China Central Television (CCTV) will broadcast Olympic events live "without time delay," a first for the national broadcaster since its founding half a century ago, a senior executive said on Tuesday.

The state TV station used to technically delay the broadcast of live material by 30 seconds to guarantee programs could be aired smoothly and safely, a common practice worldwide, said Jiang Heping, controller of CCTV-5, the sports channel.

"But at the Beijing Olympics, CCTV will not use the 30-second technical delay. Its programs will be synchronized with the international TV and radio signals distributed by the International Broadcast Center (IBC)," he said.

That means the audience will see what is really taking place as it happens, he said.

CCTV will use seven of its 17 channels to relay the Olympic events with 3,000 staff on the project. It is expected to produce more than 2,500 hours of Olympic programming.

The Beijing Olympic Games expects to attract 4 billion viewers via TV relay worldwide, or 100 million more than that of the 2004 Athens Olympics, Ma Guoli, Chief Operation Officer of Beijing Olympics Dissemination Corporation Ltd., has said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 8, 2008)