Contents Published: October 2014 by Dunsar Media Company Limited Editor: Duncan Mackay Managing Director and Project Coordinator: Sarah Bowron Commercial Director: Dominique Gill Design: Elliot Willis Willis Design Associates Pictures: Getty Images Staff Headshots: Karen Kodish Photography Print: www.csfprint.com Dunsar Media Company Limited C222 MK:TWO Business Centres 1-9 Barton Road Bletchley Milton Keynes MK2 3HU Great Britain +44 1908 263387 contact@insidethegames.biz www.insidethegames.biz
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Introduction
7
The beautiful game’s broadcasting revolution
8
Duncan Mackay
David Owen
Judo’s TV image overhaul
12
Broadcasting the word of Olympism through Bach’s baby
14
New media giving platform to flourishing sports
18
From Mexico City 1968 to Baku 2015
22
How I was upstaged on TV by my insidethegames.biz tie
24
Duncan Mackay
Duncan Mackay
Mike Rowbottom
Nick Butler
Mike Rowbottom
Data is published in good faith and is the best information possessed by Dunsar Media Company Limited at the stated date of publication. The publisher cannot accept any liability for errors or omissions, however caused. Errors brought to the attention of the publisher and verified to the satisfaction of the publisher will be corrected in future editions, if any. © and Database Right 2014 Dunsar Media Company Limited All rights reserved.
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W
e at insidethegames.biz are delighted, for the first time, to be a media partner for Sportel, especially as it is celebrating its 25th anniversary. For those of you that are new to insidethegames.biz, we are the world’s number one independent Olympic news site. We bring you the latest and most up-to-date news and interviews from the world of Olympic, Commonwealth and Paralympic Games. The election last year of Thomas Bach as President of the International Olympic Committee has really shaken things up. The wind of change is blowing through this Movement. It is no surprise that television is one of Bach’s main weapons to shape this revolution. His plans for an Olympic TV channel are set to herald an exciting new period for the IOC. It is an issue that the German is clearly passionate about and he explained to me during an exclusive interview why he believes it is so important. “Many Olympic sports do not appear enough across the world on TV,” Bach told me. “If you do not see enough sports on TV and the internet, then these sports will lose more and more kids and young athletes.” The Olympic TV channel is one of the main planks of Bach’s Agenda 2020 programme. But his desire to shake-up the Olympic programme has also given several sports, which before only saw appearing in the Games as a distant dream, real hope that they have a shot. Mike Rowbottom, insidethegames chief feature writer, has spoken to several of these, including skateboarding and surfing, about how important television and new social platforms are to their campaigns and why they believe they are telegenic enough to become part of the Olympics, which will unlock untold riches for most of them. One sport which has never knowingly underestimated the
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importance of television - or its worth to broadcasters around the world - is football, of course. David Owen, the former sports editor of the Financial Times and now chief columnist for insidethegames, examines the success of this year’s World Cup in Brazil, how technology is shaping the future of the beautiful game and, perhaps most importantly to FIFA, how much it will add to their bottom line. Another sport which has harnessed the 21st century power of television is judo, a sport revolutionised under Marius Vizer and whose broadcasting standards are just as high as FIFA. We chart its remarkable rise since Vizer took over as International Judo Federation President in 2007. A new event on the sporting calendar next year will be the European Games, making its debut in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku. More than 6,500 athletes from 49 countries will be competing in 20 sports, which are a mixture of Olympic and non-Olympic disciplines. The event may be new but they have hired the best when it comes to overseeing their TV coverage. Manolo Romero covered his first Games at Mexico City 1968 and is now, rightly, considered the godfather of Olympic broadcasting. He tells insidethegames reporter Nick Butler how coverage of the European Games will be at Olympicstandards. We are hoping to make lots of new friends at Sportel. If you see any of us why not come over and say hello? You won’t be able to miss us, I promise. To find out why, turn to page 24 and read about how Mike Rowbottom’s insidethegames.biz tie is more famous than he is…
Duncan Mackay Editor
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7
The beautiful game’s
broadcasting revolution
Above: More than 42 million watched Brazil’s opening match of the FIFA World Cup against Croatia on TV Globo.
