NBCUniversal’s Summer Olympics coverage from Tokyo highlights this weekend’s live TV sports lineup with coverage of live volleyball, baseball, boxing, basketball and track and field events on NBC, NBCN, Golf Channel, Peacock and USA Network. A complete listing of weekend events can be found here.

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Fox will step into the boxing ring Saturday night with primetime PBC Fight Night coverage featuring a heavyweight main event clash between Michael Coffie and Jonathan Rice, while ESPN enters the octagon with a Saturday primetime UFC Fight Night card featuring middleweights Uriah Hall and Sean Strickland.

ESPN will offer Sunday coverage of the Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix auto race, while Fox on Sunday will provide live drag racing coverage of the NHRA Lucas Oil Winternationals. 

Also on Sunday, CBS will feature live coverage of the Major League Rugby championship match between Rugby ATL and LA Giltinis and ESPN will telecast semifinal action of The Basketball Tournament. 

ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball game will feature an American League East divisional matchup between the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays.

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NBCUniversal Friday morning will tee up live coverage of the 2020 Summer Olympics’ Opening Ceremony as it prepares to offer more than 7,000 hours of Olympics coverage from Tokyo across multiple platforms.

The Olympics' Opening Ceremony, hosted by Today co-anchor Savannah Guthrie and NBC Olympics’ primetime host Mike Tirico, will air live on NBC beginning at 6:55 am (ET). After the ceremonies, NBC will air a special edition of Today followed by an Olympics Daytime show, according to NBC officials. 

NBC will air a primetime encore of the Opening Ceremony beginning at 7:30 pm. 

Guthrie said during a June Olympics press conference that American audiences are anticipating the Olympics games. 

“People want to feel good, root for the home team and feel inspired,” she said. “I think people will catch the fever -- there’s nothing like the Olympics. We’ve all been binge watching … Tiger King is great, but I think people are really going to want to see something special.”

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NBCU says it's up to the herculean task of covering the Summer Games, which were postponed last year due to the pandemic. The network’s current Olympics deal, which runs through 2032, provides the network with rights to all media platforms, which the company will take full advantage of during the two-week event. 

“As the games have grown both in scale and in the number of sports and athletes, we as a company have grown and evolved as well,” said NBCU Television and Streaming chairman Mark Lazarus during the June Olympics presser. “Essentially every technology known today or to be invented between now and the year 2032 we have the rights to, which gives us the ability to try new things and to experiment. That’s what we’re going to do across the platforms.” 

Indeed, with the NBCU cable networks set to distribute 1,300 hours of Olympics coverage; NBC Sports Digital offering 5,500 hours -- including all sports and all medal events -- Telemundo Deportes offering 300 hours of Spanish-language coverage and the flagship NBC broadcast networks televising 250 hours of coverage, virtually every event will be available to avid Olympic sports fans. 

Streaming service Peacock will also play a major part in NBCU’s Olympics coverage, offering live coverage of men's and women's gymnastics, track & Field and the U.S. men’s Basketball games, as well as live daily shows and Olympic highlights.  

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Despite concerns related to the ongoing pandemic -- Olympics events will be held without fans in attendance due to the pandemic  -- industry observers say NBCU is prepared to adjust to any challenges it may face. 

“They will be faced with a substantial number of challenges … this will be an improvisational type of Olympics,” said sports analyst Lee Berke. “That being said, I’m confident that NBC is the most qualified organization to get the utmost out of these Olympics."

Consumer adoption of 4K TVs has not yet reached critical mass, but one research firm is already putting out predictions on coming 8K-TVs that can handle 7680 x 4320 pixel resolutions.

Noting that 8K broadcasting in Japan for the 2020 Olympics will “spur a new round of resolution increases,” IHS Inc. predicts that 8K TV shipments will rise from a mere 2,700 units in 2015, to 911,000 in 2019.

In an earlier forecast, IHS said 4K-capable TV panels will reach 40 million units this year, representing a penetration rate of 15%.

That new 8K TV forecast, the firm noted, hinges on the 65-inch screen size, which has by far the highest volume in production and will account for almost 80% of 8K TV shipments in 2019.

“The biggest inhibitor to the growth of 8K TV will be consumer screen size preferences,” said IHS principal analyst Paul Gray, in a statement. “8K requires a very large screen or the higher resolution becomes invisible at normal viewing distances. The average screen size in the TV market has grown by an inch each year over the past decade, but it is still a long haul before sizes over 70 inches become commonplace.”

IHS notes that new LCD fabs in China are scheduled to come online in the next three years, a move that will dramatically increase capacity to make 65-inch 8K TV displays.