CBC/RADIO-CANADA WILL PROVIDE EXTENSIVE COVERAGE OF PYEONGCHANG 2018 PARALYMPIC WINTER GAMES, MARCH 9-18

 The excitement begins with live coverage of the Opening Ceremony on Friday, March 9 starting at 5:30 a.m. ET (2:30 a.m. PT), on CBC

March 5, 2018 – Team Canada’s athletic excellence – and relentless hunt for medals – continues. With five days until the start of the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games and 55 Canadian athletes in competition, CBC/Radio-Canada, Canada’s Paralympic Network, announced it will offer over 600 hours of coverage across all broadcast partners and digital platforms. Broadcast coverage will be available daily on CBC and Radio-Canada with digital live-streams available on cbcsports.ca/paralympics and radio-canada.ca/jeuxparalympiques, as well as the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android. Broadcast partners Sportsnet and AMI-tv will also offer regular coverage of key competitions.  

“As Canada’s Paralympic Network, we are dedicated to providing extensive, in-depth coverage of the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games across multiple platforms to keep audiences at home informed of and engaged in our athletes’ journeys and their peak moments of success, to be celebrated by all Canadians,” said Greg Stremlaw, executive director, CBC Sports, general manager, Olympics and chef de mission, PyeongChang 2018. “CBC/Radio-Canada looks forward to continuing its invaluable collaboration with the Canadian Paralympic Committee in uniting the country through an appreciation of high-performance sport.”

CBC will offer daily TV broadcasts throughout the 10-day event, totalling 38 hours including live coverage of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and the men’s gold medal para ice hockey game. CBC’s broadcast schedule features live coverage from 6-10 a.m. ET (3-7 a.m. PT) on Saturdays and 6-9:30 a.m. ET (3-6:30 a.m. PT) on Sundays, with highlights shown from 4-6 p.m. local time Monday-Friday, keeping Canadians connected to the athletes and their stories. In addition, CBC will offer approximately 300 hours of live streaming content, featuring the six sports –alpine skiing, ice hockey, cross-country skiing, biathlon, snowboard, and wheelchair curling – with up to four digital streams per day via cbcsports.ca/paralympics and the CBC Sports app. Described video will be offered on all 38 hours of CBC’s television coverage, and on the simulcast digital live-streams of live broadcasts and the broadcasts from the Atlantic time zone if aired locally, provided by Descriptive Video Works and Accessible Media.

The excitement begins bright and early on Friday, March 9, as live Opening Ceremony coverage kicks off at 5:30 a.m. ET (2:30 a.m. PT) on CBC with a pre-show hosted by Andi Petrillo, and broadcaster and 19-time Paralympic medallist Stephanie Dixon, with Scott Russell contributing from on the ground in Pyeongchang. A primetime broadcast of the Opening Ceremony will air later that day on CBC at 8 p.m. local time.  

Throughout the Games, Russell will host the weekend morning and weekday afternoon coverage, while Petrillo and Dixon will host the weekend afternoon shows in addition to the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. They will be joined by a tremendously talented broadcast team including –

Reporters:

• Josh Dueck, a double-medallist at the Sochi 2014 Paralympics in alpine skiing
• Lauren Woolstencroft, one of the best alpine skiers in the world, with 10 medals across three Paralympic Games

Play-by-play/Analysts:

• Chris Daw (Analyst, Wheelchair Curling), a Paralympic wheelchair curling gold medallist
• Paul Rosen (Analyst, Ice Hockey), a former member of the Canadian Paralympic sledge hockey team and gold medallist
• Rob Snoek (Play-by-Play, Ice Hockey and Wheelchair Curling), a veteran broadcaster and Paralympian

CBC’s PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Games Broadcast Schedule:

*Except North, which will be 2-4 p.m. local.

The PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games is the first in a multi-Games partnership between CBC/Radio-Canada and the Canadian Paralympic Committee that sees the national public broadcaster remain Canada’s Paralympic Network through the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

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About CBC/Radio-Canada
CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada’s national public broadcaster and one of its largest cultural institutions. We are Canada’s trusted source of news, information and Canadian entertainment. Deeply rooted in communities all across the country, CBC/Radio-Canada offers diverse content in English, French and eight Indigenous languages. We also provide international news and information from a uniquely Canadian perspective. 

For further information, please contact:

Tanya Koivusalo, publicist, CBC

tanya.koivusalo@cbc.ca

416-205-8638 (office) 647-649-6067 (mobile)