CHICAGO, (Reuters) – The United States Olympic  Committee will launch a cable television network devoted to  Olympic and Paralympic Games next year, with Comcast Corp  agreeing to carry the channel in its cable lineup.

Despite the Olympic’s biennial nature, representatives say  the channel will broadcast year-round with video-on-demand and  Internet streaming on top of its normal broadcasts.

The channel’s programming will include news reports,  commentary, interviews, documentaries, movies, and classic  Olympic footage, the USOC said.

The Olympic games themselves will continue to be broadcast  by General Electric Co and Vivendi’s NBC Universal, and the  Olympic network said it does not plan to broadcast the games in  the future.

“We don’t see ourselves as competing with NBC,” Norman  Bellingham, chief operating officer of the USOC, said during  the announcement. “We see ourselves as being about the Olympic  movement.”

Beyond the Olympics themselves, getting rights to bigger  more lucrative sports such as swimming, track and field,  gymnastics, and skating could be tough as those sports  negotiate their own deals outside the Olympic venues.
“There are a great deal of rights that are available and  will become available soon,” Bellingham said.