BBC Revamp BBC Three for London 2012

BBC has announced details of their plans to broadcast the London 2012 Olympics which will undoubtedly be the biggest event in the Corporation’s 85-year history.

BBC Three for the first time will show extended coverage of the Olympics different from their normal three hours a day.Radio 5 adding another digital channel as a temporary measure during the Games and extending the the expansion of the video online hours on its website.

The coverage on BBC Three will cost about $7.3 million with the channel providing live coverage during the day. 

BBC Three usually only airs in the evenings, but the channel will provide London 2012 Games coverage during the day before normal programming will resume at 11pm local time.

Roger Mosey, BBC director of London, said: “We will extend BBC Three’s hours during the Games so that it can offer a daytime sport service alongside our earlier decision that BBC Three would be one of the channels carrying Olympic coverage in peak,” said Roger Mosey, the BBC’s director of London 2012. 

“This means that for the key moments from the start of the morning sessions onwards we will have both BBC One and BBC Three in play as flagship services delivering the best live action.

“This is being achieved partly by using the BBC Parliament bandwidth as we did in Beijing [at the 2008 Olympics], but making it easier to find by putting it under the BBC Three banner rather than as an additional red button stream.

“What this adds up to, we believe, is something that will greatly add to the enjoyment we can offer to sports fans. 

“This is building towards our most ambitious Games-time service ever, recognising our role as the host nation broadcaster in 2012.

“But it also means significant areas of the schedule – like BBC Two peak and BBC Four or our other network radio services – will not be over-run by athletes, and they can focus on what they do best including some of the Cultural Olympiad.

“Now that the [BBC] Trust has approved the management plans, we can sharpen the day-by-day planning – and we’ll report back here in the coming months on the detail.

“We want to do justice to the biggest sporting event on the planet and to the story of 2012 as a truly exceptional year.

“But we also want to make sure that we don’t remove other people’s favourite programmes and that there are sanctuaries for people who don’t want to go Olympic-crazy.”