Tomorrow starts the Beijing Olympics

And it's going to be BIG, we tell you, BIG!

NBC Universal is going to televise the hell out of this thing:

NBC Universal, broadcasting its record 11th Olympics and surpassing ABC for the most Olympics broadcast by any network, will present an unprecedented 3,600 hours of Beijing Olympic Games coverage, the most ambitious single media project in history. NBCU's unprecedented Olympics coverage features the most live coverage in the United States (75 percent in all), across the most platforms, of any Summer Olympics in history when the Games of the XXIX Olympiad commence on Aug. 8. The announcement was made today by Dick Ebersol, Chairman, NBC Universal Sports & Olympics and Executive Producer of NBCU's Olympic coverage.

The 3,600 total hours of coverage on seven NBC Universal networks: NBC, USA, MSNBC, CNBC, Oxygen, Telemundo and Universal HD, as well as NBCOlympics.com, is 1,000 hours more than the combined coverage for every televised Summer Olympics in U.S. history (Rome 1960 - Athens 2004, 2,562 hours). NBCOlympics.com will feature approximately 2,200 total hours of live streaming Olympic broadband video coverage, the first live online Olympic coverage in the United States.

"For the first time, the average American will be able to create their own unique Olympic experience whether at home, at the office or on-the-go," said Ebersol.

"With 25 sports streamed live at NBCOlympics.com and significant live coverage on our cable platforms and NBC, highlighted by all swimming finals, the biggest nights of gymnastics and beach volleyball live in primetime, the viewer has plenty of options for live coverage.

Some notes:

Beijing is 12 hours ahead of EDT - (GMT + 8).

Opening Ceremonies are tomorrow night at 8:00 PM Beijing time. (8:00 AM tomorrow our time - see how this works?) "Live" NBC TV coverage doesn't start until 8:00 PM EDT tomorrow. (We do not think they know what the word "live" means...).

Net Coverage will be available at NBC Olympics.com. We haven't determined whether they'll be streaming the opening ceremonies live somewhere in cyberspace - but it seems not. Maybe someone with a camcorder will do it live.

TV Coverage listings are here.

Oh, and the Beijing Olympics has an official web site, of course: en.beijing2008.cn