I became the director general of the BBC a few months after the London 2012 Olympic Games. As a member of the London Organising Committee, I was acutely aware of the role the BBC played in ensuring it was the most watched event in UK broadcasting history. It was the BBC at the top of its game, reinventing how audiences experienced an Olympics with every sport available live online. No one had tried that before.

The BBC reinventing how sport is covered is nothing new. We were one of the first organisations to launch a sport website. We played a major role in the takeup of HD and before that, colour TV. Go back further to the launch of Grandstand, which changed the face of sports broadcasting over its near 50‑year existence. It brought us many of sport’s most magical moments, and some of its most serious.

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Much has changed since Grandstand retired from our screens; in sport, in technology, in broadcasting. One thing that has remained constant is the popularity of sport on the BBC. We may account for only 3% of all the sport broadcast on UK television but that generates more than 40% of all the viewing. We’ve just won Best Sports Programme at the Radio Academy Awards. The BBC Sport website, with its 20m weekly browsers, is No1 by a distance.

As we have shown time and time again, we will not stand still. Not if we want to meet the changing demands of sports fans, not if we want to remain relevant in the media’s most competitive marketplace.

While we’re privileged to be funded by the licence fee, it’s no secret we don’t have the same deep pockets as those we must now compete against. But we have unique qualities that are essential for those sports who want to ensure their events are available to – and able to inspire – the widest possible audience.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tony Hall says the the reach, impact and trust the BBC has built with sports fans is unrivalled Photograph: Nick Ansell/PA Wire/PA Images

The reach, impact and trust that we have built with sports fans are unrivalled. We believe there is no better home for sports to reach beyond their traditional fanbase, and we want this national asset to be shared. That’s why we are now opening up BBC online to a wide array of sporting organisations so they can showcase their events to the nation.

It’s the biggest expansion of sport on the BBC this century. The aim is to broadcast an additional 1,000 hours every year – all streamed online live and free-to-air via BBC Sport and BBC iPlayer. Sport fans will be able to personalise the service to make sure they can watch the sport they love, whenever it’s on the BBC.

We’ve been working on this closely with the likes of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, the FA, the International Tennis Federation, British Swimming and British Basketball. We hope to broadcast coverage of more than 30 additional sports or sporting events every year, including world, European and national championships.

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This weekend marks the first round of the FA Cup. Already, we’ve broadcast live coverage from each of the six qualifying rounds. Never before has the famous competition been covered from the first kick to the last. We’ll be doing the same to offer audiences more matches from Women’s Super League Football, the British Basketball League, Wheelchair Tennis and many more.

It’s just the start, and it’s affordable because we are doing it in partnership with the sports themselves. We’re working with sporting bodies to share our knowledge of the necessary production, technical and editorial standards. By supporting each other, we can help transform the way audiences engage with sport.

This new digital offer will complement our extensive TV and radio portfolio, which today includes the Olympic Games, Wimbledon, the football World Cup, Euro 2020 plus the Six Nations and FA Cup. But viewing habits are changing – as our record 24m streaming requests for Wimbledon this summer showed.

Our ambition is to reinvent free-to-air sport for a digital age, by finding new ways of showing more sport to more people. It’s true to our proud tradition of innovation in sports broadcasting, and it shows our commitment to serving sport across the UK has never been stronger.