IOC could launch digital Olympic network as early as next year
The International Olympic Committee is looking into launching a digital Olympic network as early as next year, according to Sports Business Journal.
IOC members will vote on the project at a general assembly meeting in December. If it is approved, the IOC will invest more than $100 million in the creation of the channel, which would be available in 200 markets.
The channel would provide a mixture of live coverage of Olympic sports and on-demand content, using over 40,000 hours of archival Olympic footage to create programming such as features on historic Olympic moments.
IOC president Thomas Bach believes the channel could help promote Olympic sports in the years between Games, and IOC TV managing director Timo Lumme said he thinks it could "raise the profile of the Olympic brand and Olympic values."
“It wouldn’t be a pure sports channel," said Lumme. "There are plenty of pure sports channels, especially in a market like the U.S. The positioning has to be about what Olympism is. It’s sports. It’s education. It’s kids. It’s history. There’s a rich seam of different types of things it can be, and that’s what makes us convinced it can be a success.”
More: The Rio 2016 Olympic Village as of July 2014
- Molly Geary
