Fox News Channel was the top choice for cable viewers in primetime last week, according to Nielsen.

Fox News drew 2.6 million viewers during the week of Feb. 5-11, besting MSNBC’s 1.7 million viewers, said Nielsen. ESPN, HGTV and History rounded out the top five most watched cable networks in primetime.

Fox News also topped cable’s ratings charts on a 24-hour basis, followed by Nickelodeon, MSNBC, HGTV and Investigation Discovery.

Fox News was bolstered by the performances of its primetime shows Hannity and Tucker Carlson Tonight, which combined generated eight of the top 10 most watched shows for the week. NBCSN’s Feb. 10 Winter Olympics coverage topped all shows for the week, averaging 4.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

NBC Olympics is working with satellite company SES to distribute its 4K/HDR coverage from the Winter Olympic Games from PyeongChang.

NBC is providing select coverage, on delay, from the games in the advanced video format. That coverage included footage from the opening ceremony, and will also include coverage of specific events such as hockey, figure skating, short track speed skating, ski jumping and snowboard competitions. Up to four events from the previous day’s competition is being made available in  4K.

Under the arrangement, NBC Olympics is distributing its HDR feed from the games to affiliates in the U.:S. via the SES-1 satellite, located at 101 degrees West.

RELATED: Vendors Get in on NBC’s Olympics Action

SES is also providing preconfigured satellite receivers to affiliates that will be receiving the HDR feed. SES’s existing 4K platform is already being tapped by a growing number of MVPD partners.

“NBC Olympics is pleased to work with SES to offer 4K HDR coverage of the PyeongChang Games to our valued distribution partners,” David Mazza, CTO and SVP, NBC Olympics, said in a statement. “The HDR feed distributed by SES, and presented by Xfinity, will complement our HDR Video On Demand offering available to MVPDs and satellite providers across the United States.”

RELATED: Dish Gears Up for the Winter Olympics

Based on the flood of announcements, vendors that are on board to help NBC Olympics produce and cover the Winter Games from PyeongChang have apparently been given the green light to bask in the tech-facing aspects of the glory.

Here’s a snapshot of partners that are on board to help with that coverage, which will include NBC’s 176 hours of broadcast TV coverage and 1,800 hours of live-streaming.

Watch MCN: 10 Ways NBC Is Covering the 2018 Winter Olympics

FileCatalyst said it’s been picked to transfer file footage (via a 5 Gbps link between NBC Olympics’ headquarters in Stamford, Conn., and its compound at the Intentional Broadcast Center in PyeongChang, and to facilitate remote production workflows for NBC Olympics. FileCatalyst, which also teamed with NBC for the 2016 Summer Games in Rio, said its “Direct” platform now lets partners edit transfers that are ongoing, even if there are hundreds of concurrent transfers taking place.

Cisco Systems will provide IP video contribution and distribution assistance to NBC Olympics, using several products/components, including the Cisco ASR9000 router/switcher, wireless and Ethernet-based virtual private network services, the Cisco Digital Content Manager (for broadcast transport of IP video), and collaboration products such as Cisco Telepresence, Spark and Spark Board.

Harmonic will contribute its MediaGrid shared storage systems and Spectrum MediaDeck media servers for a range of production applications, including broadcast, on-demand, digital, news operations and for the long-term archive.

Lawo is providing VSM (Virtual Studio Manager) Broadcast Control and Monitoring products, as well as IP Commentary systems for NBC’s production from the Games. Lawo said VSM will serve as the overarching control system for NBC Olympics’ core routing and tally management, connecting to multiple third-party devcies on an IP backbone.

Ericssonis proving a range of encoding and satellite receiver products for video distribution, including its AVP 2000 contribution encoders and its RX8200 Advanced Modular Receivers.

NEP will provide outside mobile broadcasting units alongside engineering and technical support for the production, noting that it has provided broadcast gear for every Olympics since the Atlanta Games in 1996.

Avid is providing MediaCentral platform to aid content creation and media management workflows for NBC’s production from the Winter Games.

NBC Olympics will also tap ChyronHego’s Lyric graphic creation and playout system, Live Compositor, as well as Prime Clips. In all, NBC Olympics will use 30 Lyric systems to cover the Games, with about half deployed at Stamford, and the balance for NBC Olympics’ production facility at the International Broadcast Center in PyeongChang.

