2012 Features

by Sally Hillier

With around 25 sports due to take place on certain days, the BBC intends to maximise every channel and platform, providing coverage on radio, tv, HDTV, broadband and mobile phone. On-demand interactive services will feature strongly.

‘From the moment the Olympic flag is handed over in Beijing, there will be landmark documentaries, cultural events, drama and much more,’ director of sport Roger Mosey said.

‘For 2012 itself, our ambition is to offer every single event live. The main events will be on BBC One but the boxing and fencing heats will be available elsewhere.

‘The London Olympics will be the culmination of the BBC’s digital offering and collectively, the biggest thing we’ve ever done.’ The opening ceremony could attract as many as 30m viewers, he predicted – the only genre able to deliver that audience to the BBC.

Roger Mosey, director of BBC Sport

Already, documentaries examining the regeneration of the East End have been commissioned and on December 17 Olympic Dreams, which follows some of the UK’s young hopefuls over the next five years, gets under way on BBC Two.

Outlining the BBC’s proposals for the first time at the Sports Broadcast Forum in London last week, Dave Gordon, head of major events, said that the 2012 Games represented ‘a unique opportunity’ for everyone who works here to get involved. ‘We will be encouraging BBC wide ownership of the Olympics and Paralympics.’

Between now and then, the BBC’s My Sport Now strategy to maximise and personalise all BBC sports rights across all platforms would capitalise on big exclusive events like the 2010 World Cup and Beijing, as well as creating a 24/7 experience around events like the recent Rugby World Cup, for which the BBC does not have primary rights.