BBC defends Olympics staff numbers for London 2012

Published Jul 17 2012, 07:45 BST  |  By Colin Daniels

The BBC will send a total of 765 staff members to cover the London 2012 Olympics, it has been revealed.

The corporation, which sent 493 people to Beijing in 2008, defended the figure by comparing it to the huge number of journalists that the US networks are flying over.















Dave Gordon, BBC Sport's head of major events, told the Radio Times: "Don't forget, NBC is flying 2,700 over from the USA. So we're pretty lean and mean.

"I look on it as a reminder of how passionately the audience cares [about] what the BBC does and the way we do it. We've a hard-earned reputation for doing the Olympics well."

Hosts such as Gary Lineker, Sue Barker and Clare Balding will anchor over 2,500 hours of live coverage produced by the BBC during the summer games.

Gordon added: "Ultimately, one of the measures of the success of the Games and the success of our coverage will be how the British public feel about Team GB's performance. Say we have a barren first few days, we'll all get a little twitchy."

Around 28,000 members of the media are expected to be in London to cover the Olympics - almost three times the number of athletes competing.