The BBC has announced that 24 high-definition live Olympic streams will be available to satellite and cable providers for the duration of this summer's Games.

The corporation had initially said it would offer the service online, but now millions of television viewers will be able to watch every sport at every venue via Sky or the BBC's red button service. It will be the first time viewers have been able to follow one particular event throughout the day.

Combined with the live coverage of selected events on BBC One, BBC Three and other platforms including Radio 5 Live, the BBC expects to deliver around 2,500 hours of live sport during the Games.

Roger Mosey, the BBC's director of London 2012, said: "These are the first truly digital Olympics, where we'll offer more choice than ever before.

"You'll be able to watch sport from every venue from first thing in the morning to last thing at night. Hockey fans can watch live uninterrupted hockey, and table tennis fans can stick all day with their sport too. This represents four times more channels than in Beijing."

Sky will add the 24 channels free of charge for its 10m subscribers, while the five million subscribers with Sky+HD boxes will be able to watch the high-definition footage.

The service will also be available through the free-to-air platform Freesat and to Virgin Media customers who have a TiVo set-top box. More announcements from other providers are expected soon.