With a multi-location format broadcasting from Tokyo, Leeds and London, Channel 4’s coverage will feature an all-star presenting team, over 70% of whom are disabled.
The Paralympic Breakfast Show, presented by Arthur Williams and Steph McGovern, and the live morning sports competition, hosted by Clare Balding, will air live from Leeds, the home of Channel 4’s national headquarters.
Broadcaster and journalist Ade Adepitan chaired a panel of disabled talent to ask what can be done to help television reflect the reality of Britain today.
That was the sobering conclusion from an RTS early evening event, Where Have All the Disabled People Gone?
Paradoxically the discussion was full of laughter and sly wit, not least from chair, the journalist and presenter Ade Adepitan.
A panel of disabled men and women who work in TV and media told the audience of their experiences trying to make a living in TV.
The Tour De France winner and eight-time Olympic medallist will join a raft of famous faces taking part in the fourth series of the perilous winter sport contest, held in Austria.
This year’s competition could be the toughest yet, as a large number of sports personalities are due to take to the slopes.
They include former England Rugby Captain Jason Robinson OBE, former England footballer Robbie Fowler, Olympic medallists Louis Smith and Jade Jones and Paralympic medallist Kadeena Cox.
For many people who believe in diverse, multiracial societies, 2016 was a year of profound political setbacks. But, paradoxically, it may also go down as the year in which British television finally embraced real and permanent change in how it deals with diversity.
As we begin a new year, many influential voices are convinced that TV’s decision-makers are now determined to move towards a genuinely diverse workforce. They also hope to see big improvements in the on-screen representation of people from marginalised groups.
2016 is Channel 4’s Year of Disability, marking its commitment to increasing on and off-screen representation of disabled people across the schedule.
Almost two-thirds of all on-screen talent during the Paralympics coverage are disabled.
The channel’s runaway hit from the 2012 Paralympic Games, The Last Leg, will be placed at the heart of the coverage, and will come live from Rio every evening at 8pm.
As the London 2012 Olympics concluded, the overwhelming emotion for the vast army of BBC executives, consumed for years by a project on the grandest of scales, was relief at a job well done.
The campaign is part of the broadcaster’s Year of Disability, and will award the brand or agency with the strongest campaign idea with an exclusive spot in the first break of the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony.
The competition is part of Channel 4’s commitment to improving diversity on- and off-screen beyond simply its editorial content and into Channel 4’s important commercial airtime.
