Copyright (c) 2018 International Games Broadcasting Services
The 18th edition of the Asian Games were held at Indonesia in two co-hosting cities: Jakarta; the country's capital, and Palembang; the capital of South Sumatra province. It was the second time that the Southeast Asian island nation staged the Asian Games, after Jakarta had last held the continental meet in 1962.
The Vietnamese city of Hanoi was originally chosen to stage this edition of the Asiad, after they've won the bid against two other candidate cities: Surabaya and Dubai. But however in 2014, Vietnamese officials have decided that they had to back out from hosting the Asian Games, citing budgetary concerns and other factors as the main reasons for the withdrawal. Many of the Vietnamese public supported Hanoi's decision to step down as Asiad hosts. Also on the same year, Jakarta stepped in as the host city, with Palembang as co-hosts. Jakarta was chosen because of its well-equipped sports facilities, adequate transportation networks, and other facilities such as hotels and lodgings for guests.
This edition of the Asiad was initially due to be held in 2019, so that the event would be held in the year immediately before the then-2020 Olympics in Tokyo, instead of two years before. But after the Games were reattributed to Indonesia, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) backtracked on these plans and kept the event in 2018, so that they would not interfere with Indonesia's general elections that would take place that year.
Over 11,000 athletes from all 45 members of the OCA participated in the Asiad, which featured 484 events in 42 sports. Several non-Olympic events were trimmed from the event programme, but several new disciplines being introduced at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo (including 3x3 basketball) were added, while eSports and canoe polo were also contested and showcased as demonstration sports.
International Games Broadcast Services, a joint venture between Host Broadcast Services (HBS) and IMG Media, was served as the host broadcaster for the Jakarta-Palembang Games. Involving 37 live production units, it distributed 2,400 hours of the Games content to its international rights holders.
