The International Paralympic Committee has agreed its latest Japanese partnership ahead of Tokyo’s staging of the 2020 Paralympic Games through a five-year deal with pay-television broadcaster Wowow.
Under the deal, which will run through to the Japanese capital’s hosting of the IPC’s multi-sport showpiece, Wowowwill produce a series of documentaries on para-athletes in the lead up to Tokyo 2020.
Filming will start this month at the IPC Swimming World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, and the first episode will be broadcast on WowowPrime in 2016. The documentaries will focus on the stories of a number of para-athletes and will follow their journey to the Rio 2016, PyeongChang 2018 and Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
Sir Philip Craven, IPC president, said: “The Games in Tokyo are a huge opportunity to grow awareness of the Paralympic Movement in Japan. This documentary series with Wowow, together with our long-term partnership with NHK, will mean far more television coverage of para-sport in Japan than ever before.”
Japanese public-service broadcaster NHK last month acquired exclusive broadcast and exhibition rights to four editions of the Paralympic Games from 2018 to 2024 in a deal the IPC hailed as the biggest in Paralympic broadcasting history.
NHK secured the rights for television, radio, internet, mobile and all other media platforms in Japan for the PyeongChang 2018 and Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, as well as the Games in 2022 and 2024.