Majority of Channel 4’s Paralympics presenters will have disability
More than 70% of the Channel 4 presenting team for the Paralympics will be disabled, the broadcaster has said, as it laid out its plans for more than 300 hours of coverage from Tokyo, Leeds and London.
The presenters will include the wheelchair basketball player Ade Adepitan, who will front the highlights show Today in Tokyo, from Japan, as well as the disability advocate Sophie Morgan, former Royal Marine commando and Strictly Come Dancing star JJ Chalmers, and former professional rugby union player Ed Jackson.
Lee McKenzie and Vick Hope will be reporting from Japan, while in the UK, Clare Balding will present live sport finals from Leeds, and Arthur Williams and Steph McGovern will head a daily Paralympics breakfast show.
Adam Hills, Alex Brooker and Josh Widdicombe will present The Last Leg daily from London and will be joined by Rosie Jones, reporting from Tokyo.
More 4 will become a dedicated team sports channel and will broadcast matches live from Tokyo, featuring ParalympicsGB teams in wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball.
The Tokyo coverage, which will feature pundits including Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, Steve Brown, Liam Malone, Danny Crates and Liz Johnson, will have the largest number of disabled presenters ever seen on UK television, Channel 4 said.
It will also show 16 live streams on its Paralympics microsite, with more than 1,000 hours of coverage.
Ian Katz, the director of programmes at Channel 4, said: “Channel 4 has long played a fundamental role in bringing a global audience to the Paralympic Games and for shifting perceptions of disabled people through our significant investment in coverage and award-winning marketing campaigns for London 2012 and Rio 2016.
“Now we’re finally able to get excited about bringing the long-awaited Tokyo 2020 Paralympics to UK viewers, with even more coverage than ever before across multiple platforms, from multiple locations and hosted by a stellar presenting team.
“We’re looking forward to bringing the best coverage possible to the British public so we can all get behind ParalympicsGB and celebrate their success in Tokyo.”
Channel 4 and More 4 will carry live subtitles, and the opening ceremony will have live signing and an enhanced open audio-description/commentary simulcast on 4Seven. The majority of content on the Paralympics microsite will also have subtitles.
The Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games will take place from 24 August to 5 September.