page_title: 2012 Summer Paralympics
section_title: Broadcasting
hierarchical_section_title: 2012 Summer Paralympics / Broadcasting
caption_attribution_description: English: Trafalgar Square arranged to show the 2012 Summer Paralympics on a big screen, showing "BT London Live" courtesy of Channel 4 Television. Live music concerts took place in the evening.[1][2][3]
context_page_description: The 2012 Summer Paralympics, the 14th Summer Paralympic Games, and also more generally known as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, that took place in London, United Kingdom from 29 August to 9 September 2012. These Paralympics were one of the largest multi-sport events ever held in the United Kingdom after the 2012 Summer Olympics, and until the date the largest Paralympics ever: 4,302 athletes from 164 National Paralympic Committees participated, with fourteen countries appearing in the Paralympics for the first time ever.
  The lead-up to these games prominently emphasized the return of the Paralympic movement to its spiritual birthplace: in 1948, the British village of Stoke Mandeville first hosted the Stoke Mandeville Games, an athletics event for disabled British veterans of the Second World War held to coincide with the opening of the Summer Olympics in London. They were the first-ever organized sporting event for disabled athletes and served as a precursor to the modern Paralympic Games.
context_section_description: Broadcast rights to the 2012 Summer Paralympics were sold to local broadcasters by LOCOG, with production of the world feeds sub-contracted to Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS). The Games saw a significant growth in media coverage for the Paralympics; LOCOG reached deals with over 36 broadcasters to televise the Games in over 100 countries. LOCOG chief Sebastian Coe stated that "beyond how the commercial value of this package has raised the bar financially for the Paralympic movement, the fantastic broadcast coverage we have agreed will help us take advantage of this opportunity to inspire disabled people of all ages to take up sport and be a catalyst for continued change in public attitudes towards disability." LOCOG reached deals with broadcasters such as China Central Television, the Korean Broadcasting System, NHK, Rede Globo and SporTV in Brazil, the TV Pool (a consortium of free-to-air broadcasters in Thailand consisting of Channel 3, Channel 5, BBTV Channel 7, and Modernine TV), and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to air coverage. The games were to be broadcast on television in the United Kingdom by Channel 4, replacing long-time Paralympic broadcaster BBC in a £9 million deal; the BBC still held radio rights, with coverage on BBC Radio 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra. The IPC webcast approximately 780 hours of its coverage through its YouTube channel, with four streams of coverage in English and one in Spanish.
  Channel 4's coverage of the Games was billed as the most extensive Paralympic coverage ever broadcast in the United Kingdom; it promised over 150 hours of live coverage throughout the Games on Channel 4 and sister channel More4, and additional coverage online and through special channels carried by Freesat, Sky and Virgin TV (in both standard and high definition). The broadcaster also invested around £600,000 towards training new on-air personalities with expertise in disability sports for the Games, many of whom were disabled themselves—they would also be joined by Channel 4 News anchor Jon Snow, and BBC Sport personality Clare Balding. Channel 4 also broadcast supplemental programming to lead towards the Games, such as Paralympic-focused documentaries, other IPC championships, and That Paralympic Show, a weekly program focusing on disability sports. During the Games, comedian Adam Hills (who himself was born without a right leg, and hosted the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's coverage of the Beijing Paralympics) would host The Last Leg, a Paralympic-themed late night talk show that followed the conclusion of each night's coverage. Channel 4's coverage of the Games drew relatively high viewership; its coverage of the opening ceremony was seen by an average of 7.6 million viewers, a 40% share, and peaked at 11.2 million viewers—making it one of Channel 4's most-watched programmes in network history. Primetime coverage saw an average of 3.3 million viewers nightly, while viewership peaked at 4.5 million viewers during the men's T44 200m final where Alan Oliveira beat Oscar Pistorius for the gold medal. Its coverage of the closing ceremony peaked at 7.7 million viewers.
  Similarly extensive coverage was televised by RTVE in Spain, with approximately 150 hours of live coverage on Teledeporte and TVE HD. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation aired over 100 hours of coverage across its networks during the Paralympics, with coverage on both ABC1 and ABC2. Coverage of the Games set viewership records for ABC, peaking at 1.6 million viewers on average (in comparison to 1.3 million in Beijing), while ABC2 peaked at a 4.7% viewership share, beating competing digital networks. ABC's coverage was also nominated for a Logie Award for "Most Popular Sports Program".
  In the United States, NBC Sports provided five-and-a-half hours of coverage in total, and no live coverage. Pay TV channel NBC Sports Network aired one-hour highlight shows on 4, 5, 6 and 11 September while NBC broadcast a special recapping the Games on 16 September – a week following their conclusion. The United States Olympic Committee provid
caption: A public viewing event on the BT London Live stage at Trafalgar Square.
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