Charge up those 3D glasses! The NBC 3D Channel has released its 3D broadcast schedule. While Verizon and Cablevision have been strangely quiet about it, the announcement was officially made that AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox, DirecTV, Time Warner, and Verizon FIOS will be carrying the Olympics in 3D.
While it’s unclear whether some cable providers will be charging extra for the privilege, it’s virtually certain, if the past is any indication, that coverage will be completely free for users of Verizon FIOS. The test pattern you’re seeing on 1003 is the same pattern that preceded free coverage of the US Open Tennis Tournament. Come Saturday morning, that test pattern should be replaced on Saturday morning by full and free 3D telecasts of the Olympics.
If you’ve got a Playstation 3D display, make sure you have an HDMI cable going from your cable box or TiVo. On Saturday, you should see two images next to each other. Turn 3D mode on and switch to “Side By Side” format. Then, put on your glasses and enjoy the 3D. If you don’t have FIOS yet, sign up here with referral code IWANTFIOS to get it now with a free gift card no less! 🙂
All of the competition will be on next-day delay (meaning you can watch the Opening Ceremony Friday night and then Saturday at 5 AM watch the rebroadcast in 3D). They claim that there will be a full 12 hours of coverage each day, for a total of about 242 hours over the 16 days. For some reason, they seem to have divided their listings into two portions of the day: one from about 5 AM to 9 AM, and the other from about 9 AM to 6 PM. Hard to tell if it’ll be all original coverage throughout the day, or if they’ll loop the broadcasts, but we’ll see.
Here’s the schedule that’s been released for the first few days. I’ll keep updating this as they do:
Saturday 7/28/2012
- 5:00 AM – 5:00 PM – Opening Ceremony – London, the first city to host the Olympics thee times, welcomes the world and Queen Elizabeth II officially opens the games.
Sunday 7/29/2012
- 4:00 AM – 6:15 PM – Gymnastics: men’s team competition; Swimming: qualifying and finals.
Monday 7/30/2012
- 5:00 AM – 7:30 PM – Gymnastics: women’s team competition; Swimming: finals; Diving: women’s synchronized springboard finals
Tuesday 7/31/2012
- 5:00 AM – 7:45 PM – Gymnastics: men’s team final; Swimming: finals; Diving: men’s synchronized platform final; Canoeing: whitewater qualifying
Wednesday 8/1/2012
- 5:00 AM – 7:15 PM – Gymnastics: women’s team final; Swimming: finals; Diving: women’s synchronized platform final; Canoeing: whitewater final.
Thursday 8/2/2012
- 5:00 AM – 7:15 PM – Gymnastics: men’s all-around final; Swimming: finals; Diving: men’s synchronized springboard final; Canoeing: whitewater final.
Friday 8/3/2012
- 5:00 AM – 6:30 PM – Gymnastics: women’s all-around final; Swimming: finals; Canoeing: whitewater final.
Saturday 8/4/2012
- 5:00 AM – 7:45 PM – Swimming: finals; Track and Field: finals; Gymnastics: trampoline men’s finals.
Sunday 8/5/2012
- 4:00 AM – 6:00 PM – Swimming: finals; Track and Field: finals; Diving: women’s springboard semifinal; Gymnastics: Trampoline women’s final.
Monday 8/6/2012
- 5:00 AM – 7:30 PM – Gymnastics: individual event final; Track and Field: finals; Diving: women’s springboard final;Synchronized Swimming: duet qualifying.
Tuesday 8/7/2012
- 5:00 AM – 7:30 PM – Gymnastics: individual event finals; Track and Field: finals; Diving: men’s springboard qualifying;Synchronized Swimming: duet qualifying.
Wednesday 8/8/2012
- 5:00 AM – 7:30 PM – Gymnastics: individual event finals; Track and Field: finals; Diving: men’s springboard final;Synchronized Swimming: duet qualifying.
Thursday 8/9/2012
- 5:00 AM – 7:45 PM – Track and Field: finals; Basketball: men’s quarterfinals.
Friday 8/10/2012
- 5:00 AM – 7:30 PM – Track and Field: finals; Diving: women’s platform semifinal
Saturday 8/11/2012
- 5:00 AM – 7:45 PM – Track and Field: finals; Diving: women’s platform final, men’s platform qualifying; Synchronized Swimming: team final; Basketball: women’s semifinal.
Sunday 8/12/2012
- 5:00 AM – 7:45 PM – Track and Field: finals; Diving: men’s platform final; Basketball: Men’s semifinals.
Monday 8/13/2012
- 5:00 AM – 7:30 PM – Closing Ceremony; Basketball: men’s gold and bronze, women’s gold and bronze.