The Channel 4 ads across Britain have said ‘Thanks for the warm-up’ and with tickets almost sold out for the Paralympic Games, there will be great interest in that station’s TV coverage. 
So much so that it is likely to enjoy its biggest ever single event advertising with packages of spots around the Games coverage being sold for in the region of €125,000.
Setanta will deliver free to air coverage of the Games to an Irish audience in a deal sponsored by Allianz, and it will also be streamed live on the Paralympics Ireland website.
A number of sponsors, both in Ireland and the UK have been drawn by the greater commercial opportunities around the event as well as the core values of the Paralympics movement itself.
In Britain supermarket giant Sainsbury had no involvement with the Olympics but are a key sponsor at the Paralympics using David Beckham as a brand ambassador in the TV spots which it will run during coverage of the games starting at the end of this month.  British Olympic partners could not do similar during the Olympics because BBC coverage does not carry advertising in the domestic market.
Cathal Miller has been selected to carry the Irish flag at the opening ceremony and will be part of the team departing Dublin this evening for a pre-Games camp in Portugal ahead of arriving at the athlete’s village just prior to the opening ceremony on August 29th.
Next week Sport for Business will carry a series of profiles on the Paralympics Ireland sponsors.  On how they got involved and how they will be activating their relationship with the athletes and the sports of the Paralympic 2012 games.