With the “mother of all sporting events” slated to start from this month end, ESPN Star Sports is gearing up for the London Olympics coverage with a customised feed for India.

The broadcaster will be showing Olympics coverage on three of its channels — ESPN, Star Sports and ESPN HD.

With the rights to broadcast nearly 240 hours of programming daily, the broadcaster will filter the live feed, keeping in mind the Indian television viewer’s interests.

In the past years, public broadcaster Doordarshan used to show the Olympics coverage but this is the first time a private broadcaster has grabbed the Indian rights for the games.

ESPN will only showcase sporting events that feature Indian athletes. The channel will also show the sporting events that are more popular among Indian television viewers.

“Among the three channels, ESPN will serve as a one-stop channel for sports that interests the Indian viewers. The customised feed strategy is expected to help boost viewership,” said Mr Rathindra Basu, Senior Director –Business Development and Event Management Group, ESPN Software India.

Star Sports on the other hand will be showing more “pan-regional events”, while ESPN HD will show a programming that is a mix of both, he added. The London Olympics 2012 will start from July 27 to August 12.

Another step to customise the Olympic feed for India will include roping in Indian commentators. “ESPN STAR Sports’ Olympic studio presentation team especially for the India beam will include Vijay Amritraj and Alan Wilkins. They will be supported by Steve Dawson and Jason De La Pena,” Mr Basu added.

The broadcaster has been running lead-up programming for the Olympics since December. “We have lined up the most comprehensive programming as run-up to the Games in top-class Olympic Games archive programming chronicling the last two decades of the Games’ moments and dramatic stories from over 30,000 hours of historical footage,” he said.

meenakshi.v@thehindu.co.in

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