In the week that our colleagues in 91Èȱ¬ Sport are providing extensive live coverage of the World Track Cycling Championships in Denmark, I've been thinking about one of the big tasks for London 2012: whether we can significantly improve the level of interest in the UK in Olympic sports.
This isn't so much about participation, important though that is and the topic that prompted interesting comments from some of you in response to a recent blog. It's more about whether the sports become bigger in media terms with audiences developing a continuing interest in them - or whether they have their moment in the sun in 2012 and then drift back into the shadows under that rather clichéd title of "minority sports".
Read the rest of this entry
In the latest of our occasional series of contributions from other members of the 2012 team, my colleague Amanda Farnsworth - who's the overall project executive for the 91Èȱ¬ - reports on a journey this week to my home patch in Yorkshire...
As a little girl I used to love it when the circus came to town - the greasepaint, the excitement, the spectacle.
Well, there was no greasepaint on Tuesday but plenty of excitement as brought their UK Torch Relay tour to the ground at Headingley to tell people from Yorkshire and Humberside about plans for the Torch in 2012.
Although there will be over nine million tickets on sale for the Games, not everyone, of course, will want to, or be able to, come to London to experience an event first hand.
But through the Torch Relay - the Olympics will come to you.
Read the rest of this entry
Here at the 91Èȱ¬ we've the simple aim of being the place where the story of is told. But we're aware of the traps: one is that we bore everyone senseless by swamping the airwaves and peaking too early, and another is that we under-report and under-cook the biggest UK event in our lifetimes.
There's also a risk of being caricatured as cheerleaders because we have such a stake in Olympic broadcasting, and we're conscious that our project team operates largely among people who are utterly consumed by the Olympic year in prospect - which isn't the case for most of our audiences.
So the trick is to make sure the independent journalism is being done now, and the longer-term programmes are being commissioned, ready for the point when "Olympic world" and "real world" coincide.
Read the rest of this entry
I'm Roger Mosey, the 91Èȱ¬'s director of London 2012. That means I'm overseeing all the 91Èȱ¬'s 2012 preparations including not just sport but the Cultural Olympiad, our Olympic news and information services and everything that will bring the story of the London Games to audiences at home and abroad. I want to share here what we're planning - and debate some of the big issues. You can also follow me on .
