NBC has already done the math for you:

The 12 Olympics from 1960 in Rome — the first commercially televised Summer Games — through Athens in 2004 totaled 2,565 hours of television coverage.

Compare that with this year's mega-offering: When the U.S. women's soccer team plays its opening match against Norway on Aug. 6 on MSNBC — two days before the opening ceremonies — it will kick off the first of 3,600 total hours of coverage during the three-week Beijing Games.

That's right: 3,600 hours through eight separate sources under the NBC Universal umbrella: NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, Oxygen, Telemundo, USA Network, Universal HD and NBCOlympics.com.

It means you can have your Olympics on the go, not just on the couch in front of your television after supper. With 2,200 hours of live streaming video on NBCOlympics.com, viewers can watch every sport throughout the Games on their computer or on their cell phones.

So I was wondering: When will we have the time to watch all this coverage?

At work, of course.

Not surprisingly, I received an e-mail last week addressing just that issue. It came from a public relations firm representing Blue Coat Systems, which says it's "helping businesses around the world brace for the games."

The news release read in part: "Online viewing of Olympic coverage will put a devastating demand on their corporate network. A recent poll of CIO's, conducted by Blue Coat Systems, found that 95 percent regarded Internet-delivered Olympics video as one of their biggest concerns."

There was more: "If you can recall, March Madness, CBS teamed up with NCAA to provide free stream of all 63 basketball games after which Newsweek had estimated a $1.7B (billion) loss to businesses; think of that on a global scale with thousands more hours of available video."

Of course, they're assuming that people will be tuning in to the Games — and in record numbers, no less.

That's what I'm most curious about heading into Beijing. The Olympics are the world's largest sporting event. But will it be on the radar of the American public?

Though the general perception is that Olympic TV ratings are on the decline, NBC's prime-time coverage from the 2004 Athens Games averaged 24.6 million viewers — a 14 percent increase from the 2000 Sydney Olympics, according to the International Olympic Committee's 2004 global television report.

"The fact that they're on live, that's a critical plus," Mike Burg, president of Edge Marketing, said of the Beijing Games.

Despite a 12-hour time difference with the eastern United States, NBC was successful in persuading the IOC to schedule several key sports early, so they could be broadcast live in prime time in the United States.

It means that swimmer Michael Phelps — and his pursuit for a record eight gold medals — will race live in each of the first eight nights of NBC's prime-time broadcasts.

A plus for NBC Universal's game plan is timing: The NFL is in preseason mode. The pennant races in baseball don't heat up until late August — about the time college football gets under way. On the political front, the national conventions don't start until Aug. 25 — a day after the closing ceremonies — with the Democrats in Denver.

Still, trying to remain relevant in today's society is one of the Olympics' biggest challenges, said Charles Atkin, professor and chairman of Michigan State's College of Communication Arts and Sciences.

"It's not the mass phenomenon it once was," he said. "Not like the old days when we had three networks and nine channels — it (the Olympics) dominated people's attention."

Said Burg: "In the old days, no one would have considered programming against the Olympics. But Fox said, 'Forget that,' and put 'American Idol' against it and doubled" its ratings while airing against the 2006 Torino Winter Games.

"If you ask a 17-year-old boy, 'Do you want to go to the X Games or the Olympics?' They'd say the X Games."

I asked 17-year-old James Ryszawa, a BMX racer and snowboarder from White Lake. Answer: He's a bigger fan of the Winter X Games.

"The X Games, it's a whole different atmosphere," Ryszawa said. "Music is pumping the whole time, best buds hanging out. The Olympics is kind of old-fashioned."

But, with BMX a first-time Olympic sport in China, he said he'll be tuning in to watch NBC's coverage during the Summer Olympics.

John Miller, Ryszawa's stepfather, said he hopes the inclusion of BMX will grow the sport — and the Olympics.

"With the Olympics beginning to incorporate some X Games stuff, it might revitalize it," Miller said.

Jack Huczek, 25, three-time men's racquetball world champion from Rochester, said he's looking forward to scanning through NBC's coverage menu because "I want to watch a lot of sports you don't normally see."

"The Olympics is the greatest sporting event in the world," Huczek said. "I would say the vast majority of my friends my age are looking forward to the Olympics starting. Now, will they come home every night from work and flip on the TV to watch them? I don't know."