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The BBC will be broadcasting live Olympic action this summer through 24 new high-definition channels, available through the Beeb’s red button service or to those watching on Sky or Freesat.
That means you’ll be able to watch any sport from any venue, and you’ll be able to follow any particular sport through the day. So if you’re a huge dressage fan, no longer must your horses-and-fancy-hats kicks be spoiled by society’s boring bias towards running and jumping.
The red-button service that you’ll use to flit between sports is promised to be dead easy to use, with navigation through the various available streams handled using just the direction buttons on your remote.
Roger Mosey, the Beeb’s director of London 2012 says that originally the plan was to show those streams through the BBC’s Sport and 2012 Olympic website. But happily now you’ll be able to find the 24 streams on your telly.
Freesat customers will get 24 HD channels dedicated to the coverage — if you’ve got a standard-definition box you’ll get the channels in regular ol’ SD. Sky is adding a honking 48 channels to its roster, half of which will be showing all the BBC’s streams in standard definition, while the other half handle the HD streams.
Those of you who use Freeview will get just two extra channels (301 and 302) at peak times, which you can get through the red button or channel guide. That’s in addition to the standard offering on BBC One and BBC Three, but if you want the 24-stream coverage it looks like you’ll need to use the BBC’s Sport or 2012 websites. I’ve asked Freeview to clarify this.
Virgin Media has told me it’ll have access to the 24 streams in standard and high definition — those are expected to come via the BBC’s ‘enhanced red button’ service for TiVo.
I’m glad TV coverage of the Olympics is shaping up to be ultra-comprehensive. The BBC has already pledged to show the opening ceremony, men’s 100m final and closing ceremony in 3D, for those of you with hoity-toity 3D tellies.
The Olympics are bringing some tasty tech in their wake. The Stella McCartney-designed kit that our hopefuls will be wearing during the games are loaded with performance-tracking sensors, free Wi-Fi will be rolled out to the London Tube and Google Wallet may even make an appearance.
High-tech games indeed. Fingers crossed the whole affair doesn’t break the Internet.
Are you excited about the Olympics? Or will you be hiding under your desk until all the frighteningly fit people have finished jumping about? Tell me below, or on our Facebook wall.
