By V.Krishnaswamy, IANS,
Beijing : The figures are not in, but the chances are that the current Beijing Olympic Games may be the most televised sporting event in history.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) Director of Communications Giselle Davis commented it was one of the most fantastic Opening Ceremonies she had ever witnessed., saying it was “one that we will remember for the rest of our lives.”
IOC President Jacques Rogge is said to have expressed his sentiments on the brilliant Ceremony to Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) president Liu Qi and said it was a remarkable event which combined creativity and cultural history and managed to bring the nation’s 5,000 years of history to the world through modern technology.
One of the early statistics already compiled indicated the Opening Ceremony had over 840 million television viewers around the globe.
It is expected that the thousands of cameras here will produce some 5,000 hours of coverage, as compared to 3,500 hours which came out of the Athens Games.
Still on the Opening Ceremony, Juan Antonio Samaranch, honorary life president of IOC, spoke highly of it, saying it was very successful.
Samaranch made the remarks in a meeting with the mayor of the city of Huangshan, Chen Qiang, according to People’s Daily. The 88-year-old IOC official is an honorary citizen of Huangshan in Anhui Province.
Interestingly, it was during Samaranch’s tenure as IOC President that Beijing was awarded the Games on July 13, 2001