Paris 2024: France T l visions on making the most of being the home turf rights holder with a plethora of commentators and ENG crews By Heather McLean
Friday, June 7, 2024 - 09:28
Print This Story
France T l visions is making the most of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics being on its home turf. The rights holder for France is gathering a plethora of experts and commentators to bring every sport to life for viewers at home this year, as well as sending a huge team of ENG crews out into Paris to conduct live interviews throughout the Games.
On pressures for this Games, Pascal Golomer, France T l vision' deputy director of sports, responsible for editorial, who is overseeing this aspect of the broadcaster's Olympic and Paralympic coverage, says the eyeballs that will be on France T l visions during the Games is the main issue the team is facing; as the French rights holder, everyone will be watching for mistakes, he says.
The expectations are quite high, he notes. When you broadcast at four o'clock in the morning normally, even if there's something not as perfect as we had expected, it's not big story. But primetime for the Olympics in Paris, we can't make mistakes; we have to persue the zero-defect goal because we know that people are expecting the best from us. So, it's going to be tough.
Expert opinions
France T l visions is bringing in more knowledgeable voices than ever before for Paris 2024 as part of that push to be the best. Golomer states: We have hired 65 expert consultants, most of them former sports athletes, and we have 80 journalists as reporters, commentators, editors, and more. That's a huge team compared to what we did in Tokyo, Rio, and London. Even London in Europe, it was smaller than Paris.
Read more Paris 2024: Editorial approaches with Olympic TV channels and studios galore for the Games at France T l visions
We have one expert consultant for each sport, he goes on. For example, in fencing, there are three different swords: foil, sabre, and the third one is p e. Usually, we have one consultant who's would comment across the whole fencing competition, but because we're in Paris, it's quite easy and there's no need to send three people to Tokyo or to Rio, so we have one consultant for each sword. They're each expert in their competition, as former athletes, usually medallists, former Olympians.
He adds: We are quite happy and proud to send people on site. We think it's important. With the commentators, the result is different on site. They can feel the atmosphere. They can meet with the athletes, the staff, the families, and they can share that with the audience. If you stay in the headquarters and you comment what you see on screen, we think it's different. Of course, it's more expensive. But it's better.
France T l visions is bringing the journey of the Olympic flame to millions of viewers live for the first time
Grand plans
Although this sounds like a grand plan, it is not without issues, adds Golomer: It's a lot of people and we didn't have the time and the opportunity to test them on real competitions [in advance of the Games]. Of course, we talk with them. Some of them, they made some tests. But we cannot be sure 100% they're going to be able to be passionate, and at the same time experts able to explain the rules to the audience. It's a hope that they will be at the top of their game! We cannot be sure 100%, especially in the small sports.
When I saw the other day that my on-screen countdown said 60 days, I said, oh, my God. 60 days! . But we have to be ready. Even though we also have Roland-Garros and we have Tour de France and we have European Athletics, we have to work early in the morning and late at night to fix the last problems
However, he adds that the mix of expert former athletes is a perfect gender mix for the Olympics, with 33 women and 32 men. That's quite difficult in sports, to be able to reach the exact gender parity, notes Golomer.
He adds that it has not been possible to get this equal mix for the Paralympics due to the complexity of explaining live the categories and classifications for each sport, which do require former experience.
He says: The most important thing is to find the best experts in each sport among former athletes and technical staff. In the Paralympics, if you don't have the expertise, it's impossible to comment, it's too difficult. And unfortunately, women are not yet very well represented among former para athletes who play an active role in their federation and who feel ready to share their passion and expertise. Things are changing but it will take time
Home turf advantages
Being on home ground does create interesting advantages for France TV, Golomer says. There are a few things we're going to do in Paris that we won't do in Los Angeles, and we have never done before [on an Olympics]. For example, sending several crews live with the 4G transmission across Paris to make live segments. They're going to interview people live that are attending the competitions, or volunteers on the Games.
Adds Golomer: Usually we do [these kind of interviews] in short segments with editing that would be broadcast in the evening, but in Paris the crews will be live on motorbikes going from to one point to other one, and they're going to be on our channels France 2 and France 3 maybe five to seven times per day.
This means our audience can experience the atmosphere in Paris, he continues. When we were in Tokyo, we were in the studio. We had nice shots of Tokyo, and that's it. We didn't have reporters in Tokyo to share the atmosphere, and especially in post-COVID, the atmosphere was not that fun. In Los Angeles we won't have live reporters because it's too expensive to
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
08/09/2026
Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) has announced a multi-year agreement with A E...
08/09/2026
Spectra Logic today announced the availability of Media Insight, a new capabilit...
08/09/2026
Rogers Communications and Quebecor have announced a 12-year sublicensing agreement for French-language national NHL games beginning with the 2026-27 season. TVA...
08/09/2026
Skyline Communications and Bridge Technologies will demonstrate two integrations...
08/09/2026
Boland Communications will make the European debut of its 4K55HDR7SNB 55-inch super-narrow-bezel monitor at IBC2026 (Stand 12.C57, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-1...
08/09/2026
Ateme and Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) have announced a collaboration comb...
08/09/2026
Haivision has joined the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme as part of t...
08/09/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced price reductions on its PYXIS 6K and Cinema Camera 6K models, effective immediately through Blackmagic Design resellers worldwid...
08/09/2026
AI-Media will demonstrate its LEXI Suite at IBC2026 (Booth 5.C34, September 11-1...
