"In the lead-up to Tokyo 2020, it is important to raise the profile of Paralympic sport in Japan. Sky Perfect JSAT's coverage of both the Sochi and Rio 2016 Games will go some way to achieving this."

SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation held a press conference on Tuesday (28 January) about their plans to broadcast the upcoming Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games.

The network will air 200 hours of coverage from Sochi, including 60 hours of live coverage and will have a 24-hour dedicated Paralympic channel on SKY PerfecTV On Demand.

Those in attendance at the press conference included: IPC Governing Board Member Yasushi Yamawaki; Vice Chairperson of the Paralympians Association of Japan Kuniko Obinata; Paralympic Nordic skier Yoshihiro Nitta and SKY Perfect President and Chief Executive Officer Shinji Takada.

The musical group, The Gospellers launched the press conference and performed their newly written up-tempo number “Sangatsu no Tsubasa,” which will be the theme song for SKY PerfecTV’s Paralympic coverage.

IPC President Sir Philip Craven said: "We are very excited that Sky Perfect JSAT will be dedicating an entire channel to the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, giving Japanese audiences an opportunity to watch the Games 24 hours a day.

"Ahead of the Games, they are planning a comprehensive marketing campaign which positions the Games as a high performance event and underlines the tremendously hard training regime of Paralympians.

"In the lead-up to Tokyo 2020, it is important to raise the profile of Paralympic sport in Japan. Sky Perfect JSAT's coverage of both the Sochi and Rio 2016 Games will go some way to achieving this."

Nitta said: “Sochi 2014 will be the first Paralympics after Tokyo 2020 has been awarded, so I would like to show a decent race and also would like everyone to watch our sport as merely a sport instead of a sport for an impairment,” Nitta said.