DIRECTV to Offer Olympic Coverage On-Demand

Update: DIRECTV 2010 Winter Games Coverage

DIRECTV will offer on-demand Olympics coverage in an agreement announced recently with NBC Universal. This will be the first time the satellite TV provider will offer video on demand content for the Olympics. After looking at the details of the deal, I don’t know what the fuss is about.

The Beijing Olympics, set to start on August 8th, will offer non stop coverage. NBC is promising to deliver 2,900 hours of live coverage, and 3,600 total hours of programming spread over all of it’s networks including NBC, CNBC, USA, Oxygen, MSNBC, Telemundo, and at NBC Olympics.com. So how much will this DIRECTV agreement add to the mix?

A whopping “10 titles per week.”

Yes DIRECTV will bring you 10 titles a week through the end of the Olympics. Now they start in about three weeks, so thats about 30 shows, then another 20 during the Olympics themselves. That brings the total to 50. NBC is reportedly producing 500 titles for distribution. How long these “titles” run is not known, but probably about an hour each would be a reasonable estimate.

So DIRECTV will have 50 hours of programming available for the world’s most celebrated sports event. While the press release mentions previews and features leading up to the games, no information is given on how much content will be distributed once the games begin.

One issue that may be complicating matters is the disk space issue on DIRECTV DVR units. The VOD service is not true on-demand as cable TV offers. Some content is sent to all customers to access via their DVR, while other content has to be downloaded via broadband connection.

Space limitations would not allow DIRECTV to send hundreds of hours to each customers DVR, as they cannot hold this much content currently. DIRECTV on Demand olympic coverage can be found on channel 1008 or via the main on-demand menu channel 1000. DISH Network will also offer on-demand coverage of the 2008 Olympic games.