Doordarshan's Olympics game plan

NEW DELHI: Pubcaster Doordarshan is gearing up to cover the world?s most spectacular sporting event that kicks off on 27 July. Doordarshan, which is going to cover the 2012 London Olympic Games without any outsourcing, has sought a budget of just over Rs 310 million for the entire coverage of the games. Out of this, around $4 million would go into the telecast licence fee.

DD additional DG Ashok Jailkhani told Indiantelevision.com that the entire coverage in London would be done by the DD team on its own and there would be no outsourcing of any kind. Even the equipment being used was being taken by DD from India.

DD is planning to send a contingent of 50 persons to London
to cover the Games that are beginning on the night of 27 July and concluding on the night of 13 August.

Jailkhani said that while DD Sports will cover the Olympics round the clock, the opening and closing will also be beamed live by the national channel DD One. DD could also consider telecasting other events on DD One if India reaches the semi-finals or finals in any discipline depending on events.

A daily half-hour programme, ?India at London?, will be telecast on both DD 1 and DD Sports every morning from 7.30 am to from 27 July to 12 August, which will be repeated on DD Sports at noon.

In addition, there will be daily hour-long highlights of the previous day from 29 July to 13 August which will be simulcast on DD One and DD Sports from 9.30 am.

The live telecast will commence on DD Sports everyday from around noon and continue till the live signal is available late in the night (around 1 am). Thereafter, DD Sports will telecast either repeats or other events which could not be shown live.

When asked about the clashing events, which will be taking place at 33 venues, Jailkhani said that Indian participation will decide which events should be shown live.

India is taking part in 12 events: archery, athletics, badminton, boxing, hockey, wrestling, weightlifting, table tennis, shooting, basketball, volleyball and aquatic events.

It is expected that DD director general Tripurani Sharan, Jaikhani, and ADG (Engineering) RS Srivastava will be going for different periods to oversee the DD coverage.

When asked why DD is not covering the Indo-Sri Lanka series taking place in the island nation, Jailkhani said several events are clashing and so DD has decided not to cover the series.

While there is no clash for the first one-day international, the second ODI will clash with the farewell message of the outgoing President Pratibha Devisingh Patil on 24 July between 7-9 pm.

The third ODI would clash with the events relating to the men?s archery events and pistol events at the Olympics.

The fourth ODI would clash with the men?s finals in shooting (skeet) and the men?s and doubles tennis quarter-finals. The fifth ODI will coincide with the shooting, badminton, tennis and athletics, while the lone T20 will clash with boxing, wrestling and athletics events.

Meanwhile, private broadcaster ESPN Star Sports has lined up 3,800 hours of coverage across its 15 channels in Asia and is targeting advertising revenue of Rs 500 million.

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Olympics wins as DD decides to give India-Sri Lanka series a miss