BBC Olympics 2012 Coverage

It would have been weird to delay the London switchover because of the Olympics, as that would have made London one of few areas where you couldn't watch the Olympics in HD terrestrially, for the benefit of a small minority that prefer the Olympics in 14:9 analogue.

As for the Olympics after this one, there is a possibility that the BBC might loose the games to Sky if they don't find partners. Sportfive have already handed over the Olympics from 2014 to private companies in Norway and Sweden, meaning the 2012 games will be last you can watch for free on their PSBs.

Another reason for ensuring the switchover is done in London by games-time is to free up much needed RF spectrum.



The Olympics are still on the category A list, so have to be live on free-to-air channels, so very unlikely Sky will get their hands on them. A partnetship with C4 might work, with BBC carrying the popular events and C4 the others.

But the Olympics are part of the Sporting Crown Jewels, Sky can only share them on a PPV channel.

London already has Freeview HD, on a temporary mux.

It's only a case of certain 'lunches' being bought for the right people to get that changed.
I'm sure Sky will have got their grubby little hands on the event in some form or other by the end of this decade.

But it wouldn't drive subscriptions much, would it? It only lasts a fortnight so not many people would be buying Sky subs just for that, especially if they were sharing it with another channel. I don't think Sky would get much out of it, most of the time during the Olympics they can get an audience with Premier League football and test match cricket anyway.

Was unaware of both the special London HD mux and the "Sporting Crown Jewels". And was quickly corrected

Deals have pretty much been signed across Europe now for either 2014/16 or 2014-2020. The IOC are holding out for more from the BBC.

The Olympics hasn't ever been shared in the UK- ITV has on occasions broadcast some of it as well (1968, 1972, 1980 and 1988- large amounts of that one on C4) but it was in addition to the BBCs coverage.

Not so much a 'special London HD mux' - frequencies were found for a number of major transmitters broadcast the HD mux pre DSO.