Universal Sports to Carry 2016 Olympic Announcement Live on Friday

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Universal Sports and UniversalSports.com will air and live-stream NBC5 News Chicago's coverage of the Friday, October 2, announcement of the winning bid city for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.  The unprecedented national television coverage of the bid city announcement will take place from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. ET (9 a.m. - 1 p.m. Chicago time), and may be extended if Chicago wins the bid.  The announcement itself will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark. President Obama is expected to attend in support of Chicago's bid, along with the heads of state representing the other finalist cities of Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.

"As part of our mission of airing Olympic sports and events that are impactful within the Olympic framework, the IOC announcement awarding the 2016 Summer Games to one of these great international cities is very deserving of our attention," said Claude Ruibal, CEO of Universal Sports.  "We're extremely pleased to be able to offer this coverage to our millions of viewers around the U.S. and online, and to work closely with our NBC5 Chicago partners to make this happen."

The coverage will include live interviews with newsmakers both in Copenhagen and Chicago, with limited commercial interruptions.  UniversalSports.com/Olympics has a dashboard featuring news, pictures and bid city facts, with live Twitter updates from NBC Olympics and Universal Sports' reporter Alan Abrahamson from Copenhagen.  UniversalSports.com will be streaming video from 2:45 a.m. - 1 p.m. ET, and will show each of the four finalist cities' LIVE presentations at the following times (all times Eastern):

2:45 - 3:55 a.m.    Chicago Final Bid Presentation
4:25 - 5:45 a.m.    Tokyo Final Bid Presentation
6:05 - 7:25 a.m.    Rio de Janeiro Final Bid Presentation
8:45 - 9:55 a.m.    Madrid Final Bid Presentation
12:30 - 1:00 p.m.    Announcement of Host City for 2016 Olympic Games

ABOUT UNIVERSAL SPORTS: Universal Sports, a partnership between NBC Sports and InterMedia Partners, serves as the preeminent multiplatform destination for Olympic-related and lifestyle sports programming available on television and online. Universal Sports is available in 56 million homes, including nine of the top 10 DMAs: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Dallas-Fort Worth and Washington, D.C. Recent expansion includes launches in Atlanta, Houston, Miami, Denver, Portland, and Jacksonville. Go to UniversalSports.com for a complete list of TV markets. Major world championship and Olympic qualifying events found on Universal Sports range from track and field, skiing, swimming, gymnastics, marathons and cycling, to volleyball, rowing, triathlon, fencing, speed skating and martial arts. UniversalSports.com delivers an immersive experience via live and on-demand competition coverage, interaction with top athletes through blogs and in-depth access to Olympic sports news and information year round. For more information on the availability of the Universal Sports 24-hour television channel, please visit UniversalSports.com.

LIVE Broadcast: http://www.universalsports.com/mediaPlayer/media.dbml?id=371912&catid=-2&sid=13050&db_oem_id=23000

Release courtesy Universal Sports