Minority Olympic sports launch streaming service

A new streaming service dedicated to Olympic medal hopes will arrest a perceived decline in televised coverage of minority sports in the post-grandstand era.

In the 13 years since the BBC show was axed, dozens of new rights packages have been overlooked, despite Team GB’S record medal-winning hauls at successive Games. A host of sports – including rowing, cycling, ice hockey, field hockey, canoeing, taekwondo and amateur boxing – will now feature on a streaming site being launched by governing bodies after Tokyo 2020.

UK Sport and the British Olympic and Paralympic Association have secured 2,600 hours of content across 26 sports for the new over-the-top broadcast platform.

Dominic Coles, the former BBC and Discovery executive, has been appointed as the chair of GB Sports

Media, with the aim to help drive negotiations with broadcast and media platforms.

“I am honoured to be asked to lead this ground-breaking venture, transforming the coverage of some of the best of British sport,” he said. “I have been privileged to have worked with Olympic and Paralympic sports at both the BBC and Discovery, and to have helped bring Team GB and Paralympics’ remarkable achievements to our screens. Now, for the first time, there will be a single destination for many of these sports between Games.”

The project is in partnership with advertising network Omnicom Group and its sports consultancy, Fuse. Behind-the-scenes footage, interviews and original features will also be made available “providing unparalleled access to the transformational journeys of the UK’S Olympic and Paralympic heroes”, the new channel says.

The new platform was described as “pioneering” by Andy Parkinson, chief executive of British Rowing and chair of the nominations committee for GB Sport Media.