Many European sports fans will have to get up at 3am to see some of the biggest events at the next Olympic Games in Beijing because timings are being changed to suit US television.
Showpiece finals in swimming at the 2008 Games have been moved from their traditional evening slots to the morning to please US broadcaster NBC, which is a key sponsor of the Olympic movement. The finale of some athletics events, such as the men's 100m, the gymnastics and men's basketball tournament may also be moved for the same reason.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which runs the Olympics, has sparked a global row with broadcasters in Europe and Asia, including the BBC, who accuse it of pandering to US pressure and penalizing audiences in the rest of the world.
A senior BBC executive said: "If the swimming finals had been held as usual in the early evening in China then people in Britain would have been able to watch them live around lunchtime. But the IOC seems to have agreed to NBC's request to the morning, which will force anyone who is keen to see them to get up at 3am, or stay up late. We will get low audiences. People have to go to work, so they won't stay up."
"The whole thing about the Olympics is that audiences around the world are on the edge of their seats watching big sport live, and that's what creates the drama. That will be lost in 2008," the executive said.
The executive said that NBC had also asked for some other of the most glamorous finals in the Olympic timetable -- including track and field, gymnastics and basketball, all of which are popular in the US -- to be switched. IOC president Jacques Rogge and senior colleagues are considering that request too.
The BBC is in the forefront of angry broadcasters trying to get the decision reversed. It has asked the organization British Swimming to lobby Fina, the sport world's governing body, to do what it can to block the IOC's plans, and it has asked two of Britain's three IOC members, Sir Craig Reedie and Sir Phil Craven, to use their influence.
A BBC spokesman said: "The BBC is very disappointed to hear reports that the swimming finals in Beijing will be rescheduled to suit prime time in the USA.
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