U.K.-based BSkyB will "screen live coverage of the London Olympics" after the BBC agreed yesterday to "make its online feeds available to cable and satellite broadcasters in Britain," according to Keith Weir of REUTERS. The BBC has the rights to the Games and "will offer live footage of every Olympic sport for the first time -- providing up to 24 simultaneous feeds and allowing viewers to switch" between sports. The BBC will "distribute the bulk of these additional channels via its website," but they will now also be broadcast to BSkyB's 10 million subs. The Games "will also be closely watched by media groups to see how viewing divides" among TV, home computers, tables and other media devices. BSkyB is "not paying for the rights and all of the coverage and commentary will come from the BBC." BSkyB "will incur some costs as it upgrades its systems to accommodate the additional channels," 48 in total when HD is taken into account. The BBC has shown every Olympic Games "since London last hosted the event in 1948" (REUTERS, 4/3). The FINANCIAL TIMES' Wembridge & Kortekaas write the agreement between the BBC and BSkyB is "a thawing of relations between the corporation and its long-time critic." BBC London '12 Dir Roger Mosey said, "This is a distribution agreement for the Sky platform and Freesat and it's not about sharing the broadcast rights, which remain with the BBC within the UK." Mosey said this was "no different" from existing BBC channels being available on Sky, Virgin, Freesat and BT Vision. Wembridge & Kortekaas note it is also "very likely that Virgin will soon announce an agreement similar to Sky's" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 4/4).
