The BBC will send 455 staff to cover this summer’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro -- "40% down on the number it employed for London 2012," according to John Plunkett of the London GUARDAIN. The BBC acknowledged that its staff numbers "often attracted criticism" and said its total deployment was one-fifth of the number being sent by U.S. broadcaster NBC. The number of accredited staff "is down on the 765 who covered the 2012 Games, and slightly fewer than the 493 who flew to China for the 2008 Beijing Olympics." Alongside its coverage on TV and radio and an expanded digital offering through its interactive red button service, "each individual sport will be streamed online." But there "will be no repeat of the experiment four years ago when the BBC responded to a first home Olympics for more than 60 years with up to 24 channels of sport in cable and satellite homes." BBC Sport Dir Barbara Slater also pointed out that about 70% of the BBC’s personnel would be freelance, "part of the BBC’s commitment to supporting production talent across the UK media industry" (GUARDIAN, 4/7).
