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 ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/07/2026
Broadcast Management Group (BMG) has announced the appointment of Kathy Samuels ...
01/07/2026
Shade has announced Custom Objects and Automations, a platform expansion releasing June 29, 2026, that adds database and workflow automation capabilities direct...
01/07/2026
FOR-A America has announced the addition of Jaz Wray and Fernando Cruz to its U.S. sales team. Both report to Ernie Leon, Senior VP and Head of Sales and Strate...
01/07/2026
NBC Sports will air all 15 MLB games nationally on Sunday, July 5, across NBC, P...
01/07/2026
Clear-Com has announced a wireless communications upgrade for Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, deploying FreeSpeak II and FreeSpeak Icon systems across both prod...
01/07/2026
England's performance team will use Sony's STATSports APEX GPS tracking system to monitor player physical data in real time during FIFA World Cup 2026 m...
01/07/2026
Adder Technology has announced the appointment of Neil Hillier as Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2026. Hillier succeeds Adrian Dickens, who transiti...
01/07/2026
Bitcentral, Inc. has announced a strategic transaction creating two separate companies. The Production and Playout business will continue as Bitcentral, now own...
01/07/2026
DAZN has announced results from DAZN48, its creator initiative for the FIFA World Cup 2026. Launched in April 2026, the program received thousands of applicatio...
01/07/2026
Sarah Rose, VP, global services, Daktronics (NASDAQ: DAKT), will be inducted into the Information Display and Entertainment Association (IDEA) Hall of Fame at t...
01/07/2026
Gravity Media and the World Economic Forum's production team provided broadc...
01/07/2026
Insight Productions has announced the launch of Insight Storm, a 53-foot mobile broadcast unit built for esports production. The truck is built around a Ross Vi...
01/07/2026
ESPN has announced several content initiatives marking America's 250th anniversary, as part of The Walt Disney Company's Disney Celebrates America pro...
01/07/2026
Eleven production kits, REMI workflows, and cloud distribution bring 40 World Cu...
01/07/2026
The conference also discussed the opportunities offered an industry that is endu...
01/07/2026
The Mountain West Conference has announced the launch of MW , a direct-to-consumer streaming platform powered by Kiswe. The platform will carry live Mountain We...
01/07/2026
New AI Assistant, Multi-channel Audio, ARA2 improvements & more
Tracktion's DAW software has just received its latest major update, gaining a selection ...
01/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
01/07/2026
Exclusive run of limited-edition modelling pedals
Sweetwater and Andertons M...
01/07/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is pleased to announce that the ca...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Manfrotto Introduces UNCOVER, the new premium camera bag collection for modern h...
01/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Powers Houston Tamil Sangam Literacy Competition
Brie Clayton July 1, 2026
0 Comments
Volunteers use ATEM Mini Pro, Blackmagic Desig...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
PlayBox Technology has published State of Broadcast Infrastructure 2026, an in-depth industry research report examining the technologies, operational challenges...
01/07/2026
LONDON, UK, 1 JULY Jigsaw24 has appointed Alan Henry as Head of Sales for Media and Entertainment, reinforcing its continued investment in helping broadcaster...
01/07/2026
Content Vault, the patent-pending secure content distribution platform protecting high-value media from disclosures, theft and unauthorised access, today announ...
01/07/2026
Bitcentral, Inc. a leading provider of enterprise software and digital media solutions for news, sports and entertainment broadcasters, as well as streaming pla...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Groundbreaking First Nations Screen Business Accelerator launched through nation...
01/07/2026
Chyron Launches the All-New Chyron Academy: A Reimagined, Hands-On Learning Expe...
01/07/2026
Amplium Captures Kawasaki Brave Thunders Game with Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersiv...
01/07/2026
Boris FX Optics Expands Plugin Support to Apple Photos, Capture One, and Affinit...
01/07/2026
Sky Zero Footprint Fund-backed TV campaign featuring Deborah Meaden challenges consumers to rethink everyday bathroom wasteWednesday 1 July 2026
Fussy asks Bri...
01/07/2026
Constituency-level analysis reveals where girls miss out most on sport - and where targeted action could unlock more than £640 million in economic and health be...
01/07/2026
Wuppertal July 1, 2026
Riedel and SKAARHOJ Expand Collaboration With SimplyLive IntegrationRiedel Communications today announced an expanded collaboration wit...
01/07/2026
Apple today introduced power-packed updates to Apple Creator Studio, a groundbre...
01/07/2026
Nectar360, the Retail Media, Loyalty and Insights business of the Sainsburys Gro...
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 
