China’s state-run national television broadcaster is teaming with two Internet ventures to deal with droves of online viewers who will be watching the Olympic Games.

China Central Television has announced it is working with the MySpace China social-networking site and online-video site Tudou.com to run an interactive Web site for the August Games.

The CCTV site will offer streaming video broadcasts of events, which will be viewable only in China. The Web site of CCTV, the monopoly national broadcaster, draws relatively little traffic.

There is a conflict of interest in all of this.

Around the world Internet users want to view the Olympics. The Web offers new opportunities for advertising revenue, but also threatens to detract from the lock on Olympic viewers long enjoyed by TV. Selling TV rights is the major source of income for the International Olympic Committee.

The IOC didn’t sell audio and video transmissions rights for Olympics competitions over the Web until 2000.

In many markets like the U.S., the IOC now generally offers the Internet and wireless-broadcast rights for the Games bundled with TV rights, but that is beginning to change. An open tender on the online rights in China last year, which was eventually won by CCTV, was among the first.

CCTV’s Olympics Web site will be a dedicated one within CCTV.com, with a video channel supported by Tudou.com, a three-year-old start-up, and a social-networking section supported by MySpace China, which was launched last April in a joint venture with News Corp., the part of the Murdoch empire which is still interested in China.

The Olympics video site — to go live August 8, the first day of the Games — will include live video, playbacks from the Games, commentary and user-generated content. Users will be able to interact with athletes and coaches using the MySpace China part of the site.

However there may be problems regarding exclusivity.

China’s Internet is home to numerous services that illegally broadcast copyrighted TV shows or movies — even whole TV channels.

Christopher Stokes, the chief executive of United Kingdom-based NetResult, which helps companies enforce sports rights, said, ‘At this stage nobody knows who is going to do the work of making sure the videos are legal.’
Source: Wall Street Journal

It will not be late. Merely that the completion date for the Beijing Olympics marquee venue has been pushed back by a month to allow preparations for the opening and closing ceremonies. It will now be fully ready late April,

Jiang Xiaoyu, in the China Daily newspaper, said, ‘The construction of the venue and the background setting up for the ceremonies are going on together now, which has postponed the working progress of the Bird’s Nest. The Bird’s Nest will be the last but the best venue at the Beijing Games.’

Organizing committee spokesman Sun Weide said the main structure of the stadium was complete and only finishing touches remained.

With enormous twisted beams wound around the exterior like silver twigs in a nest, the 91,000 seat National Stadium is the centerpiece of the games, a massive prestige effort which will make the games memorable and will remain as a wonderful sympol. A legacy of the games.

Jiang Xiaoyu did not elaborate on the preparations for the opening and closing ceremonies — directed by Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou. The details are top secret.

Speculation among ordinary Chinese abounds on the Internet, with many guessing at how the Olympic flame will be lit during the August 8 opening ceremony.
Source: AP

For the first time in Olympic history, a Chinese person will run the second leg of the torch relay in ancient Olympia, Greece, where the flame will be lit.

George Aidonis, the city’s mayor, said, ‘There will be a few changes to the torch relay in Olympia this year, as a Chinese person will run the second leg, carrying the torch from the gate of the ruins to the municipal government hall.’

The Olympic flame for the Beijing Games will be lit in front of the ruins of the Temple of Hera at 12 noon on March 24.

The lighting ceremony of the torch ceremony will start with the ‘High Priestess’, played by Greek actress Maria Nafpliotou. She will then pass the torch to the first runner, a Greek athlete, who will carry it to the temple gateway and pass it over to the Chinese runner.

George Aidonis said, ‘This will be the first time a torchbearer from the Games’ host country will take the flame from a Greek athlete and run the second leg. The Chinese runner will be decided by the Chinese embassy in Greece and the Beijing Olympic organizing committee.’

The mayor said everything is in place, despite the fact the city is still trying to recover from a forest fire last year.

The mayor has participated in every lighting ceremony since 1978, and said he expects this year’s to be something special.

‘It’s hard to describe the feeling you get when the Olympic flame is lit. It is a deeply heartwarming experience. And seeing the flame lit for China — a country that has a long history and rich culture, just like Greece — will make the event even more special. The Olympic spirit will spread rapidly around the world.’
Source: China Daily

Qinhuangdao, the port city in north China’s Hebei province, is going all out to help ensure blue skies as a co-host of this summer’s Olympic Games. The local environmental protection bureau said that Qinhuangdao, 280 kilometers east of Beijing, has invested RMB20 billion (about $2.78 billion) in a major environmental protection drive with the aim to improve air quality for the August Olympics.

This includes 2,00 projects featuring air pollution control, industrial sewage recycling, city garbage treatment, development of environmentally-friendly tourism, water sources protection and afforestation.

The government ordered all desulfurization projects at major coal-fired power plants to be completed before July 1.

Local chemical plants and iron mines are now required to cut pollutants that might darken the Olympic skies and water. In addition, the city has set up an air-quality monitoring network focused on heavily-polluting businesses.

Ji Zhenhai, the provincial environmental protection bureau director said Hebei, the province that surrounds Beijing and Tianjin, has also pledged to spend about RMB21 billion on anti-pollution projects and environmental monitoring stations.

Businesses in heavily-polluting industries — power, iron and steel, chemicals and concrete — will have to cut production or even close if they fail to meet the emission standard during the Games.
Source: China View

News that Yao Ming is suffering a stress injury in his foot which will end his American NBA season has sent shock waves through China.

Yao is the face of the Beijing Olympics, the center of the Chinese sports world, and a national treasure. Even the thought that he may not recover in time to represent China at the Games has the country on edge.

The Chinese blogosphere was flooded with comments from worried fans and Yao supporters. ‘I would rather lose my job or girlfriend,’ read one blog, ‘than lose Yao Ming from the Olympics.’ Another blogger lamented, ‘This is the winter of Chinese basketball.’

At a Houston news conference, Yao Ming said, ‘If I cannot play in the Olympics for my country this time, it will be the biggest loss in my career to right now.’

ABC sports analyst Christine Brennan said, ‘Yao Ming in many ways is a little Johnny Appleseed and a little Tiger Woods and a little Michael Jordan. Put all that together and that’s what this man means to China.’

All the worry may end up being premature.

Doctors say Yao likely faces a three to four month recovery after surgery, which would give him time to recover for the Olympics.

Some have even suggested that the injury may be a blessing in disguise because Yao will have more time to rest before the Games than he would have had he finished the season with the Rockets.
Source: ABC News