Earlier this week, IPC announced they they'd be broadcasting 5 more Paralympic sports in Tokyo 2020. The coverage will now include a record number of 21 disciplines from 19 sports plus the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.
The 5 sports that will have live coverage for the first time are para-archery, para-canoe, para-equestrian, para-rowing, and para-shooting. The full list of all 21 disciplines can be found here. The Rights Holding Broadcasters from around the world will decide on the events and the disciplines to broadcast lives in their respective countries.
“Our strategy throughout has been to invest all additional revenues generated from TV rights sales back in to the broadcasting plan for Tokyo 2020. This is allowing us to broadcast live nine disciplines and seven sports more compared to Rio 2016, a huge leap forward which will benefit broadcasters and the whole Paralympic Movement." said Alexis Schaefer, the IPC’s Commercial, Broadcasting and Partnerships Director.
With such wide coverage, the expectations are to exceed Rio 2016 Paralympic Games audience of 4.1 billion people.
The Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) will not only deliver live broadcast, but will also create short form content for a wide range of platforms such as digital and social media.
Para-Canoe which was added as a new discipline for the first time in Rio 2016 welcomed the news and attributed it to their growing popularity and hard work by athletes, coaches, officials, staff members, and volunteers.
The news comes timely as the world is celebrating '1 Year to Go' for the Tokyo 2020 Games. While coverage of Paralympic Games is still nowhere close to the Olympic Games level, we celebrate these milestones as we get closer to finding equity in our representation.
Original Source: Tokyo 2020 International Communications Team