The BBC is continuing its strategy of collaborating with the country’s digital media industry by allowing more third-party content in its coverage of the 2012 London Olympics. Head of interactive Ben Gallop told the Westminster e-Forum yesterday that the Beeb was willing to work with sports governing bodies, TV producers and the public to deliver the best coverage, regardless of where it’s from. He said, (via Journalism.co.uk): “We want to show the very best of BBC content and the audience’s, but what we need to take very seriously are the rights issues…A key part of our website will be thinking of the Olympics as a national event and we really want to showcase that.”

Gallop said he hoped that the 2012 London Olympics will have the same effect on digital media that Queen’s coronation did on TV back in 1953. Thousands bought their first TV sets to watch Elizabeth II being crowned and 2012 could similarly switch thousands on to online content, Gallop hopes. During this year’s Beijing Olympics in August, the BBC Sport website averaged 8.5 million unique users a week and there were 36 million video views. Views for the spectacular opening ceremony alone surpassed the 2.4 million that the 2004 Athens Olympics generated in its entire fortnight.

—The first of many rights deals for the next Olympics has already been signed by Spanish web portal Terra, part of the Telefónica group, which has bagged the exclusive South America mobile and online video rights to the London games as well as the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. The International Olympic Committee deal does not cover Brazil—there is a separate deal with TV Record to show the games there—and only applies to online video and mobile, not to IPTV. Release.

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