VOA Expands coverage for World Cup

VOA is adding an online competion, a new webpage and special radio and television reports on the athletes and much more Washington, D.C., June 9, 2010 - The Voice of America is boosting its coverage of the first-ever World Cup in Africa, adding an online competition, a new webpage and special radio and television reports on the athletes, the venues and much more.

Complete World Cup coverage can be found at: www.voanews.com/worldcup

Sonny Young, the popular host of VOA's Sonny Side of Sports, is already in Johannesburg, South Africa, reporting on the festive atmosphere of the World Cup. In addition to his daily radio show,
Sonny also has a special world cup blog: http://blogs.voanews.com/sonny/.

For avid football fans, VOA English has launched an online bracket competition and winners could be eligible for prizes, including a VOA MP3 player. Competitors can register and make their predictions at http://voaenglish.pooltracker.com/PB16.

VOA Executive Editor Steve Redisch says: "People all over the globe are passionate about football, and VOA is determined to provide our worldwide audience with as much coverage, analysis and color as possible."

For VOA's Spanish-speaking audience, VOANoticias Managing Editor Iscar Blanco will cover the Cup on radio and television while keeping fans posted on www.voanoticias.com with original features, videos, photos, and reports. VOANoticias is inviting its fans to participate by writing their own accounts and experiences related to the Cup.

VOA's Persian News Network (PNN) is also keeping its Farsi-speaking audience informed about all the football action with coverage from sports reporter Ali Emadi who already has the inside story on this year's World Cup referees, who have been trained by the well-respected Iranian referee Esse Baharmast. Follow PNN's World Cup coverage at: www.voapnn.com.

The Voice of America, which first went on the air in 1942, is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. Government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. VOA broadcasts approximately 1,500 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of more than 125 million people. Programs are produced in 44 languages and are intended exclusively for audiences outside of the United States.

For more information, please call VOA Public Relations at (202) 203-4959, or e-mail askvoa@voanews.com.

(VOA Press Release)