Archives for October 2010

This is a post with lots of initials in it. So stand by for not just IOC and LOCOG but OBS, EBU, ODA and BBC - because I want to explain a bit about what we do week in and week out on the BBC 2012 project, and how it takes many cooks to create this particular broth.

It's prompted by a meeting we've just had with one of those sets of initials - the EBU. You may know part of what they do through that entrancing event, the Eurovision Song Contest; but without the EBU and its alliance of European public service broadcasters we would be much the poorer in areas such as our news and music content. And the EBU has traditionally played a major role in sports rights, so it's through the EBU's collective agreement that we have the rights to London 2012 and to the World Cup in 2014. Sadly, the idea of bids encompassing all the European free-to-air channels within the EBU is under threat: Euro 2008 was sold territory-by-territory and so will be the Olympics in 2014/16. But for 2012 the EBU is still the umbrella rightsholder - hence the reason for our team's co-operation with them.

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Our colleagues over at London 2012 always knew that the headline from their announcement today of their ticket prices would most likely be "what's the most expensive?" So even if the bulk of the tickets are available at a reasonable price, it's the figures the media narrative would call "eye-watering" that would, well, catch the eye.

Now all is revealed, and you could say it's certainly a bold gesture. The top price for the opening ceremony will be £2012, while some of the lowest price tickets for the Games will come in at a similarly-branded 20 pounds and 12 pence. And as someone who has 2012 as part of his office phone number, I can hardly complain about the use of "2012" as a gimmick.

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