Year-long efforts by Beijing Olympic organizers and the
International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ensure the successful
broadcasting of the 2008 Games have paid off, after Thursday's
signing of a set of agreements that will lead to the establishment
of the Beijing Olympic Broadcasting Co Ltd (BOB).
BOB - a joint venture (JV) between the IOC Olympic Broadcasting
Services (OBS) and the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games
of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG)
- will serve as the host broadcaster of the 2008 Olympics and 2008
Paralympics.
The company will feed national and international TV and radio
networks during the Games.
The agreements, including a cooperative JV contract, articles of
association, and a master operating and management agreement, were
inked by Hein Verbruggen, chairman of the IOC's coordination
commission for the Beijing Games and OBS, Gilbert Felli, the
executive director of the Games, and Liu Jingmin and Jiang Xiaoyu,
who are BOCOG executive vice-presidents.
"The agreements constitute another milestone in BOCOG's Olympic
broadcasting, marking the launch of the process to establish the
Beijing Olympic Broadcasting Co Ltd," Jiang remarked at the signing
ceremony.
Verbruggen also expressed his satisfaction.
"Doing the production by ourselves is something that does not
always easily fit in to the existing structure and organization of
Chinese broadcasting," he said.
"As the president of the board of OBS, I'm happy and really
looking forward to the co-operation in broadcasting in the
future."
According to the agreements, BOB will be in charge of producing
international TV and radio signals for the Games and important side
events, constructing and operating the International Broadcasting
Center and other venues, and providing other relevant broadcasting
services to the rights-holding broadcasters of the Games.
As the Olympics is currently the most widely covered sporting
event in the world, with the highest number of TV viewers, a
successful broadcast is a prerequisite for staging a successful
Olympics.
BOB was founded to ensure the quality of broadcasting, reduce
operational costs and leave a technological legacy for China's
broadcasting industry.
It is estimated that during the Beijing Olympics and
Paralympics, more than 4 billion people will watch and listen to
events.
(China Daily May 28, 2004)