SOBO - Sydney Olympic Broadcasting Organisation

Australia · Media Production

SOBO was the Sydney Olympic Broadcasting Organisation and the host broadcaster for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. SOBO provided television and radio coverage of the Games to the world. Every Olympic event was covered by SOBO. For the broadcasters who had purchased the Olympic television and radio rights from SOCOG and the IOC, this coverage is provided as a service. These organisations are called Rights Holding Broadcasters. SOBO employed more than 3400 staff, 200 of which were full-time in a variety of roles, to broadcast the Games. SOBO was the largest broadcast production organisation for the two months of September and October. This massive personnel force worked at every Olympic venue and at the IBC. The IBC was the headquarters for the Olympic television operation. It was adjacent to Sydney Olympic Park and consisted of more than 70 000 square metres of facilities. These facilities included videotape edit suites; central rooms; studies; transmission capabilities and information and logistics offices. It is estimated that SOBO televised more than 3 000 hours of live Olympic Games competition and provided coverage of 296 Olympic events. It serviced in excess of 180 broadcast organisations and worked with more than 12 000 accredited Rights Holding Broadcasters. SOBO reached a massive cumulative worldwide audience of nearly 30 billion people.