08/09/2026
Bitmovin and Ad Insertion Platform (AIP) have announced the first live deploymen...
08/09/2026
Grass Valley will demonstrate story-centric media workflows at IBC2026 (Booth 9.A01, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), connecting newsroom production, content ma...
08/09/2026
M2A Media and Ateme have announced a partnership integrating Ateme's video processing solutions into M2A Media's MediaToAnywhere platform for live sport...
08/09/2026
Ikegami will exhibit at IBC2026 (Stand 12.A31, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), including a Day 1 introduction of new cameras in the UNICAM XE series. Additiona...
08/09/2026
Broadcast industry analysts will be gathering plenty of insights at the 2026 IBC Show this weekend in Amsterdam, but Caretta Research has offered up some though...
08/09/2026
SENSHI and DAZN have announced a global broadcast partnership that will bring SENSHI's live events free to viewers in more than 200 markets. The partnership...
08/09/2026
New architecture built with Evertz will bring 4K HDR to Monday Night Football, N...
08/09/2026
Built for rap producers, by rap producers
Sauceware Audio, the independent plug-in company founded by Grammy-nominated producer Jacob (Travis Scott, 21 Sava...
08/09/2026
Classic Sound Techniques design revived
Warm Audio's latest release delivers a meticulous recreation of the preamp circuitry employed by the Sound Techn...
08/09/2026
Latest soft synth inspired by the Memorymoog
XILS Lab have just launched a software instrument that draws its inspiration from Moog's iconic Memorymoog,...
08/09/2026
The Airport Chaplain takes off as SBS's biggest launch of 2026
8 September, 2026
Media releases
1.67 million viewers on National Total TV to date
Best...
08/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/09/2026
Mo-Sys, the world-leading developer of virtual production, camera robotics and image tracking technology, has completed a business restructuring, which has incl...
08/09/2026
New York, September 8, 2026 The TSAmediaHUB audiovisual contribution and distribution infrastructure developed by Telef nica's Audiovisual Services area re...
08/09/2026
Expanded Riyadh operation brings Asharq and Thmanyah services together on a resilient on-premises Pebble platform.
Pebble, the leading automation, content mana...
08/09/2026
Techex, a pioneering leader in live video workflows, will showcase its broadest software feature set to date at IBC 2026 (Stand 2.B45), extending its lead in so...
08/09/2026
Visitors to Grass Valley's booth at IBC2026 will be introduced to new Framelight X capabilities that connect content acquisition, management, editing and pu...
08/09/2026
BCNEXXT will showcase the latest evolution of Vipe at IBC2026 (Stand 2.B09), introducing a series of innovations designed to deliver higher-quality audience exp...
08/09/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Ad Insertion Platform (AIP), a leading innovator in advanced ad insertion technologies, to...
08/09/2026
Brainstorm, a leading manufacturer of real-time graphics and augmented and virtual production, is announcing a major package of enhancements to its Suite 7 soft...
08/09/2026
Big Blue Marble is supporting TDF, French infrastructure and network operator, broadcasting Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and radio services, as a techno...
08/09/2026
Agents work inside a single production environment, from incoming wire copy to a live studio show...
08/09/2026
Building on their strategic partnership, Ceeblue and Layercake make the unthinkable possible: scalable sub-second streaming over standard DRM, SSAI, and CDN wor...
08/09/2026
Brainstorm, a leading manufacturer of real-time graphics, augmented and virtual production, is completing the environment for fast-paced broadcast production wi...
08/09/2026
A SaaS portfolio built to work together, helping operators grow audiences, monetise smarter and run leaner, on their own terms
At IBC 2026 (stand 1.B49) Synam...
08/09/2026
Accedo, global provider of video streaming software and services, has been selected by PlayOn Sports, a national leader in high school sports technology, to exp...
08/09/2026
LiveU, the leader in live IP-video solutions, is enabling The Associated Press to take global newsgathering to the next stage with intelligent connectivity and ...
08/09/2026
Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, today announced the latest evolution of it...
08/09/2026
Compact, power-efficient X Platform performance brings broadcast-grade reliability and ultra-low latency to space-constrained remote production (REMI) workflows...
08/09/2026
Zixi, the leader in live video delivery and workflow orchestration, and Kiloview, a leading provider of professional IP video encoding and decoding solutions, t...
08/09/2026
Collaboration gives content owners scalable CDN capacity and broadcasters enhanced flexibility, including for C-band transition planning
Quortex today announce...
08/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/09/2026
Telos Alliance and Pluxbox Announce Dynamic Media Facility Integration Partnersh...
08/09/2026
J nger Audio Showcases Industry-First S-ADM Cloud Workflow at IBC 2026
Search
Dolby, MainConcept, Techex and J nger Audio will showcase the industry's ...
08/09/2026
Tuesday 8 September 2026
Sky Go gets a major upgrade for Sky Glass and Sky Stream customers
Today, Sky launches a new version of the Sky Go app for Sky Glass ...
08/09/2026
Documentary thriller simulating a Russian attack on UK soil will culminate in a live final episode reuniting the playersTuesday 8 September 2026
Trailer releas...
08/09/2026
Tuesday 8 September 2026
Jamie Demetriou and Amelia Dimoldenberg to host next t...
08/09/2026
Wuppertal September 8, 2026
Riedel Introduces New OnAir Headset PlatformRiedel Communications today announced the launch of its new OnAir headset platform, a...
Paris 2024: France T l visions on making the most of being the home turf rights holder with a plethora of commentators and ENG crews By Heather McLean 