From cutting-edge broadcasting to on-demand streaming and social media buzz, this summer’s FIFA World Cup showed how new technology is shaping the way we watch major sporting events. David Owen looks at how Brazil 2014 set a benchmark that will keep climbing. 8
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n the end, it was alright on the night. In spite of its troubled prelude, the 2014 FIFA World Cup provided a feast of entertainment in a setting synonymous with beautiful, flowing football. From the moment Croatia silenced São Paulo by taking the lead against hosts Brazil in the competition’s opening match, the script was satisfyingly unpredictable, the teamwork impressive and the energy levels astonishing, given the sweltering conditions in which many matches were played. If it was rarely jogo bonito, the sheer excitement served up by many of the tournament’s 64 games gives every reason to expect that viewing figures will have outstripped those recorded by the previous World Cup in South Africa in 2010. Then the competition achieved a total in-home audience reach of 2.2
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Photo: Warren Little/AFP/Getty Image
billion, close to one in three of the world’s population, based on those watching a minimum of 20 consecutive minutes of coverage. The 2010 World Cup final, which saw the crowning as world champions of a great Spanish team, the first time Spain had won the trophy, was watched on the same basis by almost 620 million people. Since then, the pace of technological innovation has raced ever onwards, with the result that football fans not lucky enough to have seats in the Brazil 2014 arenas were able to experience the excitement via ever clearer, more inventive TV pictures and a proliferation of multimedia applications. The television coverage seen by most of us at home was provided, via a 55,000 sq m International Broadcasting Centre in Rio de Janeiro, by 34 cameras per stadium, up from 32
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DAVID OWEN CHIEF COLUMNIST, INSIDETHEGAMES
in 2010. “There were spider cams and cable cams for every match, and more helicopter shots,” Niclas Ericson, FIFA’s director of TV, explains. Television viewers were also able to appreciate the benefit of goal-line technology, used by the tournament for the first time, in order to eliminate errors such as the disallowing of Frank Lampard’s ‘goal’ in Bloemfontein in 2010, in the last 16 match between England and Germany. Brazil 2014 was an important milestone for ultra-high definition (HD) technology, with FIFA and its sponsor Sony collaborating on a number of 4K initiatives. Three full matches were produced in the format and distributed, Ericson says, to broadcasters and cinemas. In addition, the official 2014 FIFA World Cup film is being produced in 4K ultra HD. The intention in doing this is to accelerate the expansion of 4K viewing, hence expanding the market for 4K products, such as 4K-compatible televisions and other items offered by Sony. Ericson says that FIFA also collaborated with NHK, another Japanese company, on 8K technology. The resulting pictures, he says, were used by NHK “for a few public viewings”. In a separate initiative, the 2014 World Cup final, between winners Germany and Argentina, was filmed in 360-degree ultra HD, using equipment developed by scientists at the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin. A so-called OmniCam was positioned on the halfway line to record the complete Maracanã stadium in one panoramic view. The fruits of this project are expected to be made available to visitors to the new FIFA World Football Museum in Zűrich. This is scheduled to open in early 2016. Given this preoccupation with quality and ensuring that broadcasters around the world have access to the best possible images from the competition and the festivities surrounding it, it comes as little surprise that FIFA had net costs of around $150 million on the broadcast production at the 2010 tournament in South Africa. Then again, broadcasting rights for football’s flagship competition do not come cheap: media companies paid FIFA $2.4 billion for the right to televise that 2010 competition. With such sums at stake, flawless quality, attained in what are sometimes very challenging conditions, is clearly paramount. While most of us still watch the tournament on television, many of the most exciting technological developments between 2010 and www.facebook.com/insidethegames
Above: Germany lift the FIFA World Cup at the end of a tournament notable for its technological innovations. Photo: Clive Rose/AFP/Getty Images
2014 came in the realm of broadband. This medium is rapidly transforming the way we consume top-level sport. It also enables content producers, such as FIFA, to use this content in many more ways than in even the recent past. There can be few of us who didn’t feel moved to comment on 2014 World Cup matches as we watched on our personal social media networks. The number of tweets dedicated to the tournament while it was in full swing was put at an astounding 672 million; 88 million Facebook users were said to have provided 280 million interactions, consisting of ‘likes’, comments and @insidethegames
posts, during the final alone. Many others used laptops and mobile devices to monitor statistics and watch interviews and other non-match features while waiting for the next game. Not surprisingly, since it is a genuinely global event with even the less significant matches attracting an audience located in scores of countries, millions of people wanted to keep tabs on the action during working hours in office environments where televisions were not necessarily readily available. Some of these individuals, as well as others who found
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DAVID OWEN CHIEF COLUMNIST, INSIDETHEGAMES
themselves travelling while big games were on, would have watched entire matches on computers or mobile devices. Still others would have turned to laptops or iPads even when a TV was available, perhaps because of scheduling issues, or to watch a game from a camera angle of their, not the TV producer’s, choice. Let’s not forget too that the final two matches in each World Cup group are played simultaneously; watching one of them on TV and the other on your iPad or other device is a more convenient and effective way of following both games than flicking constantly from one television channel to another. In one illustration of the explosion of demand to access World Cup content online, a recordbreaking 5.3 million unique viewers tuned in for
