Die ARD ist für den Start der XXX. Olympischen Spiele der Neuzeit bestens gerüstet. “Wir stehen in den Startpositionen”, story sagt ARD-Teamchef Walter Johannsen vom federführenden NDR, “auch mit reduzierten Team werden wir unsere Zuschauerinnen und Zuschauer bestens informieren.” Soviel Berichterstattung zu Olympischen Spielen gab es in der ARD noch nie: Rund 130 Stunden Fernsehen im Ersten, 900 Stunden in den sechs parallelen Livestreams im Internet und hunderte Berichte und Reportagen in den Radioprogramme des Senderverbundes.

Das Programmkonzept des Ersten sieht vor, an jedem Sendetag von 9.05 Uhr bis 9.45 Uhr zunächst auf vergangene Spiele zurückzuschauen. Es werden die großen olympischen Geschichten der Neuzeit erzählt und Erinnerungen an deutsche Sportidole der Vergangenheit geweckt. Im Anschluss beginnen in London die Wettkämpfe, die Das Erste in seinen Sendungen “Olympia live” bis weit nach Mitternacht (ca. 1.00 Uhr) überträgt. Gerhard Delling (NDR) und Michael Antwerpes (SWR) werden moderieren, Alexander Bommes (NDR) präsentiert das stündliche “Olympia-Telegramm”. Mit der Devise “London live” wird die ARD ein spannendes und abwechslungsreiches Programm anbieten, bei dem alle relevanten Wettkampfentscheidungen möglichst live gezeigt werden.

ARD-Expertin Franziska van Almsick wird die Schwimm-Wettkämpfe analysieren, London-Kenner Rolf Seelmann-Eggebert (NDR) am Rande des sportlichen Geschehens die Lebensart und die Besonderheiten der Briten vermitteln.

Die Übertragung der Olympischen Spiele 2012 ist das Radioereignis des Jahres. Rund 50 Hörfunkwellen der ARD werden über das Geschehen in London berichten und täglich mehr als 25 Millionen Hörerinnen und Hörer informieren. Reportagen, Interviews, Nachrichten und spannende Geschichten sind die Herzstücke des Angebots, mit dem das Olympiateam die Wettkämpfe für die unterschiedlichen Radioprogramme in der ARD aufbereiten wird. Ein Schwerpunkt des Angebots sind – neben den Informationsprogrammen – die reichweitenstarken Programme wie beispielsweise WDR 2, Bayern 3, NDR 2, SWR 3 oder MDR Jump. “Dort wird man schon frühmorgens beim Frühstück erfahren, wie ein deutscher Medaillengewinner in der Nacht nach seinem Erfolg gefeiert hat”, so Alexander Bleick (NDR), der zum zweiten Mal nach 2008 in Peking als Programmchef die Verantwortung für das Radioangebot trägt.

Die ARD informiert bei den Olympischen Spielen in London unter sportschau.de/olympia auch im Internet ausführlich über den Sporthöhepunkt des Jahres 2012. Schwerpunkt des Angebotes ist das umfassendste Live-Angebot, das es jemals zu Olympia gegeben hat: Neben dem Hauptprogramm können Sportbegeisterte immer und überall auf bis zu sechs zusätzlichen parallelen Live-Streams die Wettkämpfe in London verfolgen. “Die Live-Streams ersetzen die Sendungen in den Digitalkanälen bei früheren Olympischen Spielen. Das Angebot im Internet ist nicht nur kostengünster, sondern bietet dem Publikum zudem eine bislang nicht gekannte Vielfalt”, so ARD-Teamchef Walter Johannsen.

Elemental Technologies and Terra have partnered up using Elemental Live to create high-quality video streams of the 2011 Pan American games for a worldwide viewing audience. The XVI (16) Pan American Games take place in Guadalajara, erectile Mexico October 14-30.

