I. Bob Costas is back as your primary tour guide. This is his eighth tour as NBC's prime-time host. If NBC thinks something really important is happening at the Games, Costas will even leave the comfort of the studio for the event to signal its gravitas.

II. These will be the first-ever Games broadcast in high-definition from opening to closing ceremonies. You haven't really lived until you've watched biathlon and curling in hi-def.

III. NBC is ballyhooing 835 hours of coverage on its over-the-air network as well as cable siblings USA, MSNBC, CNBC, Universal Sports HD and NBCOlympics.com. That's more than Turin (419 hours) in 2006 and Salt Lake City in 2002 (375½) combined.

IV. But only about 435 of those hours are destined for television. The other 400 hours will be available only at NBCOlympics.com.

V. The best use of NBC Olympics.com will be for on-demand coverage of something you might have missed or want to see again.

VI. Al Michaels' returns to work an Olympics for the first time since Calgary in 1988. It's also the 30th anniversary of his career-making "Do you believe in miracles?" call at Lake Placid. He replaces Jim Lampley as NBC's daytime host.

VII. Most of the prime-time competition will be live and not slickly packaged taped products.

VIII. As always, the Olympics redefine prime time. This go-round, it will be 7-11 p.m. on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and 7-10:30 p.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays and the first Saturday. Only the second Saturday (Feb, 27) is it the usual three hours (7-10 p.m.).

IX. Universal Sports HD, available in 57 million television homes, will carry five different studio and news shows daily from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The network will not offer live event coverage but will replay events shown elsewhere. Think of it as NBC's Olympics SportsCenter.

X. NBC is paying $820 million for the right to cover the Games. That's up from the $613 million it paid for the Turin Games in 2006.

XI. NBC already has acknowledged that it will lose $200 million on its investment because of tough economic times. Still, it shouldn't impact the quality of the coverage.

XII. USA Network, available in 98.5 million homes, has been designated the home for early U.S. men's and women's curling and ice hockey. The hockey games will be telecast live. Curling? Think of it as filler between hockey games.

XIII. MSNBC, 91.6 million homes, will offer live quarterfinal, semifinal and medal-round hockey competition. It will also have live curling coverage, including the all-important medal-round games. It will also offer live speed skating and figure skating.

XIV. CNBC, 95 million homes, will begin its Olympics programming day at 4 p.m. and feature a lot of live events not deemed ready for prime time on NBC, like biathlon and non-U.S. hockey games.

XV. Mike Emrick, the lead hockey play-by-play voice, may be the best play-by-play broadcaster in any sport in this era.

XVI. What's figure skating without Dick Button? He'll be working his 17th Winter Olympics. However, he won't be rinkside with Tom Hammand, Scott Hamilton and Sandra Bezic. Rather, he'll get high-profile time alongside Costas for overviews. Button will be what Bela Karolyi was to NBC's gymnastics coverage in Beijing.

XVII. Cris Collinsworth, NBC's Sunday Night Football analyst, will roam Vancouver and environs in search of things to report.

XVIII. The biggest ratings usually accompany the women's free skate, which comes the second Thursday of the Games on Feb. 25. U.S. women, however, are considered long shots to medal.

XIX. Here are the U.S. athletes NBC is counting on to help hype its coverage: Short-track speed skater Apolo Ohno, a Dancing With The Stars winner who already owns five Olympic medals; two-time alpine skiing World Cup champion Lindsey Vonn; speedskater Shani Davis: and snowboarder Shaun White.

XX. Ohno, Vonn, Davis and White should all be center stage on prime time Feb. 17, which some in the NBC family are referring to as "White Hot Wednesday."

XXI. NBC has one more Olympics in its vault. It plopped down $1.18 billion for the 2012 Summer Games in London. There are already several networks jockeying for position for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, and the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The mind-numbing numbers
835: Hours of coverage: 435 on TV, 400 at NBCOlympics.com.

$200,000,000: What NBC will lose on its investment because of tough economic times.

$613,000,000: What NBC paid for the Turin Games in 2006.

$820,000,000: What NBC paid for the Vancouver Games in 2010.

$1,180,000,000: What NBC will pay for the London Games in 2012.