About the ��̳ Feed

The Rio 2016 Olympic Games, live on the ��̳

2016-07-22T06:00:13+00:00

Following our award-winning coverage of London 2012, which saw over 90% of the UK population watch the Olympics on the ��̳, we will again be at the heart of the world’s biggest sporting spectacle, delivering blanket coverage from the Rio 2016 Olympic Games across TV, radio and online.

On TV, there will be over 550 hours of coverage from Rio on ��̳ One and ��̳ Four. We’re expanding the hours of ��̳ Four across all platforms so that it starts from 1pm in the afternoon and runs through to 2am, offering live coverage of key events in Rio.

We’ll also be delivering many more hours of content across our digital and interactive platforms on web, mobile, connected TV and on Red Button+. A blog on our Red Button+ offering will be available in the next few days.

Eight streams on broadcast Red Button and ��̳ iPlayer

On the broadcast red button, viewers on cable and satellite platforms will be able to access eight scheduled streams curating all the key sports and highlights throughout the Olympic period – viewers on these platforms will also have the choice of watching the streams in high definition.

Platform	Olympics 1 / HD	Olympics 2 / HD	Olympics 3 / HD	Olympics 4 / HD	Olympics 5 / HD	Olympics 6 / HD	Olympics 7 / HD	Olympics 8 / HD
Freesat	261/271	262/272	263/273	264/274	265/275	266/276	267/277	268/278
Sky	472/480	473/481	474/482	475/483	476/484	477/485	478/486	479/487
Virgin Media	561/571	562/572	563/573	564/574	565/575	566/576	567/577	568/578

Note: where both SD and HD versions are carried, Sky and Freesat make the HD versions available on the lower EPG numbers in the above table.

Our broadcast offer on Freeview and YouView will be slightly different owing to long-standing broadcast capacity constraints. To offer as a wide a range of services as we can to as many viewers as possible, we’ve leased some extra capacity – though unfortunately not every part of the country can receive these signals. In addition, if you are within coverage, you’ll also need to be watching on a Freeview HD, Freeview Play or a YouView device (as a quick check, if you can watch CBeebies HD at EPG 124 then you should be good to go). If that’s the case, you will receive all the extra eight streams in standard definition. If you’re out of coverage, you may still be able to get live coverage of all the events through our Red Button+ offer, on which more details later in this article.

Freeview SD devices will get two part-time services for the Olympics period on the Red Button: ��̳ RB 0 starting at 7pm and ��̳ RB 1, which is normally a full 24/7 service but which will be starting at 9pm during the Olympics in order to accommodate C��̳ and the ��̳ Four extended broadcast hours.

Platform

��̳
RB 0 *

��̳
RB 1 **

��̳ RB 2

��̳ RB 3

��̳ RB 4

��̳ RB 5

��̳ RB 6

��̳ RB 7

��̳ Olympics HD *

Freeview SD

600

601
(part-time version only)

n/a

Freeview HD/YouView

600

601
(part-time)

608
(24 hours)

602

603

604

605

606

607

114

* ��̳ RB 0 and ��̳ Olympics HD (same schedule as ��̳ RB 0 but broadcast in high definition) are part-time services starting at 7pm. ��̳ RB 0 is available to all Freeview viewers, whilst ��̳ Olympics HD is only available on Freeview HD and YouView devices. Note : ��̳ RB 0 and ��̳ Olympics HD follows the same schedule as ��̳ Olympics 8 and ��̳ Olympics 8 HD on satellite and cable.

** ��̳ RB 1 is available in two formats on Freeview: all viewers will get the part-time service on EPG 601, whilst Freeview HD viewers only (and specifically, as mentioned above, those able to receive CBeebies HD at 124) will also be able to access a full-time service on EPG 608.

The same eight curated streams will also be available on ��̳ iPlayer along with live streaming of ��̳ One and ��̳ Four, so you can keep up with our live Olympics coverage on the go, or catch up on your favourite events when you want.

Comprehensive coverage from ��̳ Sport online, on connected TV and on Red Button+

Building on our online offer for London 2012, you’ll be able to access 24 live HD streams on web, mobile and on connected TV for the Rio Olympic Games, providing over 2,500 hours of live Olympics coverage.

These streams will be available from bbc.co.uk/sport, through the ��̳ Sport apps for mobiles and tablets and via Red Button+ (our internet-connected Red Button service) and the ��̳ Sport App on connected TVs and media streaming devices:

24 live HD video streams
Highlights clips and replays of those not-to-be-missed moments [this is the case on connected TV and via Red Button]
Intuitive, quick access to live, coming up and catch up
Additional text commentary, audience interaction via ��̳ Sport’s live coverage on mobile, tablet or PC
Olympics Playlist, downloadable to catch up every morning on the ��̳ iPlayer
On web and mobile, “My Sport” will allow Olympics fans to personalise their Rio 2016 experience by following the sports you like most, signing up for the latest news alerts, setting event reminders and sharing your favourite moments across the social media platforms
And on our own social media pages, ��̳ Sport will give you the chance to get even closer to the ��̳’s coverage, presenters and special guests with behind-the-scenes coverage

Changes to some of our HD channels on Freeview HD/YouView

Three of our HD channels (C��̳ HD, CBeebies HD and ��̳ Four HD) will be moving broadcast capacity on Freeview from 27th July until shortly after the Olympic Games ends, in order to allow us to extend ��̳ Four HD’s hours to start from 1pm. ��̳ Four will be available to all Freeview HD for the duration of the Olympic Games.

