New TV network to focus on Olympics making debut

While too early in the morning for a torch lighting, a new television network designed to highlight Olympic sports and American athletes chasing gold medal dreams is set to debut July 15.

The Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA network launches at 6 a.m. ET in some 35 million American homes with NBC’s Mike Tirico previewing the live sports, archival footage and documentaries that will make up most of its programming. The show will repeat several times over the weekend for those sleeping in.

World championships in track and field, swimming and diving and beach volleyball will fill considerable airtime during the infant network’s first two months. A lengthy tribute to the 1992 United States “Dream Team” in men’s basketball will lead into Labor Day.

The launch comes at a time of cord-cutting and contraction in the cable business; NBC Universal shuttered its Esquire network earlier this year. But NBC Universal is sharing costs and control with the International Olympic Committee and United States Olympic Committee, although representatives wouldn’t outline how that responsibility is divided. The network’s unwieldy name is to avoid confusion with the IOC’s digital Olympic Channel.

NBC Universal also wants to build interest in the Olympics because it has the rights to broadcast summer and winter Games through 2032.