The Olympic Games are live on Seven in what will be the country’s biggest-ever broadcast and digital event. For the first time in Australian free-to-air television history, there will be 45 dedicated Olympic channels across Seven and 7plus all live, free and in HD.
With Tokyo in substantially the same time zone, the biggest events of the event will feature prominently in primetime.
Ahead of the games, Seven has released messages from two of the most important people involved in their coverage both in front and behind the camera in the legendary Bruce McAvaney and head of network sport Lewis Martin.
Bruce McAvaney
Bruce McAvaney
It’s been a long wait, full of uncertainty. But now we’re on the cusp of the most-anticipated sporting event in history.
The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 have been and will continue to be controversial, to say the least.
To have reached this point, we must acknowledge the efforts of the Organising Committee and the determination of the IOC, combined with sporting federations from around the world and athletes who have been challenged to focus and innovate in their preparation.
Beyond sport, it will be a news story that will captivate and challenge us all for the 16 days of competition. Because the reality is nobody really knows what to expect.
The Australian team is exciting. How successful will they be? There’s great optimism, certainly. We feel we have had some advantages over the northern hemisphere in the way we’ve been able to prepare.
I think it will get down to our swimming team, as it nearly always does. We’ve already had a taste of what might be possible.
Our athletics team is a revelation, with strong performances over the past 18 months.
The international standard is outrageously high, considering that most competitions have taken place in empty stadia, under strict conditions.
The new sports are exciting visually. We’d expect our surfers to embrace typhoon conditions.
And when you think about who is on our team alongside household names such as Steph Gilmore, Sam Kerr, Kyle Chalmers, Cate Campbell, Ash Barty and Liz Cambage – and I could name another 20 – we dare to think we could be very successful.
We’re going to be doing it in a very different way at Seven.
The fact that we’re able to cover the greatest show on earth in such breadth across all our platforms is testament to the talent of our techs and producers.
Their creativity and ability to think outside the square has propelled us to this point.
This I do know: every Olympic Games delivers shocks and surprises, devastating disappointments and incredible achievements.
It’s the best of the best. History as it’s being written. I feel very privileged to be involved.
Lewis Martin
Seven’s Lewis Martin
The Olympic Games have long been the ultimate in sport and television, but Tokyo 2020 will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. After a year when the world has been kept apart by our toughest fight in a generation, the Games of the XXXII Olympiad will reunite us in a way nothing else can.
No one can take you inside this momentous moment in history like the Seven Network. Our proud partnership with the Olympic movement stretches back to the advent of television in Australia 65 years ago. In every Olympics we have covered since, we have taken our audience to a new level of viewing experience, and Tokyo 2020 will be no different.
Fans can look forward to the country’s biggest-ever broadcast and digital event. Once again, we will bring unrivalled expertise to our Tokyo 2020 coverage.
Australia’s most loved and respected sports broadcaster, the incomparable Bruce McAvaney, returns for his 11th Olympic Games coverage. Bruce leads a stellar Seven team whose experts include Australia’s most successful Olympian of all-time, Ian Thorpe, cycling golden girl Anna Meares, Australian basketball royalty in Andrew Bogut and Andrew Gaze, and tennis fan favourite and dual Olympian Casey Dellacqua.
Seven will also have the largest Australian contingent on the ground in Tokyo to bring viewers all the latest news, colour and atmosphere of the Games, while more than 300 staff are directly involved in our Australian-based Olympic broadcast operations.
You can trust Seven and our extraordinary team to take you inside every single event, to where the best action is happening at all times. With Tokyo in our time zone, all the big moments will be in prime time.
After an uncertain 12 months, the world’s greatest athletes will finally face their moments of truth over 17 unmissable days. Nothing comes close to the drama and emotion as lifetimes dedicated to one potential moment of glory collide in a spell-binding mix of elation, despair, ecstasy and agony.
We will unashamedly get behind our Australian team with the rest of the country, but will never lose sight of the other nations competing. Their triumphs and feel-good stories deserve to be celebrated like never before.
The traditional Olympic sports that are deeply etched in our national psyche – swimming, athletics, cycling and rowing to name a few – will be appointment viewing again. But an exciting new wave of sports, including surfing, skateboarding and karate, will make their Olympic debuts in Tokyo.
Tokyo will be the greatest event you ever see. From the opening ceremony to the closing ceremony – and everything in between – the only place you can witness all the history-making action live and free is Seven, Australia’s Home of the Olympics.