GO! to air Youth Olympic Games
GO! will air the inaugural Youth Olympic Games, a youth version of the Olympics, to be staged in Singapore in August.
- Published by David Knox
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GO! will air the inaugural Youth Olympic Games, a youth version of the Olympics, to be staged in Singapore in August.
The games will feature athletes between the ages of 14 and 18. The idea was introduced by International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge in 2001. Summer games will take place in the same year as traditional Winter Olympics, and vice versa, with the Winter Youth Olympic Games to be staged in Innsbruck in 2012.
The 2010 Youth Olympic Games will take place from August 14 – 26 at various locations in Singapore with more than 3600 athletes competing in 26 events.
So far five Australians have been selected to compete at the Games: Ellie Salthouse (triathlon), Michael Gosman (triathlon), Lily Phan (table tennis), Scott Smith (kayak) and Jessica Fox (kayak). More will be selected over the coming weeks, with the full national team expected to be announced in mid-July.
“We’re thrilled that GO! will be broadcasting the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in August,” Nick Green, Chef de Mission of the Australian Youth Olympic Team, said. “The athletes’ families and friends, as well as the Australian public, will be able to watch the performance of future Olympic champions on free-to-air television.”
Les Sampson, Nine’s Director of Acquisitions, said: “We’re delighted to be delivering daily coverage of the Youth Olympics because it’s a perfect fit for GO!”
“GO! is Australia’s most successful multi-channel because it understands and targets programming that appeals to its wide younger audience, and the Youth Games are a case in point.”
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- Tagged with Olympics, Youth Olympic Games
11 Responses
It’ll be interesting to see if Nine start using Go! more regularly in the future for sports broadcasts to augment their main channel. One example that comes to mind is if Nine win back the AFL broadcast rights. As they are likely to still hold the NRL rights, the question of which state you live in determining which code you get to see live on a Friday night could potentially be resolved.
Bit of a surprise really,there must be a underlining reason why.I can’t see it being on more than 1 hour per day
Singapore is two hours behind, Australia’s east coast.
GO! has a lot less holding it back than Nine, (possibly run a daily highlights package, between 5pm and 7:30pm, as well as a wrap of the night events, from 7-8am the next day.)
The only problem, is the need for younger skewing commentators, unless, Nine wants Shura Taft hosting every event, for the first ever broadcast of “Wide World Of Sports on GO!”…
Hopefully, this is a dry run for the future, of Australia’s #1 digital network.
David, any indication of what timeslot this will get buried in?
Nope, too soon.
yawn
Evan, I doubt Nine was obliged to show this but more likely encouraged to do it and get in the good books with the IOC for future Olympic bids. The IOC have indicated that they are keen on bids that include a free to air broadcaster and cable/pay TV as this gives them more scope for coverage and inturn fees
I can just imagine how the fast motion will look, given GOs low bit-rate.
GO! is Australia’s most successful multi-channel because it understands and targets programming that appeals to its wide younger audience
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With programs such as Green Acres, Here’s Lucy and Hogan’s Heroes ? lol.
Evan, if thats the case, its strange they wouldnt have “on sold” it to ABC or SBS instead…
Strange how pay-TV would never touch this…
I wonder if Nine were “obliged” to air at least part of it as part of their Olympics contract.