Singapore – ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) will offer five new programmes as an exclusive preview of the XXIX Olympiad and to provide coverage of Olympics news. Starting this week, ESS will be broadcasting a new weekly, half-hour show titled SportsCenter’s Countdown to Beijing to provide updates from around the world and Asia as athletes prepare for the event. Fronted by SportsCenter host Christy Simson and other ESS talents, regional correspondents will provide reports and profile local Olympic talent and coaching, as well as competition venues. To be presented in English and Mandarin, SportsCenter’s Countdown to Beijing will be shown across Asia on Tuesdays at 2100hr HKT on ESPN, before running twice weekly in the month before the Games. Complimenting SportsCenter’s Countdown to Beijing, weekly Olympics updates are being provided through each of five localized SportsCenter editions since August 2007 and will continue till the start of the Games in August 2008. Throughout the Games, ESS will produce a 30-minute show, SportsCenter Beijing Special every night to discuss, review and highlight breaking stories of the day, tapping on SportsCenter’s worldwide news bureaux. In addition to its original news productions, ESS has three more lead-in programmes, Are You Ready, Beijing Dreams, and Road to Beijing. Are You Ready, an ESS in-house production, is a weekly half-hour Olympics lead-in show for North Asian markets to be broadcast in Mandarin and Cantonese. The show focuses on Chinese preparations for the Games and includes a weekly round up on international athletes and news. Road to Beijing features various sports that will be contested during the Olympics. Beijing Dreams provides news and updates on how China is preparing for the event with venue profiles, event reviews, profiles of the mascots, athletes and teams.