Olympics on ITV

by HEATHER CHAIT

JERUSALEM (July 19) -- Israel Television will broadcast 150 hours over 17 days from Atlanta and with the time difference of seven hours, the live broadcasts will begin at 10pm and continue through the night.

Edited sections of the main events will be re-broadcast daily at the following times: 7:30-8:00 am, 3:30-5:00 pm and 7:30-8:00 pm.

The transmission will begin with the opening ceremony from 3-7:00 am on Saturday, July 20.

According to ITV predictions, athletics followed by gymnastics and swimming will form the bulk of the viewing. In addition to ITV's Meir Einstein and Uri Levy, expert analysis will be provided by Baruch Chish (swimming), Gilad Weingarten (athletics) and Ya'akov Vishnia (gymnastics).

For other sports, including judo and wrestling, the commentary will come from the studio in Jerusalem.

The ITV staff of 21 will have six hired broadcast stations at the following events: wrestling, judo, the Olympic stadium, swimming, diving and gymnastics.

For coverage of other events at the 38 venues, ITV will take feeds from the European Broadcasting Union which will offer four parallel channels.

ITV, which has the rights to broadcast the Olympic Games until 2008, has invested $2 million in the Atlanta operation.