2012 Summer Paralympics - Broadcasting

Broadcasting

LOCOG Chair Sebastian Coe said of the Games' coverage: "As the world's second biggest multi-sport event, all eyes were be focused on the Paralympic Games in London for 2012. Beyond how the commercial value of this package has raised the bar financially for the Paralympic movement, the fantastic broadcast coverage we have agreed will help us take advantage of this opportunity to inspire disabled people of all ages to take up sport and be a catalyst for continued change in public attitudes towards disability." A record £10 million was raised from sales of broadcasting rights.

• United Kingdom: Channel 4 broadcast the Games with over 150 hours of live television coverage on Channel 4 and More4, along with additional coverage being carried by Freesat, Sky and Virgin Media (in both standard and high definition) as well as on Channel 4's website. Channel 4's coverage is expected to be the most extensive coverage of the Paralympics ever aired in the United Kingdom. Radio coverage is provided by the BBC on its radio channels BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra.
• Australia: The Australian Broadcasting Corporation broadcast the 2012 Paralympics across Australia, mostly on its digital channel ABC2. It broadcast over 100 hours of live coverage including both ceremonies.
• Brazil: Rede Globo and Sportv owned the broadcast rights to the Games in Brazil. While Sportv carried the bulk of coverage, Globo broadcast some events live.
• Canada: CTV (English) and RDS (French) produced daily hour-long highlight programs, while the opening ceremony was carried by Sportsnet One, TSN2, RDS, and RDS2. Coverage with described video for the visually impaired was simulcasted by AMI-tv. Four online streams would also provide 580 hours of live coverage.
• China: China Central Television
• Colombia: Señal Colombia
• Denmark: DR had the exclusive broadcasting rights for Denmark, and the primary channel was be DR HD.
• Europe: European Broadcasting Union.
• Finland: Yle, the state broadcaster.
• France: France Ô broadcast the opening and closing ceremonies; TV8 Mont-Blanc broadcast the Games with 77 hours of television coverage.
• Germany: ARD and ZDF broadcast the Games, with approximately 65 hours of television coverage.
• Greece: Net 2 broadcast the games with approximately 79 hours of television coverage.
• Ireland: Setanta Ireland, Irish digital subscription channel, providing it on a Free-to-view basis. Highlights on RTÉ Two, state broadcaster.
• Italy: Sky Italia, the Italian digital subscription channel, and RAI for free broadcasting.
• Japan: NHK
• New Zealand: Sky Sport broadcast the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as day and evening highlights. Sky Sport's highlights channel showed highlights every three hours. iSky also broadcast show highlights. Prime broadcast two one-hour special documentaries called "Black and White – the Paralympic Story", and Prime News had the coverage during their 5:30 news programme and "The Crowd Goes Wild" programme.
• Norway: NRK broadcast the games on NRK1, NRK2 and four web channels.
• Russia: VGTRK.
• Singapore: MediaCorp broadcast the Games with a daily highlights show and live coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies.
• South Africa: SuperSport, broadcasting on the DStv satellite service provided eight or more hours of live and delayed programming per day on their Supersport 6 channel. DStv is a subscription service available in most of Africa south of the Sahara. The SABC broadcast a two-hour daily highlights programme from 22:00 SAST on the SABC2 free-to-air television channel.
• South Korea: Korean Broadcasting System (KBS).
• Spain: RTVE broadcast the Games, with approximately 150 hours of live coverage on Teledeporte and TVE HD.
• Sweden: Sveriges Television (SVT) broadcast approximately 40 hours live on SVT1, SVT2, SVT24 and their web service SVT Play.
• Thailand: A consortium of Thai broadcasters known as the TV Pool, consisting of Channel 3, Royal Army's Channel 5, BBTV Channel 7, and Modernine TV, broadcast the Paralympics in Thailand.
• Turkey: Turkish Radio and Television Corporation broadcast the event that ran for 12 days.
• United States: NBC Sports provided only minimal coverage of the Paralympics, with five-and-a-half hours in total and no live coverage. NBC Sports Network aired one-hour highlight shows on 4, 5, 6 and 11 September while NBC will air a special recapping the games on 16 September – a week following the end of the Games. Critics and American athletes expressed disappointment at NBC for its decision not to broadcast any live coverage of the Games, continuing the broadcaster's trend of providing minimal coverage for the Paralympics.

The IPC webcasted approximately 780 hours on its YouTube channel.