Bell Globemedia and Rogers Media have revealed some of their plans for covering the 2010 and 2012 Olympics, promising round-the-clock English and French coverage of the Summer and Winter Games, totaling some 4,000 hours, while also making good on an offer to share coverage with Radio-Canada.

The news came just days after BGM and Rogers paid a record $192 million for the Olympic broadcast rights in Canada, edging out CBC and its partner The Score.

BGM and Rogers will air 1,767 hours of the 2010 Winter Games, set for Vancouver, and 2,391 hours in summer 2012. In total, some 2,600 hours will be live, 1,183 will be primetime. The plan covers nine TV outlets, including CTV, TSN, the OMNIs, and TQS, RDS and OLN. Deals are also in place to provide coverage to Aboriginal People’s Television Network and to South-Asian cabler ATN.

The greatest share of coverage will be by CTV, committed to 22 hours per day for both Games, pausing only for news. The network will air 352 hours of the Summer Games, up from the money-losing 295 aired by CBC from Athens in 2004. The net will spend the same on the Winter Games, up from 250 hours aired by the Ceeb from Salt Lake City in ’02.

TQS will handle much of the French side, with 12 hours per day or 402 hours total for both Games, while Rogers-owned OMNI 1 and 2 will contribute 185 hours of multilingual coverage. TSN and RDS are down for just over 600 hours for both Games, Rogers Sportsnet for 1,200. RDS will also share its programming with SRC in order to reach francophone homes outside Quebec. The casters have a similar deal in place to share NHL games.

Combined, BGM and Rogers also own or control The Globe and Mail, Bell Mobility and Rogers Wireless. Their plans for print and mobile coverage have not been announced.

-www.bellglobemedia.ca

-www.rogers.com

-www.olympic.org