The interim broadcast capacity for C��̳ HD will have less coverage in the UK than the existing capacity. As a result, some viewers will find they’ve lost C��̳ HD over the Olympics Games period – as a check if currently you’re unable to see either CBeebies HD or ��̳ Four HD, then unfortunately you will be losing reception of C��̳ HD temporarily – however, normal service for C��̳ HD will resume after 23rd August and you will still receive the SD version throughout. We apologise for any inconvenience this causes. For those viewers that are able to continue receiving C��̳ HD during the Rio 2016 period, it will be temporarily moving to LCN 97 on Freeview and YouView.

For unavoidable technical reasons, on the three HD channels that are moving any series links that have been set will not record – so viewers should reset their recordings to the SD version of those channels in order to maintain continued recordings during the Olympic Games.

After the Olympics period, we’ll be returning things back to normal – whilst CBeebies HD and ��̳ Four HD will also be moving to a different slot of broadcast capacity from where they are now, and so may require a retune, for the majority there should be no material impact from the current Freeview reception of these channels. See the Freeview paragraph below on retuning your TV or box to get the latest updates.

How to get our additional streams on your TV

If you have Freeview HD or YouView your receiver may well pick up the changes automatically but if not you will need to retune; The Freeview retune website gives advice on how to do this. (If you’re using a Freeview SD receiver, you should already be able to access our Red Button SD streams on channels 600 and 601 but if for some reason you don’t then again a retune should solve this for you.) Full instructions can be found in the manual for your digital TV or box. Further help with retuning can be found by calling the Freeview Advice Line on 0345 6505050.
If you have Sky, you should not have to do anything. If you do have a problem receiving any of our channels, you can try turning your Sky set-top box off at the mains, waiting 30 seconds and turning it back on again. If that doesn’t resolve your problem you can find more help at www.sky.com/helpcentre.
If you have Virgin Media the new streams should appear automatically. If you do have a problem receiving any of our channels, you can find more help at Virgin’s website. For Virgin TiVo users the broadcast Red Button streams will be listed in the 560s in the guide – alternatively, pressing red when you’re watching on one of our TV channels will take you to the additional coverage and expanded offer on our ��̳ Red Button+ service.
If you have Freesat and you do not pick up the new channels automatically, you may need to put your digital box or TV into standby for 30 seconds and then switch it back on again. If the channels are still unavailable then carry out a Freesat channel retune. Full instructions can be found in the manual for your digital TV or box. Further help with retuning can be found at www.freesat.co.uk or by calling the Freesat customer support team on 08450 990 990. For those that need it, full DSAT transponder information can be found on our Reception Advice page.
Red Button+ will work on the majority of connected TVs and Set Top Boxes (STBs) produced after 2012, including YouView and Virgin TiVo, providing direct access to ��̳ Sport’s Rio 2016 coverage. You can find more details about Red Button+ here and some of the devices that support it here.

You can also access the ��̳ Sport app on a range of media streaming devices, including Amazon Fire TV and Sony Playstations. Find out more about all the devices here.

Get ready for the Rio Olympics

2016-07-08T11:33:34+00:00

��̳ Sport have given us a glimpse of the new advertising trail we're using for the ��̳'s Olympics coverage this year. You can see the full version during the men's singles Wimbledon final this Sunday afternoon.

The animation, made by Passion Pictures, is inspired by host nation Rio’s Tijuca Forest and its animal kingdom. Over the course of the trail the skills and strength of the athletes are brought to life by the host nation’s exotic animals competing in Olympic events.

The soundtrack features music by Brit artist Jamie N Commons who has adapted his new single ‘Not Gonna Break Me’ especially for the trail. He's also developed the music for the ��̳ Olympics 2016 titles.

Olympics 2012: Viewing figures, online statistics & video catch-up

2012-08-13T15:32:00+00:00

Over on the ��̳ Internet Blog, Head of product for ��̳ Sport and London 2012 Cait O'Riordan has written about the '��̳'s digital Olympics', providing detail on how the Games was viewed online. . She writes:

The ��̳'s promise was to deliver coverage of every sport from every venue, and we certainly achieved this with our digital coverage: from the blue ribbon events like the 100m final all the way to the first taekwondo heats, the multi-faceted entirety of the Olympics was available to watch throughout the day across online and Red Button.

The ��̳ Media Centre published details on viewing figures from across the 2012 Olympics earlier this afternoon.

