• by Wayne Friedman , July 8, 2009

Adding to the array of sports-specific TV networks, the U.S. Olympic Committee and Comcast Corp. will partner in a new sports channel, The U.S. Olympic Network.

The network, which will launch next year, will be the first cable TV network devoted to sports of the Olympics year round.

As opposed to the NFL Network and MLB Network, which focused more on traditional cable network coverage, the new Olympic network will rely on a number of multiple media platforms -- TV, video on demand and online -- as the basis of its U.S. TV footprint.

Comcast/USOC did not release any subscriber data for cable network coverage. Comcast, the biggest U.S. cable operator, has 24.1 million cable customers and 15.3 million high-speed Internet customers.

Previously, Major League Baseball's MLB Network did equity deals with cable and satellite providers to ensure significant U.S. TV coverage. Major League Baseball inked agreements with DirecTV, Comcast, Time Warner and Cox Communications. MLB Network has 52 million subscribers.

In May, after its long litigation ordeal, Comcast and NFL Network agreed to a distribution deal, but Comcast did not get equity in the channel. The NFL Network now has around 45 million subscribers. Comcast added around 10 million subscribers to the NFL Network.

Programming on the new Olympic channel will include live coverage of championship competitions, and after 2012, Olympic trial events, live, non-stop news stories, commentary and interviews from future Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Also on the lineup are movies, documentaries, original series and instructional programming, plus thousands of hours of programming of Olympic footage from previous events.