Beeb cold shoulders Winter Paralympics

By Paul Carter

The BBC will not be broadcasting any live television coverage of the Winter Paralympics, blaming “budget restrictions."

Despite offering over 160 hours of live coverage of the Winter OIympics, Paralympics coverage will be limited to online news reports, and a solitary one-hour highlights programme.

A spokesman for the BBC said that along with financial considerations, another reason for the lack of a television presence was due to the “time zone factor,” despite the fact that both the Winter Olympics and Paralympics will take place in Vancouver and Whistler.

He said: “We will be reporting the Winter Paralympics daily via news reports and the BBC Sport website using reporters and crews based in Vancouver and Whistler.

“There are provisional plans in place to stream the curling live through the BBC Sport website and BBC Red Button if the team make the medal rounds and we will also be broadcasting a one hour highlights programme on Monday 22 March on BBC Two.”

Speaking last month following the decision to award the broadcast rights for the 2012 summer Paralympics to Channel 4, Roger Mosey, the BBC’s director of London 2012 denied that the future of the corporation’s commitment to disability sport had been jeopardised.

“We will, of course, continue to support the Paralympics, and our commitment to disability sport in general remains,” he said.

However, the decision to not broadcast any live coverage of the Winter Paralympics on television is bound to raise concerns over that continued commitment.

The spokesman said that scheduling decisions were made “several months ago.”

Paralympics GB, the organisation responsible for selecting, preparing, entering, funding and managing Britain’s teams at the Paralympics and Winter Paralympics, strangely refused to criticise the BBC.

A spokeswoman said: “The planned BBC coverage is an increase to what was shown in Turin four years ago and we particularly welcome the addition of daily news reports and the potential for live streaming of the curling to the planned coverage this time around.

“Any queries about the amount of coverage planned should be directed towards the BBC.”

Paralympics TV, an online streaming service operated by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) will be streaming the majority of the Winter Paralympics live at www.paralympicsport.tv

The Winter Paralympics take place from 12-21 March.