My Games
As we get ready for the Olympics starting in Beijing, the games pose us a bit of a problem. A global event like this should be a gift to a news channel with an audience around the world. All those countries participating, all that action to report on. The trouble is, we can only show tiny snapshots of that action.
The broadcasting rights are tightly restricted by the , who've sold the rights to individual broadcasters in dozens of countries. Channels like ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World News, beamed across the world, are therefore confined to showing a total of just one minute's worth of pictures within our bulletins - and even then not until after midnight of the day that the events took place.
Our answer is - a live interactive TV and online show hosted by Adnan Nawaz from Beijing that taps into the views and passions of fans from all over the world, and cunningly avoids the need to show any official Olympics pictures.
Instead it's about the stories behind the events. We'll be hearing first hand from our audience on how the games are being viewed, experienced and regarded around the world. Who, for example, are Gambians, Finns, Turks and Sri Lankans cheering on and why?
Adnan presented a similar show last year with My Cricket World Cup. Once again we couldn't show any of the actual cricket but the enthusiasm and passion for the game generated a huge response from fans in the participating countries.
The Olympics, of course, is far bigger. Global excitement about dressage or archery may be more diffuse than say, the men's 100 metres, but it will be interesting to explore the world's common reference points.
To kick off our coverage, we've been asking people what three words sum up the Olympics to them. The Chinese and the IOC will be delighted that upbeat words such as peace, togetherness, glory and hope crop up across the world. And, from one disgruntled Londoner: "a waste of money".
Let the fun begin.
