Ninth IOC/BOCOG press conference

Beijing Radio Station

Question to Timo. You gave us some statistics already according to your experience. Can you possibly give me an estimate of final statistics? In addition, your assessment of the conduct of the broadcasting of the Games, is it running smoothly or not?

Timo Lumme

I hope I understood your question. I think your second question is the broadcast running smoothly? I can tell you that the broadcasters are very happy. They are very happy with the reception back in their home countries from the broadcasters for the Games across many platforms, whether it is TV, internet, radio, mobile or others.

I think your first question was to give a sense of the overall global viewership, if I am correct. What I can say is that the amount of hours the broadcasters globally are broadcasting in their home territory is vastly superior to past Games. It is something like, 4 times more than Sydney, 3 times more than Athens. It is partially because there are more media platforms available.

It is partially because there are more media platforms available, and also reflects the huge interest that the public around the world have the Olympic Games. In terms of ratings, of course it is difficult for me to give you rating of every country and every territory in the world. But as a generalization, I can tell you that in the general, ratings are higher than for any Olympics before. For example, ratings are higher on the Asian time zones, in Japan, in Australia, and in many other territories for Beijing compare to Sydney. In North America, particularly the US, we are fairly confident that the total amount of viewers of the Beijing Games will be more than for any other televised Olympics in the US, which includes the 1996 Atlanta Games. So it could be more than for home games. The other thing we are seeing is that despite the fact that in some areas, particularly Europe, where gymnastics taking place in the morning or the evening games taking during the course of the day, we are still seeing high TV audiences, and very high internet audiences. So I think the conclusion to be drawn here is the people are watching it at home as well as at work.

The Daily Telegraph

Two questions. First for Giselle, the second for Timo. On the issue of doping, have you got back yet the result of the test from the 100 meters on Saturday night. How do you interpret at this stage the low number of positive test you seem to have. You have done more than 4000, you only have 4, it seems a quite low number. How do you interpret that? And for Mr. Lumme, given the last few weeks of reporters covering the Games, and the focuses have been on media freedom, you worry about the damages to IOC's image that the failure of some of the promises the Beijing organizer have failed to fulfill?

Giselle Davies

Hi David. We are given that information in terms of sample collections returned. I am sure you understand the perspective of the medical authorities that go through that just walk through the process that doing some 300 sorts of samples per day 350 on the maximum limit. I don't have the information that I can share with you with the degree of timing further than that. With regards on how we interpret the stats, IOC was very clear on the lead out to these Games that we would work in consult of all the doping authorizes, the world anti-doping agencies, the world international federations, of who in terms of the test they under took in the built up to these Games. So we feel that deterrent effect plays a part in what we see. Athletes know that at this event, the IOC which is the organization running the doping programs means business when it comes to not having those who cheat to be part of these events. We take an appraisal when this Games is completed. That is how we see things at this stage.

As for the second question. I think Timo will give you some perspective. We have marketing research and surveys, which actually give us the picture from the perspective outside the framework and babble of this room. And the feedback that we get from that doesn't concern us at all in terms of their being a negative impact of the image. On the contrary, the figures are very positive in terms of confirming that this Beijing Olympics are a huge successful. There are a number of appraisals we can appoint you to. The AP, confirms that the vast majority of the general public says that coming to China was the right choice to host the Games here. So in terms of the image, yes, in this room we have to take some tough questions. That is part of the job, but in terms of the wide impact, we don't have any concern. I don't know if Timo wanted to add anything specifically.

Timo Lumme

I only need to say that the viewers corroborated by my clients they call this the sponsor cooperation and the broadcasters. They are very happy and of course the Olympic Games is about a great sport that something outside the focus.

Reporter from South Africa

My question is to Mr. Timo Lumme. I'd like a clear brief of what is positive and what is negative for Beijing comparing to Athens. Thank you.

