RTÉ will deliver a total of 2,300 hours of coverage from the 2012 London Olympics which gets under way in two weeks time.  This will be via up to 12 high definition video streams available through RTE TV and Digital.  To watch every moment of the coverage would take a single person over three months continuous viewing.
TV coverage will be broken into four slots beginning with London Olympics 2012 at 9.30am on RTE2.  Peter Collins will present live action from London as it unfolds up until 1.00pm including the athletics and swimming heats.
Following this, Michael Lyster on weekdays and Tracy Piggott at the weekend will present continuing coverage of live action from 1.00pm-4.00pm and will be joined by some of Ireland’s top sporting names for analysis of a range of events including boxing and road cycling.
Darragh Maloney will anchor coverage on London 2012 Olympics from 4.00pm-7.00pm featuring regular Olympic News Reports and updates on the Irish athletes as well as live action including gymnastics, boxing, track cycling finals and basketball featuring the US dream team.
Highlights of the day and major finals will then be hosted each evening from 7pm by Bill O’Herlihy, presenting coverage of his 10th Olympics.
RTÉ’s 12 HD video streams from London 2012 – providing an estimated 2,000 hours of coverage from the greatest sporting spectacle in the world – will be available to users online and on mobile.
RTÉ.ie/olympics will also provide daily live blogs, news stories, results, schedules, Irish athlete profiles, on-demand video and audio clips, social media updates, and behind-the-scenes blogs from Irish Olympians including Mark Kenneally (marathon), Scott Evans (badminton) and Rob Heffernan (walking).
RTÉ has been broadcasting coverage of the Olympic Games since 1956 with the first radio coverage of the Olympic Games in Melbourne featured on Junior Sports Magazine, presented by Harry Thuillier. Following the establishment of Ireland’s television channel Telefis Éireann in 1961, the first Irish television coverage of the Olympics was in 1964 at the Tokyo games.
Ryle Nugent, RTÉ’s Group Head of Sport said: “This year RTÉ’s Olympic coverage will extend even further than ever before with all television output available in HD along with a planned 50% increase in the number of live streams available online and extensive radio coverage throughout the schedule.”
RTÉ’s television coverage can also be seen live across any other country in Europe via the EBU’s Olympic Portal at www.eurovisionsports.tv/london2012/
It is a massive undertaking for the broadcaster with large teams of journalists, technicians and presenters.  Some of the cost will be offset by the presence of Cadburys as the official sponsor of the coverage. Their deal is worth an estimated €700,000
The Future of Olympic Broadcasting (Published June 15th, 2012)
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