Rio 2016 announce ticket prices - with cheapest ones costing $17

In a fashion befitting of an Olympic and Paralympic Games which is aiming to engage the entire Brazilian population, approximately 3.8 million tickets for Rio 2016 will cost BRL R$70 (£18.50/$30/€23) or less, it has been announced today.

In a range of ticket prices aiming to be as affordable as possible, a total of around 7.5 million tickets will be issued for 717 sessions in all 28 sports, plus the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

The cheapest tickets will be priced at BRL R$40 (£10.50/$17/€13).

When announcing these prices today, the Organising Committee claimed the programme "was designed with local people in mind", and that they "will take the Games to everyone".

Some tickets, however, will be far more expensive, with those for the Opening Ceremony as high as BRL R$4,600 (£1,110/$1,977/€1,400) and the most expensive ones for athletics finals R$1,200 (£314/$513/€397)

This is still less than half the price of the priciest tickets for the men's 100m final at London 2012.

Price ranges for all sports and ceremonies are available on the official Rio 2016 website, which can be accessed here , with the full Ticket Sales Programme to be unveiled in November.

The disclosure of the competition schedule and details on how the public can buy tickets will also become available then.

This next step on the journey, it was explained today, will include a "call to action" for fans to register, with the public then able to inform the Organisers which sports they are most interested in.

They will then receive personalised news and information about the sports and athletes they want to know about, as well as other "exciting events" around the Games.

This follows the news that German-based ticket selling giants CTS Eventim, rather than US giants Ticketmaster, have been appointed Ticketing Services Provider for both the Olympics and Paralympics.