Special Report: The Sports Issue

Q&A With NBC's David Neal

With the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, scheduled for Feb.
12-28, less than six months away, David Neal, executive producer at NBC Sports
and executive VP of NBC Olympics, is gearing up to produce his ninth Olympics.
He recently spoke with Multichannel News' Mike Reynolds about his plans for the
Vancouver Games.

HDSlo-Mo Gets Up to Speed

As HD production has skyrocketed over the past three years,
so has the development of HD super-slow-motion cameras (often called "slo-mo"
or "super-motion" for brevity).

HBOSports Regains Its Reality Star

After a two-year, Brett Favre-like "retirement"
from boxing, Floyd Mayweather Jr. is heading back to the ring. But first, he is
heading back to reality television as the star of HBO Sports' award-winning
24/7 series.

NFL Drop-Kicks Off-Season TV Deals

As its teams prepare for the 2009 season, the National
Football League had a very busy off-season of its own, from a media
perspective. 

'Open'
Season in N.Y.

After a quarter-century, USA Network's singles play as the
cable window to the U.S. Open will give way to the doubles team of ESPN and
Tennis Channel. 

Winning
Game Plan

DirecTV is known for catering to high-end consumers with a penchant
for sports, and that strategy has steaded the company well. But that wasn't
always the case. 

Putting
the Customer First

DirecTV prides itself on quality service, landing top honors
as the nation's highest-rated provider for customer service and satisfaction
for six years in a row. 

Video
'Everywhere'

DirecTV has used programming and technology to
differentiate its video product and that strategy isn't likely to change
anytime soon, according to executives. If anything, the company is expanding
the ways it can deliver nonexclusive programming with new and refined
technologies including split screens, interactivity and video on demand.