Netherlands game, won 5-1 by the Oranje, on Ned1 in the Netherlands - the highest TV audience since 2012 (a further 9.3 million watched on BBC1 in the UK); 27 million watched the crunch England versus Italy group match in those two Above: FIFA and its sponsor Sony collaborated on a number of 4K initiatives during the World Cup in Brazil. Photo: courtesy of Sony countries alone; and have no way of knowing what the true figure is, 11.4 million watched I would be surprised if this were too far wide of the Russia versus South Korea clash on three the mark. stations in Korea - at 7am local time. Thanks to FIFA’s 2013 annual report, we are How much did also in possession of a budget for broadcasting FIFA earn from revenues for the 2015-2018 period ending with broadcasting rights that Russian World Cup. This budget is $2.7 for the 2014 World Cup and is it realistic billion. Adding 29 per cent to that takes you close to $3.5 billion. While there is no guarantee to expect yet more that early budgets will always be as conservative from the 2018 as that 2007-2010 figure turned out to be, it competition to be looks to me highly likely that the 2018 staged in Russia? Ericson says that the tournament will be the first World Cup to final 2014 figure will generate more than $3 billion in broadcasting revenue. not be announced And, though he will not divulge 2011-2014 until FIFA’s next revenue, Ericson concurs that there is “no annual report is published. However, doubt” that broadcasting income for elite-level football will continue to grow at a steady pace figures drawn from in years to come. “The good news for football is past documents Above: The heartbeat of the FIFA World Cup television coverage was the massive International Broadcast Centre in Rio de Janeiro. Photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images that it continues to be very important strategic enable us to programming for many media companies,” make certain he says. assumptions. the last-16 match between Belgium and the Way back in 2005, United States on ESPN and Univision platforms. In another, Ericson says that the FIFA World Cup FIFA budgeted for broadcasting revenues “white-label” second screen app was of $1.9 billion in the downloaded more than 10 million times. “We 2007-10 period, are proud to say that [the 2014] FIFA World Cup culminating with the has been the biggest multimedia sporting event 2010 World Cup. In in history,” he says. fact, they generated The full picture in terms of global audience $2.45 billion, 29 per levels was not yet available at time of writing, cent more than that but it seems likely to show still further growth initial budget. from the extraordinary levels achieved in 2010. Four years later, in “It looks very good,” Ericson confides. “We are 2009, budgeted optimistic it will be higher than 2010. We had broadcast income for very, very good figures across the Americas and 2011-14 was put at Europe, and we are encouraged by what we saw $2.2 billion. A similar in Asia.” 29 per cent overshoot Among figures that FIFA has released: 42.9 would take actual million watched that opening Brazil versus revenues to more than Above: A customer watches a replay of a World Cup match on a new 4K screen at Sony’s Croatia encounter on Brazil’s TV Globo; 7.2 showroom in Tokyo. Photo: Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images $2.8 billion. While I million watched the jaw-dropping Spain versus www.facebook.com/insidethegames
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11
Judo’s TV image
overhaul
Judo’s image on the small screen was a poor one just a matter of years ago. But as Duncan Mackay discovers, under the stewardship of International Judo Federation President Marius Vizer, things have changed dramatically for the better.
T
he International Judo Federation has embraced the power of television with satisfying results, helping its President Marius Vizer fulfil many of his ambitions of increasing the sport’s visibility, universality and sustainability. Before Vizer took over in 2007, judo
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struggled for awareness outside the fouryearly Olympic arena. Now, there is a thriving worldwide grand prix circuit with increasing prize money and the IJF have broadcast deals in more than 150 countries which helps keep it at the forefront of the sporting calendar. Judo realised earlier than most Olympic sports the importance of controlling its image on television and who they sell their rights to. Before Vizer’s election seven years ago, the IJF had been a “hands-off” federation, handing over the rights for its biennial World Championships to a marketing agency, most recently IEC in Sports, the Stockholmbased agency owned by French media group Lagardère. Vizer, however, took the IJF’s rights back in-house and developed a World Judo Tour, comprising four Grand Slam events, five Grand Prix events and a World Masters competition every year, while the World
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Championships have also switched to an annual cycle. This year’s World Championships in Chelyabinsk, best known for being hit by a meteor last year but which is also judo mad having produced several top-class competitors, enjoyed almost unprecedented attention. There were even giant billboards erected around the Russian city of Vizer shaking hands with Vladimir Putin, Honorary President of the IJF who attended the last day of competition. The buzz created around the event helped ensure a sold-out venue every evening where 10 countries shared the gold medals. Even Russia’s failure to be among these goldmedal winning countries did not appear to detract from the success of the event. “The television image of judo used to be very negative,” admitted Vlad Marinescu, former head of the IJF Presidential Office,
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DUNCAN MACKAY EDITOR, INSIDETHEGAMES opportunity by the IJF to show the event in their home territory for free. The man in charge of overseeing the IJF’s television coverage is Claudiu Chimoiu, a Romanian recruited by Vizer in 2010, who has brought the highest level of professionalism to the operation. “We have our own book, the transmission guide,” he said. “It’s like any other international competition should have the UEFA Champions League or Formula One. They need to respect our protocols because our coverage is a lot bigger than the local country.” Broadcasting judo has its own challenges for broadcasters, particularly the positioning of the cameras. “Camera one is central low, it’s the main camera during the fight,” said Chimoiu. “It’s unique to judo because the angle is so low to focus on the tactics and pick up the legs very well. There are cameras right and left of centre low. There’s another camera reverse angle centre low. There’s one centre up, the main camera for the beginning of the fight. We have a crane camera; we have another two cameras on the sides of the tatami. Also, we have two shoulder cameras for the presentation.” Plans are also in the pipeline to improve the graphics package to incorporate even more information and, like most other sports,
