The Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/news/9907/21/text/pageone7.html TV cover thin for disabled Games Date: 21/07/99 By MATTHEW MOORE, Olympics Editor Channel 7 has agreed to televise 13 hours of next year's Paralympic Games - but there are no plans for any live coverage and it is believed the station will be paid about $3 million to air the events. The daily highlights package of one hour is not scheduled for broadcast until 11pm under the deal Sydney's Paralympic Organising Committee (SPOC) has reached with Seven. It is believed SPOC will pay Channel 7 under a deal reached after negotiations spanning almost two years. But SPOC's chief executive, Ms Lois Appleby, refused to confirm this, saying the deal was "commercial in confidence". Channel 7 would not comment. Last night, chef de mission of Australia's Paralympics team, Mr Paul Bird, criticised the agreement, saying many Australians would miss seeing medal-winning athletes. He was particularly critical of the lack of live coverage and called on Channel Seven to negotiate with SPOC "so that at least the key finals are shown live". With just 15 months until the Games begin, SPOC still has no host broadcaster - a network to cover the main events so that SPOC has footage to sell to foreign networks that wish to show parts of the Games. Ms Appleby said SPOC would have to pay a host broadcaster and hoped to let a tender by this September. She could not say if SPOC had the funds - believed to be about $5 million - to pay a host broadcaster. While she was pleased with the agreement, the first occasion a commercial network had covered the Games, she admitted she would prefer the highlights be shown earlier "but the commercial reality is that's what we have to work with". During the Atlanta Paralympic Games, the ABC broadcast 9 1/2 hours of highlights at 6pm on weekdays and during the afternoon on weekends. This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
