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US TV viewers to watch Sochi Olympics live

Live streams from Sochi will be broadcast on NBCSN cable channel, which forms part of NBC Sports

© EPA/George Frey

NEW YORK, December 18. /ITAR-TASS/. NBC TV broadcaster, which owns exclusive rights to broadcast the Olympic Games in Sochi in the United States, announced Tuesday its decision to show the event live not only on its website, but also on TV.

Initially, NBC planned to broadcast during evening prime time on TV only the most memorable events of the day in tape delay. This was the mode NBC worked on the Summer Olympics in London, and came under strong criticism, since many popular sporting events remained uncovered.

As told by the broadcaster’s representatives, live streams from Sochi will be broadcast on NBCSN cable channel, which forms part of NBC Sports. TV viewers will be able to watch live competitions at least in 11 sports. Among them are skating, hockey, speed skating, bobsleigh, ski jumping, biathlon and cross-country skiing. Taking into account the time lag, the broadcasts will begin at 03:00 EST.

All in all, NBCSN, to which are subscribed about 80 million out of 114 million households connected to cable TV, will show 230 hours of broadcasts from Sochi.

In 2011, NBC paid to the International Olympic Committee $775 million for the right to cover Sochi Olympics.

On Monday, NBC announced that live broadcasts of sporting competitions in Sochi would be available for Yahoo users.

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