experiments have been taking place for judo to be broadcast in 4K. To help ensure that everyone can keep in touch with what is happening in their sport the IJF also stream highlights of their events on Judo TV. It is all part of Vizer’s master plan to make sure the sport that remains his passion, even though as President of SportAccord, the umbrella organisation for all International Federations, he is becoming an increasingly influential figure in the Olympic Movement, continues to grow and prosper. “I’m proud of the fact that I put judo on a path that gave our sport a new life and continuous hope,” said Vizer. “I created a new world circuit in judo, a system through which judo athletes as well can now obtain financial benefits. I created a media and marketing strategy that gives visibility and exposure to our sport, consecrating and promoting it.” Main: A minimum of 15 cameras are commissioned for each major event as the International Judo Federation seek to bring fans as close to the action as possible. Photo: Chelyabinsk 2014. Far left: International Judo Federation President Marius Vizer during a press conference at the 2014 World Championships in Chelyabinsk. Photo: Gabriela Sabau/IJF Bottom: Judo’s increased visibility has helped keep its stars, like Frenchman Teddy Riner, in the public eye beyond the Olympics. Photo: Buda Mendes/AFP/Getty Images
who is now director general of SportAccord. “It took time to convince people. There were changes made to the structure of the sport and to the field of play. We implemented technical changes to make judo faster, more dynamic. We have modernised the sport, but kept its roots. We would never sacrifice the ideal of Jigoro Kano [the creator of judo] for popularity.” Kano, though, would surely be amazed if he was to walk into one of the modern-day dojos that host one of Vizer’s World Judo Tour events. The amount of technology that surrounds the tatami is eye-catching. There are a minimum of 15 cameras at each event, usually accompanied by a sky-cam to ensure that every angle is covered. The IJF demand that local organisers are responsible for providing the production for the event to the very highest standards. As a reward the host broadcaster is given the www.facebook.com/insidethegames
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13
Olympism through Bach’s baby Broadcasting
the word of
An Olympic TV channel looks on the cusp of creation, but what benefits will Thomas Bach’s brainchild bring for the IOC and the wider world of global sport? Duncan Mackay investigates.
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f, as Rick Springfield once sung, the timing’s right and the gods are with you, something special happens, then Thomas Bach could be onto something with his plans to launch an Olympic TV channel. Like everyone else, the International Olympic Committee is chasing the rainbow at which the end of is the emerging demographic that is teenagers and 20-somethings. It is a market that the IOC President has shown he is happy to pursue, witness his call for as many “selfies” as possible to be taken during the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing earlier
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this year. But an Olympic TV channel would, he hopes, have a more sustainable impact than just a stunt that trended on Twitter for a few hours before fading away. “Many Olympic sports do not appear enough across the world on TV,” Bach told insidethegames. “If you do not see enough sports on TV and the internet, then these sports will lose more and more kids and young athletes.” Bach had made the creation of an Olympic TV channel one of the central planks of his successful election campaign last year but warned that it could take up to five years to
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come to fruition. However, since taking over as the most powerful man in world sport, his plans have accelerated. The setting-up of the channel will be among the leading items discussed at the IOC Extraordinary Session here, in Monte Carlo, on December 8 and 9. It would be a surprise if the proposal was not approved, in which case it will be full steam ahead. “If the Session gives us the green light in December, and everything goes extremely well, then it could even start before the Rio 2016 Games,” Bach said. The concept of how the channel would
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look is still at its early planning stages but it will be designed to keep the notion of Olympism at the forefront of people’s minds 365 days a year. Bach insisted his proposal for a dedicated channel was not about making money but spreading Olympic sports to a wider and younger audience. “It’s not just the notion of the Olympic Games - but the values and everything we stand for,” said Timo Lumme, the managing director of IOC TV and marketing services, who is overseeing the plans. “And hopefully we can get in there and stretch the Olympic brand beyond the two weeks, beyond the huge spike of the Games, and leverage that spike. “That’s a pretty broad canvas. My objective is to see what’s the best way to deliver against those objectives on a global basis. This is not a college sports channel play or NFL channel play; this is about increasing the overall value proposition as part of our partnership for broadcasters, for partners, for our whole ecosystem.” The IOC would need to invest at least $100 million to get the idea off the ground, it has been estimated. Bach noted that the IOC already has its own in-house television production company, Olympic Broadcasting Services, and they do own more than 40,000 hours of archival Olympic footage it can use
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to programme the channel. It is expected that the IOC would act as the “curator” of the Olympic TV channel to develop digital content, but also ask the international sports federations, National Olympic Committees, broadcasters and sponsors to get involved. The IOC already has a successful YouTube channel that shows mostly highlights and footage of past Olympic Games. If it opts to create a digital Olympic TV channel, it could look to expand the on-demand offerings on YouTube. It also has two sponsors who make televisions, Panasonic and Samsung, who could pre-load their Smart TVs with an Olympic channel as an option alongside other content providers like Netflix. “We’re not going to be in the business of bidding for rights, however there will be opportunities where an Olympic channel may be able to add value to an [international federation’s] events by producing some coverage - magazine coverage or coverage of events in parts of the world they’re having trouble penetrating,” Lumme said. “It wouldn’t be a pure sports channel. There are plenty of pure sports channels, especially in a market like the United States. The positioning has to be about what Olympism is. It’s sports. It’s education. It’s kids. It’s history. There’s a rich seam of different types of things it can be, and that’s what makes us convinced it can
