Figures suggest falling cost of media centre for Olympics

The anticipated cost of the Olympic Media Centre has dropped by seven million pounds in the last quarter, according to figures released by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport this week.

According to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic budget report, the anticipated final cost (AFC) of the International Broadcast Centre/Main Press Centre (IBC/MPC) was recorded at £308 million earlier this year but dropped this quarter to £301 million.

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) originally had a baseline budget for the media centre in 2007 of £220 million and hoped that extra finances would be available through private investors. But this did not happen, because of the financial crisis, and the ODA has had to use contingency funds to finance the centre.

The media centre, which is based in the Olympic Park, will be a 24-hour hub for around 20,000 accredited broadcasters, photographers and journalists. The IBC took just 10 weeks to build and was completed in September last year.

In the same month, the Olympic Park Legacy Company, which will handle the planning and development of the Olympic Park after the games, announced it was open to suggestions on how the media centre should be used after the games.

According to Reuters at the time, interest has already been shown in creative, retail, education, sports, culture and office uses for the centre. Proposals from interested parties must be made by 26 November to the Legacy Company.

In August mayor of London Boris Johnson announced that the London Media Centre for the Olympics will be the One Great George Street conference centre in Westminster.

The centre will be open to both accredited and non-accredited journalists, with workspaces to house more than 250 reporters. This will provide working space for journalists not able to access the IBC/MPC to report on the games.

Image courtesy of Michael Pead via Wikimedia Commons.

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