Elemental Technologies is the leading provider of video processing solutions that enable multi-screen content delivery and its subsidiary Elemental Live is a video processing system that provides content producers and distributors with video and audio encoding for live streaming to new media platforms. After a comprehensive competitive evaluation, erectile Latin Internet service provider, Terra selected Elemental Live to support its plans for delivering high-quality adaptive bit rate video streams of the multi-sport games to a variety of IP devices.

Werner Michels, engineering director of Terra, said: “In comparative testing, Elemental Live was the clear leader, offering a lower cost per stream with higher quality encoding than competing solutions. With Elemental Live, we’re able to create more streams per source in a smaller and more reliable footprint, allowing us to extend our reach to more devices and to a larger audience than ever before.”

To deliver online and connected device coverage of the games, Terra directs incoming HD and SD fiber optics and satellite feeds into Elemental Live for video processing. The density available with Elemental Live allows Terra to output six HD and 12 SD adaptive bit rate streams simultaneously for streaming to web and tablet devices as well as smartphones.

In addition, Elemental Live lets Terra perform video overlay to enable on-the-fly image insertion into outgoing video streams. Using the functionality, Terra can embed branding and other supplementary images into video targeted to web and mobile platforms in real-time.

“Elemental is excited to partner with Terra Networks to create this solution for streaming high-quality video to consumers in Latin America,” said Keith Wymbs, VP of marketing at Elemental. “Terra is committed to providing viewers of the Pan American games premium content across a wide range of platforms and we are pleased to play a critical role in achieving this goal.”

The UK government’s Sports Minister Hugh Robertson has suggested England could break away from world soccer’s governing body, FIFA, if it does not address allegations of corruption within the organisation.

Yesterday, May 10, Former Football Association chairman Lord Triesman claimed four FIFA members sought “bribes” in return for backing England’s failed 2018 World Cup bid.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Robertson stated: “There is a desire to try and work and change FIFA from the inside. If FIFA proves unable to do that, then I would say all options are possible.”.

During a parliamentary inquiry into England’s failure to host the 2018 World Cup on Tuesday, Triesman alleged FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, Paraguayan Nicolas Leoz, Brazilian Ricardo Teixeira and Thai Worawi Makudi sought “bribes” in return for backing England’s bid.

In response to the fresh corruption allegations, FIFA president Sepp Blatter has pledged to take immediate action if any evidence of wrongdoing is presented to the body.

Robertson has urged FIFA to adopt greater transparency in its bidding process and conduct similar internal reforms implemented by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) following the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics campaign scandal.

He added: “The first thing is the allegations are brought to the attentions of FIFA and make sure that happens in concert with the FA.

“We have to back that up with evidence and I would hope FIFA follow the example of the International Olympic Committee, who went through a similar process after Salt Lake City.

“There is nobody currently bidding for the 2018 Winter Olympics who doesn’t believe their system is fair and transparent – FIFA needs to be in the same position.”

Premier League stallwarts, ampoule Liverpool have reached an agreement with former owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett for an out-of-court settlement over the sale of the club in 2010.

The American pair, nurse who arrived at Anfield in 2007, were unhappy with the way their sale to Fenway Sports Group (then New England Sports Ventures) was concluded by Sir Martin Broughton, Christian Purslow and Ian Ayre, who were respectively Liverpool chairman, managing director and commercial director at the time. 

Hicks and Gillett went on to vent their frustrations by making a number of claims and allegations against the trio, which were all denied, and ultimately led to legal proceedings. 

However, all parties have now come to a confidential agreement, resulting in all allegations being withdrawn and the court case being concluded. 

A club statement read: “In October 2010, Liverpool Football Club and Athletic Grounds Limited (Liverpool FC) was sold to the Fenway Sports Group. As a consequence of that sale, Thomas Hicks and George Gillett (being the former owners of Liverpool FC) made a number of allegations and claims against Sir Martin Broughton, Christian Purslow and Ian Ayre (being the company directors responsible for the sale of Liverpool FC to the Fenway Sports Group). Those allegations and claims were denied by Messrs Broughton, Purslow and Ayre. The allegations, claims and denials resulted in legal proceedings being commenced. 

