Olympic Vision May Include Mud Wrestling

Michael Hedges September 15, 2009 Follow on Twitter

The Olympic Games and television fit together so sensationally that the broadcasts are highly anticipated. Now, of course, “the thrill of victory and agony of defeat” is watched on big and small screens, arriving by broadband as often as ether. Broadcasters sufficiently endowed with Olympic broadcast rights pull out all the stops to make each quadrennial event bigger and better.

The BBC will be host broadcaster for the 2012 London Olympic Games. Other broadcasters will have their own crews and commentators, some producing their own coverage, but much of the video seen around the world will come from BBC teams. Like all broadcasters since the dawn of televised sports the BBC is intent on maximizing the considerable investment.

The role of broadcast technology in sports programming, Olympic Games in particular, has been boundless. Every four years something new is unveiled, always intending to make larger the viewers experience.

The BBC’s coverage of the London 2012 Olympic Games will be available in high definition (HD), confirmed Roger Mosey who is directing the daunting project. At the IBC broadcast technology show in Amsterdam Mosey teased the possibility of even more. “No one would expect the Games in 2012 to be comprehensively in 3D but it would be a shame not to have any 3D footage of London in its Olympic state,” he said. This would be in addition to collecting video in Ultra HD (UHD – 33.2 megapixels).

Commitment to the London Olympic Games, in scale and style, has an enormous potential pay-off for the BBC. By 2012 digital switch-over in the UK will be more or less complete, though Ultra HD for the living room is years away. And, not insignificantly, the Charter Review will take place in 2012. A spectacular production of a spectacular event is certain to weld UK license fee payers to the BBC.

“For London,” said Mosey at the IBC, “we want to offer our audience the whole lot - every hour of every sport taking place across the Olympic venues through our online site, interactive TV and our other platforms.” Every hour – roughly 5,000 – will be available in real-time and on-demand. Viewers will see every cheer and every tear.

“This would represent a massive shift of power from us to our audiences with unprecedented choice and the ability, if you want it, to create your own video Olympics,” he added, bowing to the post-modern media age. “Our main networks will still offer tailored guides to all the premier content; but if all you want is table tennis, that’s what you’ll be able to choose.”

This is not the power shift the BBC’s competitors, led by Clan Murdoch and hawked by its favored politicians, would like to see. All of this Olympic content will be available free in the UK, license fee contributing to the costs. Outside the UK, mostly likely, some of the BBC Olympic content will be available, for fee, through commercial arm BBC Worldwide. And, the chagrin of UK commercial competitors, the BBC will, indeed, reinforce its position as the special events producer of choice as well as technical innovator.

Completely unrelated (blink, blink) BBC General Director Mark Thompson told The Guardian (Read here) (September 13) about being open to BBC Worldwide taking on a financial partner. "One of the things we should look at over this period is whether 100% ownership of Worldwide is essential going forward," he visioned. Perhaps that would be taking on a shareholder or floating a slice of BBC Worldwide on the stock exchange.

Master strategist that he is, Thompson is certainly aware of barbarians at the gate, those not hiding behind their moats. Selling a slice of BBC Worldwide, depending on the slice, would fetch a rather substantial sum. An open auction – again, depending on the slice – would attract a top tier partner – think Disney or Time Warner – able to further expand BBC Worldwide’s reach and revenue. Consummating such a deal before 2012 could make the London Olympic Games a huge profit center.

Offering a slice too small – less than 30%, roughly – wouldn’t attract a strategic and financial investor of scale. Enjoining a significant strategic partner for BBC Worldwide would, in one step, chill out those calling for privatizing parts of the BBC on philosophical grounds and build a financial barrier to those calling for shrinking the BBC to the size of, say, Moldova’s public broadcaster. Needless to say, the BBC Trust will certainly weigh all these options carefully.

Once again the BBC is leaving commercial competitors rolling in the mud, perhaps a great possibility for Ultra HD television.