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Main: IOC President Thomas Bach has already shown he is in touch with youngsters by embracing the selfie during the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing earlier this year. Photo: Feng Li/AFP/Getty Images Top right: The IOC already has its own own in-house television production company, Olympic Broadcasting Services. Photo: Doug Pensinger/AFP/Getty Images Bottom: The IOC have invested heavily in covering the Olympics, including London 2012. Photo: Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images
be a success. “This is all in development. We’re looking at our options and have an eye on the final milestone in December. [The concept is] not hugely revolutionary but is reflective of the broadcast market.” Four years ago, the United States Olympic Committee announced plans to set up its
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Main: Thomas Bach wants all Olympic sports to enjoy a higher-profile, not just a bounce every four years. Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
own television network, but was forced to back down after objections from the IOC and NBC. When the USOC’s planned Olympic channel was squashed, the IOC was preparing to negotiate its TV rights for the 2014-2020 Olympics. It also was in the middle of a heated, revenue-sharing dispute with the USOC. The row was one of the main reasons Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics flopped so spectacularly. Larry Probst, chairman of the USOC, admitted in the aftermath of Chicago being eliminated in the first round of voting for 2016, that the proposed launch of the TV channel had not helped their cause. “We publically acknowledge that the timing of it probably wasn’t as good as it could have been,” he told insidethegames at the time. Nevertheless, he stood by the concept. “We still think that the network is a good idea and if properly planned and executed, it could be a great thing for Olympic sport and getting young children into sport,” said Probst. It appears only that the USOC’s timing was wrong. Both the TV and revenue sharing issues have since been resolved. NBC agreed to pay $4.4 billion for the rights to the 2014-2020 Olympics, and the USOC agreed to a revenue-sharing agreement that gives the IOC a greater percentage of Olympic sponsorship and TV money. www.facebook.com/insidethegames
NBC Sports chairman Mark Lazarus is among those who have been publicly supportive of an Olympic TV channel. “I don’t think it would do any harm,” he said. “It could only help our business.” Bach revealed the IOC has already discussed the proposed global network with its other television partners and the international sports federations. “Our rights holders are very supportive and very interested in this project,” Bach told insidethegames. “We could see that
in the recent discussions we had when it came to negotiate new [television] contracts. They all asked how they could be involved and how they could help. Therefore, the support is really broad. It’s not only the International Federations, the National Olympic Committees and the IOC itself but it’s also the sponsors, the rights holders and future candidate cities. They have all realised the advantages it would offer and the potential to each of them.”
Above: Several sports in the United States, including the NFL, have already successful launched their own TV channels. Photo: NFL
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New
media
giving platform
to flourishing sports Advancements in broadcasting, the internet and social media have given less-familiar sports a platform to showcase their athletes. For the likes of sambo and skateboarding, it means they can finally shout loud and proud about what they are, and that they’re here to stay, as Mike Rowbottom found.
S
port and television are increasingly interdependent in the modern age - and the multiplicity of outlets now available for live streaming or democratic and individual uploads mean that this whole media arena has become as important to sports as the ones in which their action takes place. Television, and its myriad offshoots, is the key tool for sports promotion. For example, the inaugural European Games scheduled for June 12-28 next year in Baku will offer an anticipated 1,200 hours of broadcast coverage in high definition. That prospect is generating anticipation
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and excitement among the sports due to take part, not least sambo, the multiple martial art developed for Russia’s military and police force in the 1930s. “Being involved in an inaugural event such as the European Games is very exciting for us as a sport, and will allow us to show National Olympic Committees how it is developing,” said Michal Buchel, chief executive officer of the International Sambo Federation. “The Games will be about exposure and marketing of our sport. “I know that we will probably be contacting very soon the Games organising committee
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to establish our programme and to make it attractive to the TV companies. I’m sure that we will comply with any requests. “As it is an inaugural event we have a great hope and expectation for it. It will be a great help for our exposure internationally for the sport to be seen on TV during the Games. “Our sport is very spectacular and TV-friendly. We work very closely with the European Broadcasting Union and we work as much as we can towards providing live streaming of our events in internet channels or YouTube. This is a vital process that we are actively involved in. “Sambo is a dynamic and really competitive
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MIKE ROWBOTTOM CHIEF FEATURE WRITER, INSIDETHEGAMES Main: International Skateboarding Federation President Gary Ream claims that the sport is being driven by the passion of kids and that creating videos to upload to showcase their talents is an important part of the sport. Photo: medtide/Istockphoto.com Left and below: The TV channels for the Sambo World Cup 2014 and PSA Squash TV are featured on their websites as well as on YouTube.
