Media

Pretty much everything you need to know about the media's mountain of coverage for the Winter Olympics but were afraid to ask because, honestly, why start an avalanche now when your most important queries will be about what the heck is happening when someone is curling:

Q: Live or tape delayed?

A: Both, but more of the latter for all the marquee events.

There's almost an obscene amount of hours - 418, which averages to more than 25 per day between today and Feb. 26. It starts with what's best for NBC and then the rest is shoveled off to cable partners USA Network, CNBC and MSNBC, plus a high-definition feed. But it really has come a long way when you consider that ABC's Winter Games from Innsbruck, Austria, in 1976 had just 48 hours, all on tape, and the critics called it ``Roone Arledge's Folly.''

NBC's three cable channels are for most of the live stuff. They'll have all 54 of the men's and women's hockey games live (and any involving U.S. teams will be without commercial interruption). The first big chunk of curling - from midnight to 8 a.m. Sunday - is also as it happens.

But primetime is where NBC will hoard the best of the figure skating, alpine skiing and speedskating, all on tape in the Pacific time zone with its nine-hour time difference.

It's all about serving the consumer.

``In Salt Lake City (in 2002), where the rest of the country was live and the West Coast was on delay, the West Coast was higher rated by almost 10 percent,'' said Dick Ebersol, the chairman of NBC Sports who orchestrates all that is Olympics-related for the network. ``From Sydney (at the 2004 Summer Games), the Olympics were higher rated on the West Coast than anywhere else and the time difference was the greatest (18 hours) to the Pacific time zone.

``The West Coast has a love affair with the Olympics. And our extensive research has clearly shown that they, more than any other region, want to see the Olympics when they're available to watch them - and that's in prime time.''

Randy Falco, the president and COO of NBC's affiliates, gets more to the bottom line. The network invested $613 million in rights fees for these Games.

``We have almost a billion dollars worth of revenue at stake here,'' he said. ``That means we're not public television, for better or worse. We have our affiliates, our advertisers and our audience. To the first two, we aggregate the biggest audience we can. To the audience, that means putting it on when they say they want it. Which is when they're available to watch it - and that's prime time.''

Q: How many of those hours will be stuffed with features, interviews and Katie Couric trying on snowshoes?

A: Not as much as you'd think. NBC says it has learned from past Games to cut out the fluff, especially when there's plenty of adrenalin-based events to harness the short-attention-span demographic.

``We know from experience that we must strike the right balance between action and features, particularly during the Winter Olympics,'' said David Neal, NBC Sports' executive vice president and the Games' executive producer. ``Storytelling is the key to accomplishing this, but we'll do more of it via our announcers' commentary and less of it with traditional features.''

Q: Dick Button?

A: Yup, Dick Button. Go figure.

On loan from ABC, Button will be making, by his count, his 16th Winter Olympics appearance as either a participant (he was the first American to win a figure skating gold, in 1948), observer or broadcaster.

He'll do commentary on the ice dancing and might spot Scott Hamilton and Tracy Wilson with their commentary on the main events, but Button's primary focus is a show called ``Olympic Ice'' on USA Network at 3 p.m. It'll give him, Hamilton, Mary Carillo, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier a place to make everything a bigger deal than it really is on a daily basis.

``For once, we can say what we want, applaud the skaters and cry when we see something go wrong,'' Button said.

Q: What's the local slant to all this?

A: If there's slush, Fred'll show it to you.

KNBC Channel 4's Fred Roggin, part of the grand NBC broadcasting team as host for the curling competition, will contribute to a half-hour nightly show (at 7:30 p.m., leading into the NBC prime-time coverage) called ``Olympic Zone,'' which previews that night's events. Bill Seward will host that. Roggin will also pop up with live segments on the late-night KNBC news and have taped features for the 5 and 6 p.m. news.

Maybe somewhere in there, he can explain why NBC has decided to call the place Torino and not the English-version of Turin.

Q: Who has the last word on why the Olympics still has a snowball's chance in Helsinki to attract an audience?

A: We welcome in Bob Costas, your prime-time host, for the short answer.

``What makes the Olympics so unique is that, for many of the athletes, the Olympics represent a lifetime of sacrifice for a very slim chance at a brief moment of glory.

``USC just lost the national championship in the Rose Bowl, but in a few months, Pete Carroll will have his team in spring practice aiming for another national title. An Olympic athlete who meets disappointment in Torino at best will have to wait another four years for another opportunity. But because of qualifying procedures, training cycles and, on occasion, a boycott, most athletes never gain another chance for Olympic glory. They sacrifice so much of their lives to train, to travel, to compete, all for this one moment. And viewers identify with that sacrifice.''

And that's not to say Pete Carroll will skate through another football season, either.

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You might have to get up early - or stay up late - to catch the curling competition, which will be hosted by KNBC Channel 4's Fred Roggin.

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