The Olympic games, online

The International Olympics Committee (IOC) has announced that the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will be available to on-line viewers in territories where digital View On Demand (VOD) rights have not been sold or have been acquired on a non-exclusive basis. Broadcasting starts when the games open on the 6 August and covers 77 territories across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, including India, Republic of Korea, Nigeria and Indonesia. This service will not be available in the UK.

The IOC's Channel will be available on YouTube, geo-blocked within each territory. The IOC hope that by taking control in this way and offering an abundance of freely available content across media platforms around the world, including over the internet, they will be able to limit piracy of games related content. Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), a wholly owned subsidiary of the IOC, will produce regularly updated Olympic content for the YouTube channel. The package will include highlights, news and daily clips of the competitions, available throughout the 17-day period of the games.

After online broadcast coverage was made available in a handful of territories for Athens 2004, and in 23 territories for the Turin 2006 winter games, Beijing 2008 marks the first time that digital media coverage will be freely available across the world provided by the rights-holding broadcasters and/or directly via the IOC's Channel.

IOC Director of Television and Marketing Services, Timo Lumme said: "The IOC's priority is to ensure that as many people as possible get to experience the magic of the Olympic Games and the inspirational sporting achievements of the Olympic athletes. For the first time in Olympic history we will have complete global online coverage, and the IOC will have its own broadcast Channel and content production facilities. The IOC's Channel will make fantastic Olympic footage available where young generations of sports fans are already going for online entertainment, and will complement the footage offered in these territories by our broadcast partners across all media platforms.”

(trk)