BBC Dir Of London 2012 Roger Mosey Prepares For Upcoming Games
Former BBC Dir of Sport Roger Mosey, who last month was named BBC Dir of London 2012, said that it was "only when the corporation's top brass travelled to Beijing" in August for the Olympics that they "truly appreciated the need for a single senior executive in charge," according to Owen Gibson of the Manchester GUARDIAN. Mosey said, "You know the Olympics are huge, but when you see it on the scale of Beijing we all immediately thought, 'This is two, or three, or four times bigger than we thought it was.' I remember emotionally feeling, 'This is colossal' and, though we had some pieces in place, really feeling we had to get on with it in a much more serious, big way." Gibson notes that means "not only planning the BBC's on-air coverage and considering how it can help bring individuals and sports to prominence in the intervening four years but also coordinating all its related operations, including arts and entertainment and technological infrastructure required." The BBC will also play a "key role in bringing the Games to the rest of the UK, from erecting large [HD] screens across the land to using its network of local radio and television to reflect the event through a regional prism."
TRACK RECORD: Gibson writes the "verdict on the rest of Mosey's tenure is more mixed." During his time as BBC Dir of Sport, he "secured Six Nations rugby, Wimbledon, the Olympics, the World Cup and European Championship on the BBC and brought back [F1]." He also "delivered in terms of developing a more integrated multimedia offering," but he "faced criticism for leaving the BBC without any live football this season and for failing to bid for domestic Test cricket rights." Mosey said that it is now "up to so-called minority sports to seize the opportunity to break into the mainstream in the run-up to 2012." The BBC is "committed to covering every single Olympic sport through, at the very least, its website." Mosey: "For a number of minority and participation sports, if they are ever going to make their mark in the national consciousness that is the four years in which they are going to do it" (Manchester GUARDIAN, 10/9).
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