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MUMBAI: ESPN Star Sports (ESS) will deliver round-the-clock
coverage on the London 2012 Olympic Games from 27 July to
12 August 2012, offering live coverage of the most popular
global sporting event to Indian sports fans.
Out
of the three channels, ESPN will focus on Indian athletes.
The broadcaster expects that the reach for the event will
double this year.
Talking
about the strategy of covering the event in India, ESPN Software
India senior director business development and event management
group Rathindra Basu said, "Overall, we have rights to
broadcast 240 hours of programming every day for the duration
of 15 days which makes it almost 3,600 hours of programming.
We will customise our feed especially for the Indian sports
fans. The plan is that we will be showcase live broadcast
of Olympics on three networks in India - ESPN, Star Sports
and ESPN HD."
He explains that ESPN will be more India specific and showcase
sports featuring Indian athletes, and those sports which are
more popular in India such as Hockey, Shooting, Boxing, Wresting,
Tennis and football.
"Star
Sports will be showcasing sports like Gymnastics, Equestrian,
Volleyball etc. The content of Star Sports will be more pan-regional.
ESPN HD will be a blend of above two channels, showcasing
many of the Indian athletes as well as best of sporting action
from around the Olympics," he said.
The
aim, he added, is to offer a complete and comprehensive presentation
of the Games, hosted by ESS' studio presentation team in Singapore,
as well as a team of reporters on-ground in London to deliver
in-depth news updates, interviews and stories.
He
highlighted the importance of ESPN having content that will
attract Indian audiences. "After all Olympics is about
pride, it is about one's country reaching the pinnacle of
sporting excellence in a particular sport/ category. We will
showcase events which will involve Indian athletes for the
sports fans in India. There is huge expectation from India's
sporting contingent and we will sieve through 3600 hours of
live programming that is available to showcase the best possible
sporting content for fans in India."
The
core target audience for the games remains males, C&S
15+ All India. "I would like to qualify here that Olympics
is the biggest sporting event across the planet where countries
fight for supremacy in sports categories. We expect that viewers
across profiles will tune-in to see live action from London.
Olympics should get almost double the reach as compared to
last edition," he added.
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