When the summer Olympics begin in Beijing on Aug. 8, NBC will blanket the U.S. in coverage through its stable of television channels and websites. In the process, the network will use the games as a "research lab" to see how consumers supplement their TV viewing with other forms of media.

There are nearly 4,000 hours of televised Olympics coverage scheduled among NBC, Telemundo, USA Networks, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC and Bravo; and an additional 2,200 hours of programming will be available at NBCOlympics.com. Consumers will also be able to access video and updates via their mobile phones.

With a plethora of viewing options, NBC has partnered with Quantcast Corp. to see if consumers are simply checking NBCOlympics.com for basketball scores, or if they are watching on-demand video of events like fencing or equestrian.

"I have no idea how people are going to use this stuff," said Alan Wurtzel, the company's research chief.

According to the Associated Press, NBC's research will also include daily online surveys and special cell phones that will measure, through a signal broadcast with the audio track of Olympics programming, how often consumers are exposed to Olympics coverage.