Africa's Olympic win

26 May 2008

The African Union of Broadcasting (AUB) has concluded an agreement with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to acquire the free-to-air broadcast rights for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. The broadcast rights relate to 41 sub-Saharan territories excluding South Africa.

The AUB have appointed Octagon-African Broadcast Network (ABN) as its commercial and sales agency to fulfil the mandate of evaluating, packaging and selling broadcast sponsorship and advertising around these rights.

According to Qondisa Ngwenya, Octagon's Group MD, "The Summer Olympic Games certainly represent a very compelling proposition. We have developed a broadcast strategy that is designed to offer the maximum pan-African exposure to sponsors and advertisers whilst eliminating some of the obstacles that are associated with dealing with 41 different broadcasting environments."

"Our feed will reach an estimated audience of 129 million people and we will broadcast 126 hours over the course of the Olympics. Although 41 sporting categories will be contested at these Summer Games, due to limited broadcast time available and minimal interest in some of the categories only 14 sporting categories will form the core of our broadcast strategy," explains Larry Atiase CEO of the AUB.

"The sporting categories were chosen based on the popularity of sport on the continent, traditional African participation in the sporting category, the likelihood of African medals in sporting category and the potential for good television," says Qondisa.

The 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games will officially open on Friday, 8 August 2008. The Beijing Games represents a great opportunity for brands to associate themselves with not only the biggest sporting event in the world but the emergence of New China.

For more information, visit Octagon: http://www.octagon.com, or African Broadcast Network: http://www.abnafrica.tv/