China Central Television (CCTV) plans to broadcast live at least three events a day during the Paralympics, which runs from Sept. 6-17, local media reported on Saturday.

Other matches would appear in highlights programs due to limited broadcasting rights, Jiang Heping, CCTV's sports channel director, told the Beijing Morning Post.

The coverage would be unprecedented, Jiang said. The only event broadcast live from the 2004 Athens Paralympics was the final of wheelchair basketball, and overall broadcast time added up to just 15 hours.

Sign-language interpretation would be run simultaneously with every event for hearing-impaired people, Jiang said. About 20 million Chinese have hearing problems.

Such services were already available in some programs, he added.

Jiang said the Paralympics commentary team would be the same as that of the Olympics, except for one person, and commentators would offer more background information to familiarize audiences with the events.

Twenty events, including track and field, wheelchair basketball and 5 or 7-a-side football, will be staged during the Games, with about 4,000 disabled athletes from around the world competing.

"We aim to present the fighting spirit of all the Paralympians, and we are not going to focus on who gets the gold medal," Jiang said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 30, 2008)