Parkman, who has long experience with the Olympic Movement, recently managing operations for 1,800 hours of televised competition for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, said that the operation currently has around 18 staff in Lausanne and Madrid, but expected to be up to around the 50 mark by the end of the year.

Parkman also disclosed that the new entity - approved in Monaco, indeed in the same building in which he was speaking, by International Olympic Committee (IOC) members nearly a year ago - would try to produce about 250 hours of original programming/content over its first year in operation.

“We are definitely open for business,” Parkman said.

“We are receiving content-creation proposals.

“We are almost giving a blank slate to let them come with ideas.

“Think of things that haven’t been done before.”

The channel - which has a fully-funded budget of $490 million (£321 million/€430 million) for its first seven years, but has no intention of becoming a buyer of sports rights, like many of the IOC’s best customers - is aiming to encourage young peoples’ interest in sport in general and Olympic sport in particular, and to boost general interest in the Movement beyond the two windows in each four-year period when the Olympics and Winter Olympics are actually taking place.

While the Channel is widely expected to launch next year, no decision appears to have been taken on whether the launch-date will come pre- or post-Rio 2016, at least not one the principals are willing to share publicly.

“We will do it when we are ready,” Parkman said.

Vincent Chupin, responsible for commercial development of the Channel, gave inklings of how the organisation hopes to navigate the maze of overlapping sponsorships it will be confronted with, especially when offering live coverage of events.

IOC worldwide sponsors are it seems to be given first preference over certain advertising opportunities; if they decline, then the slot may be opened up to others.

The formula would seem to imply that TOP sponsors may be asked to pay for some of the extra branding opportunities stemming from the Channel’s existence.

Chupin also indicated that field-of-play advertising would not be covered in cases of conflict between sponsors from a single product category.

One example of where one could envisage this occurring is if live coverage of an International Sports Federation (IF) event, such as a world championship, with its own set of sponsors, were shown on the new Channel.

Chupin also disclosed that the Channel was seeking to develop branding with the same look and feel with its partners around the world.

“The branding aspect is absolutely key,” he said.



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