The Broadcast Sport Podcast

How the Paris 2024 Olympics will be broadcast, with OBS' Yiannis Exarchos

This episode of the Broadcast Sport Podcast sees Broadcast Sport senior reporter Max Miller speak to Olympic Broadcasting Services CEO Yiannis Exarchos about the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Exarchos reveals how the host broadcaster will be promoting women’s sport, as well as women within sport broadcasting, in an effort to reflect the gender parity on the field for 2024. Broadcast Sport also spoke to Mary Byrne, editor-in-chief of Olympics.com and the Olympics Channel about how the IOC’s content will be aim to do the same last month. ​
Among OBS’ initiatives is boosting the number of women in its technical hubs, and a scheme for young people to take paid roles in the broadcast of the Games.
In addition, Exarchos speaks about some of the technical innovations that will be in use for the Games, which include a virtualised OB van, broadcasting through the cloud, and more. He spoke about the AI technologies that will be used at the IOC’s AI Agenda event this month, which you can read about here.

How to produce electric racing series - Formula E, Extreme E and E1 Series

Lawrence Duffy, founder and CEO of Aurora Media Worldworld, talks to Broadcast Sport editorial director Jake Bickerton about the production of electric racing events. Aurora produces Formula E, Extreme E and now also the E1 electric boat racing series. We talk about the different approaches to covering electric racing, the need to make production sustainable and the future of electric motor sports.

How The Hundred Draft was turned into a digital first production

For this edition of the Broadcast Sport Podcast, senior reporter Max Miller spoke with ECB head of digital and content for The Hundred, Rob Johnson, ​Little Dot strategy director for sport and brand, Fiona Wood, and Dizplai commercial director Peter Cassidy. 
The trio all played key roles in turning The Hundred’s 2024 digital draft into a digital first production. The draft took place at The Shard on 20 March, streaming live to YouTube and TikTok and drawing over 100,000 viewers.
The ECB and Little Dot reveal the strategy and production that went into the move to digital, in which graphics provided by Dizplai played a key part. The trio speak about how the broadcast was planned and executed, with tips on how to appeal to online audiences and tailor streams to younger audiences.

Lorton CEO Julian Bird on financing sport documentaries

This edition of the Broadcast Sport Podcast sees senior reporter Max Miller speak to Lorton Entertainment CEO and founder Julian Bird about upcoming boxing docuseries Stable and the wider sport documentary industry.
Stable will launch on BBC1 and iPlayer from Saturday 30 March, and follows the McGuigan family boxing gym, where Shane McGuigan, son of International Boxing Hall of Famer Barry McGuigan, trains the fighters alongside assistant coach Josh Pritchard, and Shane’s brother, Jake McGuigan, manages the majority of the eight boxers.​
In addition, Bird speaks about how Lorton approaches financing its documentaries, having come from a banking background before moving into media and entertainment. He also gives insight into the future of sport documentaries, what he sees as the future for Lorton, which he founded in 2014, and where the company’s priorities lie.

The EBU on its new D2C streaming service

EBU executive director of sport, Glen Killane, speaks to the Broadcast Sport Podcast about its new D2C streaming service, Eurovision Sport. He discusses how plans for service were created, its aims for viewership and other areas, and strategy to achieve these. He also outlines how the platform hopes to put gender equality at its core, with bringing audiences to women’s sport a major aim for the organisation, and how the EBU and service will work alongside the organisation’s member broadcasters. 
The EBU launched a D2C streaming service earlier this month, Eurovision Sport. The platform aims to complement coverage from EBU members, and is free-to-air. Its focus will be on Olympic sports such as athletics, gymnastics, skiing, swimming, and more, streaming World to European Championships, multi-sport events and national championships outside of the Olympics itself.

The present & future of behind-the-scenes docuseries

Broadcast Sport senior reporter Max Miller speaks to Box To Box head of sport and factual Warren Smith about how to create behind-the-scenes docuseries, and the future of the format.
Box To Box is the company behind some of the most well known series of this type, including F1: Drive To Survive, golf's Full Swing, tennis' Break Point, and many more across various streaming services.

Sue Anstiss MBE: Helping shape a better future for women’s sport

Sue Anstiss has been a pioneer in women’s sport for over 30 years. She’s an author, podcast host and entrepreneur, who was a founding trustee of the Women’s Sport Trust and co-founder of the Women’s Sport Collective.
Sue is now CEO of Fearless Women, which drives positive change for women’s sport, having received an MBE for her services to women’s sport in 2018.
This episode of the Broadcast Sport Podcast is a recording of the keynote speech at the Broadcast Sport Summit 2023, and focuses on Sue’s role in helping to grow women’s sport and, specifically, her influential and well-received book and Netflix documentary, Game On : The Unstoppable Rise of Women’s Sport.
Anstiss explains how and why she made Game On, how she got it distributed, and the impact of both the book and documentary in helping shape a better future for women’s sport.
She also talks about her award-winning Game Changers podcast and addresses what now needs to be done to capitalise on the substantial increase in the fanbase and interest in women’s sport over recent years.
Speaker: Sue Anstiss MBE, Director and Producer of the Netflix documentary Game On & CEO - Fearless Women
Chair: Rachel Stringer, Sports Broadcaster and Producer

What’s next for digital content in 2024?

In this episode of the Broadcast Sport Podcast, senior reporter Max Miller speaks to IMG's senior vice president and managing director of digital, Lewis Wiltshire, about its recently released Digital Trends Report 2024. Among the predictions for the next 12 months is the rise of women's sport, the growth of personalised content, AI's impact on digital content, and plenty more.
This is the sixth iteration of the digital trends report, which features insights and analysis from IMG’s global team of digital experts (formerly known as Seven League). This time round it also ranks the 10 most important third-party media platforms for the global sports industry, for the first time, with TikTok coming out on top, followed by YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp.

New Sports: How to Reach a Global Audience

Building up a fan base for a new sport means navigating a complex maze of options to successfully distribute both live sports and on-demand insights and documentary content around the sport.
In each global territory, the content mix includes going D2C, utilising dedicated streaming sports platforms, free-to-air TV, pay-TV, social media platforms, YouTube, Twitch, fan-created content, and so on.
There's no right or wrong way to do this, but certain combinations of rights deals bring proven results. This is demonstrated in this podcast episode, which features content specialists at new sports federations explaining how they have utilised different distribution channels to find and grow their audience.
The podcast includes Abner Aceves, Global Content Director at SailGP; Ria Walia, Marketing Manager at E1 World Championship; Laura Watts, Executive Producer at Aurora; and Ali Russell, Managing Director at Extreme E. It is moderated by Jake Bickerton, Editorial Director at Broadcast Sport.
The podcast is a recording of one of the well-received speaker sessions from the Broadcast Sport Summit held at Lord's cricket ground on 1 November 2023.
 

How we made Made Of Steel: Wheelchair Rugby’s Fiercest Rivalry

This ​week’s edition of the Broadcast Sport Podcast sees Made Of Steel: Wheelchair Rugby’s Fiercest Rivalry’s co-directors Nick Mattingly and Emma Everitt speak to senior reporter Max Miller about how they made the BBC Storyville documentary. 
Available on BBC iPlayer now, the film examines the rivalry between the England and France teams at the recent Wheelchair Rugby World Cup, and delves into debates around the sport and society. It was produced by Noah Media Group.
Mattingly and Everitt explain how the film was created, and navigating production around two sides that were in fierce competition. The pair also discuss wider subjects such as the importance of continuing to make documentaries about lesser-known subjects, how to ensure competing views both get a fair airing, and working with teams in competition.