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The Olympics, like all television, have been suffering from rating slides for years as the continual fragmentation of the market goes on unabated.

Chris Allen, VP-associate director of national broadcast with GSD&M, said:  "I do think they'll have a hard time slowing the ratings slide because of the overall time delay and the fragmentation of audiences to the other platforms that are out there." He went on to add that this shouldn't influence the prime-time coverage which should still command premium prices.

Because live coverage is what commands those premium prices, NBC has been in negotiations with the International Olympics Committee for five years on getting them to change the venue of the two most popular sports - gymnastics and swimming - to a time where they can be broadcast live in the U.S. There is a 12-hour difference in time so something offered at 9 a.m. in the morning in Beijing, can be shown at 9 p.m. in the U.S.

The good news for NBC is that they reached an agreement with the Committee to allow this to happen. This should give them a great boost in the anticipated ad revenue.

Another added feature that will be new to these Olympics is that NBC will also be streaming around 1,000 hours of live coverage online.

Dick Ebersol, NBC Universal Sports & Olympics chairman, said: "We're not prepared to make the hard announcement, but we'll be in a position to live-stream between 800 and 1,000 hours of coverage in addition to 800 hours on cable and 200 hours on the network."