The IOC announced today that it will offer a selection of the best moments of Vancouver 2010 as video-on-demand on the IOC’s channel on YouTube™: www.youtube.com/olympic.

In the United States, highlight clips will be made available on www.NBCOlympics.com and www.UniversalSports.com.

IOC Communications Director Mark Adams said: “Our mission is to make broadcast footage of the Olympic Games available to the widest possible audience. The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games was an important moment in Olympic history in terms of online and mobile phone broadcast, and we want to ensure that people have the opportunity to re-live the magic of the Games either through our freely available digital channel or through our rights-holding broadcast partners’ platforms.”
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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has awarded broadcast rights for the Olympic Games in 2010 to Canal 22 in Mexico, it was announced today.

Canal 22 has acquired non-exclusive free-to-air television and radio broadcast rights for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, with a commitment to broadcast live and highlights coverage of the Games.

IOC President Jacques Rogge said, “The IOC is very happy to announce that through this agreement with Canal 22, the Vancouver Games will be broadcast on free television in Mexico.”

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In Vancouver, Omega will assume its Official Timekeeper role for the 24th time. Omega first served as the Official Timekeeper at the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1932.

Never before had a single company been chosen to provide all the timing devices and technology for the Olympic Games. At those Games, Omega delivered 30 handheld stopwatches, which were used to time every event. In Vancouver in 2010, 220 professional timekeepers and data handlers, along with a veritable army of local volunteers, will be using more than 200 tonnes of equipment to ensure that the timing, scoring, display and distribution of the results are flawlessly executed.

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VANCOUVER (Reuters) – Canada will protect funding for Olympic athletes despite expectations of a “tough” federal budget to be introduced immediately after the Vancouver Games, the country’s sports minister said on Tuesday.

The government contributes about C$47 million annually to the “Own the Podium” program to improve athletes’ performance in both the Summer and Winter Games, but it is also grappling with how to close a nearly C$56 billion budget deficit.

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VANCOUVER (Reuters) – The head of security for the Winter Olympics said on Wednesday he is not aware of any specific terror threat to the Vancouver Games, which should allow him to stay within the C$900 million ($850 million) security budget.

“There is absolutely no known threat to the Olympic or Paralympic Games,” Bud Mercer, an assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told reporters in a briefing on security plans for the Games, which start Feb. 12.

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BERLIN (Reuters) – The International Olympic Committee could secure a 10th major sponsor in time for next month’s Vancouver Olympics, IOC marketing commission chief Gerhard Heiberg said on Tuesday.

“There is hope (of a deal) just before Vancouver or during Vancouver,” Heiberg told Reuters.

“I hope that we will have one but we are in negotiations with more than one company. I hope before or during Vancouver we will sign a contract and go public.”

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) – Organizers of next year’s Winter Olympics in Canada will support a free market system of reselling tickets, a move aimed at avoiding a problem in past Games when “sold out” events still had empty seats.

The Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) had once warned it would punish people who tried to “scalp” or resell tickets at more than their face value. But it has since decided to use its own ticket system to resell tickets in a way that will also protect consumers.

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The U.S. Olympic Committee is about 30 days away from selecting a new chief executive who will help improve international relations, the board chairman said on Monday.

Chairman Larry Probst said he was “not going anywhere” despite troubles including Chicago losing its bid to host the 2016 Summer Games.

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) – Rusty Goepel, a long time member of the Vancouver Organising Committee’s board of directors, was named on Wednesday to fill the vacant chairman’s post for the 2010 Olympics.

Goepel replaces Jack Poole who died last month of cancer just hours after the Olympic flame for next year’s Winter Games was ignited in Greece. The opening ceremony for the event is scheduled for Feb. 12.

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SAN FRANCISCO (BUSINESS WIRE) – Visa Inc., a Worldwide Olympic Games Sponsor for more than two decades, today announced the global launch of its Olympic-themed marketing campaign for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, Go World. This global campaign, which features television, digital and out-of-home advertising, host market merchant activation programs and usage promotions, enables Visa to connect with cardholders and Olympic and Paralympic Games fans to drive preference for and usage of Visa products worldwide.

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