Tektronix is supplying audio and video testing monitoring systems, as well as network monitoring for NBC’s production. Those products include the Tektronix WFM7200, WVR7200, WFM5200, and WVR5200 Waveform Monitors, SPG8000A Master Sync and Master Clock Reference Generators. NBC will also use the WFM8300 Waveform Monitors for its 4K and HDR coverage.

NBC Olympics and Comcast said they are teaming with Descriptive Video Works to provide video description services (VDS) to help the blind and those with visual disabilities follow the action of NBC’s TV coverage of the Winter Games.

VDS features the use of short verbal descriptions of action or key video scenes to add context to programing for individuals with a visual disability. The integrated narration of the visuals will include descriptions of elements such as actions, facial expressions, clothing, event locations and on-screen graphics, they said.

Update: As readers on the message board indicate, the settings of some customers might be set to having the voice description feature activated, and are having trouble figuring out how to adjust that setting. Comcast has outlined several ways to turn that setting on and off here.

This will mark the second time NBC Olympics and Comcast have provided description video presentations for the games, as it follows similar work was done for the 2016 Summer Games in Rio. VDS was also used for NBC’s production of The Wiz Live! in December 2015.

RELATED: Comcast, NBC Add Video Descriptions to 'The Wiz Live!'

For the PyeongChang Games, NBC Olympics will present video description to accompany 18 primetime telecasts, including the Opening Ceremony and Closing Ceremony. Descriptive video will also be incorporated into the live broadcasts, as well as NBC’s VOD offerings from the Games.

“The excitement and pageantry of the Olympics is something that all viewers should be able to experience,” Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics, said in a statement. “The increased access provided by our VDS coverage will allow even more people to share in the stories and excitement of the PyeongChang Games. We are pleased to work with Comcast to provide more accessible coverage for Olympic fans than ever before, and offer this important enhancement to our coverage for people with visual disabilities.” 

RELATED: Comcast’s ‘Talking Guide’ Goes Live

“NBC has become a pioneer in making live entertainment and sporting events more accessible for millions of people like me, and there is no bigger opportunity to demonstrate the impact of that work than the Olympics,” added Tom Wlodkowski, Comcast’s VP of accessibility, who is blind himself. “When accessible content is complemented with navigation and search technologies like our Xfinity X1 voice control and voice guidance, people with visual disabilities can have an end-to-end experience that is even more inclusive, independent and entertaining.”

Dish Network is rolling out a batch of special features and enhancements for the Winter Olympic Games from PyeongChang, South Korea.

Dish will be among a select group of MVPDs that will offer NBCUniversal’s 4K/HDR coverage of the games. Dish will offer programming in the enhanced video format on channel 540, and make it available to customers with Hopper 3 DVRs and TVs that support 4K and HDR. NBCU’s coverage in the format will be available on delay, and include footage from the Opening Ceremony, as well as from several events, including hockey, figure skating, short track speed skating, ski jumping and snowboard competitions. NBCU plans to offer up to four events from the previous day’s competition in 4K.

RELATED: NBC to Distribute Olympics in 4K High Dynamic Range

Dish has also set channel 147 as an exclusive “hub” for the Winter Games. Labeled in the guide as “2018 Winter Olympics Channels,” customers can tune in there to navigate NBCU’s Olympics coverage across five TV networks.

RELATED: Comcast Builds Winter Olympics Content Hub for TVs, Mobile Devices

Dish is also integrating an Olympic Winter Games app on internet-connected Hopper, Hopper Duo, Joey and Wally boxes that features updated medal counts and a complete Olympics TV roster, broken down by schedule and network. That app is accessible on channel 159 or selectable on the guide’s Apps menu.

RELATED: NBC to Broadcast 176 Hours of Olympic Games Coverage

Dish’s VOD platform, meanwhile, will offer more than 150 hours of on-demand content from NBCU tied to the Games, including preview clips, recaps from the 2014 games, athlete profiles, event replays and post-event commentary and medal ceremonies.

To give subs a way to take in multiple events at once, the Sports Bar Mode on the Hopper 3 will enable viewers to watch up to four Olympics TV feeds. 

Dish is also enabling authentication for the 1,800 hours of live streaming that will be offered at NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app.

RELATED: NBC Olympics to Live-Stream 1,800 Hours of PyeongChang Winter Games

Hulu this week has gone live with a new personalized experience/interface for the Winter Olympics from PyeongChang.

