BY DC CUEVA
If you know me personally or through social media, it's no secret that for these two weeks or so you'll have to get used to me being crazy about that one event I look forward to more than any other in the sports world. For 17 days every two years, fans, viewers and an entire world come together to watch the excitement, human drama and the spectacle that is the Olympic Games... and we are at the halfway point of its latest version in Paris, France amidst so much anticipation for what could be the most memorable Olympiad ever -- one that has had the world buzzing since it began even before the Opening Ceremony.
Like many other sporting properties - unlike most other TV programming, The Olympics is one that brings families & friends together: both those who are avid sports fans like myself, and those casual viewers who might not know everything about sports but are suddenly thrust into it all just by the pure spectacle. This includes those who might not be into football & historically preferred Downton Abbey or the Puppy Bowl than the game (but who were drawn in by the romance of the world's biggest pop star and a tight end), but are into gymnastics, figure skating and the athletes' most inspiring stories. In fact, the Olympics typically is the only event that come close to the NFL as far as TV ratings & viewership go in the fragmented television landscape... and no matter the country, Olympic broadcast rights are among the most-coveted anywhere in the media world.
But when you go inside the broadcast operations either inside the International Broadcast Center or at the respective venues, there's so much more to what viewers see on television, on radio, on their computer and on their mobile device. It's the finished product to as much as seven years' worth of planning, four years of preparation and hard work by thousands of people working for both the host broadcaster, Olympic Broadcasting Services, and the respective rights holding broadcasters from countries around the world. Their mission: capture the power, strength, speed, skill and spirit of competition at its best; tell the stories of athletes who most might not know but out of nowhere become the most well-known people in the world; and to provide viewers the best seat in the house, thanks to the most complex and dynamic broadcast operation anywhere.
For those who work in television and in sports, the Olympics are the biggest event of them all. For Australian sportscaster Bruce McAvaney, who worked fourteen Games in his career and who called Cathy Freeman's gold medal run in Sydney for television viewers down under, it's the big one: "I think that the greatest honor that a caller can be bestowed upon is to be called 'Olympic broadcaster,' and I've been fortunate to have had that for a long time. I've been lucky enough to be involved with a lot of great sports that I am passionate about, but my fondest and most vibrant moments are from Olympic Games."
Major networks the world over have all brought massive numbers of viewers to the compelling competition, human drama and awe-inspiring spectacle that makes the Games one of a kind. Many of the best hosts & commentators have, at one time or another, sat in that host chair or have rejoiced called a medal-winning performance by their home nation. And top producers, technicians and executives have done at least one Games, adapting to the pressure of working an epic sports event rivaled only by the Super Bowl, World Cup and other events of similar magnitude that stops their native countries.
The unprecedented events of the Tokyo Olympiad saw the Games be transformed once again for the digital age: viewers at home watched the world's best compete in empty competition venues for obvious reasons when the world started awaking again from the global shutdown that postponed Tokyo's moment to 2021, followed months later by a return trip to Beijing for the 2022 Winter Games. But that didn't stop fans from consuming the Olympics in enormous numbers on streaming, television and other platforms, including greater engagement on social media.
The last European Games until this year of London 2012 garnered the biggest audience for any event in television history, with upwards of 3.6 billion people -- half the world's population at the time -- in 204 countries & territories tuning in at some point during the fortnight. The BBC's coverage of those Games reached 90% of the UK population -- 52 million people, and surpassed Royal Weddings & the Diamond Jubilee in smashing all-time British viewership records. In America, NBC's Olympic franchise comprises more than half of the ten most watched TV events ever in the U.S., and when Vancouver hosted the 2010 Winter Games it became the most-watched event in Canadian history -- led by the 27 million for the gold medal hockey final and Sidney Crosby's overtime golden goal.
During the Games themselves, broadcasters call the International Broadcast Center their home base: thousands of accredited broadcast personnel work inside this massive center that becomes the world's largest broadcasting facility during the fortnight. It encompasses thousands of square meters worth of studios, office space and technical facilities for rights holders and for the Games-time operation of OBS... and pandemic-induced changes to remote production meant a smaller footprint in Paris -- and in turn more space for spectators around the host city and in the venues.