Timo Lumme

Do you mean on the content of broadcast coverage of the Games? Yes. I think, as I have already said, the very big positive for the IOC and for the Olympic movement is that the global interest for the Olympic Games is growing. We always knew that bring the Games to China of course would open up the Olympic Games, the Olympicism to a cultural of mankind in a very powerful way and I think we are all living in that right now. We are particularly happy that we have been able to work very closely with our partners to harness the technolgy of media to reach more people than ever before. Each of the various media I knew, I talked about TV, but also radio, should not be underestimated. That is reaching many many hundreds of millions of people, perhaps where broadcasters may not be immediately available. I already mentioned that we have been able to ensure that there has been full coverage in some territories like in Indonesia, some of the pacific island, like Micronesia, American Samoa which had either limited or no coverage in Athens. Also we are closely with the European broadcasting union to make sure that some of the counties in Central Asia, like Kyrghizstan and Turkmenistan had been able to access the coverage so that continued to be a pushed for the universality of the coverage of the Games, which obviously increase as the technolgy side on the reach of all media increases. On the negative side, it is really, there are always challenges. I guess one of the challenges as we developed the digital side, there was almost from nothing in Athens.

To global coverage, we also have to ensure our partner's exclusivity is protected. Once we have had some challenges, in terms of the piracy of images from some rights holders not being limited to the territory or geo-blocked. The very fact that we have made the images widely available had really counted the threats of piracy where we had problems. We work very closely with our colleague in BOCOG and Chinese authorities. And also a lot of the big websites, to ensure that there is a full cooperation to make sure unauthorized users of the Olympic video is limited. And we also work very closely to host broadcaster BOB to institute certain technological method just to make sure that this monitoring and actioning has worked well. We feel that these challenges up until now have been covered up equivalently.

CCTV.com

To follow on the question raised by our friend from New York Sun on the 21 points. I have never heard of anything like that. I have heard, something like Catch 22, which is a book. I have been following the press conferences at the MPC on a daily basis, however, the mentioning of the 21 points was the very first time, when raised by a foreign colleague earlier. My personal view is that my freedom has been un-restricted. Secondly, a question to Timo. You mentioned that the viewership on the IOC website is pretty high. And my question is, what's you take on the Chinese viewership on the BOCOG official website?

Timo Lumme

Thank you very much. I don't have the exact statistics. But what I can say is that in general terms, and I think this would also apply to Beijing Games Official Website, is that the amount of traffic on people viewing the website over took the total amount for the Athens Games already during the first week. So the total amount of traffic was expected to be a multiple of what happened in Athens.

Giselle Davies

If I can just add at all to what you said. Obviously the Olympic.org, which is the IOC site is not a Games-time website by the organizers. As Lumme said, we had in the first week more visitors to that site than through the whole Athens Games. For the first time we launched content of the host country so in Mandarin. We've seem some phenomenal rates in terms of the Chinese population, the Chinese people coming to that part of the site. For the organizer's website, I am sure they have some statistics to share with you.

Reporter from Switzerland

This is a question for Giselle. The NOG human rights in China reported this morning two Chinese Hu Yangyuan and Yang Chuying, have been ordered to serve one year of reeducation through labor after repeatedly applying for permit to hold demonstration. Is IOC aware of that, and if yes, how would you comment on that?

Giselle Davies

The answer is no. I haven't seen that specific report. We will take the time to take a look at this after this press briefing. However, the Games here clearly are focusing on sports. And we are aware of wider issues. But the IOC took the decision to come to Beijing because opening the door engaging is the way forward. It can be a catalyst for development. We see, just by the fact that we are all here discussing important matters which for outsiders, there is a sporting remit that that catalyst affect isn't happening. Challenges can not be the panacea for the ills. So I will look at that case, but I am not sure if it is directly related to the Games as you described it.

ABC Radio

I hear what you are saying, but there hasn't been press conferences everyday. Why isn't there a daily report? And why don't we have the opportunities to ask questions every day?