Those enhancements, available to Hulu’s live TV subscribers, will tie into NBCUniversal’s expansive coverage of the games, and allow customers to personalize the experience, including an option that lets them select their favorite sports and know when those events will be available for viewing. TechCrunch notes that Hulu has set up a list of individual events with icons representing each one, and users need to just click on a plus sign to follow it on the service.

RELATED: Comcast Builds Winter Olympics Content Hub for TVs, Mobile Devices

Hulu’s experience for the Winter Games, will also offer event replays for many individual events, along with clips and highlights, Ben Smith, Hulu’s senior vice president and head of experience, explained during a demo held last month in Las Vegas in concert with CES.

RELATED: NBC to Broadcast 176 Hours of Olympic Games Coverage

Ahead of the start of the games and the Opening Ceremonies on February 9, Hulu has already set up a preview area with highlights from the Sochi games from 2014, along with background on the team for this 2018 Winer Games, TC added.

He said Hulu is offering this enhancement across all supported platforms for Hulu’s live TV subscribers.

Hulu, which launched its live TV service last May, hasn’t revealed how many subscribers that service has, though CNBC puts it at about 450,000.

Hulu announced last month that it ended 2017 with more than 17 million total subscribers, a number that includes those who subscribe to its SVOD service as well as the live TV offering.

Beyond Hulu’s work around the Winter Games, Smith also discussed other work and enhancements Hulu has introduced or has plans underway for.

"Fundamentally, it’s about having all of your content in one place,” he said, noting that the idea is to not put live TV, recorded content and the SVOD fare into silos.

As for early live TV trends Hulu is seeing, he said usage has been gravitating around sports and news channels, and that TV-connected device viewing has been strong, adding that Hulu’s live TV service tends to “over-index” on the Fire TV platform.

He said there’s also been a “resurgence” of sorts when it comes to viewing of Hulu’s live TV product on web browsers, with a lot of that centered on live sports programming.

Hulu is also testing out a new live guide for the service on TV-connected devices as the company found out that some customers, particularly those transitioning from cable or satellite TV, missed having that option.

Hulu has made that available to a few hundred customers as part of an early beta, and expects to widen its release a bit over the next few weeks, and possibly to all customers by this spring.

While the live guide presents what’s on and what’s coming up, the interface itself must be fast. “This is about utility and speed,” he said.

The Olympic Channel said it has forged a multi-year deal with Snapchat that will, for the first time, extend a content bridge to the popular social media platform. 

The deal, which taps into Snapchat’s 178 million daily active users, provides Snap with Olympic Channel original programming for Shows on Snapchat’s Discover page and assets for creative tools, such as Olympic-themed lenses, filters and stickers.

Snapchat will also produce Our Stories, a series that features archival footage provided by the Olympic Channel in collaboration with Olympic rights-holding broadcasters, during the 2018 Olympic Winter Games from PyeongChang.  

Starting Tuesday (January 30), Snapchat users will have access to the global premiere of Far From Home, a new Olympic Channel original, via Snapchat’s Discover page. The multi-part series features unlikely Olympic hopefuls who face financial, political and cultural hurdles as they attempt to qualify for PyeongChang 2018, Olympic Channel noted.

Following the daily rollout of four episodes produced exclusively for Snapchat in both English and Spanish, the full Far From Home series will debut on the Olympic Channel global digital platform on February 5.

Olympic Channel and Snap will also work together on other projects, including the Buenos Aires 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games.  

“As the Olympic Channel continues to evolve, we are dedicated to creating more personalised experiences for our viewers as we continue to expand our global footprint,” Mark Parkman, GM of the IOC’s global Olympic Channel, said in a statement. We’re excited to begin this new collaboration with Snapchat which will allow us to capitalise on its unique distribution platform and creative tools through bespoke, youth-oriented content that reaches our common target audiences.”

Broadcasting the Super Bowl on February 4 and the Olympics starting February 8, NBCUniversal is calling next month The Best Feb Ever, according to NBC Sports Group Chairman Mark Lazarus.

At a press briefing in New York Wednesday, NBCU said that for the first time it will stream the Opening Ceremonies live. An edited version will be shows later in prime time.

The NBCU platforms will feature more live coverage than any previous winter games and more than 2,400 hours in all, Lazarus said.

There will be figure skating on 12 of 18 nights and live skiing on 11 of 18 nights.

