MUMBAI: The BBC‘s London 2012 website, the new "home" for all of the BBC‘s London 2012 content, has been launched to mark two years through to the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
World Olympic Dreams has also been launched on the site.
The 2012 site, bbc.co.uk/2012, gives users a single entry point to a showcase of BBC content related to London 2012, drawing on news, sport, programmes from the BBC Archive and more. The site will also contain prominent links to external content such as information about volunteering in 2012 and how to buy tickets for the Olympic Games.
Nearer the Games it will be the home of the BBC‘s Torch Relay coverage online, building in technical innovation from the BBC‘s Future Media & Technology division and external development companies.
The Torch Relay begins in May 2012 and will cover the UK, before reaching its climax at the Opening Ceremony in London on 27 July.
Among other highlights will be World Olympic Dreams, a project which will feature 26 individual stories and 46 athletes from around the world as they strive to achieve Olympic glory in 2012, and World Class, a sister project. Also reflected on the site will be the array of high profile Cultural/Festival 2012 activity and the Queen‘s Diamond Jubilee.
The look and feel of the site will adapt to the dominant theme of the 2012 journey. For example, when the Torch Relay is under way, the site will fit with that theme and, before the Games themselves get under way, traffic and travel information will be added so that users can easily check on how to get around London and to the other Olympic venues.
BBC‘s director of London 2012 Roger Mosey says, "Telling the story of London 2012 from now until the end of the Games is one of the biggest challenges the BBC has ever undertaken. We want our coverage to bring the whole of the UK together to enjoy this unprecedented period of events, and the BBC‘s website will be the place where people can find out about everything from the 100 metres final and the latest Olympic News to the greatest cultural performances."
World Olympic Dreams is an innovative multi-platform project which will be broadcast across TV, radio and online and will follow athletes including Abhinav Bindra drawn from six continents and competing in 17 different Olympic sports.
The series of short films will be collated through the BBC‘s worldwide reporting network, with correspondents in each of the countries featured providing the relevant footage.
Viewers will be given an insight into each of the athlete‘s unique stories and very different personal circumstances while they all work towards the same goal of Olympic success: personal training regimes; coaches; diet; family; friends; their likes and dislikes; and the sacrifices they all have to make.
Two new films will air every month and the World Olympic Dreams website will be updated with the latest news from all the athletes. The site will also contain features such as Q&As and blogs as well as the athletes personal social media sites, where users will be able to interact with the athletes.
In addition, BBC Breakfast, World News, World Service, News Channel and BBC Radio 5 Live will carry coverage.
BBC Sport news reporter and Olympic gold medallist Matthew Pinsent will front the series and will be bringing regular updates and reports on each of the 26 stories.
To mark the launch of the new London 2012 website, the BBC Archive is releasing a brand new collection of television and radio programmes online.
Programmes from the archives take you back to the Austerity Games to reveal how the BBC coped with their first time broadcasting television from any Olympic games, and also how the bombed and battered city of London managed to host the Olympics on a shoe-string.
Pictures showing the Olympics from a different angle – from behind the cameras – have been released publicly for the first time. The pictures include shots of crowds cheering on the British team as they parade through Wembley, and the British Gymnastic team getting ready for the Games by practising in Hyde Park.
