Jake Humphrey will be the face BT Sport's football coverage next season. File picture: PA Wire

BT Sport plan to take over Olympic broadcast centre in Stratford

Melissa York, Reporter Thursday, November 29, 2012
5:10 PM

BT have chosen the Broadcast Centre in Stratford’s Olympic Park to be the home of their new sports channels.

BT Sport have applied to the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) to become a long-term anchor tenant of the building that housed 28,000 media covering the London 2012 Games.

BT Sport would lease the Press and International Broadcast Centre - secured by real estate company iCity - for ten years.

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who is chair of the LLDC, said: “It offers the prospect of delivering our ambition and vision of a great employment legacy for Londoners from the Games and creating a new hi-tech and creative hub for London in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

“I look forward to considering it at our Board meeting next week.”

BT plan to refit the building to house three TV studios, a control centre, 20 edit suites, and an audience holding area to broadcast 38 live games a season from the Barclays Premier League for three years from August 2013 with live coverage fronted by BBC Formula One and football presenter Jake Humphrey.

The channel also plans to show 69 live rugby union games a season from the Aviva Premiership.

Ian Livingston, chiec executive of BT, said: “BT Sport will be a visible and engaged partner for the community and the studio will be a reminder of the incredible sporting feats we witnessed during the Olympics and Paralympics.

“The Olympic Park will be an iconic sporting backdrop for BT Sport.

“We want to create jobs in the area and to explore sporting links with local schools as well as looking at how we can offer our production facilities to other companies.”

BT expect to start work on the building on February 1 to launch BT Sport in the summer of 2013.