RELATED: Couric to Co-Host Olympic Opening Ceremony on NBC

NBCU’s primetime coverage will be aired live in all timezones for the first time.

“The Olympics are proving again to be better than politics at bringing the world together,” Lazarus said.

NBCU has also created five one-minute spots promoting the Olympics that will air on Super Bowl Sunday. One will air during the pre-game show, another just before kickoff, the third during half time, the fourth just after the final gun and the last during an episode of the hitThis Is Us, which will air after the post game show.This Is Uswill be followed by an episode of theTonight Show with Jimmy Fallon originating from Minneapolis, where the game is being played.

One of the spots will be previewed each day on the Today show in the week leading up to the Super Bowl.

No network has ever had the two huge TV event in the same season. The tight timing will “allow us to market, package and sell the, giving marketers a very unique opportunity.

Lazarus said he expected the Olympics to turn a profit, but he declined to say how much money it would generate.

RELATED: Comcast Builds Winter Olympics Content Hub for TVs, Mobile Devices

NBCUniversal will been using all of its assets, employing its Symphony approach, to promote the Olympics for an unprecedented five weeks. In return, “we will use this great event and large audience to promote other properties like This is Us, the Today show, the Nightly News, the theme parks and Universal pictures,” Lazarus said.

NBC Olympics president Gary Zenkel noted that PyongChang is ready for the games. “The paint is dry. The Road is striped. They could host these games today,” Zenkel said. NBC is ready too, with more than 90 miles of cable strung and studios set up inside and on the roof of the International Broadcast Center.

NBCU will be distributing clips and highlights to a number of digital partners including Snapchat, which will run a show dedicated to four female snowboarders, Vox, Twitter, YouTube, Amazon Echo, Google Home, Musical.ly and Refinery

More than 20 Olympic advertisers have extended their buys to include the Snapchat platform, he said.

RELATED: NBC Says Super Bowl Ads Nearly Sold Out

Lazarus said the NBC’s coverage of Super Bowl LII will include the first ever use of the dual Skycam system, which provides a players’ eye view from the middle of the field, 3D imaging of key players,an all-new graphics package and a new opening song from Carrie Underwood.

The Super Bowl should also generate advertising sales records for a single day, with NBC being the first network to average more than $5 million per 30-second spot for the NFL’s championship game, annually TV’s most watched program.

Comcast has developed an all-encompassing content hub for its X1 platform for the Winter Olympics that will span its base of X1 set-top boxes as well as its Stream app for smartphones, tablets and web browsers.

Comcast’s X1 experience for Winter Games will tie in NBCUniversal’s 2,400 hours-plus of live, VOD and OTT streaming coverage from PyeongChang, and feature dozens of customized “virtual” Olympics channels, integration with the X1 Sports App and X1 voice remote, real-time medal counts, and select batch of content offered in 4K HDR with Dolby Atmos.

RELATED: NBC to Distribute Olympics in 4K High Dynamic Range

“This is your hub to the Olympics,” Chris Satchell, EVP and chief product officer at Comcast Cable, said during a preview of the new X1 experience provided last week during CES in Las Vegas.

Notably, NBCU’s live TV and OTT and VOD coverage of the Winter Games will be available in and out of the home via the Stream app, and most elements of the Olympics hub developed for X1 will work the same on set-tops and Comcast’s mobile app.

RELATED: NBC Olympics to Live-Stream 1,800 Hours of PyeongChang Winter Games

“We want to make the mobile experience really complete,” Satchell said.

Here’s a brief breakdown of the elements that will be offered on X1 boxes and the Stream app to help viewers navigate and find events and other content associated with the PyeongChang games:

-Olympics Home: An aggregation of all of NBCU’s live, on-demand and online programming, along with highlights and web clips. The top row will feature dynamic “tiles” that highlight currently available events that are accessible on a traditional TV channel or via internet streaming.  X1 subs will also be able to browse for live and on-demand content using a Sports Row.

-Olympic Virtual Channels: X1 will present more than 50 Olympic Virtual Channels made up of video playlists that include highlights and full-event replays. Customers will be able to view all channels in the curated playlist or browse and select specific ones for viewing. “We’ll be modifying it all the time,” Satchell said.

