The Broadcast Sport Podcast

In conversation with sports production company Whisper

This is a 'fireside chat' with Sunil Patel, co-founder of Whisper, and Whisper’s director of production, Bethan Evans. They talk about the history of the company, its place in the sports production market, its ownership and earlier funding from the Channel 4 Growth Fund before receiving investment from Sony. The company is only 11 years old but is already the trusted production outfit behind flagship sporting events including The Paralympics, the F1 (for Channel 4), and cricket coverage for the BBC. It also has excelled at appointing women to key positions within the company and ensuring diversity in its workforce. Evans and Patel talk about their roles at Whisper, and what the key focus and key projects are for the company in 2022. The conversation was chaired by Broadcast Sport editor Jake Bickerton and recorded at the Broadcast Sport Content Summit, held at Dock10 Studios, Salford in March 2022.

Top Tips for Creating Sports Content for YouTube

Little Dot Studios and Team Whistle provide insight into how they work with leading athletes, sports clubs and federations to create and manage YouTube channels that maximise fan engagement and the reach of content made for the platform. What content works best on YouTube, how do you create a YouTube strategy, and what is best practice for growing your sports brand on YouTube? Little Dot Studios runs a wealth of sports-related YouTube channels for clients, and Team Whistle manages the Premier League’s YouTube account.
SpeakersJeff Nathensen, MD - Team Whistle InternationalRobbie Spargo, Director of Sport - Little Dot Studios
ChairpersonCharlotte Wheeler, Director - Broadcast Tech & Sport Group

Gearing up for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games

A fireside chat with Sunset+Vine's David Tippett, who provides an overview of what’s being done by the host broadcaster as it gears up for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games later in the year. Sunset+Vine won the contract last year and will capture 2,000 hours of TV coverage across 19 sports during the 11 days of the competition (28 July-8 August), for an expected global audience in excess of 1.5 billion. At least 15% of the 1,600 technical and production workforce for the games will come from Birmingham and the West Midlands, having been trained through a Host Broadcast Training Initiative that Sunset+Vine is launching in the area. The initiative is specifically designed to address the lack of diversity in the creative sector, and will offer a year’s training to 200 young people from the region, with half recruited from underrepresented groups.
The podcast was recorded at The Broadcast Sport Content Summit, held at Dock10 Studios on 16 March 2022.
Speaker
David Tippett, Managing Director - Sunset + Vine
Chairperson
Gavin Ramjaun, Presenter & Senior Journalist - BBC

How We Made ’Micah Richards: Tackling Racism’, with Buzz16

The Buzz16 team behind its award-winning documentary explain their approach to the production and how they created such a powerful, hard-hitting film.
In the Sky Sports documentary, the former England and Premier League footballer Micah Richards explores the true scale of the racism problem in British football, and what can be done about it.
The production team behind it are young and diverse, including many alumni of the MAMA Youth Project, which aims to get young people from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds employed in the broadcast and media industries.
This podcast is a recording of a panel discussion at the Broadcast Sport Content Summit, held at Dock10 Studios on 16 March 2022. For more details about Broadcast Sport's series of events, visit https://www.broadcastsportevents.co.uk 
SpeakersNad Ali, Senior Editor - Buzz16Nick Mattingly, Director - Buzz16Rio Clarke, Assistant Producer - Buzz16
ChairpersonCarrie Wootten, Managing Director - Rise

IWD 2022: Gender representation and diversity in sports production

This IWD 2022 podcast is with Gemma Knight, sports director at BT Sport and Bethan Evans, head of broadcast operations at Whisper. They talk about their background and how they got to where they are today, as well as how to encourage better gender representation and diversity in sports production and sports broadcast, to mark International Women’s Day 2022. Knight and Evans also offer advice to young women who might want to pursue a career in sports production and broadcast.

The future for sports in the metaverse - insight from BT Sport’s Matt Stagg

Matt Stagg, director of mobile strategy at BT Sport talks to Broadcast Sport editor Jake Bickerton about sports in the metaverse. Stagg explains what the metaverse is and what it can offer sports fans, through innovative use of VR, AR and XR. BT Sport is currently undergoing R&D projects to see what could be possible utilising cloud computing and 5G, to stream immersive ‘metaverse’ experiences live and with ultra low latency to fans. These include enabling MotoGP fans to build a room of virtual screens around them to show the broadcast feed supplemented by an interactive, holographic track showing where each of the drivers is currently located. Stagg also talks about how the metaverse will be able to bring fans at home into the stadium, in enjoy live matches with their friends from the best virtual corporate box in the stadium. Boxing fans will also be able to immerse themselves in fights, watching volumetric versions of the boxers they are able to view from any angle. Stagg reveals what he believes to be realistic timetables for these concepts to potentially come to market, and what the future of sports broadcasts might looks like in the world of the metaverse.

ROONEY director Matt Smith on telling Wayne and Colleen’s inside story

BAFTA-winning film-maker Matt Smith talks to Broadcast Sport reporter Max Miller about his Prime Video documentary ROONEY.
Smith directed the film after gaining the trust of Wayne and Colleen Rooney to tell the inside story of the Rooney’s rise to fame at a young age, and how they handled the intense media interest in themselves and their relationship.
In the podcast, Smith explains how he managed to get Wayne and Colleen to open up so candidly about their lives and careers and what it takes to create a compelling sports documentary. As he explains in the podcast, the last thing he wanted to make was a ‘puff piece’.
The documentary features candid testimonials from both Wayne and Colleen as well as Rooney's father and close family members. ROONEY also includes contributions from David Beckham, Rio Ferdinand, Gary Neville, Thierry Henry, and Rooney's former managers David Moyes and Sven Goran Eriksson.
The film provides unprecedented access to Rooney as he recounts the most important moments in his life and career.

The making of the BBC’s ’ski lodge’ Winter Olympics virtual studio

The BBC’s lead director for the Winter Olympics, Sally Richardson, talks to Broadcast Sport editor Jake Bickerton about how and why the broadcaster created its eye-catching Winter Olympics virtual studio, turning a small green screen space in Salford into a vast ski lodge with seven presenting positions. The BBC handled the design and creation of the studio in-house and is using the space to host around 300 hours of Winter Olympics coverage over the course of the games. Richardson also talks about the remote production of the Games and the non-live content the BBC is creating around the Winter Olympics.

Sports Content: What fans are willing to pay for

Some great insight into sports fans' willingness (or otherwise) to pay for sport content, from Jack Genovese, senior analyst at Ampere, recorded at the Broadcast Sport Content Summit at Dock10 Studios in September. The podcast also features Steve Boulton, CEO, Golden Egg Innovation, talking about televising the Gran Turismo esports tournament from an innovative virtual studio environment. The session was chaired by Sadie Groom, MD, Bubble Agency.

Sky Sports and Shoot The Company on using sports media for cultural change

The third speaker session at the Broadcast Sport Content Summit, held at Dock10 Studios, MediaCityUK. Sara Butler at Shoot the Company and Steve Smith at Sky Sports talk about what broadcasters, production companies and sports organisations are doing to help facilitate cultural change and raise awareness of key issues such as gender and racial inequality and social media bullying.