British TV looking to hire disabled hosts for Paralympics coverage

From The Guardian in the UK:

Channel 4 is aiming to make household names out of disabled sports stars such as nine-times gold-medal-winning equestrian Lee Pearson in the run-up to the the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

And the channel is launching a £500,000 search for British disabled talent to act as commentators, experts and presenters during the Paralympics.

Channel 4's acting chief creative officer, Julian Bellamy, confirmed today that, apart from programming such as the news, the broadcaster's schedules will be cleared for 150 hours of live coverage of the Paralympics, which run from 29 August to 9 September 2012.

The broadcaster won the rights to air the Paralympics at the beginning of this year. The event previously been aired by the BBC.

Channel 4 will mark two years until the opening ceremony with a series of programmes during this August bank holiday weekend, including the start of a new 10-part magazine programme called That Paralympic Show.

That Paralympic Show will be hosted by T4's Rick Edwards and the wheelchair basketball medallist and broadcaster Ade Adepitan, and feature guests such as Celebrity Big Brother winner Alex Reid trying out Paralympic sports, plus regular features such as Pimp My Chair.

Steve Jones and Miquita Oliver will also host that weekend's T4 from a country house close to the Paralympics GB training camp in Bath.

Other programmes include Inside Incredible Athletes (pictured), a documentary by Jump London director Mike Christie, featuring seven disabled athletes shot against the background of some London locations.

Speaking at the launch of Channel 4's Paralympics build-up today in London, Bellamy said the 2012 event will be "biggest event in Channel 4's history". "We believe we can do for the Paralympics what we did for cricket. More than ever before, I believe Channel 4 can do something different and special," he added.

He said research showed that 84% of the public could not name a single British Paralympian, despite Britain coming second in the medals table in 2008. "We are trying to dramatically change that lack of awareness," he added.

Channel 4 is also investing £500,000 to find and train disabled presenters for 2012. During the coverage it wants disabled presenters to make up 50% of its Paralympics on-screen team.

Adepitan said he did not know why there was a dearth of disabled presenters. "I don't think there's any particular reason why but Channel 4 is doing there utmost to find the best talent to portray the Paralympics," he added.