Left Olympic broadcasting has helped share the achievements of athletes such as Usain Bolt with billions of people around the worldOLYMPIC REVIEW 53BROADCASTING

"These are the first truly digital Olympic Games where we'll offer more choice than ever before, and the pledge we made is that you'll be able to watch sport from every venue from first thing in the morning to last thing at night," wrote the BBC's director of London 2012, Roger Mosey, in a blog post. "At peak, this will mean we bring in 24 HD streams of content - with the result that hockey fans can watch live uninterrupted hockey, and table tennis fans can stick all day with their sport too. This represents four times more channels than in Beijing, and a total of around 2,500 hours of live sport, which is at least double what we've offered in the past."In the USA, rights-holding broadcaster NBC has also unveiled extensive, multi-channel coverage plans for the Games. The network intends to stream every event and medal ceremony live on its website to complement its television coverage, with more than 3,500 hours of live coverage being shown online through various streams - up from 2,200 hours at the dedicated high-definition channels to cover the Games, delivering over 1,100 hours of live programming for the first time in Australia and 3,200 hours overall; while in Italy, Sky Sport channels will provide more than 2,000 hours of live Olympic coverage.All this record-breaking coverage will be produced by Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), a wholly owned subsidiary of the IOC, which will be acting as the sole Host Broadcaster for the first time at a Summer Games, following its joint venture with the Beijing 2008 Organising Committee four years ago. Manolo Romero, CEO of OBS, is proud that the organisation has been able to spread coverage of the Games even further than ever before."The fact that more and more countries are able to enjoy watching the Olympic Games and the excitement, drama and good feelings they produce, proves not only that the Olympic Movement itself continues to grow, but also that OBS is successfully capturing the unique atmosphere of the venues and the host city," he says.As well as giving more viewers the chance to enjoy the Games, OBS is also leading the way when it comes to broadcast innovations. Thanks to the use of 33 True 3D cameras, London 2012 will also be the first Olympic Games to be broadcast live in 3D, bringing the greatest show on Earth into viewers' homes in a way that has never been seen before. The immersive 3D coverage will include both the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, as well as athletics, gymnastics, swimming and diving events. In total, more than 230 hours of 3D coverage will be made available to RHBs. Romero believes that the introduction of live 3D coverage is an important stage in the history of Olympic broadcasting. "We will deliver more than 12 sports, and for some of them it will be the first time in 3D," he explains. "We will distribute by satellite worldwide more than 10 hours a day of Olympic vision in 3D. Ultimately, we believe this production of the first live 3D Olympic Games will make the London 2012 Games one of the most significant in the history of broadcasting technology."The state-of-art 3D production equipment needed to broadcast the Games in 3D will be provided by Worldwide Olympic Partner Panasonic."No doubt the 3D developments will change the way we watch the Olympic Games in the future," says Takumi Kajisha, Beijing 2008 Games. The coverage will also be available to view via NBC's smartphone and tablet applications."Technology has given us the opportunity to present more coverage, to make it available on more platforms at more times of the day," says Gary Zenkel, NBC Olympics President. "The Olympic Games continues to attract a massive audience in [the USA]. There's just a love of the Olympic Games. It crosses every demographic group, every age group and gender. No matter where the Games are located there are, of course, unique stories and connections that we always make to the locations. But it's the Olympic Games that people ultimately tune into and the Olympic Games are still something the American population loves to gather around. Whether it's in London, Beijing, Athens or Rio in 2016 they will come to watch those athletes compete and listen to their stories."In Australia, Foxtel, which is sharing coverage of the Games with commercial broadcaster Nine, will launch eight 54 OLYMPIC REVIEW BROADCASTING