LA28 set to rewrite the broadcast rulebook

Speaking during ‘Live Sports at Scale: Redefining the art of the possible’, Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) CEO Yiannis Exarchos warned that traditional production models “simply will not do” as it prepares for unprecedented scale, complexity and audience expectations. 

But the challenge is not simply to produce more coverage of the events themselves. OBS also needs to find new ways to bring the Games to audiences who may not already be interested in sport.  

“We will have 12,000 athletes, 36 sports — four more than ever before — and over 14,000 hours of content,” said Exarchos. “We need to be closer to the action than ever. We have three years to go, and who knows how many more ways of creating or distributing content will be refined by then.” 

To meet that demand, OBS is undergoing a major operational transformation. “Virtualisation, AI and cloud are vital,” Exarchos said. “But to support them, you have to go through massive change.” 

The Paris Games delivered 11,000 hours of content, including 3,400 hours of competition, supported by 1,000 camera systems and 8,000 staff from 106 nations. LA28 will exceed all of these numbers. 

One of the most striking shifts, Exarchos said, is the rise of viewers who do not follow sports at all. “In Paris, we had close to five billion people following the Olympic Games through digital means. There are not five billion sports fans in the world. More than half of those viewers are casual fans.” 

These viewers “want to be part of a worldwide celebration,” he said. “We must open up the world of sports in ways meaningful to non-experts.” 

That changing audience is part of a dramatic expansion in global programming. “In 2004, broadcasters produced around 44,000 hours of Olympic programming,” Exarchos said. “In Paris, it was close to 500,000 hours.” 

Such a scale is necessary to maintain the Games’ cultural impact in a fragmented media world. “Scaling is the only option if you want the whole world with you,” he said.