Veras Communications, Inc. - 2010 Winter Olympics on Universal Sports Television

News

George Veras was named as the Supervising producer for UNIVERSAL SPORTS OLYMPIC NEWS CHANNEL, as part of the 2010 Winter Olympics. He was responsible with Supervising producer Rob Dustin for 4 live hours, with five distinctive shows, with Veras producing all the Vancouver based elements in the Universal Sports Control Room , with a staff of 60. CEO of Universal Sports Claude Ruibal, President Carlos Silva and Executive Producer David Michaels. Veras rejoins the NBC Olympic family, after having produced cross country skiing and biathlon for NBC at the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics and all the HD programming for the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics. This will be Veras's 6th Olympics, starting in 1980 at Lake Placid and the 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympics for CBS Sports.

The day began at 10am Eastern with Vancouver Sports News and Buzz, a live 90 minutes Olympic highlight and news show hosted by Terry Gannon and Lindsay Soto, followed Behind the Games, hosted by Craig Hummer. Then it was the groundbreaking Meet the Olympic Press, hosted by Jimmy Roberts, with a debate panel of journalists and athletes, followed by Vancouver Review/Preview with Lindsay Soto and then Figure Skating Review/Preview, hosted live by Terry Gannon, Kristi Yamaguchi and Peter Carruthers, where the skating world's stars came-Evan Lysacek, Brian Boitano, Katerina Witt, Rachel Flatt, Dick Button, Johnny Weir were few of the stars by stopped by.

Then on March 22, 2010 USA Today Headlined...
Universal Sports: A gold for attitude in its Olympic coverage

Here are some exerpts...

For its Vancouver effort, the network is airing four main shows, which repeat at various times: Terry Gannon's Vancouver Olympic News Center and Morning Buzz (10 a.m. ET/7 PT); Jimmy Roberts' Meet the Olympic Press (noon ET/9 PT), Lindsey Soto's Vancouver Review and Preview (1:30 p.m. ET/10:30 a.m. PT), and Gannon's Figure Skating Review and Preview (2 ET/11 PT).

This is TV at its most basic: a host, some guests and a big desk, no technical thrills or graphical pop. The shows shine in the quality, variety and bracing honesty of the talk they provoke. In a sense, it's the best of the ESPN sports-talk approach transferred to an Olympic setting and a competing company. For an Olympic fan, that's enough to make this venue worth a visit.

Get the full story HERE.

See the 2/4/10 Press Release for more information.