RELATED: NBC to Broadcast 176 Hours of Olympic Games Coverage

-X1 Voice Control: Via the set-top box, X1 subs will have the option to search for and discovery Winter Games content using voice navigation (Comcast has deployed more than 18 million voice remotes so far) and uttering phrases such as “Team USA,” Olympics Home” and “Medal Count.” Comcast said it has built-in about 1,500 Olympic-specific voice commands for this year’s Winter Games. Comcast has also added a Shazam-like component that lets X1 subs learn what music is playing during a figure skating performance by saying, “What song is this?” into the voice remote (this feature is already working on X1 for any music that’s being played on the TV, not just for the coming Winter Games).

RELATED: Olympic Channel Launches VR Series

-4K/HDR and Dolby Atmos audio: X1 customers with the right TV and X1 set-top box setup will have access to next-day coverage of select events in the advanced video and audio formats, including the opening and closing ceremonies, figure skating, short-track speed skating, ski jumping, Snowboard Big Air, and men’s hockey (one game per say).

-Olympics Daily Summary: New for the Winter Games, this option will provide X1 customers with a quick snapshot/summary of the day’s events, including which sports are on that given day, updated medal counts, and recent results.

-Instant On Demand: All NBCUniversal broadcast and cable programming will be available instantly on demand for X1 customers.

Talent from the NBC Sports Regional Networks will be heading to PyeongChang, South Korea, to cover the Olympics.

NBC Sports Washington’s Julie Donaldson returns as Olympic News Desk host, and Ahmed Fareed will host NBCSN’s daytime NBC Olympics coverage.

NBC Sports Boston’s Trenni Kusnierek and NBC Sports Bay Area’s Jim Kozimor will cover curling. And reporting from their first Olympics will be Abby Chin of NBC Sports Boston, who will cover cross-country skiing and ski jumping, and NBC Sports Chicago’s Leila Rahami, who will cover women’s hockey.

Related: NBC Sports Rebrands Comcast RSNs

“It is an honor to have six of NBC Sports Regional Networks’ on-air talent contributing to the 2018 Winter Olympic Games,” said Ted Griggs, president, group and strategic production & programming leader for NBC Sports Regional Networks. “Their participation in the Games is a testament to the talent and strength of our group.”

NBC plans to live-stream 1,800 hours of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games from PyeongChang, South Korea.

For the first time, the NBC broadcast network and NBCU cable programming will be live-streamed for authenticated subscribers.

NBC will also be producing three digital-only programs: Gold Zone, Olympic Ice and Off the Post, for streaming viewers. A news desk will also publish Olympic updates online throughout the day.

“Our most comprehensive digital offering ever is specifically designed to satisfy modern Olympic viewers, who expect to watch their programming wherever and whenever they want,” Rick Cordella, EVP and General Manager, Digital Media, NBC Sports Group, said in a statement. “Whether it’s at home or on the go, live or VOD, on desktop or app, our unprecedented digital coverage will raise the bar for super-serving fans.”

Live streaming of competition will begin Feb. 7, 2018, on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports App. Both are powered by NBC Sports’ Playmaker Media.

RELATED: NBC Sports Digital Launches Playmaker Media 

Users will be able to stream 30 minutes of coverage prior to authenticating on their first visit. On subsequent days, the can watch five minutes before authenticating.

The streaming material will be available via connected TVs. Users of Amazon Fire devices, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Win10, Comcast’s X1 and some Samsung devices will also get the stream coverage via the NBC Sports App.

The NBC Sports app is available on the iTunes App Store, Google Play, Windows Store, Roku Channel Store, Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Comcast X1, and select Samsung devices. 

Read more at B&C.

Veteran sportscaster Mike Tirico will host NBC’s coverage of the 2018 Winter Olympics games, replacing Bob Costas who will step down after hosting NBC’s Olympics coverage since 1992.

Tirico, who joined the NBC Sports Group in July 2016 after a long career at ESPN, will step into the primetime chair Feb. 8, 2018 when NBC begins its coverage of the Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.

Both Costas and Tirico appeared on NBC’s Today show Thursday morning to make the announcement. Costas has served as NBC’s primetime host for 11 consecutive Olympics telecasts.

“For a quarter-century, Bob expertly piloted NBC’s primetime coverage of the Olympics,” NBC broadcasting and sports chairman Mark Lazarus said in a statement. “It is with a tremendous amount of pride that I can simultaneously express our appreciation for Bob’s stellar, record-setting run, while also feeling very lucky that we have someone as talented as Mike to take over as our new primetime host.”