Every moment of the London 2012 Olympics is available on the ��̳ Sport website until 13 January 2013 (UK only).

Yesterday, Director-General Mark Thompson offered his thanks to staff and audiences on the About the ��̳ blog.

A thank-you to our staff and audiences

2012-08-12T15:49:24+00:00

As a once-in-a-lifetime broadcasting moment draws to a close, I want to pay tribute to every single person in the ��̳ who has helped to bring London 2012 to our audiences.

I am very proud of all our staff, from our on-air presenters, reporters and commentators, to all those who have worked tirelessly behind the camera and the mic. It's needed total commitment and great stamina through very long hours, but everywhere I've been over the past fortnight I've seen amazing team-work, passion and utter professionalism. The result has been the best coverage of any event by a broadcaster that I have ever had the privilege to witness.

For most people in this country, their experience of the Games has been through the ��̳. Over 50 million viewers have watched our programming. The astonishing opening ceremony (which included several films made by the ��̳ including that unforgettable 'Good evening, Mr Bond' moment) drew a peak audience of 26.9m (27.1m including red button) and still had over 20m people watching after midnight. That all makes it one of the most watched programmes in the history of ��̳ Television. But that was only the start. Over the days since then, there have so many individual moments of triumph and drama - some playing to tens of millions of people, some to a few hundred thousand on one of our special Olympic channels, though none the worse for that. And all of them on the ��̳.

Work began many years ago with a decision not only that we would commit to broadcast every moment of the games and carry every sport live, but that we would also attempt to reflect all aspects of the games' impact on the UK. In order to deliver this undertaking the ��̳ 2012 team, led by Roger Mosey, began the job of coordinating with teams across the ��̳ to ensure we had the resources and the programming to cover the biggest broadcasting event in our 90 year history.

In the years and months leading up to the games we told the journalistic stories behind the huge preparations, good and bad, in our news, current affairs and factual programming. Once the Olympic flame arrived in the United Kingdom on 18th May, ��̳ teams from across the country made sure every step of its journey was covered. As well as rolling online coverage, our local and regional news teams did a fantastic job of reporting the experience of the torchbearers and the huge crowds that turned out to greet them. This set the scene for the start of the games themselves.

As the sport got under way, an enormous effort swung into place to make sure we offered the most complete coverage of an Olympic games ever. Alongside programming on our main channels, we carried 24 HD streams from around the different venues so fans of every sport, from archery to wrestling, could follow the games live. Dave Gordon, who is working on his tenth summer Olympics for the ��̳, has overseen a Herculean effort by Barbara Slater's ��̳ Sport teams in London and Salford, and at Eton Dorney, Weymouth and all the other locations around the UK, and I'd like to say thank you to all of them.

It's fair to say the coverage has been generally very positively received by the critics. But more importantly than that, it has set a new benchmark for audiences about how we cover big events in the future. In particular, this was the first truly digital Olympics and it gave them more choice and more control than they have ever experienced before.

Our Future Media teams designed and created ground breaking online services. So far we've had over 50 million requests for the ��̳ Sport's live video interactive streams, there have been 1.9m downloads of the ��̳ Olympics App, and perhaps most impressively the first week of the games was the most popular ever for ��̳ Sport Online with a total of 34.7m browsers.

Meanwhile, teams from radio and television have supported the sports coverage, with factual, drama and music programming providing a flavour of the games impact on the whole country.

None of this could have happened without a great deal of work behind the scenes to make sure everything ran smoothly and get the extra channels (both television and radio) on air without a hitch - although sometimes it's taken nerves of steel! Everyone who has worked in the ��̳'s Operations Group, which ensures the technology, distribution of content, and support services for all our programmes, has played a vital role.

While today sees the end of our Olympic coverage, the Paralympics will be beginning on August 29th and Radio 5 Live will be bringing audiences full coverage of the games, building on their terrific work at the Olympics, that has delivered the station's best ever audience appreciation figures. Our News and Global News teams will continue to bring the stories of the games to our national and international audiences, with the same authority, objectivity and an entirely justified touch of pride that they have shown throughout the Olympics.

So I'd like to conclude by saying thank you to all of you for your hard work, but also to our audiences for being there and sharing this unique experience with us. The London games are ending but the story of the ��̳ and the Olympics goes on. We've secured the rights to cover the winter and summer games to 2020. That means that we'll be in Rio in four years time and our ambition there will be the same as it's been in London. To use our creativity and experience, the latest technology and the oldest story-telling skills to once again offer our audiences the very best seats in the house. Thank you.

Mark Thompson is Director General of the ��̳

UPDATE (Monday 13 August 2012): Today, the ��̳ released up-to-date information on TV and online statistics. Further information and links available here.

