The countdown to the London 2012 Olympic Games is almost over as the world’s biggest sporting event arrives in the UK, and the BBC will be there to ensure that viewers will never miss a moment of this once-in-a-lifetime event.
After more than seven years in the making, London’s proud moment has finally arrived as the city welcomes more than 17,000 athletes and millions of spectators from across the UK and around the world for the greatest sporting show on earth.
The BBC will be out in force across all 17 days of Olympic competition, providing its most comprehensive and ambitious Olympic Games coverage ever.
London 2012 will represent the 15th Summer Olympic Games broadcast by the BBC, a sequence that began with the last Games to be held in London back in 1948, and one that has run unbroken since the 1960 Games in Rome.
For the first time in the corporation’s proud history of covering the Games, the BBC will be providing live coverage of every Olympic sport from every venue throughout the day.
This amounts to around 2,500 hours of live Olympic sporting action, over 1,000 hours more than Beijing 2008.
Above all, London 2012 will be the first truly ‘Digital Olympics’, with viewers able to access the BBC’s coverage through a vast array of different platforms at any time they want and wherever they are.
These include traditional TV and radio coverage, interactive coverage via the BBC Red Button, and online across four different platforms: PC, mobile, tablet and connected TVs, including smart TVs and games consoles.
Roger Mosey, BBC Director, London 2012, says: “The London 2012 Olympic Games is likely to be the biggest sporting event in the UK in our lifetimes and the BBC’s coverage will ensure that our audiences need never miss a moment.
“As the nation’s broadcaster we are committed to ensuring that viewers get the most from their Olympic experience and our comprehensive coverage will deliver on that promise.”
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Through the BBC’s exclusive free-to-air coverage of the London 2012 Olympic Games, UK audiences will experience the global stories of ambition, determination and courage, as well as the excitement, drama and magical moments that make the Olympics such a unique sporting event.
BBC One and BBC Three will be the flagship Olympics channels, dedicated to more than 12 hours of live coverage per day over the 17 days of competition, with BBC Two taking over Olympics duties when BBC One switches to news bulletins.
These channels will cover all of the key live action and top stories from the Games, as well as the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.
All network TV coverage will be screened in high-definition via BBC One HD and BBC HD.
The BBC’s main presenting team will be based in a state-of-the-art studio with spectacular views overlooking the Olympic Park, with various on-site hosts situated at different venues.
BBC Olympics Titles - Feat. soundtrack by Elbow
Gary Lineker will lead primetime coverage of the Games on BBC One, with daytime presenters including Sue Barker, Hazel Irvine, Clare Balding, Jake Humphrey, Mishal Husain and Matt Baker.
BBC Three’s daytime coverage will hosted by Rishi Persad, Sonali Shah and Manish Bhasin, with Jake Humphrey hosting the primetime slot.
Members of the BBC TV reporting team will include, among others, sports news reporters David Bond and James Pearce, as well as roving feature reporters Tina Daheley, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, Leon Mann, Jason Mohammad, Ore Oduba, Sir Matthew Pinsent, Garry Richardson, Helen Skelton, Michael Vaughan and Reggie Yates.
BBC News will be bring viewers all of the stories from inside and outside of the Olympic venues 24 hours a day, via the usual BBC One bulletins, and the BBC News Channel, which will air three half-hour Olympic highlights shows at 6.30pm, 10.30pm and 12.30am each day.
The Olympic competition schedule involves 26 Olympic sports, broken down into 39 disciplines held in 32 venues.
To complement the BBC’s network TV coverage, viewers with cable or satellite will able to watch uninterrupted coverage of every event from the Games via the BBC’s 24 additional Olympics channels.
Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat viewers will have access to the extra channels, in both standard-definition and high-definition (HD) for the duration of the Games.
This will mean viewers will be able to access the same content on their TVs that will also be streamed live via the BBC Sport website, all at no extra cost.
The BBC’s extra Olympics channels will appear on the Sky/Virgin/Freesat Electronic Programme Guides (EPG) from July 24.
For sports where there are multiple fields of play such as tennis from Wimbledon and badminton from Wembley, there will be coverage whenever there is play although there will not be coverage of the action on every court as there will be a huge demand to showcase all the other sports at other venues.
BBC Olympics Channels Freesat – 150-173 Sky – 450-473 (SD & HD) Virgin Media – 550-573 (HD) | 574-597 (SD).
The BBC Sport website, Red Button, Mobile and the BBC Sport app for connected TVs will give users access to an enhanced and interactive Olympics experience.
By using the BBC Olympics Video Player on bbc.co.uk/sport, viewers can watch live video coverage on their PCs, laptops or tablet devices, and be able to switch between up to 24 live video streams, as well as rewind live coverage and access live data, statistics and information while watching the action.
