[SatNews] SES (NYSE Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) has been selected to provide satellite capacity to NBC Olympics, a division of the NBC Sports Group, during its production of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, from February 6-February 23.

Artistic rendition of SES' NSS-7 satellite.

The announcement was made today by Ron Gnidziejko, Vice President, International Transmission, NBC Universal, and Samantha McCloskey, Vice President of Global Occasional Use Services for SES. NBC Olympics will use Ku-band capacity aboard the NSS-7 satellite to distribute HD Olympics coverage directly from event venues and a pair of roaming NBC News SNG (satellite news gathering) vehicles to the International Broadcasting Center (IBC) at the Sochi Games.

A portion of the capacity will provide emergency backup capabilities, enabling NBC to route HD Olympics traffic from Sochi to North America over NSS-7, if necessary. SES’ NSS-7 satellite and NSS-5 satellite played an integral role in NBC Olympics’ coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

“NBC consistently sets the gold standard with world class sports event coverage, and the 2014 Winter Olympics are sure to offer up a compelling backdrop for 18 days of riveting and innovative NBC Olympics broadcasts from Sochi, Russia,” said McCloskey.

Gnidziejko said, “We are pleased to be working once again with SES, whose satellite fleet affords us unique capabilities that meet NBC Olympics’ challenging requirements for broadcasting the Games on the networks of NBC Universal.”

Learn more about SES' Sochi coverage at this direct infopage link.