Giselle Davies

You certainly have the opportunity to ask questions any day, every day, around the clock. We have both on the IOC side and the BOCOG side, team staff here to help you. We chose to do the press briefing every other day as a reflection that the Games are running very smoothly, as we explained in this room before. But please don't hesitate to ask, just if you have any questions, outside the time we are here on the stage, we have emails, telephones, mobiles, we are here to answer your questions.

Foreign Reporter

I have a couple of questions. Speaking to NBC, I asked them obviously about the fact that they delayed the coverage of the 100 meters finals. This is not a pretty good time zones from their point of view. I asked them if they were put on any pressure on the IOC about holding the next Games after London in a more meaningful time zone for them. They said, not that they wanted to comment upon. I'd like you to expand on that a little bit if that is possible. Just tell us exactly what those discussions are about that from NBC towards you and the 2016 Games. Secondly as well, given the viewering figures you have had from China, specifically here, 843 millions of people watching the ceremony, how much exactly did the broadcasters in China pay for the rights in these games if possible, I understand that it is in the public domain.

Timo Lumme

Thanks very much. In terms of the selection of the 2016 host city, historically, the broadcast rights in the United States have not yet been granted for the quadrennium of the 2014 and the 2016 Games. In otherwise, there is no television partner for the Sochi Games or for the 2016 Games in the United States. Historically the IOC has negotiated the sale of the broadcast rights in advance of the selection of the host city. That is likely to be our intention again for the US market. We have not taken a final decision. In respect to your second question, the rights fee, the CCTV's rights actually come through an umbrella agreement between the IOC and the Asian Broadcasting Union. This was an agreement that was reached in the late 1990 which covered multiple games from Sydney right up to the Beijing games. The rights fee for Asian Broadcasting Union which covers essentially greater Asia which excludes Japan, Korean and Chinese Taipei. For the Beijing Games, it was 18.5 million dollars. After that it's the Asian Broadcasting Unions and the participating members choice have divided the bail out amongst themselves. That is not the IOC business somewhere that were not preview to that information.

IOC Media Outreach Program

My question is for Timo Lumme. You mentioned the online program that you have initiated for this Games which is fantastic. But as you know there is a part of the developing world where the small local radio stations and the newspapers also play a part. I wanted to know what plans your office has to get the journalists to cover the Games. Could you also share a bit more light about the future with regards to that area which is certainly not available online? The radio coverage and local newspapers, what does the IOC have in store for such media which obviously does not have access to the media or internet online?

Timo Lumme

A lot of our agreements are either directly with broadcasters in some territories. But in many territories, the IOC, the Beijing Games deals with the broadcasting union which represent the individual media companies in various territories. So what we do, what the IOC does is that we set a framework of coverage, set obligations to essentially maximize the coverage. In general terms, this means two things. One is that we want to see as much broadcast coverage on television which, of course, is the main media in many countries which translates to many obligations usually for summer Games of around 200 hours which is divided by 16 days of competition, which is obviously quite a few hours a day. We asked for the ceremonies to be broadcast live, which is of course subjected to the editorial choice of a particular country to make sure that the events are key for national interest, whether there maybe medalists, but also key points in the Games, for instance, a 100 meters finals are also broadcasts.

The second thing is that we asked depending on the condition and level of development in the particular countries, focuses given to using other media to make sure that we have 4 coverage across all the other media. Radio is very important in that sense. I think you will see in the IBC that most of the right holding partners have radio partners. Of course, there are outside the IBC non-right holding media companies. There are many radio as well as television companies. The question of online of course is a very specific in the development of all the states of the media market.

In some markets, we have seen that the amount of online coverage is now far greater than actually on over the air television because the nature of the media allows you to put thousands of hours out, because you can put multiple channels at the same time, you can broadcast live and you can broadcast it on video demand and get it when you need. Hope this answers your question.

Sun Weide

So this comes to end. Thank you all for coming. Our next briefing is after the day after tomorrow. Hope to see you then. Bye.