With television coverage sparse in some countries over 23,000 viewers from more than 90 countries have tuned in online to watch live and delayed coverage of the Torino 2006 Paralympic Winter Games. The highest number of viewers logging on comes from North American and Europe, according to an International Paralympic Committee (IPC) news release.
ParalympicSport.TV is a free 24/7 television channel broadcasting over the Internet where viewers can watch live broadcasts or see coverage “on demand” at a time convenient to them, says the IPC.
IPC Marketing Manager Alexis Schaefer said, “we have received very positive feedback from all over the world. So far a record breaking number of viewers have logged on to ParalympicSport.TV. The top five countries are the USA, Italy, Canada, Germany and Japan”.
Miriam Wilkens, IPC Media and Communication Director added, “by comparison with other Internet television channels, already in its first four days ParalympicSport.TV was viewed by the same number of people as other channels receive in a month. The average viewer watches Internet television for approximately 45 to 90 minutes while visitors to ParalympicSport.TV are staying for over four hours”.
The Web site is providing more than 100 hours of live coverage from all four winter sports – Alpine Skiing, Ice Sledge Hockey, Nordic Skiing and Wheelchair Curling – as well as the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. The coverage has an English language commentary.
As well as the live coverage the IPC has been providing a daily highlights package with the best performance from the day’s competitions.
