British Olympic And Paralympic Sports To Launch Ott Platform
The governing bodies of British Olympic and Paralympic sports will come together to launch a new OTT broadcast platform after the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, in a project that has been two years in the making.
A group of leading National Governing Bodies have joined with UK Sport, the British Olympic Association (BOA) and British Paralympic Association (BPA), to announce the new venture. The collective has also appointed former BBC and Discovery director Dominic Coles as the Chair of the newly incorporated GB Sport Media, the organisation that will manage and take the rights to the platform to market.
Coles will be responsible for driving negotiations with broadcast and media platforms, and publishers, while the delivery of GB Sport Media is taken to a competitive market tender.
The platform, meanwhile, will house over 2,600 hours of content across 26 sports, and will include rights such as domestic British Championships, national and regional competitions, all of which will be supplemented by international competition following agreement with several international federations to secure non-exclusive rights.
Behind-the-scenes footage, interviews and original features will also be made available on the platform.
“I am delighted and honoured to be asked to lead this exciting and ground-breaking new venture, transforming the coverage of the some of the best of British sport,” said Coles. “I have been privileged to have worked with Olympic and Paralympic sports throughout my career at both the BBC and Discovery, and to have helped bring Team GB and ParalympicsGB’s remarkable achievements in recent Games to our screens.
“Now, for the first time, there will be a single destination for many of these sports between Games, giving fans the opportunity to continue to follow their heroes and rising stars as they compete for domestic and international honours.”
Andy Parkinson, CEO, British Rowing and also Chair of the Nominations Committee for GB Sport Media, commented: “It is fantastic to see this ground-breaking project go to the next stage with the appointment of Dominic. Over the past two years National Governing Bodies have come together with the British Olympic Association and British Paralympic Association to work collaboratively to provide sports fans with a home for Olympic and Paralympic sport. Dominic’s skill, expertise and in-depth knowledge of the broadcast and media sector means we are able to now seek partners to make our plans a reality and drive more value out of our collective media rights.”
The concept has been developed in conjunction with advertising network Omnicom Group, led by their sports consultancy, Fuse, with the ambition of launching the platform after the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
