CVM secures local Olympics rights from IMC

André Lowe, Senior Staff Reporter

Local television company CVM TV yesterday announced their securing of the exclusive broadcasting rights for the London 2012 Olympic Games from International Media Content Limited (IMC) - the parent body of subscriber cable network SportsMax, at an official signing on ceremony at the Wyndham hotel in New Kingston.

This means that CVM TV will be the sole television broadcaster of official content directly from the Olympic Games to the Jamaican market, representing a historic occasion, as this is the first time that a single local broadcaster has commanded such exclusivity for the Games.

IMC, which will be outsourcing the rights to some 29 other media outlets across the region, will produce much of the content through a centralised team spearheaded by veteran broadcasters Lance Whittaker, Newton Robertson and Michael White.

Additionally, CVM TV will be generating their own content, with some 200 hours of regionally customised programming expected to come out of the Games.

Michael Lee-Chin, CVM TV's chief shareholder and chairman of the parent company AIC Limited, promised that the network will go out of its way to ensure that the best coverage is presented to the Jamaican audience.

"No effort will be spared to transmit the excitement of the games to our highly expectant Jamaican audience. We plan to broadcast over 200 hours of coverage, ensuring the appropriate focus on the events that are most relevant to us," said Lee-Chin. "CVM TV is most excited and we will do our utmost best to make sure that we live up to the expectation of all of you."

Cement reputation

Vice-president for sales and marketing, Ronnie Sutherland, believes this latest acquisition will cement the station's reputation as a leader in sports, following their exclusive coverage of the FIFA World Cup last year and their local content.

"It is important to us because we want to be recognised as the sports leaders in Jamaica television and we believe we are there, we lead on all sports of interest in Jamaica," said Sutherland.

"We started with football, we carry the local schoolboy football exclusively, the Digicel Premier League and, of course, we did the big one last year, the FIFA World Cup, continuing to 2014, because we have those rights as well," added Sutherland.

"In the Olympics, we had always shared the rights but what we decided to do this year was step out exclusively which, I'm sure, will cement our place as the undisputed leaders," Sutherland added, before pointing out that the station will start their promotion as early as July 27 this year.

"The whole idea is to use all of that time to build our product and engage the market. We are going to take advantage of the popularity of the Olympics to take the station around the country, in every nook and cranny, exciting the market," he added.

IMC/SportsMax CEO Oliver McIntosh is happy with the partnership and is confident that this will be the best presentation of the Olympic Games in the Caribbean.

"This will be the broadest presentation of the Olympics in the Caribbean, we will be showing multiple feeds, originating not from the typical US broadcaster," said McIntosh.

"We will see more Common-wealth sports such as football, more track and field, and what it especially means is that we will see more hours of coverage of the Olympics. That has been our mantra ever since IMC was started eight years ago, to present sports that the Caribbean audience want to see in a way that they want to see it."