The eyes of the world will be focussed on Glasgow from 23 July, when the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow takes place at Celtic Park stadium in the East End of the city.
It’s the first time the Games have been back in the UK since Manchester in 2002 – and the first time they’ve been back in Scotland since the Edinburgh Games in 1986. Since then audience expectations for coverage of major sporting events have increased hugely, with the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s coverage of the Olympic Games setting a new benchmark for choice, scale and quality. The standard has been set very high when it comes to broadcasting Scotland’s largest and highest profile event for many years - both in the sporting field, and through our cultural output.
Covering 17 sports, across 14 venues, over 11 days we’ll bring audiences the most extensive coverage yet from a Commonwealth Games – across TV, radio and online.
So that means all-day coverage on Â鶹ԼÅÄ One and Â鶹ԼÅÄ Three, Red Button, live streaming of every sport online and continuous coverage on both Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 5 Live and Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio Scotland, bringing all the medal action as it happens.
Â鶹ԼÅÄ Breakfast will be on Clydeside for the duration of the Games while we’ll also have reporters based across all the venues so that we can bring you a front-row seat as we did for both London 2012 and this year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi.
As the domestic rights holder for Glasgow 2014, you’d expect us to offer audiences a fantastic range of output that matches the ambition of the Games itself. But as a public service broadcaster, you’d also expect us to take every step to ensure the resources allocated to our sports coverage and cultural output is proportionate and justified.
Broadcasting so much live content from 14 different venues across 11 days is a challenge, but I’m confident that our team of reporters, presenters, camera crew, vision mixers, producers and directors will provide the same amazing programmes for our audiences that they brought two years ago from London.
765 staff, third party suppliers and freelancers worked on our critically-acclaimed coverage of London 2012. There are fewer sports and days of competition at a Commonwealth Games but instead of a singular ‘Team GB’, we must tell the stories of competitors from all four nations of the UK plus the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. We’ve worked hard to identify ways of reducing our staffing requirements for Glasgow 2014, leading to a significant reduction in the number of staff working on the event while still ensuring we can deliver all of the action. In total, 609 staff, third party suppliers and freelancers, 20% less than for the London Games, will help us to deliver Glasgow 2014. Not all those people, of course will be on-site for the duration of the Games – but our commitment to cover every sport in every location for multiple Â鶹ԼÅÄ outlets, requires dedicated teams in order to mirror the editorial approach to London 2012. And for the sake of doubt, let me assure you that every member of staff has a clear role to play to bring the unparalleled coverage we're bringing.
You won’t be surprised to learn that our numbers are made up of teams from many areas of the Â鶹ԼÅÄ, first and foremost Â鶹ԼÅÄ Sport but representation is also essential from the likes of Â鶹ԼÅÄ Scotland, Â鶹ԼÅÄ Wales, Â鶹ԼÅÄ Northern Ireland, Gaelic, the 12 English Regions and Â鶹ԼÅÄ News. More so than any other event, the sporting stories from a Commonwealth Games need to be told to national, regional and local audiences.
Our TV sports coverage will be split between Pacific Quay in Glasgow and Quay House in Salford. As you can imagine, programme teams from Â鶹ԼÅÄ Scotland are extremely keen to reflect the action from the relevant venues, reporting the stories as they happen, including Sportsound, Fred MacAulay on Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio Scotland and our news outlets. Pacific Quay will be the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s ‘mission control’ for the duration of the Games, with network and regional programming coming live using the state-of-the art facilities in our Glasgow base. This is a first for the Â鶹ԼÅÄ and will save us significant sums of money.
Pacific Quay will also be the site for the bulk of our non-sport activity with 16 days of events at our pop-up venue ‘Â鶹ԼÅÄ at the Quay’, which will be based in Millennium Square. This will bring free events to visitors to the area, including a string of popular Â鶹ԼÅÄ programmes, such as The One Show, Radio 2’s Ken Bruce, Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 5 Live, Mastermind and A Question of Sport.
Glasgow 2014 is a highly ambitious project for the Â鶹ԼÅÄ â€“ probably the biggest and most complex we’ll have delivered from Scotland. The London Olympics raised the bar for the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s coverage of big sporting events and we hope in Glasgow 2014 there will be something for everyone from the Â鶹ԼÅÄ, no matter which nation or territory you are supporting.
is Head of Commonwealth Games
- Read
- Read also
- Follow Â鶹ԼÅÄ at the quay on .