Bruce Forsyth participates in the Olympic Torch Relay at ��̳ White City

2012-07-26T15:53:43+00:00

Strictly Come Dancing presenter Sir Bruce Forsyth carried the Olympic Torch through the ��̳ White City Media Village today receiving the torch from international banker Antoine de Navacelle (great nephew of Pierre de Coubertin who organised the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896) on the site of the finishing line of the 1908 Olympics stadium.

Staff lined the main piazza to get a glimpse of Sir Bruce as he walked back towards Wood Lane with the Olympic Torch. Others congregated on the top floors of the ��̳ Media Centre and Broadcast Centre, from where this video was shot.

This external content is available at its source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQVlCgTmers

Recording your favourite television programmes during the Olympics

2012-07-24T14:34:36+00:00

A collection of TV remote controls, photographed by Flickr user Odonata98 and used here under the terms of Creative Commons.

With less than one week to go before the Opening Ceremony I wanted to take a few minutes to make sure you understood the details about recording your favourite shows during the London 2012 Olympic Games.

As you will probably know ��̳ One will be showing coverage of the Olympics from 6am until midnight. This means that many shows will take a break during the Games but the following ones will move to ��̳ Two:

EastEnders
Holby City
Panorama
Songs of Praise

If your set top box regularly records one or more of these shows for you, you may need to take action to capture them in their new temporary home:

If you have a Freeview+ or Freesat+ box these should carry on recording your favourite shows even if they move to ��̳ Two
If you have a Sky+ or Virgin Media V+ box then you will need to tell your box to record your shows on ��̳ Two. You can do this by simply setting up a new series link for the show when it appears on ��̳ Two. You will be able to set up a new recording on ��̳ Two for a show seven days before it's due on ��̳ Two
If you have a Virgin Media TiVo box and have setup a 'Wish List' on your TiVo box for a given show then you don't need to do anything else. If you have a normal series link set up, you'll need to create another one for your shows on ��̳ Two

After the Olympics have finished, your set-top box should start recording your shows for you again on ��̳ One. However, Songs of Praise is expected to be an exception because it will have been off ��̳ One for more than 28 days, so you may need to set up a new series link, as described above.

Besides all the Olympics coverage there are extra programes coming up which showcase our sporting heroes both past and present so whilst you are at it, set some recordings for these as well. Personally, I'm particularly looking forward to Bert & Dickie.

Alix Pryde is the director of ��̳ Distribution.

The picture used in this post features a collection of television remote controls. and was taken by Flickr user Odonata98 and used here under the terms of Creative Commons.

Delivering to you the ��̳'s Greatest Year of Broadcasting

2012-05-09T13:44:47+00:00

2012 is set to be the ��̳'s greatest year of broadcasting. In ��̳ Distribution, we are currently making preparations for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee followed closely by the London 2012 Olympic Games, not to mention the Euros, Wimbledon, the European Championship Athletics, The Scottish Open ... and many other great events.

Most of these events will be brought to you by the ��̳ using our existing services, but for the Olympics we have some special changes planned, as readers of Roger Mosey's blog will know. In preparation, I wanted to give you some more detail of the changes we will be making to our TV and radio services to bring you the best possible Olympics experience.

��̳ Three's hours will be extended on all platforms
24 Olympics sports channels will be launched on Sky, Freesat and Virgin Media, available in both HD and SD
A high definition ��̳ Red Button video service will be launched on Freeview
��̳ Red Button video service 302 on Freeview will return
5 live Olympics Extra will launch on DAB
The Space will bring the Cultural Olympiad to Freeview

��̳ Three Extended Hours

��̳ Three will be one of the ��̳'s flagship channels for the London 2012 Olympic Games and so for the first time we're going to be making the channel available during the morning and afternoon. On satellite we will be doing this using some recently vacated capacity on our existing Astra 1N Transponder 45. On Freeview, whilst Parliament is in recess, we will use ��̳ Parliament's capacity. This means that for Freeview viewers, ��̳ Parliament will be off-air during the Olympics, which was also the case during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. ��̳ Parliament will continue on satellite and cable platforms with its usual summer schedule.

All satellite, cable and terrestrial viewers should be able to enjoy the extra sports coverage on the extended ��̳ Three without needing to do anything to their TV or set-top-box.

24 Live Streams of Olympics Coverage

As Roger announced on his blog we are going to add 24 SD and 24 HD channels to Sky, Freesat and Virgin Media to allow you to watch sports from every venue from first thing in the morning until last thing at night. The ��̳ channels will be part of the ��̳'s Red Button service but will also appear in the EPG along with full schedule information to allow you to record any events you might otherwise miss. You won't need to do anything to receive these ��̳ channels and they will be free, but you will need an HD box to view the HD ones. The streams will be launched just before the Olympics in time to carry the very first events on 25 July 2012. I know some of you want to know exactly which satellite transponders will be carrying these services and we will publish that information nearer the time alongside our existing satellite frequency information on the Reception Advice FAQ site.

Some Freeview HD receivers will also be able to access the 24 live streams over an internet connection using the new ��̳ Sports App for connected TVs.

