CRI听力:London Olympics Media Blitz Gets into Gear

The IBC in the London Olympic Park bustles with journalists and cameras.

China Central Television or CCTV sent a team of 450 people to the London Olympics.

Jiang Heping, the director of the CCTV Sports Channel, says it's both a challenge and an opportunity because they don't have home field advantage this time.

"This time, our team has expanded to over 450 people, compared to the 100 of previous times, which indicates a sharp rise in the number of reporters. We have also explored 8 different platforms to cover the games and other related programs. The number was only 5 at before. It is a huge challenge for us since we are working far from our homeland."

The Sports Broadcasting Group from France consists of 270 people. As a member of a group jointly sent by several well-known French stations, Frederic Gaillard, the group leader, says they have a unique charm.

"Compared with the team we sent to Beijing, the number of reporters this time has increased to 270, including 60 reporters. Also, the live broadcasting schedule starts at 8:30 in the morning and runs to midnight. The channels include Channel 2, 3, 4 and France Overseas."

Besides the French Sports Broadcasting Group, Eurosport TV channels have always been an important platform for European sporting events.

More than 100 people from the channels are involved in the London Olympics coverage.

As a network of multilingual channels, senior reporter Kari Anne Saude speaks of their broadcasting advantages.

"Our advantage lies in the multilingual channels, with sporting events in more than 20 different languages available for many countries across the world via satellites. What's more, we also have a talk show exclusively for the Olympics."

As for the Russian audience, Alexandra Katyukevich, the director of Russia's Channel One, says that most of their Olympic programs will be edited inside the IBC in London.

"During the Olympics, a large number of programs are filmed and edited here in the IBC, and we will open a new Olympic channel during the two weeks."

In addition, the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company sent nearly 100 staffers to London.

Sergey Yefymov, who is in charge of the broadcasting team, says the scale of the team is second only to the 2008 Olympics, however,

"The scale of coverage is on par with the Beijing Olympics, with all four nationally available channels broadcasting the Olympic Games. We are also broadening the coverage contents because our viewers are not just interested in the matches, but also what else is going on here."

For CRI, I'm Alexandra Blucher.