OLYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY TO AIR AT NEW, EARLY START TIME 7:30 PM ET/PT, FRIDAY ON NBC

NBC Opening Ceremony Coverage Expands to 4.5 Hours

BEIJING - Aug. 4, 2007 - The Opening Ceremony for the Beijing Olympic Games this Friday will now air at a special early start time, 7:30 p.m. ET/PT. The announcement of the new start time was made today by David Neal, Executive Producer, NBC Sports.

"After seeing two dress rehearsals in the last week, it's clear that this Opening Ceremony is simply spectacular and we're thrilled to be able to add an extra half hour to begin Friday at a special early start time," Neal said. "Zhang Yimou and his creative team have conceived a program that will captivate viewers in the U.S. and around the world."

Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou is the chief director of both the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. He is best known internationally for the films 'Raise the Red Lantern' (1991) and 'House of Flying Daggers' (2004).

The Opening Ceremony will officially begin the Beijing Olympic Games but Olympic competition actually begins with live opening round soccer matches on MSNBC. The USA women's team faces Norway live Wednesday at 7:30 a.m. ET and the USA men take on Japan live Thursday at 4:30 a.m. ET.

NBC Universal, broadcasting its record 11th Olympics and surpassing ABC for the most Olympics broadcast by any network, will present an unprecedented 3,600 hours of Beijing Olympic Games coverage, the most ambitious single media project in history featuring the most live coverage (nearly 2,900 live hours in total), across the most platforms, of any Summer Olympics in history.