High Definition ��̳ Red Button on Freeview HD

Freeview HD may be only just over 2 years old, but already 5 million TVs and digiboxes have been sold in the UK. Thanks to a lot of hard work and the ingenuity of ��̳ Research & Development and our technology suppliers, there is now capacity on Freeview HD for a fifth HD channel, alongside ��̳ One HD, ��̳ HD, ITV1 HD (STV HD for viewers in Scotland) and Channel 4 HD (Clirlun for viewers in Wales). We are currently working hard on finding a permanent use for this 5th slot. In the meantime, to make the most of this valuable asset during the Olympics, the fifth slot will be used to give viewers an HD ��̳ Red Button stream on Freeview channel 304. The channel will show the same content as is available on ��̳ Red Button video service 301 but it will be native HD. As with 301, the channel will be scheduled and listed in the EPG to enable you to book recordings but the primary method of access will be via a simple ��̳ Red Button application which we will enable on our HD channels.

Thanks to the clever way that most Freeview HD receivers work, viewers won't have to re-tune because the service should appear automatically in the EPG. But if you find that you don't have anything at channel 304 by the middle of July then you should re-tune your receiver.

The Return of ��̳ Red Button 302 on Freeview

No doubt many of you will remember that on Freeview we used to have a second ��̳ Red Button video stream which appeared in the EPG on channel 302. Well, it is making a brief return to Freeview for the Olympics. Because ��̳ Three is becoming a 24hr service on Freeview using ��̳ Parliament's capacity, ��̳ Three doesn't need to share capacity with C��̳ during the Olympics. This means that we can use C��̳'s off-hours (from 7pm) to broadcast ��̳ Red Button 302. The 302 channel was made available in the EPG from 26 April nationwide. You can check if you have it or not simply by trying to tune to channel number 302. If you see our message you are good to go, otherwise you will need to re-tune your digital TV or box to pick it up. I've included a link to some helpful advice on how to do this below.

Note for C��̳ viewers in Northern Ireland and North-East England: By the summer there will be just two parts of the UK still to go through digital switchover: Northern Ireland and North East England. For viewers in these areas we are making an additional change to move C��̳ to a different channel number - but just for the period of the Olympic Games. This is to do with the way that ��̳ Three and C��̳ usually share capacity. So just for viewers in these two areas, C��̳ will temporarily move from channel 70 to channel 73 on Freeview.

Viewers in Northern Ireland and North East England will need to re-tune between now and the Olympics to carry on watching C��̳, but the benefit of that re-tune is that you will gain access to our additional ��̳ Red Button service 302 (see above). During the Olympics, C��̳'s usual channel number, 70, will show a message to remind viewers to go to channel 73. If you live in one of these areas you should be able to see channel 73 once you've done a re-tune. The good news is that the temporary channel number means that you will not need to do a second re-tune when the Olympics finish in August in order to get C��̳ back at channel 70. Given that switchover this autumn will require you to re-tune your Freeview TV or box twice, we thought that viewers would appreciate our removing the need to re-tune an extra time.

This change doesn't impact Freeview viewers across the rest of the country, who can continue to watch C��̳ at channel 70. Nor does it affect satellite or cable viewers where C��̳ will stay on its current channel number.

��̳ Radio 5 live Olympics Extra on DAB

In order to offer additional listening choice as well as viewing choice during the Olympics, we will be launching a special Olympics radio channel: 5 live Olympics Extra. If the service hasn't appeared automatically on your DAB digital radio by 23 July, then try retuning.

The Space

Finally, in support of what promises to be an amazing summer of culture we will be carrying 'The Space' which is an experimental service developed by The Arts Council England in partnership with the ��̳. The service launched on 1 May at http://thespace.org as a browser based service accessible on connected TVs, tablets, mobiles and computers. It will give arts and culture organisations the opportunity to experiment and engage with new and existing audiences in a completely new digital environment. The Space uses your broadband connection to deliver free content, such as plays from Shakespeare's Globe, live dance from Sadler's Wells, a virtual recreation of John Peel's home studio and rare archive content from the BFI.

Viewers who have certain Freeview HD TVs or boxes and are able to plug them into their broadband connection can access The Space on channel 117. If the channel doesn't appear automatically for you it's best to do a re-tune. When you tune to channel 117 The Space will tell you if you have a compatible digital TV or box and will help you connect it to your broadband if you haven't done so already. The Space keeps a list of devices which are known to work with the service on its FAQ and as the project progresses it expects to add to this.

You can read more about the Launch of The Space on the ��̳ Internet blog and on the About the ��̳ blog.

Viewer Support

We have thought very carefully about the way we have organised our channel changes to minimise the interventions that our audiences will need to make.

Viewers on satellite and cable should not need to take any action because the changes to ��̳ Three and the extra ��̳ Olympics channels should appear for you automatically. ��̳ Parliament and C��̳ will not be affected.