The site also offers pages for every sport, athlete, country and venue and immersive coverage that includes live updates and comments from across social media.
There will also be video and text guides to all the sports as well as an activity finder where those inspired to have a go at sport can find out about sessions near them.
The BBC’s online Olympics guide, which can be found at bbc.co.uk/olympics, will give fans the chance to start planning their Olympic diary, with detailed schedules and timetables for each event.
In addition to the PC and laptop service, the BBC’s Red Button service on Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat will also offer audiences access to up to 24 live streams
There will be two 24-hour channels featuring extra BBC Olympics content via the BBC Red Button (channels 301 and 302) for audiences with Freeview (channel 301 also simulcast in high-definition on channel 304).
The BBC Sport app for connected TVs and games consoles will give audiences access to the BBC’s interactive coverage, while Virgin Media TiVo users will be able to access this content via the BBC Red Button.
The BBC has also launched an Olympics mobile browser site and Olympics mobile app for smartphone users, so audiences have content at their fingertips while on the move.
Further online content includes the BBC’s London 2012 website, which will draw together a wide range of the BBC’s online content from News, Sport, Music, Arts, Children’s, Nations & Regions and more.
It will include continuous coverage of the Olympic torch relay round the UK and has a section for the London 2012 Festival, with links to 2012 coverage elsewhere on the internet are also highlighted.
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Innovation has always been at the heart of what the BBC does, and this Olympic Games is no exception.
In 1948 when the Olympics were last in London the BBC pioneered by putting them on television for the first time and this time around the BBC will be broadcasting select footage on big screens in Super Hi Vision.
The existing network of BBC Big Screens is now part of the official London 2012 Live Sites programme.
London 2012 Live Sites will have destinations in 22 towns and cities across the UK for communities to come together to enjoy an unprecedented summer of live events in a carnival atmosphere.
The sites are a partnership between London 2012, the BBC and local authorities. There will be some seating provided so crowds can enjoy all the events on screen in style.
As previously promised, some footage will also be made available in 3D via the BBC HD channel, including the opening/closing ceremonies, the men’s 100m final, plus a daily highlights programme.
CLICK HERE for more details on nearest London 2012 Big Screen in your area
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Mark Pougatch leads the 5 live coverage from London during the Olympics.
5 live presenters Nicky Campbell, Rachel Burden, Victoria Derbyshire, Mark Chapman, Peter Allen, Colin Murray and Tony Livesey will all feature alongside a team of top commentators led by Mike Costello for athletics and John Murray for the ceremonies.
Radio 5 live Olympic Extra, a new temporary 24-hour digital radio station, will complement BBC Radio 5 live and 5 live Sports Extra for the duration of the Games.
These stations combined will bring round-the-clock news, commentary and coverage with the majority of the stations’ output coming live from the Olympic venues around the UK.
For more details on 5 live’s coverage - CLICK HERE
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Olympic Games – Host Broadcasters
The BBC may be the host nation broadcaster, but the responibility for TV coverage of every Olympic event at the London Games is in the hands of the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), comprising of an international pool of TV companies.
As well as producing its own coverage of many of the Olympic sports, OBS also contracts various broadcasters, such as the BBC, TVE (Spain) and CCTV (China), to produce the TV coverage of selected events, based on their expertise in covering particular sports.
Details of which broadcaster is responsible for TV coverage of each Olympic sport below:
Opening/Closing Ceremonies – YLE (Finland) Archery – SBS (Korea) Athletics - Track/Throwing Events – YLE (Finland) Jump Events – SVT (Sweden) | Walks/Marathon – NOS (Netherlands) Badminton – CCTV (China) Basketball – OBS Beach Volleyball – OBS Boxing – BBC Canoe Slalom – TVE (Spain) Canoe Sprint – BBC Cycling-BMX – VRT (Belgium) Cycling-Mountain Bike – VRT (Belgium) Cycling-Road – NOS (Netherlands) Cycling-Track – VRT (Belgium) Diving – OBS Equestrian – OBS Fencing – OBS Football – BBC Gymnastics-Artistic – CCTV (China) Gymnastics-Rhythmic – CCTV (China) Handball – OBS Hockey – STV (Slovakia) Judo – Fuji TV (Japan) Modern Pentathlon – CCTV (China) / OBS Rowing – BBC Sailing – OBS Shooting – OBS Swimming – OBS Marathons – TVE (Spain) Synchronised Swimming – OBS Table Tennis – CCTV (China) Taekwondo – SBS (Korea) Tennis – BBC Trampoline – CCTV (China) Triathlion – TVE (Triathlon) Volleyball – ICRT (Cuba) Water Polo – OBS Weightlifting – ERT (Greece) Wrestling – OBS . .