As NBC kicks off 7,000 hours of planned coverage around the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, NBC Olympics Executive Producer Jim Bell said the network plans to focus on positive aspects of the games, but will report on any negative issues that arise.

“Should it be a story while we’re here … we’ll cover it,” Bell said.

He, along with NBC Olympics Primetime Host Bob Costas and Correspondent Mary Carillo spoke live from Brazil via telecast at the Television Critics Association summer press tour on Tuesday.

“There are so many great stories of these athletes, and in and around Brazil,” Costas said. “But we would be naive to think they don’t face security problems, they don’t face problems with sanitation.”

Not to mention government corruption and deep recessions, which coexist with the positive stories that will come out of the Games, he said.

Complications leading up to the games is not a new narrative; in fact it’s a storyline that accompanies almost every Olympics, including in Sochi and London, but usually dissipates once the Games begin.

But this time around, there will be some instances where the problems must be acknowledged during coverage, Costas said.

“It’s going to be impossible in some cases not to address some of the issues … because they will directly intersect with the competition,” he said.

For instance, any event such as marathon swimming that takes place on open water.

“You’ve got to talk about the condition of the water,” he said. “These athletes are dealing with it. In some cases, the best they have been told is ‘try to keep your mouth closed.’”

Other issues, such as the potential spread of the Zika virus, will be something to report on months down the road, and “fingers crossed we won’t have a security issue,” Costas said.

When it comes to coverage, NBC plans to focus on track and field, swimming, gymnastics, beach volleyball, diving and basketball, with bits and pieces of other exciting and touching moments.

“Those half dozen really make up the core of what the largest number of Americans want to see,” Costas said.

NBC has also said this Olympics will contain the most live coverage ever compared to past broadcasts of the games.

“We’re all for people consuming the Olympics as much as possible, on as many devices as possible, whenever they want,” Bell said.

When asked how audiences should figure out how to consume it all Bell joked, “I have no idea! Good luck.”

And then directed people to nbcolympics.com and encouraged viewers to download the Olympics app.

I promise,” he said, “it will be easy to figure out and pretty darn painless.”

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