Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS)"Since the Beijing Games, we have been engaged in a comprehensiveeffort to advance the art of the Olympic broadcast. The VancouverGames set new benchmarks for improving the rights-holdingbroadcasters' ability to communicate the Olympics to their audiences."Manolo Romero, Managing Director, OBSVancouver marked the beginning of a new era for Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS). Created bythe IOC in 2001 to act as the permanent host broadcaster for each edition of the Olympic Games,Vancouver 2010 was the first Games where the host broadcast was solely an OBS operation.By eliminating the need to continually rebuild the broadcast operation for each edition of the Games,OBS is able to ensure that the high standards of Olympic broadcasting are maintained, allowing forsignificant innovation and advancement in the broadcast of the Games.This was evident in a number of important landmarks, such as the development of the Olympic NewsChannel - a 24-hour rolling sports news service producing back-to-back, dedicated half-hourprogrammes showing highlights of each sport, allowing broadcasters around the world a simple andcost-effective way of bringing the Games to their audiences, widening the reach of Vancouver 2010.OBS was also able to offer enhanced digital media services, including a mobile phone feed, whichallowed rights-holding broadcasters to offer coverage on a variety of platforms.Chapter Three / BROADCASTING31