International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has won further support for his plan to establish an Olympic television channel and the project will undergo further development in the coming months.
Leading representatives of the Olympic movement met on Saturday in Lausanne, Switzerland, with the Olympic Agenda 2020 process central to their discussions. Olympic Agenda 2020 is Bach’s blueprint for the future of the Olympic movement, with the establishment of a new television channel one of the main parts of this masterplan.
Following Saturday’s meeting, the IOC said: “Participants supported an Olympic TV channel, recognising the potential to greatly increase the presence of sports and the promotion of the Olympic values year round and worldwide. The IOC will contact all the relevant stakeholders in the coming months to further develop the concept.”
Although no firm plans for the channel have been disclosed, it would seek to promote Olympic sports in the years between the Games, with the IOC’s international federations, national Olympic committees, broadcasters and sponsors all participating in the project.
The IOC has previously said it would act as a “curator or moderator” to develop content for the channel, which could follow the model of the National Geographic Channel pay-television service.
Further consultations on Olympic Agenda 2020 are scheduled for September, when Saturday’s contributions, along with the discussions of working groups in June, will be presented to the IOC commissions.
The refined proposals will then be discussed again at an Executive Board meeting in October, before being presented for discussion by the entire IOC membership and final approval at the Extraordinary IOC Session in Monaco, on December 8-9.