As the Official Broadcaster of the 2012 London Olympic Games in South Africa, public broadcaster SABC is delivering the Olympics across its three television channels, SABC1, 2 and 3 and its radio stations. This transversal strategy will mean that the corporation can exploit the 11 multi-digital feeds incoming from London every day. The broadcast will centre on SABC2 the home of the Olympics, with other content broadcast on the other channels.
SABC2 will broadcast the Closing Ceremony on 12 August.
SABC Spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago says, “The SABC is delighted and ready for the Olympic Games in London as it is the only broadcaster that can access the entire nation and deliver the games in all of the country’s official languages. As the official broadcaster, the organisation will use its expertise, equal to the broadcast of previous successful events like the 2008 Olympics, 2010 Soccer World Cup and the 2011 Ruby World Cup to the delight of South Africans.’
SABC’s broadcast plans are as follows:
Daily live and highlights content including an overnight highlights show, which is scheduled as follows.
- SABC2 Opt in service- opting in and out of the finals where South African’s are participating in. The intention will be to capture the key moments of the Games as they happen.
- SABC2 must see programmes are Hello London 12h00 – 16h00 on weekdays; Saturday at 11h30 – 16h00 and Sunday from 12h00 – 15h30, updates of finals during prime time with review and extended highlights on Good Evening London and an in-depth action show called Uncut from 01:00 – 05:00 for the duration of the Olympics.
- SABC1 will cover of the U/23 men and women’s soccer teams and basketball games, along with regular programming like Soccer Zone, Laduma and the Sport Preview show which will also have an Olympic perspective.
- SABC3 will have extensive coverage of the Olympics’ tennis tournaments for the men and women series, which will be covered by highlights packages until the semi-final stage, when live coverage will start. Both the Semi-finals and finals will have studio presentation.
- From a radio perspective Radio 2000 will be the main driver of Olympic coverage, utilising the BBC for commentary feeds. The rest of the stations will focus on live reports bringing the updated news as it happens, the coverage will be completely national and in the language of your choice.
“All key moments where South Africans athletes are participating will be shown live to our audiences in order to allow them to be part of the team’s success. It is part of our mandate to follow our athletes and make sure that our fellow South Africans are also able to follow them through our radio and television channels,’ says SABC Spokesperson Mr. Kaizer Kganyago.
Through the broadcast of the Olympics in London, the SABC will deliver major technology innovations in terms of its coverage to ensure that 2012 will be the year of technical innovation. Huge invest has been put into delivering both the expertise and the technology to ensure that this broadcast significantly lifts the bar in terms of the quality of the production of the 26 Olympic Sporting Codes. The SABC will be taking all feeds international English commentary.