sport. It is a combat sport which offers a range of techniques and grips, it is fast and exciting to watch. The throws are really spectacular. And with HD quality pictures and slow-motion action replays it becomes even more compelling viewing. “In judo the regulations are strictly limited. In sambo they are more open, which means that from a television perspective they are more exciting. We are strict with our rules, as judo is, but we have a great chance to show much wider and bigger range of techniques. The sport has things which are easy to understand. It is clear to spectators when there is a throw and why points are won. “In Baku I am sure the national team of Russia will face strong opposition from neighbours such as Azerbaijan, as well as from France and Italy. The Games will be important not just for sambo’s European profile, but its world profile. They will offer some the chance to be heroes. “It is all part of our attempt to promote our sport. We would like to become part of the Olympic sports, and to be recognised by the International Olympic Committee, and we want to contribute to the Olympic Movement.” That is an aspiration shared by squash, albeit that the sport has had successive disappointments in its efforts to join the Olympic Programme. Their mission continues, and as Naryana Ramachandran, President of the World Squash Federation makes clear, TV is a central part of their efforts. “The last few years have been times of great change for squash in terms of broadcast, innovation and presentation,” he said. “Broadcast has been helped by innovation, the www.facebook.com/insidethegames
innovation has aided presentation and the circle is closed by presentation enhancing broadcast! “Specifically, Squash TV has taken away dependency on host broadcasters and has guaranteed the quality and consistency of Tour output as a result of the whole production kit, cameras, production team and indeed commentators travelling to events. Squash TV broadcasts over 300 matches per year from the major events, and has already announced an upgrade to HD for the streaming output beginning next January. “The distribution footprint has increased as broadcasters have picked up upon the exciting men’s and women’s on-court action that is so well presented and broadcasters include Sky Sports, BBC, Europsport, Astro, PCCW, Starhub, SkyNet, Ten Sports, Orbit Showtime Network and One World Sports. “Recently, the showcourt, staging and atmosphere that characterised the Commonwealth Games generated output from Glasgow was a great example of just how far the
sport has come into the mainstream of higher profile public sports, and how squash would add value to the Olympic Games programme if we are selected to join in the future. “ For Gary Ream, President of the International Skateboarding Federation, TV and related social media are part of the essence of his youthful sport. “Skateboarding is a lifestyle sport so it’s all about media, social media, the internet and TV,” he said. “It’s very visual. It’s very popular with viewers. On TV, it has featured in ESPN’s action sports network X Games, which has been running for about 15 years, it’s been on NBC as part of the Dew Tour for the past eight or nine years, and Fox Sports has been featuring Street League for six or seven years. “Some of the guys in Street League like Chris Cole or Sean Malto are making over $1 million a year. When they came over to do the Sports Lab at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing they were probably the highest paid people present! “People want to watch it. It’s simple. And you can record street skateboarding on your smart phone and load it up directly to YouTube or
Above: The match between James Willstrop of England and Cameron Pilley of Australia during the final of the ISS Canary Wharf Squash Classic in London, England in 2008 was filmed with several cameras shooting different angles giving the best TV viewing experience. Photo: Paul Gilham/AFP/Getty Images
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MIKE ROWBOTTOM CHIEF FEATURE WRITER, INSIDETHEGAMES whatever. You create new moves, you show them off, you record them, you add music, you upload them. “The more popular it is, the more it gets onto social media, the more the big TV networks want it. In the United States you have an endless stream of live TV events. They are popular and much easier to produce than a movie or a miniseries. “The networks are playing with youth - and youth is the future, in broadcasting, for car companies, for coffee companies, for clothing companies…youth is the market place. “In the X Games you see skateboarding featuring along with other lifestyle sports such as surfing, BMX and snowboarding. It has its own culture - and that culture is youth. It is the future. That is what powers it.” Ream, who makes a living by running summer camps featuring street sports in the United States, added: “When we took skateboarding off the streets in the 1980s, no one really cared. But now it has gone to a new level, and what is driving it is the passion of the kids who are doing it, and also documenting it, photographing it, recording it and creating videos and uploads with musical backing. Kids nowadays have access to video editing equipment that only people like Sony Studios had 15 years ago. “If you force a kid to go and do stuff they don’t like, the creativity is not going to be there. If you stimulate them with a sport and an environment that speaks to them, the creativity flows. Keep adults at a distance, let the kids express their own creativity. “So many sports are all about adult control. Take gymnastics - the coach tells you when to turn up for training, when to stop. If you want to go to the bathroom you go as a group. On the other side, what you can have is organised chaos - but that’s where the creativity happens. “ESPN, NBC and Fox Sports have been showcasing magical sport for years now - some of these skateboarders are phenomenal worldclass athletes. And then the IOC finally thinks ‘Whoahhhh!!’” Like skateboarding, surfing also enjoys a prime position within network TV, including its place among the cool collection of ESPN’s X Games. And as Fernando Aguerre, President of the International Surfing Association, points out, there is the same democratisation within the sport as skateboarding has witnessed, with those riding the waves producing their own multiplicity of images and videos for internet and social media. Technological advances are helping them. “The biggest change in surfing over the last three or four years has been the arrival of www.facebook.com/insidethegames
portable, waterproof cameras that can be fixed onto boards,” Aguerre said. “They have had about 1 billion in sales because they are easily available and very cheap - around $3-$4. It works for all the so called lifestyle sports - you can have the camera on your helmet, Above: A cameraman films sporting action from a helicopter over the ocean in Australia. or on your wrist. Photo: Darren England/ALLSPORT/AFP/Getty Images This has revolutionised power could sometimes make the difference the amount of stills between a good and a bad wave by changing its photography and video content relating to speed and shape. surfing. “But increasingly people are using cameras “From the point of view of live streaming of content on the internet, surfing has been making mounted on drones which hover above the action and follow the surfers. Drones can cost use of this process for around 15 years, since the as little as $1,500-$2,000, and the footage they internet really got started. gain is easily viewed on many websites devoted “In terms of covering surfing you have traditionally had cameras with zoom lenses being to the sport. “Twenty years ago surfing was regarded as a used on the beach, and other cameras being niche interest, in the same way as fishing was, operated from boats. and it wouldn’t make it onto network TV as it “You used to see surfing footage shot by was seen as being too specific. But that has all helicopters hovering overhead, but this was a changed now. It’s across all the big networks dangerous practice which created a lot of wind blowing down onto the waves, which wasn’t safe ABC, CBS, NBC. It’s part of the increasing media content now required by the TV.” for the surfers. Also, that amount of extra wind
Bottom: US surfer Tanner Gudauskas performs and wins during the final of the Lacanau pro surfing competition in France, in August. Photo: Jean-Pierre Muller/AFP/Getty Images).