“The parties have now agreed a settlement (the terms of which are confidential). All claims and allegations made against Messrs Broughton, Purslow and Ayre have been withdrawn by Messrs Hicks and Gillett and all legal proceedings between the parties concluded. The parties will not be making any further statement to the press.’

A pre-Olympics strike by the immigration staff at London’s Heathrow Airport was called off earlier today bu the union.

Immigration staff who man border checkpoints were to stage a 24-hour walk out on Thursday in a row over funding. 

But the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) today performed a u-turn by announcing the strike shall now not go ahead. 

The government announced 1,200 new jobs will be created in the Border Agency.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “These new jobs are a welcome step towards a recognition that the Home Office has been cracking under the strain of massive job losses, and that the answer is not more cuts but more investment. 

“We are pleased that with these new posts and the progress made in talks we are able to avert a strike ahead of the Olympics.”

Leading German sportswear brand Adidas had to take its website content offline after suffering what it described as a “sophisticated, criminal cyber-attack”.

The company has revealed that it had no confirmations that its users’ data had been violated, but said that the affected sites was being taken down in order to safeguard visitors. In addition, it has been revealed according to a recent statement by Adidas that the hacking incident was first spotted on November 3.

The company further stated that ever since the breaching activity was first tracked, the company has reinforced data security measures and has started relaunching the content of its websites.

The statement released by the company stated, “Nothing is more important to us than the privacy and security of our consumers’ personal data. “We appreciate your understanding and patience during this time”, the statement further stressed.

The recent cyber assault is the latest to the chain of various high-profile attacks which took place in recent past are targeted websites of many high-profile organizations like Sega, and Nintendo.

Assuring its users regarding no loss of personal information and other data, the German multinational stressed on the fact that the company values the privacy of its users beyond anything else and due to this very reason, the decision has been made to keep the site offline for a while.

The recent cyber attack, which will soon be monitored by forensic experts, has narrowly follows a recent report by security officials wherein they claimed that nearly 29 chemicals companies have been targeted for a sequence of cyber-invasions less than a week ago.

The year 2011 has witnessed a severe open show of cyber crime and criminals, with various hacking groups like LulzSec and Anonymous carrying out breaching activities on various high-profile corporations including serial attacks on Sony PS, News Corp. and hacking of the website of the US Senate.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and International Paralympic Committee (IPC) yesterday, buy May 10, anesthetist signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to further develop the sport of Athletics, both for able-bodied athletes and athletes with a disability.

IAAF President Lamine Diack and IPC President Sir Philip Craven signed the agreement during the International Forum on Sport, Peace and Development in Geneva.

The MoU includes various areas of co-operation, such as sport rules, mutual promotion, training of technical officials and sharing and exchanging knowledge and resources. The IAAF will furthermore invite prospective Organising Committees to bid to host the IPC Athletics World Championships in conjunction with the IAAF World Championships.

In addition, the IPC and IAAF will work to develop a plan to encourage the worldwide growth of Athletics for Para-Athletes and the Paralympic Movement through an on-going awareness campaign targeting IAAF Member Federations.

Lamine Diack stated: “Yesterday’s signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the IAAF and IPC marks a substantial consolidation of the existing friendly and beneficial relationship between us.

“We have long presented Para-Athlete competitions at the IAAF World Championships as demonstration events, and we will now actively encourage our Member Federations to further embrace the Paralympic Movement, with the prospect that future World Championships for able-bodied athletes and athletes with a disability could be held in conjunction with each other.”

Sir Philip Craven added: “I am delighted about the partnership with IAAF as it will support the development of IPC Athletics. Through this co-operation, more competition opportunities will be created for Para-Athletes and thus the worldwide growth of Athletics will be supported.”