The PyeongChang Paralympics are a great example of how Comcast NBCUniversal unites content, distribution and technology to bring a truly unique experience to millions of people across the country, including viewers with disabilities.

From March 9 through March 18, NBC Olympics will cover all six Paralympic winter sports – alpine skiing, snowboarding, sled hockey, wheelchair curling, cross-country skiing, and biathlon – as part of its more than 250 hours of 2018 Winter Games coverage across NBC, NBCSN, Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA, NBCSports.com, and the NBC Sports app. 

For the first time ever, Paralympic broadcasts on NBC and NBCSN include video description. And on Xfinity X1, voice control, voice guidance and closed captioning are helping viewers access the planned 94 hours of Paralympics television coverage. It's the most ever for a Winter Games, nearly doubling that of Sochi 2014 (50 hours).

Based on recent research, we know these assistive technologies are helpful but they also suffer from low levels of awareness. To make accessibility options easier to enable on X1, we created a few shortcuts for customers; for example, saying “accessibility” into the X1 Voice Remote or tapping the “B” key to get to a menu with all of X1’s accessibility options. X1 users can also quickly jump into specific features by saying “captions,” description,” “SAP,” “voice guidance” or, to find any programs that are described, “shows with description.”

We also have made some improvements to our most popular accessible features. We were the first in our industry to launch voice guidance, a talking TV guide that reads aloud program titles, network names, and DVR and On Demand menus for people with visual disabilities. Now users can control the rate of speech by choosing “regular,” “fast” or “fastest” to navigate their X1 experience.

Tom Wlodkowski, who is blind himself, is Comcast's vice president of accessibility. He's pictured above demonstrating the MSO's new X1 voice remote features. Click here to watch a video about him and his work.

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.

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.

Discovery Communications said it has formed a long-term partnership with Austrian public broadcaster ORF for multi-screen carriage of the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea and the 2020 Winter Games in Tokyo.  

Under the agreement, ORF will exclusively sublicense free-to-air audio visual and radio rights for its channels, for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games and 2020 Olympic Games. The sublicense package will include selected digital rights to the content ORF broadcasts on its linear TV channels.

Eurosport will hold pay rights to air all Olympic Games action on its German language channels available in Austria, as well as across all digital, OTT and mobile platforms.

 Discovery secured European rights to the Olympic Games for its Eurosport cable network last year. The programmer has secured seven sublicensing deals with broadcasters in Croatia (HRT), the Czech Republic (Ceska Televize), Finland (YLE), Ireland, (RTE), the U.K. (BBC), and The Netherlands (NOS) over the past several months to ensure broader coverage.

 “We have secured a groundbreaking Olympic partnership for viewers in Austria, ensuring that the Olympic Games remains accessible to the broadest possible audience and delivered to the highest standard, said Discovery Networks Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa president Kasia Kieli in a statement. “The agreement is a perfectly example of how Discovery will deliver more coverage of the Olympic Games, across more screens than ever before.”

The Olympic Games are heavily watched in Austria -- The London 2012 Olympic Games were watched by more than 5.6 million people (78% of the population) in Austria, while 5.9 million people (81% of the population) watched the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia on television via ORF.

 “With the acquisition of the rights for the 2018 and 2020 Olympic Games from the Olympic rights holder Discovery, we are able to offer our Austrian sports fans the most important winter and summer sports events in full extent and in the usual top quality,” said ORF director general Dr. Alexander Wrabetz in a statement. “It is that proven and internationally well recognized quality of ORF sports reporting, that made a contractual partnership with Discovery possible. Knowing that their product is in the right hands, my thanks go to Discovery and also to the negotiating team of the ORF under the direction of Hans Peter Trost and Martin Szenercsi.” 

Discovery Communications has made two key appointments to its technical staff leading up to the 2018 Olympic Games in an effort to ensure that European viewers are able to watch the contests on as many screens and devices than ever before.

Discovery Networks International landed a deal last year to carry the 2018-2024 Olympic Games in Europe. On Monday, the company said it has named Dominic Baillie, chief technology officer, Olympics & Sports and Simon Farnsworth, senior vice president, Olympic Technical Distribution.

Baillie and Farnsworth will build the technical foundations necessary to ensure that every event is available to fans whenever and wherever they choose to watch it. Both men will report to Discovery chief technology officer John Honeycutt from the London Office. Farnsworth who started in March will be joined by Baillie in April, working across Discovery’s international portfolio of channels and digital products including both Eurosport and Eurosport Player.

 “Dominic is a real industry innovator; a seasoned professional with a wealth of technical expertise. Simon brings an unmatched balance of commercial and technical experience, with an impressive background in content delivery,” said Honeycutt in a statement. “Both men are global players who will push the boundaries of innovation as we continue to develop our technical operations.”

In this newly created role, Baillie will be responsible for developing the Olympic Games and sports technology strategy – including the successful delivery of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Games across all screens.  He also will play a leading role in the planned migration to IP, cloud for content management and distribution of the whole portfolio. With over 15 years’ experience, Baillie has held a number of senior roles in the industry including CTO at Sky News Arabia where he was responsible for engineering, development and technical operations. Prior to this he was CTO at Ten Sports.

Farnsworth will be responsible for strategic oversight of content aggregation and signal distribution, managing the transport of content from the Olympic Games venue sites to Discovery. Previously, Farnsworth held several senior positions at Globecast overmore than 10 years and most recently served as CEO of Globecast Australia, responsible for growing the revenue and profitability of the business before leading the sale and subsequent integration of the business to Telstra.

These two appointments add to the company’s Olympic Games organization team, of which three leadership positions were announced last November.

The news follows an agreement announced by Discovery Communications and the International Olympic Committee last June, which includes exclusive multimedia rights for 50 countries and territories in Europe for the 2018 through the 2024 Olympic Games. Since the agreement was announced, Discovery has made two important broadcast deals, ensuring the Olympic Games will be viewed by more people across more screens than ever before. The first of these included a sub-licensing deal with the BBC and the second was a similar deal with NOS, the Dutch broadcaster.