The agreement was announced last month with BT to become the anchor tenant in a joint deal that sees iCity take the long-term lease of the IBC.

But it was rubber-stamped today at the LLDC Board meeting in Stratford.

"I am pleased that today the Board has backed BT's exciting plans to take over part of the broadcast centre," said the Mayor of London Boris Johnson, who is also the LLDC chairman.

"It marks another milestone in our ambition to deliver a great employment legacy for Londoners from the Games as well as a new hi tech and creative hub for our great city in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park."

The 10-year lease will see BT refurbish 75,000 square feet (7,000 square meters) of space in the IBC building to house three television studios, a control centre, 20 edit suites and an audience-holding area.

The deal comes after BT Sport spent £1 billion ($1.6 billion/€1.2 billion) on television rights to start broadcasting Premier League football matches next season in order to mount a challenge to the dominance of Sky Sports.

The Olympic Park venue will house the new BT Sport channels.

BT will start building work in February 2013 to convert the venue ahead of the launch of BT Sport in summer 2013.


The operation is expected to generate around 250 jobs as part of iCITY, which plans to turn the buildings into a world-leading technology cluster that could create around 4,000 jobs.

"The deal that iCITY have secured with such a quality tenant as BT demonstrates the level of confidence in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park," said Legacy Company chief executive Dennis Hone.

"It's great news for other tenants, investors and residents alike and demonstrates further progress in our legacy programme."

The move came as the Legacy Company Board also gave West Ham United the green light to take over the Olympic Stadium and also approved other areas of progress in programming the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park with events and attractions.

They included plans for a weekend-long event to mark the phased opening of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on July 27 2013 - exactly one year after the opening ceremony of the Games - and the launch of an Arts and Culture Strategy in spring 2013 to develop the Park's cultural offer.

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