Viewers on Freeview who don't currently have channel 302 in their EPG will need to re-tune to watch all our services during the Olympics. C��̳ viewers in Northern Ireland and North East England will need to re-tune to pick up C��̳ in its temporary home of channel 73. If you need help with re-tuning, an excellent place to go for advice is www.tvretune.co.uk which provides detailed instructions for many different makes and models of Freeview receiver.

As with changes we've made in the past we'll also be putting information up on our Reception Advice website and on ��̳ Red Button p9991 on Freeview. Nearer the time we will be reminding Freeview viewers to re-tune using pop-up messages onscreen as well as a reminder on the ��̳ Red Button bridge.

I trust that this information helps you understand the changes we are making in preparation for the London 2012 Olympic Games along with anything you need to do in order to enjoy all our new and extended services. I hope you can see that we've thought really hard about how to get the most out of our capacity and how to make it as easy as possible for you to enjoy the full range of this amazing summer in the ��̳'s greatest year of broadcasting.

Alix Pryde is the Director of ��̳ Distribution

Launching the Shakespeare season on the ��̳

2012-04-02T15:18:33+00:00

Editor's note - The forthcoming Shakespeare Unlocked season on the ��̳ forms part of the London 2012 Festival and Cultural Olympiad.

In this blog interview, Commissioning Editor, Arts, Mark Bell highlights some of the programmes that form part of the season and what he hopes viewers and listeners will get out of it.

Why Shakespeare now?

Around the country there is an amazing festival of Shakespeare related activity - the RSC, The Globe and many theatres are mounting productions.

The ��̳ is broadcasting four film originations, notably the four history plays that cover the reigns of Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V and a film adaptation of the new RSC production of Julius Caesar to join in those celebrations.

The ��̳ has also made some factual output across TV, radio and online to add context in the hope of adding to the audience's appreciation of Shakespeare's skill as a writer.

Filming Henry V on location

It's been 400 years since Shakespeare was writing and we wanted to explore what makes his work stand out. Why does everyone still know about him after all this time? Many of his tales are about universal human preoccupations - love, death, power, corruption. Many of us know something at least about his plays but he does have a reputation for being hard work and difficult to understand.

We hope that with greater understanding of the history and of how his plays work, then people will get more out of it. We want this season to bring Shakespeare alive to a modern audience and celebrate his work.

What are you hoping the season will achieve?

I'm hoping it will show people just how rewarding Shakespeare can be. Yes the language is tough but it's well worth sticking with it. I wanted the season to explore the historical context in which Shakespeare was writing and also celebrate his language and try and understand what made him just so incredibly good at capturing all it means to be human.

James Shapiro presents The King and the Playwright: A Jacobean History

We're kicking off the season this April with a look at the historical context in which Shakespeare was writing. We want to bring his times alive and explore why he told the stories he did. On ��̳ Four, historian James Shapiro examines the second half of Shakespeare's career - the dark and turbulent times during which he wrote some of his most powerful plays (The King and the Playwright: A Jacobean History) . Meanwhile, on ��̳ Two Francesco da Mosto visits some of the spectacular locations in Italy that fired Shakespeare's imagination (Shakespeare in Italy, ��̳ Two).

I also wanted to look at how the language Shakespeare used works and what makes it so special. Many children study Shakespeare's texts in school. When you hear the words aloud the sense is more immediately evident - it really helps bring Shakespeare alive. Off by Heart is a competition for secondary school children that opens up the language of Shakespeare to a new and younger audience. I was there for the final and it was deeply moving to see young people putting new life into Shakespeare's language with such understanding and passion.

Off By Heart

Later on in June, Simon Schama argues that it is impossible to understand how Shakespeare came to belong "to all time", without understanding just how much he was a product of the time he was writing (Shakespeare and Us, ��̳ Two). And you can't do much better than have Oscar-winning Director Sam Mendes at the helm in four new adaptations of Shakespeare's history plays.

You've worked with the RSC and the British Museum. What do you think these partnerships have brought to the season?

These partnerships have proved to be incredibly fertile. Bringing Shakespeare to the screen is very different to a stage adaptation and I think we've really learnt from each other.

The RSC have brought their depth of understanding of Shakespeare and, through their actors, have made the language come alive visually for a modern audience. Shakespeare Unlocked, the online digital resource we've produced together with ��̳ Learning, will be a great legacy for the future.

When it comes to the British Museum, we have of course already worked with Neil McGregor on his History of the World series. It's been great to build on the success of that series with Neil bringing his incredible insight and knowledge to the season by exploring some of the objects from the turbulent period during which Shakespeare was writing (Shakespeare's Restless World, ��̳ Radio 4).

What these partnerships give us is great expertise, access to different and often deeper knowledge of the subject and a new perspective. And it gives us the chance to encourage our audience to go and visit an exhibition or a see a play on stage. The combined force of a single season like this is greater than the sum of its parts and very exciting.

RSC Artistic Director Michael Boyd talks about the partnership between the RSC and ��̳.