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From
Mexico City 1968 Baku 2015 to
Above: Covering the Olympic Games is now a huge technological operation that requires vast resources. Photo: Stu Forster/AFP/Getty Images
After half a century engineering Olympic broadcasting, Manolo Romero has shifted his attention to the inaugural European Games in Baku next year. Nick Butler finds out more.
A
list of great contributors to the Olympic Movement over the last five decades would feature a distinguished panel of athletes and administrators, coaches, journalists and officials. But, somewhere near the top, would be a man who has spearheaded Olympic broadcasting ever since first becoming involved at the Mexico City 1968 Games. Born in Seville, Manolo Romero began his television career three years earlier in the engineering department for Spanish network, TVE, but it was the Olympic Games that swiftly became his focus, and his influence duly grew in
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the 1970s and 1980s. Once the International Olympic Committee appointed a host broadcaster ahead of his home Games in Barcelona in 1992, he was well-placed to lead the project. He then became managing director of the Olympic Broadcasting Services when it was set up in 2001, relinquishing this role only after London 2012. In 1996 Romero set up his own company, International Sports Broadcasting, which has been actively involved, through OBS, in every Games since Nagano 1998, and it is in this capacity that he will turn his vast wealth of experience towards organising the coverage for the inaugural European Games in Baku next June. A lot has changed in the last 50 years. “Mexico City was the first time we had set out to use one channel to produce coverage for all over the world, from Europe to Japan,” he told me from ISB’s Madrid headquarters on a line so poor that he joked it reminded him of being back in the Central American capital all those years ago. “In recent decades, we have gone from analogue and film to cable. We wanted to have immediacy and to increase our breadth of coverage to sports, like road cycling, that we could not really film before. We wanted to treat
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all the sports equally, and digital production and distribution has allowed us to reach more people. So in London, there was 6,000 hours of coverage, up from 2,000 hours in Barcelona.” As well as the technological changes, the level of production and coverage has also increased. “Today, you can watch different channels, via cable and on the internet, so the change has been dramatic. Once the Organising Committee was asked by the IOC to organise host broadcasting, the coverage gradually got better and better, in keeping with the aim to bring the Olympics to the whole world. “The change has been enormous and all these new technologies have enabled us to do this. The challenge now for OBS is to continue doing
Above: Television coverage of the Olympics has changed dramatically since Mexico City in 1968, the first Games Manolo Romero covered. Photo: Hulton Archive/AFP/Getty Images
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NICK BUTLER REPORTER, INSIDETHEGAMES
ISB has also organised the coverage for numerous World Championships and for other continental multi-sport events, including the Pan American Games. But Baku 2015 will offer a new challenge. This is partly because there is no reference point or established procedures to follow, but also because the Games were launched just two years ago, so the Above: Manolo Romero has been involved in Olympic broadcasting since Mexico City 1968 and will organisers have had oversee coverage of the first-ever European Games in Baku next year. Photo: Courtesy of Panasonic to cram in two years and now, hand in hand with the Operation of preparations when Committee in Baku, they have “very clear plans” they would normally expect to have six or to do, in eight or nine months, what normally seven. takes a couple of years. Implementation is Romero admits the timing and budgetary beginning this month and by May facilities and constraints mean the coverage will not quite be personnel should be in place. They are then up to Olympic level and that they “do not have hoping to begin proceedings a couple of weeks a second to lose”. This has been made that bit before the Opening Ceremony on June 12. trickier because ISB are also shouldering While at the Summer Olympics there are responsibility for designing and operating the generally between 40 and 50 different venues, International Broadcast Centre in Baku. Yet, in Baku there are currently 15. And in typically, he is also excited and confident of comparison with the 6,000 hours of coverage in success. London, there will be between 1,000 and 1,200 After their appointment was confirmed in on this occasion, while there will also be no December, preparatory work began in January attempt made to use either 3D or Super HD coverage in Baku. But elsewhere, they are making sure there is as little difference as possible with the coverage itself, with similar levels of quality, distributed through four satellite channels, with a fifth channel also being used to show solely highlights and news. In addition to these roles, ISB is also managing the sale of broadcast rights for the Games. Romero claimed they are confident of “massive coverage”, despite the fledging nature of the event. Interest has come not only from Europe but from Asia and the Americas as well, Romero revealed. So, while the deadline may be tight and the ambition slightly downscaled, the Games will be another Olympian test for a man who knows more about Olympic broadcasting than probably anyone else. And despite the many technological changes in recent years, if they keep coverage athlete-centred and focused around the best possible delivery of high-level Above: The Baku Expo Centre is being used as the International Broadcast Centre for the 2015 European Games. sport, they will not go far wrong. Photo: Courtesy of Baku 2015
