Australia's Channel Seven has "dedicated a stack of technology and some 300 staff to bring absolutely all of the action from Brazil to keen viewers at home, with more choice than ever before," according to Shannon Molloy of NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA. Seven Head of Sport Saul Shtein said that Rio "will go down as the most comprehensive coverage of a major event in Australian small screen history." Shtein said, "For previous Games, the coverage has been on one channel and that’s basically it, but for this we’re on three channels concurrently with another 36 streams on our app." He added that advances in broadcast technology coupled with "dramatic shifts in viewing habits" over recent years mean Seven had to "step up" its coverage plan. The plan for Rio -- multiple events at different locations broadcast halfway across the world to dozens of channels, plus a variety of specialty shows including Rio Today hosted by Hamish McLachlan -- "is unprecedented." Shtein: "We had a small taste of what it takes with this year’s Australian Open. We ran that across two channels and had live coverage of 16 courts on our app, so that was a bit of stepping stone to Rio. But the Games is a whole new level" (NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA, 8/2).