Julius Caesar offers to take an innovative approach to bringing the live experience to viewers. How do you aim to do this?

Julius Caesar is one of the plays that feels most politically relevant, particularly if you think about what events in Libya over the last year or what has been happening in Mali now. I think it's a really innovative and brave idea to set a modern Julius Caesar in an African state and will create something very fresh and thought provoking for viewers. With the RSC taking such a radical approach it seemed only right that we try and do something just as experimental in the way that we bring the performance to the screen.

The production team have found an amazing disused shopping centre in North London and are busy turning this into the set for our African state. We're filming some of the scenes there and combining them with footage from one of the stage performances. I'm very excited about this new way of bringing theatre to television and I hope it will really energise viewers and bring the performance alive for them.

What do you hope viewers will get out of the Shakespeare season?

I hope that they'll think we've stayed true to Shakespeare and that we've conveyed some sense of the real wonder of his language and ideas - there's a reason why Shakespeare continues to be the world's greatest playwright nearly 400 years after his death.

The ��̳ has an opportunity to reach a really broad audience and I hope that by the end of the season we'll have gone some way to explaining why it is that the themes and ideas that Shakespeare explored resonate now just as clearly as they did when he first wrote his plays.

Read more about the programmes in the Shakespeare season on the ��̳ Media Centre website.
The Shakespeare season is part of the London 2012 Festival and The Cultural Olympiad on the ��̳.

Roger Mosey - Your thoughts on our 2012 coverage

2010-09-24T14:41:34+00:00

"There's a common response when we talk about audience research: "nobody asked me!" But I thought it would be useful to give some headlines about what we're doing to try to find out what people want in 2012, and also give everyone on this blog a chance to comment on some of the early findings".

Roger Mosey, the ��̳'s Director of London 2012 has posted a blog about the qualitative research his team have undertaken ahead of the Olympics. To read the blog in full and to comment, head over to Roger Mosey's blog.

Laura Murray is Editor of the About the ��̳ blog

Sport Blog - Four thoughts on Two Years To Go to London 2012

2010-07-28T12:29:10+00:00

"A day of traveling in East London courtesy of a garishly-pink London 2012 bus - part of a fleet taking the media and officials around the Olympic Park - is followed by a day in the office thinking about some of the lessons from the "Two Years To Go" celebrations".

Roger Mosey, the Director of ��̳ London 2012 shares four thoughts on Two Years To Go to the opening ceremony of London 2012. Read Roger's post in full and make a comment on the Sport blog.

Visit the ��̳ London 2012 website

Roger's previous post on About the ��̳ - Olympics plan has something for everyone

Roger's previous post on About the ��̳ - The countdown to London 2012

��̳ London 2012 Olympics plan has something for everyone

2010-07-22T09:12:36+00:00

When we set out on the ��̳ London 2012 project we had one over-riding thought in mind: to help the nation share the excitement about the biggest event in the UK in our lifetimes. But we also knew we had to pace ourselves. The evidence is that audiences have sharply contrasting views on the Olympics and all the other events of 2012. Many want to know everything there is to know now - to look inside the Stadiums, hear the latest on the planning and share the journey every step of the way. Others will be keen when the big moments actually start happening; and a small minority will contemplate putting a blanket over their head and hiding in a darkened room until it all goes away.

Obviously, then, it won't be possible to please everyone. But we've heard the voices of those who want more straightaway - and given the ambition of 2012 across a multitude of genres and our position as the host nation broadcaster, it would be bonkers for us to underplay something that will be enjoyed by so many millions of people.

So Tuesday 27 July 2010 will see some special programming across the ��̳ to mark "Two Years To Go" before the opening ceremony and to cover the events being staged around this landmark by the OIympic organisers. ��̳ Breakfast, our News Channel and the ��̳ News at One will be live in Stratford - before a special programme on ��̳ One at 2.15pm to cover the first run within the main athletics stadium. Radio 5 Live will be there all day too, as will ��̳ London.

We're also launching a couple of major ��̳ initiatives. Our ��̳ London 2012 website will go live, and the aim is to bring together the whole of the 2012 story - not just sport and news, but arts and performance from the Cultural Olympiad along with comedy specials, entertainment and the inside story of how it's all coming together.

And you'll also be able to catch a multiplatform initiative called "World Olympic Dreams". This follows athletes from across the globe as they seek to make it to the London Games and provides an insight into their dedication and the power of their ambitions. So whether it's the triathlete from Bradford or the gymnast from Iowa or the Taekwondo competitor from Kabul, these will be the human stories that illuminate the road to London.

I'd like to think that World Olympic Dreams in particular will win over some folk who wouldn't really consider themselves to be sport fans - and the overall aim in the next two years is to provide something for everyone whatever their level of interest in sport, news, culture and the rest. In a world of massive choice, few things now come close to touching almost everybody. But we hope this will, and that it will truly be something you wouldn't want to miss. The next few days offer a chance to whet your appetite.

