Bringing Beijing A Little Closer

The CBC has just announced that it will provide a daily Beijing Olympics online highlights package in Mandarin.
Starting Aug. 9, the first day of full competition at the Games, the service is being made available on four websites: CBCSports.ca, rciviva.ca (Radio Canada International), radio-canada.ca (French-language Radio-Canada), and cbc.ca/bc/chinesenews, a site launched July 22 to serve CBC British Columbia's Chinese-language viewers in their native tongue.
This kind of initiative is nothing new for the CBC, which has provided Italian, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hindi and Punjabi coverage of Hockey Night in Canada telecasts during the past two seasons (specifically Hockey Day In Canada and the Stanley Cup playoffs).
"CBC is committed to providing all Canadians with the most comprehensive coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games," said Joel Darling, CBC Sports' director of production. "This a great opportunity to serve more of Canada's rich and diverse communities and CBCSports.ca is an ideal platform to reach them and bring them closer to the Games."
Beijing 2008 will receive the most extensive broadcast and Internet coverage in Olympic history. We'll break it all down for you over the next few days, as the lighting of the flame in China's capital draws ever closer. We're only nine days away now.
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NBC reports it has sold 96% of its advertising inventory for the Beijing Games, putting it on pace to set all all-time Olympics revenue record.
The NBC Universal target for Beijing: $1 billion US. The network paid $894 million for rights to the 2008 Summer Olympics, so a profit is clearly within reach.
Given the 12-hour time difference between Beijing and the eastern U.S. — where the biggest American population base is located — that's some impressive feat. It's also a testament to the intrigue, excitement and yes, controversy, surrounding the arrival of the Games in the world's most populous country.