NBC plans 416 hours of Olympics coverage

That's 17.3 days of Olympics coverage, people. And most of it is going to be focused on figure skating. The Olympics run for 17 days (from February 10-26), but NBC will not be playing the events around-the-clock. Instead, it will spread its coverage out during daytime, primetime, and late night viewing hours on six stations: NBC, USA, MSNBC, CNBC, NBC HD, and Universal HD. In comparison, NBC had 375.5 hours of coverage during the Salt Lake City winter games four years ago.

Bob Costas will return as primetime host for the winter games, his seventh year with NBC Sports. And, to feed the needs of all those ice skating fans, Dick Buttons will host Olympic Ice, a daily report on the games' most popular sport. NBC is also prominently featuring David Pelletier and Jamie Sale in their coverage. The Canadian couple, who just got married, were a crowd favorite in 2002 when they ended up tying for gold with the Russian pairs skaters.