VANCOUVER – For the first time in Canadian television history, a domestic Canadian broadcaster will produce and deliver its own coverage of an Olympic Games Opening Ceremony.
The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony, which kicks off Friday at 5:45 p.m. PT / 8:45 p.m. ET, will be broadcast live by the Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium on 10 television networks in 11 languages, two websites, 24 radio stations and in 64 Cineplex Entertainment theatres across the country.
Directed by Louis J. Horvitz, the 12-time director of The Academy Awards, the broadcast will be presented from a total of 25 different Consortium cameras in BC Place, along with access to dozens of other international camera feeds. It will also incorporate feeds of Canadian athletes and spectators watching from Whistler.
“Being in charge of our own destiny with regard to all aspects of the telecast allows us to customize the show to the degree our viewers have never seen before,” said Rick Chisholm, the Consortium’s EVP of broadcasting, in a statement. “When the Canadian flag is raised, when our National Anthem is performed, and when our 206 Olympic Games athletes march onto the field at the end of the parade of nations, Canadian viewers deserve a unique Canadian perspective that stands above what everyone else in the world will see.”
The broadcast will be hosted in English by Brian Williams, Lloyd Robertson and former Olympian Catriona Le May Doan, and in French by Pierre Houde, Richard Garneau and two-time Olympic Games silver medallist Alexandre Despatie.
