By Leonard Lim

SPORTS junkies are in for a treat next August when Singapore plays host to the world's top young athletes.

All the action from the various Youth Olympic Games' venues will be broadcast on several platforms: free-to-air, cable and on-demand television; radio; mobile phone and online.

Cannot sleep at night?

StarHub will also air a 24-hour Youth Olympic News Channel on the free Channel 01 for the Aug 14-26 event. This can be accessed by all viewers in Singapore.

StarHub, MediaCorp and SingTel were announced as official broadcasters within the Republic for the YOG yesterday, at the conclusion of a three-day visit by International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials.

Each holds exclusive rights to different platforms - MediaCorp for free-to-air television and radio, SingTel for the Youth Olympic News Channel on mobile phones in Singapore and StarHub for live feeds on cable television and mobile phones in Singapore.

Ensuring the Youth Olympic Games get maximum coverage are (from left) Sergey Bubka (chairman, Singapore 2010 Co-ordination Commission), Tan Tong Hai (StarHub chief operating officer), Terence Lai (director of mobile content, SingTel), Remesh Kumar (vice-president, content creation division production, MediaCorp TV) and Ng Ser Miang (SYOGOC chairman).

IOC president Jacques Rogge said: "Today's announcement is a big step forward in ensuring the YOG are available to viewers on all broadcast platforms, both within Singapore and around the world."

The trio also have non-exclusive rights to broadcast the inaugural Games, which will feature 26 sports like football, tennis, wrestling and volleyball online within Singapore.

It is understood all three paid an undisclosed fee to the IOC for these broadcast rights.

Although IOC officials declined to give viewership estimates, the YOG are not expected to garner the kind of viewership figures of a typical summer Olympics, which can exceed four billion.

About 3,500 athletes from 205 National Olympic Committees aged between 14 and 18 are expected to compete here - onethird the scale of a typical Summer Games.

Yesterday's announcement capped a busy few days for the IOC Co-ordination Commission for the YOG, who arrived on Wednesday for an update on preparations.

Its chairman Sergey Bubka was impressed with the progress on all fronts, even as organisers move into the operational readiness phase where, among other things, competition venue equipment are tested.

"In general, we didn't see anything missing, we looked at the Olympic Village, transport, facilities, the Culture and Education programme," said the Ukrainian pole vault legend yesterday.

But some areas which may need changes were highlighted.

For instance, the Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (SYOGOC) will look into reducing the duration of the Aug 14 opening ceremony at the Marina Bay Floating Platform, to ensure the athletes are not tired ahead of the competition proper.

SYOGOC chief Ng Ser Miang said: "Everything is geared towards giving the athletes a wonderful time.

"So while we want them to be part of the opening ceremony, we'll make it short but vibrant."

limze@sph.com.sg