Bangkok--12 Feb--Total Quality PR New weekly show part of extensive line-up consisting of 5 distinct programmes on Asia’s No. 1 Sports Broadcaster Leading into, and throughout the world’s biggest sporting event, ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) will be the Olympics fan’s destination of choice with five distinct programmes that will give viewers an exclusive preview of the XXIX Olympiad and of all the news as it happens in Beijing. Starting this week, ESS (Ch. 39 / 65, True Visions) will be broadcasting a new weekly, half-hour show titled SportsCenter’s Countdown to Beijing featuring the latest updates from around the world and Asia as athletes prepare for the XXIX Olympiad. SportsCenter’s Countdown to Beijing will be shown across Asia every Tuesday at 2000hr on ESPN. It will run twice weekly in the final month before the Games. Produced by ESS’ SportsCenter team, SportsCenter’s Countdown to Beijing will see ESS correspondents from around the region filing insightful reports and profiling the most exciting local Olympic talent and coaching as they prepare for the biggest competition of their lives. Fronted by SportsCenter host Christy Simson and other ESS talent from around Asia, this landmark programme will be presented in both English and Mandarin. In keeping with the spirit of the Games, SportsCenter’s Countdown to Beijing promises to bring uplifting and inspirational stories to audiences. In upcoming episodes, viewers can expect to catch stories on the Olympic qualifiers for hockey, features on the Chinese Taipei women’s Olympic softball team and the China’s Olympic gymnastics team and profiles of athletes such as India’s sharp shooter Rajya-vardhan Rathore and badminton player Anup Sridhar. Various Olympic venues such as the Shenyang Olympic Venue for soccer and the Beijing Olympic Green Tennis Court will also be featured. Complimenting SportsCenter’s Countdown to Beijing, ESS has been producing weekly Olympics updates in each of its five localised SportsCenter editions since August 2007 and will continue through till the start of the Games in August 2008. Throughout the month-long Games, ESS will produce a 30-minute programme, SportsCenter Beijing Special every night. Tapping into the worldwide resources of SportsCenter’s global news bureaus in the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America, SportsCenter Beijing Special will discuss, review and highlight all the breaking stories of the day. In addition to its original news productions, ESS has three more lead-in programmes, Are You Ready, Beijing Dreams, and Road to Beijing to round off the preview content on its networks. Are You Ready, an ESPN STAR Sports in-house production, is a weekly half-hour Olympics lead-in show produced specially for the North Asian markets. Broadcast in Mandarin and Cantonese, this programme is primarily focused on Chinese preparations for the Games and includes a weekly round up on international athletes and news related to the Games. Road to Beijing features the various sports that will be contested during the Olympics while Beijing Dreams provides news and updates on how China is preparing for the event, with venue profiles, event reviews, profiles of the mascots, athletes and teams, as well as the hottest medal contenders. Huw Bevan, Senior Vice President, Production, ESPN STAR Sports, said, “Beijing 2008 is one of the most eagerly anticipated events of the millennium and the lead-up to it is exhilarating, as thousands of world-class athletes prepare for the Games. Now, fans across Asia can be a part of this excitement through this extensive line-up of specially produced Olympics programmes on ESPN.” SportsCenter’s Countdown to Beijing Tuesdays, 2000hr, ESPN *Shown at 1930hr in the Philippines and at 1900hr in Taiwan in Mandarin About ESPN STAR Sports ESPN STAR Sports is a 50:50 joint venture between two of the world’s leading cable and satellite broadcasters. As Asia's definitive and complete sports broadcaster and content provider, ESPN STAR Sports combines the strengths and resources of its ultimate parent companies — Walt Disney (ESPN, Inc.) and News Corporation Limited (STAR) — to deliver a diverse array of international and regional sports to viewers via its encrypted pay and free-to-air services. ESPN STAR Sports showcases an unparalleled variety of premier live sports from around the globe 24 hours a day to a cumulative reach of more than 310 million viewers in Asia. ESPN STAR Sports has 17 networks covering 24 countries, each localised to deliver differentiated world-class premier sports programming to Asian viewers. This includes ESPN Asia, ESPN China, ESPN Hong Kong, ESPN India, ESPN Malaysia, ESPN Philippines, ESPN Singapore, ESPN Taiwan, MBC-ESPN (Korea), STAR Sports Asia, STAR Sports Hong Kong, STAR Sports India, STAR Sports Malaysia, STAR Sports Singapore, STAR Sports Southeast Asia, STAR Sports Taiwan, and STAR Cricket. On the ground, the ESPN STAR Sports Event Management Group manages and promotes premier sporting events around Asia. ESPN STAR Sports aims to reach consumers at any time, any place and through all new media platforms, both internet and mobile. The multi-lingual, online platforms, espnstar.com, espnstar.com.cn and espnstar.com.tw and footballcrazy.tv interact with millions of users providing them with in-depth sports news, results and competitions. Developed for the sports fan that is constantly on the move, mobileESPN and STAR Sports Mobile delivers differentiated mobile content targeted at its various audiences. mobileESPN enables the serious sports fan to follow their favourite sports more closely than ever before with a combination of specially produced video news clips, in-depth news coverage and analysis. STAR Sports Mobile aims to provide interactive and entertaining opportunities to engage with sports, delivering exclusive video excerpts from leading football clubs Arsenal and Liverpool as well as highlights from STAR Sports original programmes covering opinions, instructional tips and the latest online game reviews. For more information, please contact: Tom Van Blarcom / Ruthaiwan Tanwongwan Total Quality PR (Thailand) Co., Ltd., Tel: +66 (0) 2260 5820 Email: [email protected]