Earlier Olympic coverage was fairly basic, starting back in 1936 when the Games were shown closed-circuit in areas around Berlin. When TV coverage began to take shape in 1956, all national broadcasters would take the basic international signal and not much else -- and some even had to wait for a day or two to have film of competition flown for broadcast before satellites launched. Once Tokyo hosted in 1964, the Games began to be beamed live via those birds in the sky, followed by a leap into color in Grenoble, France and Mexico City.... and in '72 the world watched with horror as the tragedy in Munich unfolded. But in 1984 in Los Angeles, Olympic TV coverage made a remarkable jump in terms of complexity and technology when ABC took on the task as both U.S. rights holder and host broadcaster, setting the perimeter for the Olympic host broadcasting operation as it is taken for granted now.
In addition to offering the multilateral international signal and 180 hours of its own domestic coverage with legend Jim McKay hosting, it also provided non-U.S. broadcasters with the ability to customize their coverage to suit their own needs. From the launch of an IBC to venue facilities allowing networks to supplement the world feed with their own cameras to focus more on their nation's own athletes, this approach revolutionized Olympic coverage and has become the norm since. Not to mention, ABC brought its technical know-how in introducing super slow-motion replays, computerized graphics and advanced technology in paving the way for the modern-day sports broadcast... and where it has always been on the cutting edge in broadcast technology from HDTV and 4K to new camera angles.
With the Olympics returning to normal both in fans being back in the stands and to its usual schedule taking place in a busy 2024, Paris stands to be the most elaborate, complex and exciting Games to date... all beginning with the unprecedented out-of-stadium Opening Ceremony. Over 400 cameras were used to document the usually and always spectacular opening act where the Seine River served as host to dozens of flotillas, hundreds of performers and over 350,000 fans lining the parade route.
In Paris more than 1,000 cameras and dozens of mobile units are being utilized by OBS to cover the 2024 Olympics, with many more utilized by media rights holders. Every possible form of camera is being used to document the action, from wired cable-cams at many venues and dozens of drones and helicopters for aerial shots, to ultra slow-motion cameras and those with cinematic shallow depth of field lens that's been the rage in the last few years. Not to mention, there's millions of miles of cabling, Dolby Atmos enhanced surround sound, 4K Ultra HDR, remote productions in the cloud and so many other innovations to enhance the viewing experience for those at home.
And that is just for the thousands on the ground working to bring the coverage of the Olympics to the global audience, which doesn't put into account the separate operations of the rights holders. And for the one who pays the largest rights fee, it's as enormous an undertaking for the American broadcaster as the host broadcasting operation: NBC Universal has over 1,200 people on site in France (and 1,800 more in at-home operations back in the U.S.) working on the Games broadcasts themselves, as well as other divisions such as News, Telemundo and local stations... and whose biggest stars are the array of special celebrity guests to bring the Games to new audiences after last year's Swift effect on the NFL.
As recent losers to NBC in the battle for the much-coveted NBA rights, Warner Bros. Discovery is the key European rights-holder with Turner Sports' continental counterpart Eurosport as lead broadcaster distributing action throughout the continent on linear channels, the Max and Discovery+ services, Bleacher Report, and even tagging the Looney Tunes gang along. And they are among the dozens of global broadcasters covering the action, from France Televisions in the host nation to all of Japan's networks continuing their tradition partnering as an entire consortium pool just for the Games.
As Paris reaches its middle weekend viewer engagement and viewership have exceeded both pandemic Games and many's expectations to the point where the feeling of this great spectacle is truly back. And that comes even before the signature sport of any Summer Games of the track and field events begin to take shape... not to mention the can't miss and most-talked-about moments that have dominated social media and the world's headlines since the Opening Ceremony. It's the latest chapter of the Olympics being simply the biggest television event of all.
- I AM DC
@DC408DXTR