it better through means like Super High Definition.” Interestingly, in other ways, the focus of the coverage has changed little and, as Romero explained in a voice brimming with enthusiasm, keeping the athletes at the forefront remains crucial. “I have enjoyed every minute of it,” he admitted. “We have enjoyed the support of NOCs and Federations to develop that level of coverage and keep athletes at the centre of the Games. Hopefully this will continue and we will come closer to achieving the ultimate goal of bringing athletes closer to the viewer.” In the eyes of many, the logical next step is the creation of a full-time, dedicated Olympic television channel, and this is something currently being talked about as part of the Olympic Agenda 2020 discussions coming to a head at the Extraordinary IOC Session in Monte Carlo on December 8 and 9. Unsurprisingly, Romero sees this as “very exciting” and something that will “allow different stakeholders to have an Olympics every day. It will not be easy to implement but I am sure they will find a way to do so, fitting with the Olympic ideals.” For now though, Romero’s focus will be on the European Games, a pioneering project that will see around 6,000 athletes spanning 49 countries and 20 sports descend upon the Azerbaijani capital for a 17-day sporting extravaganza. As well as seven Olympic Games,
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MIKE ROWBOTTOM CHIEF FEATURE WRITER, INSIDETHEGAMES
upstaged How I was
on TV by my
insidethegames.biz tie Everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes, according to Andy Warhol, but not if you’re Mike Rowbottom. If you’re Mike Rowbottom, it will be your insidethegames.biz tie that hogs the limelight.
I
Above: Mike Rowbottom, Jacquelin Magnay of the Telegraph, Larry Eder of RunBlogRun.com with presenters Sarah Stone and Andy Kerr filming in the Al Jazeera Olympic studios on the River Thames during London 2012. Photo: Courtesy of Al Jazeera Right: Mike Rowbottom sporting his insidethegames.biz tie in the Al Jazeera studios. Photo: Courtesy of Iwan Thomas
Soon after that brief encounter with an “overwhelmed-to-the-point-ofhyperventilation” local worthy and her old flame, I actually did find myself in a television studio in central London while the 2012 Olympics were underway, having been asked by Al Jazeera to be part of their Sport Olympic Breakfast Show. During these historic TV interludes historic for me that is - I wore, among other things of course, not just on its own, the insidethegames.biz tie. Personally, I like the tie. Yes, it’s bright. Yes, it’s got a quasi-Mr Blobby thing going on. But I think it does the job as a working tie. That is, it sniffs out drugs and explosives. Sorry, no, that’s a working dog. It engages. Yes! That’s what it does. It engages. The mindset required for the wearer is along the lines of “no publicity is bad publicity”, and it is one with which I believe I am more than comfortable. Anyway, my first appearance was going reasonably well as I sat in company with Martin Henlan, the former GB basketball captain, and Graham Fletcher, the former Olympic showjumper. I think I may have ventured an opinion that the Games had started very well, that people seemed to like them and that they could be Above: Sarah Stone and Andy Kerr wear their insidethegames.biz ties during a broadcast of Al Jazeera’s important in terms of Sport Olympic Breakfast Show. Photo: Courtesy of Al Jazeera legacy, so I was
t is fair to say, I think, that I am pretty experienced as far as television appearances are concerned. I have appeared in front of televisions all over the world for almost half a century. On occasions, I have found myself on the other side of the screen. Once, unwittingly, I appeared in the background along with my entire family, for several seconds, during an episode of the children’s TV drama The Queen’s Nose, which had been partially filmed at Stansted Airport. Another time, according to those who saw it, the back of my head appeared during a BBC clip of a press conference. And only a couple of years ago, as the Olympic Torch swept through our home town of Bishop’s Stortford, I like to think I would have been fleetingly on camera as I stood in the crowd while the cavalcade turned past the Cock Inn at Hockerill crossroads. Quite an extensive TV CV, I am sure you will agree.
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obviously making a valuable contribution. Then suddenly, without warning, I was asked about my tie. The query was put to me in jocular fashion by the joint host, Andy Kerr - who was sitting alongside Sarah Stone - and I am assuming his producer asked him to do it. I made a comment of acknowledgement. I believe it may have contained a reference to children’s entertainers. I also mentioned that it was an insidethegames.biz tie while thinking, “Cheers guys!” Well, to cut what is in danger of becoming a long story short...The End. Only joking! A later appearance - in which I sat next to the former British decathlete Dean Macey took place with Iwan Thomas, who is still the British 400 metres record holder by the way, milling about in the background as he prepared to sit in with Macey on the main athletics coverage. At one point, while footage of the Games was being shown to viewers, Thomas hared over and took a picture of me on his mobile phone camera that he then tweeted with the caption “The Naughtiest Tie I Have Ever Seen”. When we were back in shot, Kerr mentioned Thomas’ caper and Macey said, on air, that he would quite fancy wearing one of the ties next time round. Indeed, when the show was over both Kerr and Stone said they would quite fancy wearing a tie, too, for a linking shot. Which, when I was next in, they duly did. Final note: Al Jazeera has said that for any future appearances I just need to make sure I put my tie in the taxi.
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