Roger Mosey is the Director of ��̳ London 2012

Roger Mosey's previous post on About the ��̳ - The countdown to London 2012

Read Roger Mosey's blog on the Sports site

The image of the rowers was taken by ��̳ Picture Correspondent, Stephen Adrain

The image of the Masai runners was taken by ��̳ Picture Correspondent, Thomas Amter

Major Events

2010-01-29T14:27:01+00:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/beijing.jpg
There were, generally speaking, two schools of thought about the ��̳'s Beijing Olympic coverage.

The first is that it was one of the highlights of 2008 and some of the best sports coverage in recent memory. This was the clear finding of our audience research, and also of a lot of the emails, blog responses and letters we received - for which, many thanks.

The second view is that may have been the case but we were extravagant in the number of staff we sent and the amount of money we spent, and this fits into accusations of the ��̳ not being careful enough in the spending of the licence fee.

Well, now we have a judgement.

The ��̳ Trust invited the government's National Audit Office to review the coverage of six major events: Beijing, Euro 2008 and Wimbledon from ��̳ Sport - and The Proms, Glastonbury and Radio 1's Big Weekend from our colleagues in Audio and Music.

Please note: this is an extract. Read the rest of Roger Mosey's blog post and leave comments on his blog.

Setting out our ambitions for 2012

2009-11-26T14:54:29+00:00

I've never been a particular fan of mission statements because the worst of them have you grinding your teeth at their banality - and there are more bad ones than good ones in the world. But I do believe in being clear about what you're trying to do with a particular enterprise - and being able to define success.

So in the ��̳ project team we've been kicking around the big things we want to achieve in 2012 - partly to be open with our staff and outside partners about what we're doing, but also to share our aims with audiences. It's particularly important to get across that this is about the story of a year and its aftermath, rather than just 17 days of sporting action - massive though those are.

Please note: this is an extract. Read the rest of Roger Mosey's blog post and leave comments on his blog.

1000 days and counting...

2009-10-30T13:58:21+00:00

Many of my ��̳ jobs have been in News, where we were obviously very interested in what was happening there and then because news is all about the present - and we might have had a flicker of interest, but no more than that, in planning something for the next day if we were really pushed. But we'd have laughed at the idea of a deadline that's 1000 days away.

So now I'm the ��̳'s director of London 2012 - and there's a deadline that's 1000 days away because today it's precisely that distance to the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympics on July 27th, 2012. But there's no sense at all of this being remote. It's starting to feel remarkably close, and it's setting a lot of earlier decision-points if we want to be in the right shape for one of the biggest challenges this country and the ��̳ are facing.

Have no doubt: this is the largest event that will ever have taken place in the UK, and it will be the ��̳'s most extensive set of outside broadcasts, ever. Having the Olympics in our own country - effectively the most important championships in 26 different sports - is like having multiple Cup Finals played all over London and the rest of the UK for a period of 17 days. It will attract hundreds of world leaders, thousands of athletes and millions of spectators.

But 2012 is even more than that. It's also a year in which we hope to be celebrating the first Diamond Jubilee since Queen Victoria's at the end of the 19th century. Both the Royal and the Olympic story will start when Big Ben chimes in the New Year, and we'll then cover the landmarks like the lighting of London's Olympic flame in Greece; its journey round the UK; and all the arts and performance events that are designed to deliver a Cultural Olympiad alongside the sport.

So here in the ��̳ our planning is already well underway - and we want to deliver something that brings the UK together to celebrate all the extraordinary moments. We'll have failed if people in Aberdeen and Truro don't feel they can share the experience of the people crowding the streets of London for the spectacles or visiting the Olympic Park to see Usain Bolt in action. We're also acutely aware that this is the year when almost all analogue television will be switched off, so it will be a fully-fledged digital world in which audiences expect top-quality services and the widest range of choice on tv, radio, online and mobile.

Therefore we need to start building the infrastructure now if we're to make the most of digital technology. We have to choose our studios around the Olympic Park in the coming weeks because if we don't agree our base then it will be too late to construct one. We're slotting in some of the proposed concerts and performance events to our 2012 broadcasting schedules, because commissioning deadlines are looming for the most ambitious pieces. And we're meeting with a vast range of partners - from the organising committee at LOCOG to government departments, the Mayor's office, commercial companies, sports governing bodies and national arts institutions.

I'm sharing what we're up to in my own regular blog - so you can read there about our hope to capture some of the content in 3D and Super HD, along with issues like what the Cultural Olympiad should be like. Perhaps because of that news background, I love debate and the more conversations we can have with audiences the happier I am. It doesn't mean we'll always agree - I have to say I'm not sure about some of the ideas coming in about the 2012 ceremonies in one of my recent posts - but even if we differ about Chas, Dave and cockney singalongs, we want this to be a story in which everyone can take part.

(Roger Mosey is the ��̳'s director of London 2012 and posts regularly on the Olympics on his own blog here.)

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