"We think there's a natural fit to use Telemundo as a platform for Olympic soccer and other sports such as basketball and baseball," NBC president, Randy Falco, said.
Telemundo owns a network and ten US TV stations, reaching 88 percent of all Hispanic-speaking TV homes.
NBC, which acquired Telemundo for $2.7bn (B3.0bn) this month, has the right to broadcast in any language in the US as part of its $3.5bn (B3.9bn) contract with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for five Olympic Games through 2008.
Although NBC intends to show events from the Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008) Summer Olympic Games on Spanish-language TV, the network seems unlikely to do the same for next February's Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City in view of fewer competitors from Spanish-speaking countries. NBC also has the rights to the Winter Games in Turin, Italy, in 2006.
Seen on stations in 86 US markets, Telemundo represents another way of broadening its Olympic coverage for NBC, which already spreads its telecasts across cable channels MSNBC and CNBC. At last year's Sydney Games, the network showed 116.5 hours on NBC and 279 hours on its cable channels.
The 2000 US Census showed a 58 percent increase in the Hispanic population to 35.3 million since 1990, on the verge of becoming the largest minority group in the US and this change is reflected in TV advertising, which jumped 11.6 percent on Spanish-language networks in the first six months this year. By contrast, overall advertising declined 5.9 percent.
Furthermore, the cost of airing the Games in Spanish is not expected to be too high as NBC could utilise the video feed provided to all broadcasters through the International Broadcast Centre.
