Archery added to live broadcast schedule at Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games

The archery competitions at the next Paralympic Games will be available for live broadcast following an announcement made by the International Paralympic Committee detailing additional coverage planned for Tokyo 2020.

It is the first time archery will be broadcast live from a Paralympics.

“We have long believed there is an audience for archery at the Paralympic Games and are very happy to see this resulting in increased coverage at Tokyo 2020,” said World Archery secretary general Tom Dielen.

“This past summer’s World Archery Para Championships in ’s-Hertogenbosch were the first to be distributed internationally and television interest at the next Paralympic Games will help us to build on this progress.”

Current plans see the last three days of the archery competitions at Tokyo 2020 available live. Other days will be covered by news crews.

Footage from previous editions of the Paralympic Games has been produced primarily for the in-venue screens and has not been available to rights holders.

IPC commercial, broadcasting and partnerships director Alexis Schaefer said that interest and investment in the Paralympics was growing.

“Our strategy throughout has been to invest all additional revenues generated from TV rights sales back into the broadcasting plan,” he explained. “This is allowing us to broadcast live nine disciplines and seven sports more compared to Rio 2016.”

Archery’s roots in the Paralympic movement are deep.

It was the sport’s use as a rehabilitation activity for wounded soldiers that gave birth to the Stoke Mandeville Games, which were the precursor to the modern Paralympics. Archery was included in the first Paralympic Games in Rome in 1960 and has remained on the programme ever since.

The archery competitions at the next Paralympic Games start on 28 August 2020 in Tokyo, Japan.