Telecast Includes Feature on Athens’ Readiness & Security

NBC ATHENS PRESS OFFICE: 011 30 210 00 49288

MORE 2004 EQUESTRIAN OLYMPICS COVERAGE:

Events Schedule Television Schedule News Results

ATHENS, Greece – Aug. 11, 2004 – The 2004 Olympic Games begin on NBC with exclusive coverage of the Opening Ceremony this Friday, Aug. 13 at 8 p.m. ET/PT before a capacity crowd of 75,000 at Olympic Stadium in Athens. Primetime host Bob Costas and the “Today” show’s Katie Couric will anchor Opening Ceremony coverage, which formally kicks off NBC’s unprecedented 1,210 hours of coverage on NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, USA, Bravo, Telemundo and NBC HDTV. NBC’s coverage of the Opening Ceremony of the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Games was honored with six primetime Emmy Awards.

“My favorite Olympic memories have come from opening ceremonies,” said Dick Ebersol, the Chairman of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics who is working his seventh Olympics, fifth as executive producer of NBC’s coverage. “In a world that always has as many tensions as ours, the best young athletes from 202 nations coming together at the Opening Ceremony is the most impressive single sight in the world. There is that moment of sheer hope that comes from watching the best athletes of the world assemble on that infield as one group – including North and South Korea marching in under one flag – and you think maybe the whole world could work. That’s a much clearer indication of the world working together than we ever get from, say, a session of the U.N. General Assembly