The plan for the creation of such a channel was announced in July 2014 with the aim of promoting the Olympic Games and keeping it in people's global consciousness during the years in-between the games, to showcase lesser known and shown sports, and to attract a younger audience to Olympic Games sports.
The free Olympic Channel from the International Olympic Committee will go live after the colsing ceremony of the Olympic Games as an internet streaming channel at olympicchannel.com and on Android and iOS devices.
The Olympic Channel will have original programming, in English, and showcase content from around the world, including live sports events, news and highlights, as well as features about sports and athletes all year round.
"The launch of the Olympic Channel on 21st August is the start of an exciting new journey to connect the worldwide audience with the Olympic movement all year round," says Thomas Bach, IOC president in a statement.
"Fans will be able to follow sports, athletes and the stories behind the Olympic Games. The Olympic Channel will inspire us all and reach out to new generations of athletes and fans."
Meanwhile SuperSport will run 7 TV channels on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform from 5 August for the 2016 Olympic Games, including a 24-hour Olympics news channel on DStv channel 212.
SuperSport says it will bring viewers more than 2 500 hours of Olympics coverage over 15 days during August and will broadcast every gold-medal event live.
MultiChoice and SuperSport will be making extensive event highlights available on the DStv Catch Up service that will include every gold-medal winning performance, and highlight packages will also be broadcasting daily.
